System for recovering compression energy of a gas, liquefier comprising such a system and method for recovering compression energy of a gas

Abstract

A system for recovering compression energy from a gas, the system comprising an organic Rankine cycle module and an adiabatic compressor, the organic Rankine cycle module comprising a heat transfer fluid and the adiabatic compressor comprising N adiabatic compression stages for the gas, N being greater than or equal to 2, and, downstream of each adiabatic compression stage, two heat exchangers, a first heat exchanger configured to extract heat from the gas leaving the adiabatic compression stage and to heat the heat transfer fluid passing through the first heat exchanger and a second heat exchanger configured to extract heat from the gas leaving the first heat exchanger to a cold source passing through the second heat exchanger. A liquefier comprising such a system and method for recovering compression energy from a gas.

1 . A gas compression energy recovery system, the system comprising an organic Rankine cycle module and an adiabatic compressor, the organic Rankine cycle module comprising a heat transfer fluid and the adiabatic compressor comprising N adiabatic compression stages for the gas, N being greater than or equal to 2, and, downstream of each adiabatic compression stage, two heat exchangers, a first heat exchanger configured to extract heat from the gas leaving the adiabatic compression stage and to heat the heat transfer fluid passing through the first heat exchanger and a second heat exchanger configured to extract heat from the gas leaving the first heat exchanger to a cold source passing through the second heat exchanger. 
     
     
         2 . The system according to  claim 1 , wherein the second heat exchanger is a gas-air exchanger. 
     
     
         3 . The system according to  claim 1 , wherein the second heat exchanger is a gas-water exchanger. 
     
     
         4 . The system according to  claim 1 , wherein the heat transfer fluid has a boiling temperature between a cold source inlet temperature and a gas outlet temperature in the adiabatic compression stage. 
     
     
         5 . The system according to  claim 4 , in which the heat transfer fluid is methanol, isobutane or ethanol. 
     
     
         6 . A liquefier comprising a system according to  claim 1 . 
     
     
         7 . The liquefier according to  claim 6 , wherein the gas is the gas to be liquefied. 
     
     
         8 . The liquefier according to  claim 6 , wherein the liquefier is a refrigerated liquefier comprising at least one cooling circuit and the gas is the gas of the at least one cooling circuit of the refrigerated liquefier and/or the gas to be liquefied. 
     
     
         9 . The liquefier according to  claim 7 , wherein the gas to be liquefied is hydrogen, nitrogen, helium or natural gas. 
     
     
         10 . A method for recovering compression energy from a gas, the method comprising the following steps:
 a) adiabatic compression of the gas in an adiabatic compression stage;   b) extraction of part of the heat from the compressed gas in a first heat exchanger comprising a heat transfer fluid of an organic Rankine cycle module;   c) extracting part of the heat from the gas coming from the first heat exchanger in a second heat exchanger comprising a cold source;   repetition of steps a) to c) N times, where N is greater than or equal to 2;   use of the heat extracted in the first heat exchanger to produce energy in the Rankine organic cycle module.