In order to address the defects of high energy consumption and low efficiency in the single cryogenic separation process for helium extraction, this paper integrate post-expansion nitrogen cycle refrigeration with membrane separation to establish a novel natural gas cryogenic-membrane helium recovery process. Based on four mainstream processes for ethane recovery from natural gas, an optimal ethane recovery method is selected and incorporated into the proposed cryogenic-membrane helium recovery process. The process is then simulated using ASPEN HYSYS software. The effects of operating parameters on critical equipment energy consumption, helium product concentration and ethane recovery were evaluated. The simulation results indicate that in the proposed helium recovery process, the concentration of refined helium reaches 99.6 %, and the ethane recovery rate is 90.13 %. Compared to the single helium extraction process, the total compressor energy consumption in our process is reduced by 23.10 %, and the integrated energy consumption is reduced by 20.4 %.

中文翻译：

---

天然气提氦联产乙烷的低温膜分离工艺


针对单一深冷分离提氦工艺能耗高、效率低的缺陷，本文将膨胀后氮循环制冷与膜分离相结合，建立了天然气深冷-膜氦回收新工艺。基于天然气中乙烷回收的四种主流工艺，选择了最佳乙烷回收方法并将其纳入所提出的低温膜氦回收工艺中。然后使用 ASPEN HYSYS 软件模拟该过程。评估了操作参数对关键设备能耗、氦产品浓度和乙烷回收率的影响。模拟结果表明，在所提出的氦气回收工艺中，精制氦气浓度达到99.6%，乙烷回收率为90.13%。与单一提氦工艺相比，我们工艺的压缩机总能耗降低了23.10%，综合能耗降低了20.4%。