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In relation to this article, we declare that there is no conflict of interest.
Publication history
Received March 31, 2023
Accepted December 5, 2023
articles This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/bync/3.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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The Removal of Benzene and Toluene in Natural Gas with Cryogenic Liquid Propane: Eff ects and a Cyclic Purifi cation Process

College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Material Science , Zaozhuang University 1Institute of Clean Coal Technology , East China University of Science and Technology
rongqq@uzz.edu.cn
Korean Journal of Chemical Engineering, April 2024, 41(4), 1029-1043(15), https://doi.org/10.1007/s11814-024-00032-5

Abstract

Liquefi ed natural gas production plants usually suff er from line blockage, which causes economic, environmental, and

safety issues. The blockage, mainly caused by the solidifi cation of heavy hydrocarbons, should be avoided or mitigated by

removing the impurities as thoroughly as possible. In this work, we proposed a scheme taking cryogenic liquefi ed propane

as absorbent to absorb heavy hydrocarbons in the liquefi ed natural gas production process. This paper fi rst investigated

freeze-out profi les of liquefi ed natural gas combined with marginal benzene and toluene by the ThermoFAST simulator,

which showed that the precipitated solid tended to form under a low temperature, which posed challenges in purifi cation.

Subsequently, the feasibility of using liquefi ed propane as an absorbent to remove benzene and toluene was studied using

Aspen Plus. A cryogenic absorption and regeneration process for liquefi ed natural gas purifi cation was proposed, and factors

infl uencing the performance were investigated. The results showed that the hydrocarbon impurities are removed more

thoroughly at a high fl owrate of the recycled absorbent stream. The absorption process exhibited an apparent cooling eff ect

mainly caused by the vaporization of liquefi ed propane to the gas phase, and the higher operation temperature impedes the

vaporization process. For a better purifi cation eff ect, the system should be operated under a lower pressure or with a higher

recycled absorption solution fl owrate. Based on the design simulation results, utilizing liquefi ed propane as an absorbent to

remove heavy hydrocarbons is novel and promising for LNG purifi cation.

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