A novel thermoacoustic system for natural gas liquefaction

A novel thermoacoustic system for natural gas liquefaction is introduced in this paper. It is a ring structure composed of four thermoacoustic heat engine units. Each thermoacoustic heat engine unit is connected to a thermoacoustic refrigeration unit in parallel. There is no moving part in the whole system. The working fluid is environmentally friendly helium gas. In addition, the system can be used to liquefy natural gas by consuming small partial natural gas. The 4-stage acoustically resonant system is simulated, and its thermal performance is analyzed. The mean pressure in the system is 8MPa. The heating temperature is 923K, and the ambient temperature is 303K. According to the preliminary simulation, the cooling power at 130K of the system is about 100kW, with the exergy efficiency about 30%. The thermal performance of the system will improve after optimization The novel acoustically resonant system shows broad application prospects in the field of natural gas liquefaction. (C) 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.