LIQUIFIED NATURAL GAS TECHNOLOGY INTRODUCTION: Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) is the natural gas that has been

cooled to the point that it condenses to a liquid, which occurs at a temperature of approximately -256F( -161C) at atmospheric pressure. Liquefaction reduces the volume of gas by approximately 600 times, thus making it more economical to store natural gas where other forms of storage doo not exist, and to transport gas over a long distance for which pipelines are too expensive or for which other constraints exist. Liquefaction makes it possible to move natural gas between continents in specially designed ships. Thus, LNG technology makes natural gas available throughout the world.

A number of different operations are linked which are dependent on one another but for the consideration of this paper, we would look at the Major two and the technologies applied which are as follows; y y y y Exploration Liquefaction Shipping Regasification

For the purpose of this paper, only the major two are going to be considered in the Liquefied Natural Gas technology. EXPLORATION & PRODUCTION They are as the Exploration and production which have to do with the development of ideas about where the Natural gas resource might occur (Prospect generation), to the mobilization of financial capital to support drilling and field development to the ultimate production. After the drilling and field development, the pretreatment phase commences which consists of mercury removal, gas sweetening and drying. LIQUEFACTION The feed gas to the liquefaction process comes from the Exploration and product fields. This entails cooling the clean feed gas by using refrigerants. The liquefaction plants may consist of several parallel units. By liquefying the gas, the volume is reduced by a factor of 600, which means that LNG at -256F uses 1/600th of the space required for the comparable amount of gas at room temperature and atmospheric pressure. LNG is a Cryogenic liquid.. the term Cryogenic means lower temperature, generally below -100F, LNG is clear liquid , with density of about 45% the density of water.

COMPOSITION OF NATURAL GAS AND LNG Natural gas is composed primarily of methane, but may also contain ethane, propane and heavier hydrocarbons. Small quantities of Nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, sulfur compounds and water may also be found in natural gas. The figure below shows a typical natural gas composition. The liquefaction process requires the removal of some of the non-methane components such as water and carbon dioxide from the produced natural gas to prevent

them from forming solids when the gas is cooled to about LNG temperature. As a result, LNG is typically made up mostly of methane which is also shown in the figure below.

EXPLORATION AND PRODUCTION From the perspective of Total Gas, a multi-national company taxed with the responsible of Exploration and Production of Oil and gas, say that; Gas and Oil share the same exploration and production technologies. Finding fields draws on of the combination of Geological and geophysical expertise. Gas, however, can be easier to produce than oil, because it moves around more freely in the reservoirs than its thicker cousin. As a result, bringing gas to the surface rarely requires special production techniques, such as injecting water into the reservoirs, a common practice used to give oil a boost. On the other hand, once out of the well, natural gas requires specific types of treatment, in line with its composition, to make it commercial grade. NATURAL GAS LIQUEFACTION

World Class base-load LNG facilities that have been built since the early 60s have been energy intensive liquefaction cycles that include different types of refrigeration systems (cascade, mixed refrigerants) using propane, ethane and methane refrigerants, combined with proprietary technology in heat transfer equipments. The following are some of the most known cycles used in base-load facilities.

Fig :Cascade Refrigeration Liquefaction

Fig : Mixed refrigerant Liquefaction

Fig : Propane/ Mixed refrigerant liquefaction PROCESS FUNDAMENTALS/DESCRIPTION A typical Liquefied Natural Gas Facility will comprise of the following operations after Exploration and Production steps have been taken. y y y y Feed gas compression,, in case the natural gas pressure is low CO2 removal, mostly by a wash process and drying or H2o removal by an absorber (CO2 and H2O would otherwise freeze and cause clogging in the downstream liquefaction equipment) Natural gas liquefaction LNG storage.

Additional utilities such as y y y A mixed refrigerant cycle make up and boil off gas handling system Gas turbine with waste heat recovery for hot oil heating Other utilities

Fig : Liquefied Natural Gas Plant Block Scheme

PRE-TREATMENT OF NATURAL GAS Natural Gas pre-treatment {which covers the process of Natural Gas purification(CO2 removal) and Purification dryer} typically consist of Mercury removal, gas sweetening and drying. Natural gas is dried in molecular sieve absorbers. Depending on the downstream processing steps and the concentration of the sour gas components, it may be necessary to remove H2S and CO2 from the natural gas.Below is the chart showing flow of pre-treatment process of Natural gas.

Fig: Flow chart of Pre-treatment of Natural gas Scrubbing processes such as MDEA, Benfield or SULFINOL are offered services. Should only minor amount of sour gas is present, they can be removed by absorption along with the removal of water. Mercury guard beds are recommended to protect people and equipment.

