Cryogenic Mixed Refrigerant Processes

Most conventional cryogenic refrigerators and liquefiers operate with pure fluids, the major exception being natural gas liquefiers that use mixed refrigerant processes. The fundamental aspects of mixed refrigerant processes, though very innovative, have not received the due attention in open literature in view of commercial interests. Hundreds of patents exist on different aspects of mixed refrigerant processes. However, it is difficult to piece together the existing information to choose an appropriate process and an optimum composition or a given application. The aim of the book is to teach (a.) the need for refrigerant mixtures, (b.) the type of mixtures that can be used for different refrigeration and liquefaction applications, (c.) the different processes that can be used and (d.) the methods to be adopted for choosing the components of a mixture and their concentration for different applications.


Dr. G. Venkatarathnam is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras in southern India. He holds Ph.D. and Masters degree in Cryogenic Engineering and has more than 20 years research experience in the area of Cryogenic refrigerators and liquefiers. He works in the broad areas of Refrigeration, Cryogenic Engineering and Compact heat exchangers. His research interests are in refrigerant mixtures and mixed refrigerant processes for heat pumps, refrigerators, cryocoolers (cryogenic refrigerators) and liquefiers, process simulation and optimization, and development of cryogenic heat exchangers, refrigerators and liquefiers. He has taught Cryogenic Engineering, Refrigeration and related subjects at the Indian Institutes of Technology at Kharagpur and Madras, and at the Universit�t Karlsruhe, Germany.  He also holds a few patents on refrigerant mixtures.