Refrigeration system for gas liquefaction

Claim 1

PROCESS FOR PRODUCING REFRIGERATION COMPRISING THE STEPS OF PASSING A FIRST STREAM OF COMPRESSED COLD GAS AT A FIRST RELATIVELY HIGH PRESSURE IN HEAT INTERCHANGE WITH A FIRST RELATIVELY WARM FLUID TO WARM THE FIRST STREAM OF COMPRESSED GAS TO A RELATIVELY HIGH TEMPERATURE, EXPANDING THE WARM FIRST STREAM OF COMPRESSED GAS AT THE RELATIVELY HIGH TEMPERATURE AND UNDER THE FIRST RELATIVELY HIGH PRESSURE WITH PRODUCTION OF EXTERNAL WORK TO PRODUCE FIRST EFFLUENT UNDER A FIRST RELATIVELY LOW PRESSURE, PASSING A SECOND STREAM OF COMPRESSED COLD GAS AT SUBSTANTIALLY THE FIRST RELATIVELY HIGH PRESSURE IN COUNTERCURRENT HEAT EXCHANGE WITH FIRST EFFLUENT TO COOL THE FIRST EFFLUENT AND TO WARM THE SECOND STREAM OF COMPRESSED GAS TO TEMPERATURE LOWER THAN THE RELATIVELY HIGH TEMPERATURE OF THE WARM FIRST STREAM OF COMPRESSED GAS, EXPANDING THE WARM SECOND STREAM OF COMPRESSED GAS WITH PRODUCTION OF EXTERNAL WORK TO PRODUCE SECOND EFFLUENT AT A TEMPERATURE LOWER THAN THE TEMPERATURE OF THE FIRST EFFLUENT AND UNDER A PRESSURE CORRESPONDING TO THE FIRST RELATIVELY LOW PRESSURE OF THE FIRST EFFLUENT, THE FIRST EFFLUENT BEING COOLED TO A TEMPERATURE APPROACHING THE TEMPERATURE OF THE SECOND EFFLUENT BY THE HEAT INTERCHANGE WITH THE SECOND STREAM OF COMPRESSED GAS, AND PASSING THE COOLED FIRST EFFLUENT AND THE SECOND EFFLUENT TO A COMMON UTILIZATION ZONE.