Historically, plants for the liquefaction of light hydrocarbon gases have used gas turbines or steam turbines to drive the refrigerant compressors. The most frequently liquefied light hydrocarbon gas is natural gas. Such processes are typically referred to LNG (liquid natural gas) processes. Such processes using fossil fuel fired turbines or steam turbines have been dependent upon the size of the refrigerant compressors for the operation of the process. In other words, the size of the refrigerant compressors has been dictated by the power output of the turbines whose power fluctuated with changes in the ambient conditions on a day-to-day, day-to-night and season-to-season basis. This introduced undesirable variations into the LNG process since a constant flow of compressed refrigerant could not be assured. The fossil fuel fired turbines are difficultly adjusted to overcome these changes and as a result the operation of the LNG process has been less efficient and has produced less LNG over defined periods of time. Accordingly, an improved method for the operation of LNG processes has been sought.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds