UNIT-II

Liquefaction Technologies
1. Principle of liquefaction:

The refrigeration and liquefaction section is the key element of the LNG plant. There are
several licensed processes available with varying degrees of application and experience.
The basic principles for cooling and liquefying the gas using refrigerants involve
matching as closely as possible the cooling/heating curves of the process gas and the
refrigerant. This results in a more efficient thermodynamic process requiring less power per
unit of LNG produced. This applies to all liquefaction processes. Typical cooling curves are
shown in Figure.

Typical natural gas/refrigerant cooling curves.

The natural gas, being a mixture of compounds, liquefies over a wide temperature
range. Heat curves can be matched by minimising the temperature difference between the
cooling process gas and refrigerant streams. This is achieved by using more than one
refrigerant to cover the temperature range and using the refrigerant at different pressure
levels to further split the temperature ranges to closely matching ones
The process gas side is normally operated at high pressure (for example, 40 - 55 bara)
to reduce equipment size and provide more efficient refrigeration.
The composition of the refrigerant gives an added control with a mixed refrigerant the
composition can be adjusted to suit the process conditions

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 2. Refrigeration Cycle:

Thecomponents in the basic refrigeration system are the compressor, condenser, expansion
valve, and heat exchanger. The heart of the system is the compressor. The compressor takes
in a low temperature, low pressure refrigerant vapor, and compresses it into a high
temperature, high pressure vapor. This high temperature/pressure vapor then enters
the condenser where heat is removed to either air or water. As the heat is removed, the
energy stored in the high pressure gas is released and the refrigerant gives up its latent heat as
it reverts to a hot liquid.

This hot, high temperature liquid then exits the condenser and enters the expansion valve,
where it undergoes a pressure drop causing some of the hot gas to vaporize. This lowers the
temperature of the refrigerant stream. The refrigerant at the exit of the expansion valve is a
low temperature two-phase fluid.

This two-phase fluid enters the heat exchanger where it is exposed to the heat source. The
heat from the source boils off the refrigerant through phase change heat transfer, and the low
temperature, low pressure gas enters the compressor, completing the cycle.

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 3. Liquefaction:

Liquefaction is a process of cooling a gas and converting into its liquid form.
Liquefaction technologies of two and three cooling/refrigeration cycles are mainly used
mainly due to energy efficiency and low equipment sizing compared to the technologies of
one cooling/refrigeration cycle. Table below presents the currently available liquefaction
technologies according to the number of refrigeration cycles and refrigerants used.

REFRIGERANS
N ° of cycles Pure Pure+Mixed Mixed
APCI (SMR)
-
1 - Black & Veath (PRICO II)
BHP (cLNG)
Shell (C3-MR)
Shell (DMR)
2 - APCI (C3-MR)
Axens-IFP (Liquefin)
Shell (PMR)

3 Conoco Phillips (POCP) APCI (AP-X) Statoil-Linde (MFC)

4. APCI propane pre-cooled mixed refrigerant process:

C3 MR PROCESS

This process accounts for a very significant proportion of the world’s baseload LNG production
capacity. Train capacities of up to 4.7 million tpy.

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 There are two main refrigerant cycles. The precooling cycle uses a pure component,
propane. The liquefaction and sub-cooling cycle uses a mixed refrigerant (MR) made up of
nitrogen, methane, ethane and propane.

The precooling cycle uses propane at three or four pressure levels and can cool the
process gas down to -40 ˚C. It is also used to cool and partially liquefy the mixed refrigerant
MR. The cooling is achieved in kettle-type exchangers with propane refrigerant boiling and
evaporating in a pool on the shell side, and with the process streams flowing in immersed
tube passes.

A centrifugal compressor with side streams recovers the evaporated C3 streams and
compresses the vapour to 15 - 25 bara to be condensed against water or air and recycled to
the propane kettles.

In the MR cycle, the partially liquefied refrigerant is separated into vapour and liquid
streams that are used to liquefy and subcool the process stream from typically -35 ˚C to
between -150 ˚C - -160 ˚C. This is carried out in a proprietary spiral wound exchanger, the
main cryogenic heat exchanger (MCHE).

The MCHE consists of two or three tube bundles arranged in a vertical shell, with the
process gas and refrigerants entering the tubes at the bottom which then flow upward under
pressure.

The process gas passes through all the bundles to emerge liquefied at the top. The
liquid MR stream is extracted after the warm or middle bundle and is flashed across a Joule
Thomson valve or hydraulic expander onto the shell side. It flows downwards and
evaporates, providing the bulk of cooling for the lower bundles. The vapour MR stream
passes to the top (cold bundle) and is liquefied and sub-cooled, and is flashed across a JT
valve into the shell side over the top of the cold bundle. It flows downwards to provide the
cooling duty for the top bundle and, after mixing with liquid MR, part of the duty for the
lower bundles.

The overall vaporised MR stream from the bottom of the MCHE is recovered and
compressed by the MR compressor to 45 - 48 bara. It is cooled and partially liquefied first by
water or air and then by the propane refrigerant, and recycled to the MCHE. In earlier plants
all stages of the MR compression were normally centrifugal, however, in some recent plants
axial compressors have been used for the LP stage and centrifugal for the HP stage.

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 Recent plants use Frame 6 and/or Frame 7 gas turbine drivers. Earlier plants used
steam turbine drivers.

A recent modification of the process, which is being considered for large LNG
capacity plants (> 6 million tpy), is the APX-process, which adds a third refrigerant cycle
(nitrogen expander) to conduct LNG subcooling duties outside the MCHE.

5. Statoil/Linde Mixed Fluid Cascade Process (MFCP)

The Statoil/Linde LNG technology alliance was established to develop alternative

LNG base load plants particularly suitable for harsher environments. It has been selected for
the Snøhvit LNG project (Hammerfest, Norway). This is a single train 4 million tpy LNG
plant. In this process three mixed refrigerants are used to provide the cooling and liquefaction
duty. The process is illustrated in Figure.

This process uses three separate mixed refrigerant systems to progressively cool the
gas – Precooling Mixed Refrigerant, Liquefaction Mixed Refrigerant and Sub-cooling Mixed
Refrigerant.

Statoil/Linde mixed fluid cascade process (MFCP)

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 Pre-cooling is carried out in plate fin heat exchangers (PFHE) by the precooling
mixed refrigerant, and the liquefaction and subcooling are carried out in a spiral wound heat
exchanger Spiral wound heat exchanger (SWHE) by the other two refrigerants. The Spiral
wound heat exchanger (SWHE) is a proprietary exchanger made by Linde. It may also be
used for the pre-cooling stage. The refrigerants are made up of components selected from
methane, ethane, propane and nitrogen.

The three refrigerant compression systems can have separate drivers or integrated to have
two strings of compression.

This process provides for high energy efficiency since each Mixed Refrigerant (MR)
can be tuned to the various cooling curves for each refrigerant system, and the use of aero
derivative turbines further reduces the energy requirements. Snøhvit is the first large-scale
LNG plant to use variable speed electric motors to drive the refrigeration compressors.

6. Conocophillips optimized cascade process (copoc):

Phillips Petroleum Company developed the original cascade LNG process in the
1960s. This process was first used in 1969 at the ConocoPhillips’ Kenai LNG plant in
Alaska. In this process Liquefaction is achieved through three stages of cooling using pure
refrigerants – propane, ethylene and methane. Air or water cooling condenses propane;
propane condenses ethylene; ethylene condenses methane and a series of methane flashes
complete the liquefaction. Heavier components (NGL) typically are removed from the feed
gas after one or more stages of chilling and the resulting methane-rich feed is routed through
the methane refrigeration system.

For the propane cycle core-in-kettle type exchangers are used. Brazed aluminium
plate-fin exchangers (cold boxes) are applied mainly in the ethylene and methane cycles. All
the cooling, with exception of the propane chilling, takes place in the two cold boxes.

Within each refrigerant cycle, different operating pressures are established to

maximize throughput and improve efficiency. By balancing the loads between the
refrigerants, liquefaction is possible for a wide range of gas compositions and conditions.

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 Conocophillips optimised cascade process

7. Trends in LNG train capacity:

Economies of scale as a result of bigger individual trains and larger venture

production capacity have enhanced the competitiveness of LNG in international energy
markets. A decade ago, the largest LNG production train was about 2.5 MMt/y (3.5 Bcm/y).
By the mid-to-late 1990s, 3 MMt/y (4.2 Bcm/y) became the benchmark, rising to 4–5 MMt/y
(5.6–7 Bcm/y) by the turn of the century. The latest LNG mega-trains in Qatar have
nameplate capacities of 7.8 MMt/y (10.9 Bcm/y). This progression in liquefaction train size is
illustrated in figure.

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 One limitation to train size has been the feasibility of manufacturing larger heat
exchangers and transporting them from the manufacturing site to the field. For the spiral-
wound heat exchangers used by APCI, the transportation restrictions from the company’s
manufacturing location to the shipping port have constrained the feasible exchanger
diameters to 18– 20 feet. However, APCI overcame this constraint with the AP-X mega-train
process—not by increasing the length and diameter of the exchanger, but by adding an
additional refrigeration cycle in a separate process unit that reduced the refrigeration duty of
the existing exchanger design. As a result, the AP-X process can produce 7.8 MMt/y (10.9
Bcm/y) of LNG by using spiralwound exchangers similar to those found in their 5.0 MMt/y
(7 Bcm/y) C3- MR train designs.

