The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 16, 2000
Filed:
Nov. 20, 1997
Yoshitsugi Kikkawa, Yokohama, JP;
Osamu Yamamoto, Yokohama, JP;
Moritaka Nakamura, Yokohama, JP;
Shigeru Sugiyama, Yokohama, JP;
Yasuharu Fukuda, Yokohama, JP;
Chiyoda Corporation, , JP;
Abstract
Provided is a method for liquefying natural gas which can be applied to LNG plants of a wide range of capacity and can produce LNG both efficiently and economically. Feed gas of natural gas or a non-liquefied component of recycle gas which is produced during a process of liquefying natural gas is liquefied by using a first refrigerant, for instant consisting of a C3 refrigerant, and a second refrigerant which is different from the first refrigerant, for instance consisting of a C2 refrigerant, in a stepwise fashion. The flow is then liquefied by a substantially isentropic expansion process. The non-liquefied component remaining from this expansion process is then pressurized by a compressor, and combined with the non-liquefied component of the natural gas for recycling the combined flow. The compressor is driven by power obtained from the substantially isentropic expansion process.