Patent ID: 8311652

Claim:
A method of optimizing a natural gas liquids (NGL) facility, wherein the NGL facility comprises NGL trains each having an NGL process, the method comprising: (a) establishing a baseline NGL recovery for each NGL process; (b) modeling a process scenario for each NGL process using input variables, wherein the input variables comprise process data and wherein each NGL process comprises first and second refrigeration circuits with associated refrigeration compressors; (c) modeling a simulated selective deactivation of a refrigeration compressor; (d) determining a modeled NGL recovery for each NGL process from step (c); (e) classifying the process scenario as a compressor off scenario if the modeled NGL recovery is substantially at least the same as the baseline NGL recovery; (f) operating a functioning NGL facility having a process scenario based on step (b) wherein the functioning NGL facility comprises a first and second refrigeration circuits with associated refrigeration compressors; (g) deactivating a refrigeration compressor of the functioning NGL facility if the process scenario is classified as a compressor off scenario; and (h) optimizing a feed flow rate distribution to each NGL train.