LNG plants have progressively employed ever-larger gas turbine drivers to power
refrigerant compressors as train sizes have increased. Earlier gas turbine-driven LNG plants
used smaller, GE Frame 5 (or equivalent) dual- shaft gas turbines as compressor drivers.
LNG train capacities were then increased to 3.3 MMt/y (4.6 Bcm/y) or more for the C3-MR
liquefaction process by stepping up to GE Frame 6 gas turbine drivers for the
propaneprecooling refrigeration cycle compressor and GE Frame 7 gas turbine drivers for the
mixed-refrigerant compressor. This was followed by the use of GE Frame 7 gas turbine
drivers for both the propane and mixed-refrigerant cycles, taking individual train capacity up
to 4–5 MMt/y (5.6–7 Bcm/y). The upcoming Qatari mega-trains have taken this trend further,
using GE Frame 9 gas turbine drivers for the propane, MCR, and nitrogen cycles. Large
electric motors are being used as compression drivers on Norway’s Snøhvit project, but their
widespread use will require designers to overcome startup, operating flexibility, and cost
issues associated with these motors.

While mega-trains are demonstrably technically feasible, establishing their

commercial viability is a far more complex issue. Although mega-train projects do provide
economies of scale, they require a larger reserve base than typical projects and place more
capital at risk. Finding sales outlets for mega-trains also constitutes a greater challenge than
for traditional projects, as volumes are substantially greater. Only a few buyers may be
willing to make large purchase commitments from single trains, as LNG buyers typically
seek multiple smaller LNG contracts to diversify their supply sources and match the
requirements of newly liberalizing and competitive LNG markets. Thus, the trend with the

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Qatari mega-trains has been to have the sponsors emerge as the buyers for the entire train
production and assume the risk of placing the LNG in the market.

8. Strategy for Gross root LNG plants

A Grass Roots Plant is a new complete plant including infrastructure facility is

constructed and erected on a new area or site (Opposite of the Brownfield Plant).
Some owners or producing countries have an option either to build a grassroots plant
or to expand the existing LNG plant. The development of multiple LNG center will add
strength to the security and reliability of supply aspect. Any production and shipping problem
can be conveniently covered by the other LNG center, which ensure reliable supply to the
Buyers and predictable revenue to the Seller.
For the project financier multiple LNG center of a single Seller will dissipate the risk
of the investment as well as reducing the risk impact on the existing LNG plant investment if
portion of the existing plant is financed by different investor.
From a technical point of view, several factors may work in favor of a grassroots
plant. The nature of the gas reserve may become the significant advantage for a grassroots
LNG plant, such as the proximity of the gas reserve, access to deep sea waters, the depth of
the reserve as well as the quality of the gas itself.
On the other hand, an expansion project does not require a new set of full-scale
infrastructures, LNG harbor and utilities, which is a major cost item for a project. All of the
existing LNG plants have selected the same LNG liquefaction technology for their expansion
project.
Therefore, competitiveness of a grassroots plant versus an expansion project should
be analyzed on a case by case basis. In fact, a recent grassroots LNG plant had successfully
prove that a grassroots plant can be constructed at a competitive cost compare to a typical
expansion project.

9. Offshore LNG production

Offshore LNG supply chain

The potential to unlock offshore gas reserves without investment in capital-intensive

pipeline infrastructure, infield platforms, and onshore infrastructure, while minimizing

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exposure to geopolitical and security risks, makes floating LNG production, storage, and
offloading (LNG FPSO and FLNG) concepts worthy.

In contrast to the traditional LNG value chains, the offshore LNG value chain will
consist of an offshore production facility, floating offshore gas treating and liquefaction
facility (FLNG or FPSO), the LNG loading facilities, LNG cargoes transport, the LNG
unloading facilities, storage and regasification facility on the FSRU or regasification ship,
and finally, tied into a gas distribution pipeline network.

Offshore LNG value chain

9.1 Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO)

A typical LNG FPSO design bases the installation on an LNG carrier hull. The
various parts of the process are then located topside and distributed as modules that are
installed on the deck. Depending on the intended capacity of the LNG FPSO and the need for
treatment of the feed gas composition, the topsides typically may weigh from 20000 tonnes to
50000 tonnes for medium-size units producing 1.5 to 3 MTPA. For very large scale
production units (3–5 MTPA) the topside weight may reach 70000 tonnes or more.

