혼합냉매를 사용하여 천연가스를 액화하는 혼합냉매공정(Mixed refrigerant cycle, MRC)은 공정이 간단하고 장치비가 적게 들며 운전 또한 용이하여 널리 채택되고 있는 공정이다. MRC에서 중요한 기술 중 하나는 혼합냉매를 선택하고 최적의 혼합비를 결정하는 것이다. 본 연구에서는 일반적인 MRC에서 혼합냉매와 혼합냉매의 혼합비가 공정의 성능에 미치는 효과를 살펴보았다. 이를 위해 통계적 기법 중 실험계획법의 하나인 혼합물 설계와 반응 표면법을 이용하여 전체 공정의 에너지 소비가 최소가 되게 하는 최적의 냉매를 선택하고 그 혼합비를 결정하였다. 여러 냉매와 혼합비에 따른 MRC 공정의 모사는 Aspen HYSYS를 사용하였으며 혼합물설계와 반응 표면법은 Minitab을 사용하였다. 연구결과 냉매로는 methane (C1), ethane (C2), propane (C3)과 nitrogen (N2)가 선택되었으며 에너지 소비를 최소화하는 혼합비(몰 비) 또한 구할 수 있었다.

A mixed refrigerant cycle (MRC) has been widely used in liquefaction of natural gas because it is simple and easily operable with reasonable equipment costs. One of the important techniques in MRC is selection of a refrigerant mixture and decision of its optimum mixing ratio. In this work, it is examined whether mixture components (refrigerants) and their mixing ratio influence performance of general MRC processes. In doing this, mixture design and response surface_x000D_ method, which are well-known statistical techniques, are used to find optimal mixture refrigerants and their optimal mixing ratio that minimize total energy consumption of the entire liquefaction process. A MRC process using several refrigerants and various mixing ratios is simulated by Aspen HYSYS and mixture design and response surface method are implemented using Minitab. According to the results, methane (C1), ethane (C2), propane (C3) and nitrogen (N2) are selected as best mixture refrigerants and the determined mixture ratio (mole ration) can reduce total energy consumption by up to 50%.

Mixed Refrigerant Cycle Liquefied Natural Gas Design of Experiment Optimization Mixture Design Response Surface Method

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