User:Milton Beychok/Sandbox: Difference between revisions
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[[Image:Expansion turbine+compressor refrigeration system.png|right|thumb|350px|{{#ifexist:Template:Expansion turbine+compressor refrigeration system.png/credit|{{Expansion turbine+compressor refrigeration system.png/credit}}<br/>|}}Schematic diagram of a refrigeration system using an expansion turbine and a compressor.]] | |||
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=== Power generation === | === Power generation === |
Revision as of 12:46, 8 July 2008
An expansion turbine, also referred to as a turboexpander or turbo-expander, is a centrifugal or axial flow turbine through which a high pressure gas is expanded to produce work that is often used to drive a gas compressor.
Because work is extracted from the expanding high pressure gas, the expansion is an isentropic process (i.e., a constant entropy process) and the low pressure exhaust gas from the turbine is at a very low temperature, often as low as 200 K (-100 °F) or less. Expansion turbines are very widely used as sources of refrigeration in industrial processes such as the extraction of ethane and natural gas liquids (NGLs) from natural gas,[1] the liquefaction of gases[2][3] and other low-temperature processes.
In 1939, Pyotr Kapitza of Russia suggested the use of a centrifugal turbine for the isentropic expansion of gases to produce refrigeration. Since then, centrifugal expansion turbines have taken over almost 100 percent of the gas liquefaction and other low-temperature industrial requirements.
Applications
Extracting hydrocarbon liquids from natural gas
Power recovery in fluid catalytic cracker
Refrigeration system
Power generation
History
References
- ↑ Demethanzer
- ↑ BOC (NZ) publication: use search function for keyword "expansion"
- ↑ US Department of Energy Hydrogen Program