The storage capacity of the FPSO will be related to the processing capacity, the
intended offload schedule, and the need to store condensate and LPG, which is dependent on
the feed gas composition. Current designs for medium-size units are being proposed with an
LNG storage capacity of 180,000 to 190,000 m3 and LPG and LPG storage capacities of
approximately 25,000 m3 each. For the very large scale units LNG storage capacity of
220,000 m3 has been proposed together with LPG and Condensate storage in the range of
100,000 m3 each.

Operating an LNG plant under an offshore setting presents a demanding set of

challenges. In terms of the design and construction of the FLNG facility, every element of a
conventional LNG facility needs to fit into an area less than one quarter the size of a land

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base terminal, while maintaining the utmost levels of safety and the flexibility required by
LNG production.

Figure shows a typical LNG FPSO layout

LNG FPSO layout

LNG floating production, storage, and offloading (LNG FPSO) has been the focus of
research and development since the 1980s, but in 2008 it took a step toward deployment with
the commitment by FLEX LNG Ltd to contract Samsung to construct vessels for service
offshore with provisional locations in Papua New Guinea.

9.2 Floating Liquefied Natural Gas (FLNG)

Floating LNG (FLNG) is an attractive concept for the following reasons:

1. The ability to be located deep offshore without requiring a jetty or product pipeline.
2. The potential to be deployed to another large gas field.
3. Less impact on flora and fauna, as well as peoples, compared to LNG plants on land.

Shell is using its Floating Liquefied Natural Gas (FLNG) technology to develop its Prelude
and Concerto gas discoveries, located in the Browse Basin off the northwest coast ofWestern
Australia. The design is being jointly developed by the Technip-Samsung Heavy Industries
consortium. The design is planned for other FLNG facilities.

The FLNG vessel will be the world’s largest facility afloat when delivered in 2014. It
is estimated to be 480 m long and 75 m wide and with 600,000 dwt (deadweight

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tonnage).The 480 m-long floater, being built at the Samsung Heavy Industries shipyard in
Geoje, Korea, will produce an estimated 3.6 MTPA of LNG, 1.3 MTPA of condensate and
0.4 MTPA of LPG from the Browse BasinWA-371-P permit, in 280 m water depths offshore
Western Australia

9.3 Marine offloading of LNG cargo storage

Side-by-side transfer: Side-by-side transfer involves maneuvering a shuttle carrier alongside

the FLNG, temporarily mooring the two vessels together, separated by fenders, conducting
the transfer operation via connection to the carrier’s midship manifold, then unmooring the
vessels. Maneuvering would usually involve assistance of tugs. This operation has
similarities with transfer at land-based terminals.

Side-by-side transfer

Tandem transfer: Tandem unloading will require LNG carriers purposely built with a bow
manifold. The vessels are connected by hawser line and transfer is from stern of FLNG to
bow of shuttle tanker. However floating hose solutions may also permit connection to
midship manifolds.

Figure shows a rendition of the tandem transfer proposed by SBM using SBM’s COOL_ hose
design. The hose comprises an outer marine hose with an inner composite LNG hose, with
the space in between filled with insulating materials. The connector system is a quick
connect/disconnect system that handles and connects the hose to the LNG Carrier bow
manifold.

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 Tandem transfer

9.4 Offshore LNG regasification

Floating regasification terminals (FSRUs) can provide a flexible and economic

alternative to building land-based LNG receiving terminals. The floating installations may
either be located near-shore (e.g., alongside a pier or a jetty) or offshore (permanently
moored to the sea floor). Such terminals are supplied with LNG from visiting gas carriers.

The function of the FSRU is similar to that of the LNG RV (Regasification vessel).
The FSRU and the LNG RV can compete with onshore LNG receiving terminals offering
speed-of-deployment advantages in the parallel processing of regulatory authority
permissions and facility design and construction. FSRUs can be designed and built to include
more storage capacity than that of LNG RV, which has the cargo containment size of an LNG
carrier. The storage capacity of FSRUs is typically in the 145,000 m3 to 350,000 m3 range and
is determined by the cargo tank size and visiting frequency of the shuttle LNG carriers, taking
into account storage capacities to compensate for potential supply interruptions caused by
weather conditions. In some cases standard LNG carriers are converted to operate as small
FSRUs.

Vessels that transport LNG, connect to an offloading buoy, regasify and discharge
their cargo, then disconnect and leave to collect a new cargo are termed Shuttle
Regasification Vessels (SRV). These are not normally considered as FSRUs SRVs will
therefore not normally be engaged in continuous regasification operations and typically will
not receive and regasify LNG simultaneously.

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