Open AccessThermoacoustic natural gas liquefier
Author(s) -
G. W. Swift,
David L. Gardner,
M. E. Hayden,
Ray Radebaugh,
J. Wollan
Publication year - 1996
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Reports
DOI - 10.2172/245621
Subject(s) - natural gas , refrigeration , heat exchanger , liquefaction , refrigerant , refrigerator car , combustion , process engineering , liquefied natural gas , environmental science , nuclear engineering , mechanical engineering , engineering , waste management , chemistry , geotechnical engineering , organic chemistry
This is the final report of a two-year, Laboratory-Directed Research and Development (LDRD) project at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). This project sought to develop a natural-gas-powered natural-gas liquefier that has absolutely no moving parts and requires no electrical power. It should have high efficiency, remarkable reliability, and low cost. The thermoacoustic natural-gas liquefier (TANGL) is based on our recent invention of the first no-moving-parts cryogenic refrigerator. In short, our invention uses acoustic phenomena to produce refrigeration from heat, with no moving parts. The required apparatus comprises nothing more than heat exchangers and pipes, made of common materials, without exacting tolerances. Its initial experimental success in a small size lead us to propose a more ambitious application: large-energy liquefaction of natural gas, using combustion of natural gas as the energy source. TANGL was designed to be maintenance-free, inexpensive, portable, and environmentally benign