Refrigerated Gas Plant 1

Refrigerated Gas Plant

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© 2003 AspenTech. All Rights Reserved.
EA1031.31.05
03 Refrigerated Gas Plant.pdf
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Workshop
In this simulation, a simplified version of a refrigerated gas plant is going
to be modeled. The purpose is to find the LTS (Low Temperature
Separator) temperature at which the hydrocarbon dewpoint target is
met. The Sales Gas hydrocarbon dewpoint should not exceed -15°C at
6000 kPa. The incoming gas is cooled in two stages—first by exchange
with product Sales Gas in a gas-gas exchanger (Gas-Gas) and then in a
propane chiller (Chiller), represented here by a Cooler operation. A
Balance operation will be used to evaluate the hydrocarbon dewpoint of
the product stream at 6000 kPa.

Learning Objectives
Once you have completed this section, you will be able to:

• Install and converge heat exchangers.

• Understand logical operations (Balances and Adjusts).
• Use the Case Study tool to perform case studies on your
simulation.

Prerequisites
Before beginning this section you need to know how to:

• Create a fluid package.

• Add streams.
• Add unit operations.

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Process Overview
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Building the Simulation

1. Defining components list and fluid package
2. Adding streams and unit operations
3. Adding logical operation (Balance and Adjust)

Defining the Simulation Basis

For this case, you will be using the Peng Robinson EOS with the
following components: N2, H2S, CO2, C1, C2, C3, i-C4, n-C4, i-C5, n-C5, C6,
C7+*, and H2O.

If you want to recreate the fluid 1. Create a new case.

package, refer to the first 2. Import the fluid package, GasPlant, which you saved in Module 1
module (Getting Started).
(Getting Started).

Adding a Feed Stream

Add a new Material stream with the following values:

In this cell... Enter...

Name To Refrig
Temperature 15°C (60°F)
Pressure 6200 kPa (900 psia)
Flow Rate 1440 kgmole/h (3175 lbmole/hr)
Component Mole Fraction
N2 0.0066
H2S 0.0003
CO2 0.0003
C1 0.7575
C2 0.1709
C3 0.0413
i-C4 0.0068
n-C4 0.0101
i-C5 0.0028
n-C5 0.0027
C6 0.0006

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In this cell... Enter...

H2O 0
C7+ 0.0001

Adding a Separator
There are several ways to add unit operations. For a complete
description, see the Propane Refrigeration Loop module (Adding Unit
Operations to a Flowsheet).

• Press the F12 hot key. Select the desired unit operation from the
Available Unit Operations group.
• Double-click the unit operation button in the Object Palette.

On the Connections tab, add a Separator and enter the following

information:

In this cell... Enter...

Name Inlet Gas Sep
Feed To Refrig
Vapour Outlet Inlet Sep Vap
Liquid Outlet Inlet Sep Liq

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Adding a Heat Exchanger

The heat exchanger performs two-sided energy and material balance
calculations. The heat exchanger is capable of solving for temperatures,
pressures, heat flows (including heat loss and heat leak), material stream
flows, and UA.

1. Double-click on the Heat Exchanger button on the Object Palette.

2. On the Connections page, enter the following information:
Heat Exchanger icon

Figure 1

The Tube Side and Shell

Side streams can come
from different Flowsheets,
so you can use the Steam
package on one side of the
exchanger and PR on the
other side.

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3. Switch to the Parameters page. Complete the page as shown in the

following figure. The pressure drops for the Tube and Shell sides, in
field units, will be 35 kPa (5 psi) and 5 kPa (1 psi), respectively.

Figure 2

The heat exchanger models are defined as follows:

• Weighted. The heating curves are broken into intervals, which

then exchange energy individually. An LMTD and UA are
calculated for each interval in the heat curve and summed to
calculate the overall exchanger UA. The Weighted method is
available only for Counter-Current exchangers.
• Endpoint. A single LMTD and UA are calculated from the inlet
and outlet conditions. For simple problems where there is no
phase change and Cp is relatively constant, this option may be
sufficient.
4. Go to the Specs page.

To solve the heat exchanger, unknown parameters (flows, temperatures)

are manipulated by the solver. Each parameter specification will reduce
the degrees of freedom by one. The number of constraints
(specifications) must equal the number of unknown variables. When
this is the case, the degrees of freedom will be equal to zero, and a
solution will be calculated.

