Development of the liquefaction unit for higher LNG production through performance optimization of Main Cryogenic Heat Exchanger (MCHE)

Liquefaction unit is the main unit in the LNG plant that functions to cool down natural gas from gaseous to liquefied state. However this unit consumes a lot of energy compared to other units. One of the factors contributes to this problem is due to the inefficiency of several equipments inside the unit. One of the equipment is Main Cryogenic Heat Exchanger (MCHE). This equipment plays an important role for the overall performance of liquefaction unit, yet there are only a few studies done especially in terms of its internal performance of MCHE. Therefore, simulation is a best way in analyzing the phenomena that take inside the MCHE. This paper shows a research study in progress for simulating the heat exchanger which is a Spiral Wound Heat Exchanger (SWHE). In addition, it emphasizes on the details that involves in the modeling will be presented as well.