Title: Minimisation of exergy destruction in an ethane recovery turboexpander process using Aspen Plus process simulator

Authors: Alp Er S. Konukman, Volkan R. Akkaya

Addresses: Energy Systems Division, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Gebze Institute of Technology, Gebze 41400, Kocaeli, Turkey. ' Energy Systems Division, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Gebze Institute of Technology, Gebze 41400, Kocaeli, Turkey

Abstract: Energy and exergy analyses as well as optimisation towards minimum exergy destruction are accomplished by integrating Aspen Plus process simulator and the optimisation-related features of MATLAB for a turboexpander plant where the recovery of ethane as a natural-gas-liquid product is achieved. Exergetic performance of an ethane recovery turboexpander process under multi-feed scenario (different feed compositions) is also investigated for the first time in the literature. Although the exergy destruction of the multi-feed process is relatively higher compared with the individual processes designed separately for each feed scenario, considering the overall capital-cost requirement, the feed-flexible process has superiority.

Keywords: exergy analysis; flexible design; optimisation; NGLs; natural gas liquids; ethane recovery; turboexpanders; Aspen Plus; MATLAB; exergy destruction; process simulation; multi-feed processes.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEX.2011.041031

International Journal of Exergy, 2011 Vol.8 No.4, pp.425 - 446

Published online: 28 Jun 2011 *

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