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Two specifications are needed for this exchanger:

• Heat Balance = 0. This is a Duty Error specification and is

needed to ensure that the heat equation balances. This is a
default specification that is always added by HYSYS so you do
You can have multiple not need to supply it.
Estimate specifications. The
Heat Exchanger will only • Min Approach = 5°C. This is the minimum temperature
use the Active specifications difference between the hot and cold stream.
for convergence. 5. You will first need to deactivate the UA specification. To do this, click
on the Active checkbox for the UA specification.
6. To add a specification, click the Add button, the ExchSpec view
appears.

Figure 3

7. Provide the following information:

In this cell... Enter...

Name Temp Approach
Type Min Approach
Pass Overall
Spec Value 5°C (41°F)

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When you change the type of specification, the view will change
accordingly. Once all the information has been provided, the view will
be as shown below:

Figure 4

What is the flowrate of Gas to Chiller? _________________________________

Finishing the Simulation

Add the two remaining physical unit operations to complete the
simulation.

1. Add a Cooler and provide the following information:

In this cell... Enter...

Connections
Name Chiller
Feed Stream Gas to Chiller
Product Stream Gas to LTS
Energy Stream Chiller Q
Parameters
Pressure Drop 35 kPa (5 psia)

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2. Add a Separator and provide the following information on the

Connections tab:

In this cell... Enter...

Name LTS
Feed Stream Gas to LTS
Vapour Outlet LTS Vap
Liquid Outlet LTS Liq

What piece of information is required for the LTS separator to solve?

____________________________________________________________________

The LTS feed temperature will be varied using an Adjust operation in the
next section to find a temperature at which the dewpoint constraint is
met. For now, specify the temperature of stream Gas to LTS to be -20°C
(-4°F).

What is the pressure of Sales Gas? _____________________________________

What is the temperature of Sales Gas? __________________________________

Adding the Balance

The Balance operation provides a general-purpose heat and material
balance facility. There are different Balances available in HYSYS.

• Mole. An overall balance is performed where only the molar flow

of each component is conserved. Outlet streams will have the
same molar flow rate and composition as the inlet stream, but will
contain no vapour fraction, temperature, or pressure values.
• Mass. An overall balance is performed where only the mass flow
is conserved. The outlet stream will contain no composition,
vapour fraction, temperature, or pressure.
• Heat. An overall balance is performed where only the heat flow is
conserved.
• Mole and Heat. An overall balance is performed where the heat
and molar flow is conserved.

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Look at the parameters for Sales Gas. The stream parameters are
calculated so that there is no way you can force the stream to calculate a
dewpoint temperature at 6000 kPa. Adding a Mole Balance allows you to
create a second stream with the same molar flowrate and composition
as Sales Gas but no vapour fraction, temperature, or pressure.

1. Double-click on the Balance icon on the Object Palette.

2. Add the following information on the Connections tab:
Balance icon
In this cell... Enter...
Inlet Stream Sales Gas
Outlet Stream HC Dewpoint
Type (on Parameters tab) Mole

3. Specify a Pressure of 6000 kPa (870 psia) for the stream HC

Dewpoint.
4. Set the Vapour Fraction to calculate the dew point temperature.

What is the dewpoint temperature? ____________________________________

The required dewpoint is -15°C, is the current dewpoint higher or lower?
____________________________________________________________________
Assuming that pressure is fixed, what other parameter affects the dewpoint?
____________________________________________________________________
How can we change the dewpoint in the simulation? _____________________

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Adding the Adjust

The Adjust operation is a Logical Operation; a mathematical operation
rather than a physical operation. It will vary the value of one stream
variable (the independent variable) to meet a required value or
specification (the dependant variable) in another stream or operation.

1. Double-click on the Adjust icon on the Object Palette; the Adjust

property view appears.
Adjust icon
Figure 5

The Adjusted Variable must

always be a user specified
value.

2. Click the Select Var... button in the Adjusted Variable group. The
Variable Navigator view appears.

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3. From the Object list, select Gas to LTS. From the Variable list which
is now visible, select Temperature.

Figure 6
Always work left to right in
the Variable Navigator. Don’t
forget you can use the
Object Filter when the
Object list is large.

4. Click the OK button to accept the variable and return to the Adjust
property view.
5. Click the Select Var... button in the Target Variable group.
6. Select HC Dewpoint Temperature as the target variable.
7. Enter a value of -15°C (5°F) in the Specified Target Value box.
8. The completed Connections tab is shown below.

