School of Chemical Engineering 2018.

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CEIC2000 Material and Energy Systems 1

Design Assignment
Natural gas (which is mostly methane) is an important fuel for electricity generation, for transport,
and a feedstock for commodity chemicals such as ammonia and methanol. Natural gas is
increasingly liquefied for international transport in specially built ships. Liquefied Natural Gas
(LNG) has to be stored as a cryogenic liquid, since the critical temperature for methane is below
room temperature.
Your design team has been selected to design the propane pre-cooling section of a new LNG
liquefaction train employing the C3MR process1 to produce 900,000 tonnes per year of natural gas.
After pre-treatment to remove CO2, water, and mercury, the gas has the molar composition given
below:
Methane 89%
Ethane 5.5%
Propane 2.4%
isoButane 0.6%
isoPentane 0.3%
Nitrogen 2.2%
Your task is to optimally (in terms of energy consumption) cool the incoming gas from 65 bar and
30oC to a temperature of -35oC and a pressure of not less than 63 bar. (The cooled gas is then passed
to the liquefaction process).
Use natural gas with the same composition and feed conditions as fuel to a Brayton cycle to provide
the energy required to drive the process.
Your project report should contain a clearly drawn and labeled process flowchart. The executive
summary of the report must give the recommended operating conditions determined by your team,
and the percentage of total natural gas feed (process gas plus fuel gas) which is required as fuel to
power the process. The body of the report should be divided into short sections – maximum one
page – for each process unit, explaining the calculation method used and any assumptions made,
and a (very) short discussion or commentary if necessary. See Appendix B for further details.

1 Pillarela, M., Liu, Y-N., Petrowski, J., Bower, R., “The C3MR Liquefaction cycle: versatility for a fast growing,
ever changing LNG industry”, http://www.ivt.ntnu.no/ept/fag/tep4215/innhold/LNG
%20Conferences/2007/fscommand/PS2_5_Pillarella_s.pdf, accessed 26 April 2018

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CEIC2000 Material and Energy Systems 2

Appendix A – Equipment
Air
Ambient air at this plant has a temperature of 32oC and 80% relative humidity. Take dry air
as being 79% nitrogen by mole, and 21% oxygen.
Brayton Cycle
Power needed to run the process must be generated using a Brayton cycle subject to the
equipment specifications listed elsewhere here.
Compressors
Compressors can be assumed adiabatic, and have an isentropic efficiency of 87%. The
maximum allowable temperature of air in a Brayton cycle compressor is 700oC, for a process
fluid compressor the limit is 200oC.
Expanders
Expanders can be assumed adiabatic, and have an isentropic efficiency of 87%. The
maximum allowable temperature of gas in a Brayton cycle expander is 1400oC, for process
fluid the limit is 500oC.
Heat exchangers
Heat exchangers have a temperature approach of not less than 3oC. If cooling water is used
to take heat away from a process fluid, the process fluid cannot be cooled to below 34oC.
Pressure
Operating pressures are limited to 100 bar for any part of the plant.
Refrigeration cycles
A maximum of four refrigeration cycles has been decided. The natural gas loses 0.5 bar
pressure in each refrigeration stage (due to flow friction). You may assume that the pressure
of the refrigerant only changes due to the compressor and the throttle valve.
Thermodynamic modelling
The gases and liquids used under the conditions in this process do not behave ideally. Use
tabulated data for the propane refrigerant and a suitable thermodynamic model for the
natural gas.
Throttle valves
Throttle valves are adiabatic.

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CEIC2000 Material and Energy Systems 3

Appendix B – reporting requirements and assessment criteria

Report requirements:
You must report all material and energy flows on the basis of 100 moles of process natural gas (ie
excluding any additional natural gas used as fuel).
The report template indicates the required content. It has a front page with names of engineers in
your team and an executive summary, an A3 page for your process flowsheet and an equipment
section to be repeated for each process unit.
You must submit your work electronically in moodle using the tool provided. You may also upload
a single excel workbook (if used for all of your calculations).

MEB competence – 18 marks total

Note that the three criteria listed in this table are limiting criteria. The percentage mark that you
are awarded for this section is limited by the upper end of the lowest scoring criterion.
Indicative grade Indicative errors Appropriateness of methods Optimisation
10% Mostly incomplete Isentropic processes, ideal gas No evidence
throughout
20% Mostly complete, serious Isentropic processes, ideal gas No evidence
conceptual errors throughout
30% Complete, serious conceptual Real processes, ideal gas No evidence
errors throughout
40% Complete, conceptual errors or Real processes, ideal gas No evidence
serious constraint violation throughout
50% Complete, minor errors and Real processes, real gas No evidence
constraint violation calculations or tables when
appropriate
60% Complete, minor errors or Real processes, real gas No evidence
constraint violation calculations or tables when
appropriate
70% Complete, minor errors, no Real processes, real gas No evidence
constraint violation calculations or tables when
appropriate
80% Complete, no errors evident Real processes, real gas Limited evidence – some
calculations or tables when variables
appropriate
90% Complete, no errors evident Real processes, real gas Good evidence – most
calculations or tables when important variables
appropriate
100% Complete, no errors evident Real processes, real gas Good evidence, close to
calculations or tables when optimal design
appropriate

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CEIC2000 Material and Energy Systems 4

Reporting – 7 marks total

This section of the marking relates to how effectively you presented the results of your work.
Note that the three criteria listed in this table are limiting criteria. The percentage mark that you
are awarded for this section is limited by the upper end of the lowest scoring criterion.
Percent Document structure Flowsheeting Text
level
0 Reporting requirements have not been Flowsheet is confusing and / or Required text is missing or otherwise
followed and this impedes inconsistent with itself or other parts unclear in meaning.
10 understanding of the submission. of the submission.
20
30 Reporting requirements have not been
followed in one or more cases.
40 Labelling is clear and consistent
between the flowsheet, the excel sheet
50 and other parts of the report. The text is clear in meaning but
includes irrelevant or unnecessary
60 All reporting requirements have been material.
followed including the use of
70 templates where provided. All flowsheeting conventions have
been followed. Labelling is clear and
80 consistent between the flowsheet, the Text is clear in meaning and
excel sheet and other parts of the economical.
report.
90 All flowsheeting conventions have
been followed. Flowsheet is
100 appropriately laid out to maximise Report is easy to read.
readability. Labelling is clear and
consistent between the flowsheet, the
excel sheet and other parts of the
report.