Patent ID: 8209997

Claim:
A process for recovery of natural gas liquids from a feed gas stream, comprising the steps of: (a) supplying a feed gas stream and cooling the feed gas stream in a heat exchanger; (b) feeding the cooled feed gas stream to a distillation column wherein lighter components of the feed gas stream are removed from the distillation column as an overhead vapor stream and heavier components of the feed gas stream are removed from the distillation column in the bottoms as a product stream; (c) feeding the distillation column overhead stream to the heat exchanger and cooling the stream to at least partially liquefy the overhead stream; (d) feeding the partially liquefied distillation overhead stream to a first separator; (e) separating the vapors and liquids in the first separator to produce an overhead vapor stream comprising sales gas and a bottoms stream comprising a mixed refrigerant; (f) feeding the mixed refrigerant stream to the heat exchanger to provide cooling, wherein the mixed refrigerant stream vaporizes as it the mixed refrigerant stream passes through the heat exchanger; (g) compressing at least a portion of the vaporized mixed refrigerant stream and passing the compressed mixed refrigerant stream through the heat exchanger; (h) feeding the compressed mixed refrigerant stream to a second separator; and (i) feeding the bottoms from the second separator to the distillation column as a reflux stream and feeding the overhead from the second separator to the first separator.