Thermodynamic design and experimental study of a condensation recovery system for VOCs

During the storage and transportation process of crude oil on tankers, the light hydrocarbon components in liquid form have the tendency to evaporate and vaporize easily, resulting in wasted resources and environmental pollution. The current petroleum volatile organic compounds (VOCs) recovery system such as absorption and membrane separation applied to crude oil tankers is unable to fulfil the requirements of existing VOCs emission standards. In contrast, the condensation method of VOCs recovery technology has the benefit of a straightforward process principle, and the recovered liquid hydrocarbons can be utilized directly. It is thus vital to develop a condensation recovery system for petroleum VOCs that is compatible with crude oil tankers. To attain the condensation and recovery of the non-azeotropic gases, such as CH4, C2H6, C3H8, and N2 in the feed gas, this paper proposes a low-temperature VOCs condensation recovery system with graded cooling and liquefaction separation for crude oil tankers. The proposed system initially utilizes a R404A/R23 double-stage cascade refrigeration cycle to cool the VOCs below −75 ℃ to liquefy most heavy hydrocarbons. Then, a low-temperature nitrogen expansion cooling cycle is utilized to cool the VOCs to approximately −160 °C to recover the remaining light hydrocarbons. The condensation process is simulated by Aspen HYSYS to study the variable operating conditions. The recovery of total hydrocarbons in the outlet tail gas in the simulation results is analyzed and found to be up to 95.50 %. Under identical refrigeration capacity circumstances, decreasing the inlet pressure, increasing the inlet flow rate, and increasing the methane mole fraction in VOCs component, all lead to declining trends of total hydrocarbon recovery and methane recovery rate. Specifically, the effects of four different hydrocarbon component ratios on total hydrocarbon recovery and total cooling load are investigated at a constant nitrogen content and refrigeration capacity. Furthermore, the optimal design and analysis process for the flow path section of the turbine expander under the cryogenic conditions is discussed. The results demonstrate that the outlet temperature through the turbine expander is at least −172.1 °C, and the cooling capacity can be up to 4.5 kW with a margin of 80 %. Finally, through the comprehensive VOCs condensation recovery experiments, the proposed system successfully achieves the liquefied separation and recovery of CH4, C2H6, and other hydrocarbons. The recovery rate of the total hydrocarbons in the outlet tail gas reaches 96.21 %, conforming to the VOCs emission standards and regulations. The findings of this study provide a viable technical resolution in the field of petroleum VOCs recovery from crude oil tankers.