On-Site Natural Gas Liquefaction Process 1999-01-2902

The fact remains that alternative fuels can greatly benefit our environment and national security, countries all over the world are realizing this and converting their vehicles to run on alternative fuels. Natural Gas has clearly risen to the forefront of the alternative fuels industry. More than 50% of all alternative fuel programs in the world today are dry-gas (natural gas & propane). The most common form of natural gas as a transportation fuel has been Compressed natural gas (CNG), and the big three U.S. auto manufacturers, GM, Ford and Chrysler, are currently producing vehicles that run on natural gas. CNG provides limited range between fill-ups and the containment vessels are large and heavy when compared with equal amounts of energy stored by petroleum fuels, which hinders natural gas as a viable transportation fuel in relation to other petroleum fuels.

Based on this known fact, there has been renewed interest in redesigning transportation fuel storage systems which can still store natural gas, as liquefied natural gas (LNG) in a smaller, lighter container which also provides the vehicle with a much greater range. The technology to liquefy natural gas is over one hundred years old however one process, a turbo expander technology, is utilized by extremely large production facilities when liquefying and storing LNG in huge quantities.

Transportation fleets of medium and heavy duty vehicles desiring to take advantage of deregulated, inexpensive LNG deliveries to their vehicle fleet yards, need different technology more suited for 1,500-15,000 gallons per day.

A combo cascade and JT Valve technology is better suited for small scale on site natural gas liquefaction processes. This leads us to the title and subject of this paper “On-site natural gas liquefaction process”