Abb Lummus Global Inc.

Lummus Technology Inc.

Vitus Tuan Wei

Qi Ma

Charles Sumner

James Tzong-Chaur Wu

Stephen J Stanley

John J Crawford

Richard John McNab

The refrigeration system for an ethylene plant comprises a closed loop tertiary refrigerant system containing methane, ethylene and propylene. The tertiary refrigerant from a compressor final discharge is separated into a methane-rich vapor fraction and two levels of propylene-rich liquids so as to provide various temperatures and levels of refrigeration in various heat exchange stages while maintaining a nearly constant refrigerant composition flowing back to the compressor and with the bulk of the total return refrigerant flow going to the first stage compressor section. This tertiary system can also be applied to an ethylene plant with a high pressure demethanizer.

Olefin plant refrigeration system

The refrigeration system for an ethylene plant comprises a closed loop tertiary refrigerant system containing methane, ethylene and propylene. The tertiary refrigerant from a compressor is separated into an inter-stage discharge and the final compressor discharge to produce a methane-rich vapor fraction and two levels of propylene-rich liquids so as to provide various temperatures and levels of refrigeration in various heat exchange stages while maintaining a nearly constant refrigerant composition flowing back to the compressor and with the bulk of the total return refrigerant flow going to the first stage compressor section. This tertiary system can also be applied to an ethylene plant with a high pressure demethanizer.

A refrigeration system for an ethylene plant uses a low pressure demethanizer and a binary refrigerant comprising a mixture of methane and ethylene or methane and ethane. The refrigeration composition may be constant throughout the system or separators may be used to divide the refrigerant into a methane-rich binary refrigerant and an ethylene- or ethane-rich binary refrigerant.

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Houston, TX, United States of America

Vitus Tuan Wei