Liquid natural gas processing for hydrocarbons heavier than methane

A process for the recovery of natural gas liquids (NGL) from liquefied natural gas (LNG) is disclosed. The LNG feed stream is subjected to a two stage separation process where the bottoms from the first stage separation containing C2+ hydrocarbons is split into two portions, with one portion being heated and used as a reflux during the second stage separation to recover the NGL product. Particularly disclosed is a process of recovering hydrocarbons heavier than methane from liquefied natural gas (LNG) comprising, a) pumping liquid, low pressure LNG to a pressure of greater than 100 psia; (b) directing the pressurized liquid LNG from step (a) to a cold box where it is heat exchanged to increase its temperature; (c) directing the heat exchanged pressurized liquid LNG from step b) to a separator where, in combination with a first and second reflux, a separator overhead is produced along with a separator bottoms; (d) pressurizing the separator bottoms and then splitting the pressurized separator bottoms into first and second portions; (e) directing the first portion of pressurized separator bottoms to a deethanizer as a reflux stream; (f) heating the second portion of pressurized separator bottoms by directing the second portion to the cold box; (g) directing the heated second portion of pressurized separator bottoms to the deethanizer; (h) removing hydrocarbons heavier than methane as deethanizer bottoms; (i) directing a deethanizer overhead as the second feed to the separator; (j) removing the separator overhead from the separator and compressing the separator overhead prior to introduction into the cold box and heat exchanging with the pressurized liquid LNG to produce a re-liquefied pressurized LNG; and (k) separating a portion of the re-liquefied pressurized LNG for use as the first reflux.