NATURAL GAS LIQUEFACTION Natural Gas liquefaction processes vary, depending on the quantity( tons per annum) to be liquefied. Under listed are the available processes to be discussed as regarding this research; y Basic single flow LNG process y LIMUM (Linde multi-stage mixed refrigerant) process y MFC (Mixed Fluid Cascade) process

BASIC SINGLE FLOW LNG PROCESS

Fig : Basic single flow LNG Process The basic single flow LNG process consist of y A plate-fin heat exchanger set in a cold box, where the natural gas is cooled to LNG temperatures by a single Mixed Refrigerant (MR) cycle. y A separation vessel, where the mixed refrigerant is separated into a liquid fraction. The liquid fraction and the gas fraction provide the cold temperature after expansion in a J-T (JouleThompson) valve for the Natural Gas precooling and liquefaction. y A gas reaction, which provides the LNG sub-cooling temperature after condensation and J-T expansion at the bottom of the heat exchange. y Recompression of the cycle gas steams leaving the heat exchanger in the turbo compressor. y Cooling of the compressed cycle gas against air or water. The basic single flow LNG process is design to liquefy less than 0.5mtpa LNG. Example of facility that use the basic single flow LNG process is ; y The LNG plant in Kollsnes, Norway which has a capacity of 40,000 tpa which was established in 2003 and is used for distribution of LNG to satellite stations.

One of the innovative features of the project is the use of LNG as fuel in ferry boats along the Norwegian coast. There are many advantages to replacing diesel with LNG. The exhaust gas of the engine is clean and free of solid particles. NOx and CO2 emissions are reduced. The engines and therefore the ferries have a reduced noise level.

LIMUM (LINDE MULTI-STAGE MIXED REFRIGERANT) PROCESS

Fig :(LIMUM) Multi-stage mixed refrigerant process designed by LINDE

The LIMUM process is comprised of: y y y y A CWHE (Coil wound heat exchange) where the natural gas is precooled, liquefied and subcooled against various fractions of a single mixed refrigerant cycle A medium pressure refrigerant separator, from which the liquid is used to provide the precooling duty after J-T expansion to the lowest section of the CWHE A high pressure refrigerant separator, from which the gas is cooled and partially condensed in the lower section of the CWHE A low temperature refrigerant separator, from which the liquid is used to provide the natural gas liquefaction duty after J-T expansion. The gaseous refrigerant steam from the separator is used to provide the sub-cooling duty after condensation and J-T expansion in the upper section of the CWHE The combined refrigerant cycle steam from the bottom of the CWHE is compressed in a two stage compressor with intercooling after cooling against air or water

The Advance single flow LNG process (LIMUM) is used between.an average product capacity of 0.2 to 1.0 mtpa LNG. Examples of facilities that use the Advance single flow process are

LNG plant in Shan shan, People republic of China which has a capacity of 430,000tpa and was establish in 2004.

The LNG plant is highly flexible and excels due to its robustness. The LNG scheme created a new gas market and provided a great improvement in the tight energy supply situation in china.

LNG plant in Kwinana, Australia which has a capacity of 62,500tpa and was establish in 2008 by the Westfarmers Gas Limited.

LNG is produced from pipeline gas and is then distributed by truck to various customers, which include peak shaving power stations where LNG replaces Diesel and other fuels which are less environmentally acceptable

MFC (MIXED FLUID CASCADE) PROCESS

Fig : MFC (Mixed Fluid Cascade) process

The MFC process is highly efficient due to the low shaft power consumption of the three mixed refrigerants cycle compressors. The process is comprised of; y y y y Plate-fin heat exchangers for natural gas pre-cooling CWHEs (Coil-wound heat exchangers) for the natural gas liquefaction and LNG sub-cooling Three separate mixed refrigerants cycles, each with different compositions, which result in minimum compressor shaft power requirement Three cold suction turbo compressors The MFC (mixed fluid Cascade) process is used between an average product capacity of 3 to 12 mtpa LNG An example of a facility that uses the MFC process for LNG production and liquefaction is the LNG plant in Hammerfest, Norway which has a capacity of 4.3 mtpa( million tons per annum) and was established in 2007 by Statoil.

This is Europes first and the worlds northern most LNG base-load plant. The MFC (mixed fluid cascade) process together with the low cooling water temperature at the site are the basis for the extremely low specific power consumption of the plant. This LNG project has another distinguishing feature :the entire LNG base-load plant was preassembled in various shipyards in Europe and transported to its operating location on HLVs (Heavy Lift vessels). The process plant itself is installed on a barge in a shipyard, transported by HLV and finally grounded in a prepared dock at the site.

MAJOR COMPONENTS OF NATURALL GAS LIQUEFACTION. y COIL-WOUND HEAT EXCHANGER The practically unrestricted range of usable materials allow coil-wound heat exchangers to be used for a wide range of applications in cold as well as warm applications. The coil wound heat exchanger is the core equipment in large base load LNG plants. BENEFITS: Providing a large heating surface per shell Tolerant against thermal shocks due to its robust design.

y y

Fig

: Manufacturing of Coil wound heat exchangers.

The Coil-wound heat exchanger is the core equipment in large base-load LNG plants

Fig : Scheme of a Coil- Wound heat exchanger

PLATE-FIN HEAT EXCHANGER The vacuum brazed aluminium plate-fin heat exchangers are key components in many cryogenic process plants. They are the preferred heat exchangers in small LNG plants. BENEFITS Compactness, saving installation space and investment cost Many process streams can be handled in a single unit, thus avoiding expensive interconnecting piping of different units Low equipment weight

y y y

Fig :Assembly of aluminium plate-fin heat exchangers

The vacuum brazed aluminium plate-fin heat exchangers are key components in many cryogenic process plants. They are the preferred heat exchangers in small LNG plants.

Fig : Scheme of an aluminium plate-fin heat exchanger