School of Civil, Environmental & Chemical

Engineering
PROC 2080
Process Thermodynamics
Lecture 5
Flow Processes Liquefaction Processes
Lecturer: Dr Greg Griffin

Liquefaction Processes

Liquefaction is the process of converting

materials that are gases at ambient temperature
and atmospheric pressure to liquids
Common liquefied gases are:

LPG used as fuel

LNG for shipment of natural gas fuel over long
distances
Oxygen for metallurgical and mineral processes
Nitrogen common coolant
Hydrogen rocket fuel
Helium superconductors

Liquefaction Processes

To cool gases can use:

heat exchanger at constant pressure.

expansion process from which work is obtained.
a throttling process

Liquefaction Processes

Inversion curves:

Gases will only cool on expansion when within the

inversion curves.

The Linde liquefaction process

Depends solely on throttling expansion:

Compression cooling to ambient temperature (even further

by refrigeration) throttling and liquefaction.

The Linde liquefaction process

Example

1:

Dry methane is supplied by a compressor and pre-cooling

system to the cooler of a Linde liquid-methane system
(see previous figure) at 60 bar and 300 K. The lowpressure methane leaves the cooler at a temperature 5 K
lower than the temperature of the incoming highpressure methane. The separator operates at 1 bar, and
the product is saturated liquid at this pressure. What is
the fraction of gas entering the cooler that is liquefied?
What is the temperature of the stream entering the
throttling valve?

The Linde liquefaction process

So

z = m9/m4 = (H4 H15)/ (H9 H15)

The Claude liquefaction process

Part of the high pressure gas is diverted and passes through an

expander
Cooled gas is mixed with unliquefied, saturated gas from separator
and used to cool the gases entering the throttling valve.

The Claude liquefaction process

Example

2:

Dry methane is supplied by a compressor and pre-cooling

system to the cooler of a Claude liquid-methane system
(see previous figure) at 60 bar and 300 K. The recycle
stream (stream 15) leaving the heat exchanger is at 295
K. The high-pressure gas is cooled to 250 K in the first
heat exchanger (i.e. stream 5 is at 250 K) and 25% of
this flow is diverted to the expander which operates at
70% efficiency. The separator operates at 1 bar, and the
product is saturated liquid at this pressure. What is the
fraction of gas entering in stream 4 that is liquefied?
What is the temperature of stream 7?

The Claude liquefaction process

x

= m12/m4

= m9/m4 = (x(H12 H11)+(H4 H15))/ (H9 H15)

14 April: mid-semester test

Start time Venue: 80.06.005. Writing starts at

12:45 a.m. if your surname starts with the
letters A-I. Writing starts at 2:45 if your
surname starts with the letters J- Z. There are
no lecture or tutorial on the day.
Duration - 90 minutes
Run under exam conditions.
Test is open book - Students may use any

printed matter
No text-storing calculators

Test covers the material performed in weeks 1

4 only.

11 April: mid-semester test

Examples of mid-semester tests and solutions

can be found on blackboard
Do not rely solely on previous mid-semester
tests ensure you understand the tutorials and
examples given in weeks 1 4.
Test paper provides all data you should not
need to seek data from text books.
However, test will not provide formulas.