Figure 7

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9. Switch to the Parameters tab, and leave the parameters at the

default values.

Figure 8
When adjusting certain
variables, it is often a good
idea to provide a minimum
or maximum which
corresponds to a physical
boundary, such as zero for

Note the Tolerance and Step Size values. When considering step sizes,
use larger rather than smaller sizes. The Secant method works best once
the solution has been bracketed and by using a larger step size, you are
more likely to bracket the solution quickly.

10. Click the Start button to begin calculations.

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11. To view the progress of the Adjust, go to the Monitor page.

Figure 9

What is the Chiller outlet temperature to achieve the Dewpoint

specification? ______________________________________________________

Save your case!

Optional
Convert your case to a template
and save!

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Advanced Modeling
Linking the Propane Loop to the Gas Plant
Once you have completed the Refrigerated Gas Plant example, you can
link it to the Propane Loop template.

The duty of the Chiller, Chiller Q, in the Gas Plant will be linked to the
duty of the Chiller, Chill-Q, in the Propane Refrigeration Loop template.

1. Open the refrigerated gas plant simulation you saved at the end of
Page 15 and double-click on the Sub-Flowsheet icon on the Object
Sub-Flowsheet icon Palette.
2. Click the Read an Existing Template button.
3. Open the template file saved in Module 2, C3Loop.tpl.
4. In the Inlet Connections to Sub-Flowsheet group, connect the
External Stream, Chiller Q to the Internal Stream Chill Q.

Figure 10

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Once the connection is complete, both streams (internal and external)

will have the same name (that of the external stream).

What is the flowrate of propane in the Refrigeration Loop? _______________

Exploring the Simulation

Exercise 1: Modifying the Exchanger
The available UA for the Gas-Gas Exchanger is only 2e5 kJ/°C.h. Make
the necessary modifications to your exchanger design to achieve this
UA.

How does this affect your LMTD and Temperature Approach? _____________

Challenge
In building the Refrigerated Gas Plant and the Propane Refrigeration
Loop you decided to shortcut things and add a single-sided Cooler
operation instead of the shell and tube exchanger that will actually be in
the plant. This shortcut works for preliminary work, but now you need
to replace the cooler with a shell and tube exchanger.

Remember, HYSYS allows you to attach streams from another flowsheet

to either side of the heat exchanger. Using this feature, you should be
able to solve this problem with only an exchanger in the Refrigerated
Gas Plant (No exchanger in the Propane Refrigeration Loop).

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Using the Case Study

Open the Starter case: Module3_CaseStudyStarter.hsc. This case is the
solution to the Challenge problem in Module 2. The Case Study tool
allows you to monitor the steady state response of key process variables
to changes in your process. You select independent variables to change
and dependent variables to monitor. HYSYS varies the independent
Any unit operation can be
temporarily removed from variables one at a time, and with each change, the dependent variables
the calculations by selecting are calculated.
the Ignore checkbox.

The Economizer in the Propane Refrigeration loop results in a savings of

energy over the single compression loop. The outlet pressure from the
first stage compressor (Stream 4) has a significant effect on the total
compression power required. We will use the Case Study to see the effect
of changing the first stage compressor outlet pressure on the total power
required by the refrigeration loop.

If your case contains any Adjust operations, they must be turned off so
that they do not conflict with the Case Study.
Both the independent and
the dependent variables are 1. From the Tools menu select Databook (or press CTRL D), to open the
added to the Databook from
Databook.
the Variables tab.

Figure 11

Only user-supplied variables 2. On the Variables tab, click the Insert button to open the Variable
can be selected as Navigator.
Independent Variables.
3. Select the Pressure in stream 4 as the first variable.
4. Click the Add button to add the variable.

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5. Select the SPRDSHT-1, cell A3 and click Add. Click Close to close the
Variable Navigator Window.
6. In the Databook, switch to the Case Studies tab.
7. Click the Add button to add a new Case Study.
8. Select Stream 4 Pressure as the Independent Variable and
SPRDSHT-1 cell A3 as the Dependent Variable.

Figure 12

9. Click the View button to setup the Case Study.

10. Enter values for Low Bound, High Bound, and Step Size of 300 kPa
(45 psia), 1600 kPa (235 psia) and 50 kPa (5 psi) respectively.

Figure 13

11. Click the Start button to begin calculations.

What First stage compressor outlet pressure (Stream 4) will result in the
minimum power usage in the refrigeration loop? _______________________

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