13/9/2021 How Does an LNG Plant Work?

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HOW DOES AN LNG

PLANT WORK?
Magnus Oct 20, minutes read
By 4
Eikens 2020 time

Natural gas needs to be liquefied at an

LNG plant in order to be shipped. This
article explains how this key link in the
LNG value chain works.

What does the LNG

value chain look like?
The process described in the following is a
generalization of the different links in a typical
LNG value chain, deviations from this
specifically described process occur.
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Essentially, the LNG value chain can be
Privacy & Conditions divided into four main steps; natural gas
production and exploration, liquefaction and
Customize No Yes storage, shipping, and finally, receiving,
regasification and distribution. Production and
exploration include extracting raw,
unprocessed natural gas from reservoirs,
rough on-site processing, and bringing the gas
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from the site of extraction to a treatment

facility, often nearby. When brought to the
treatment facility or liquefaction plant,
hereafter referred to as an LNG plant, the gas
is processed and treated through the gas
liquefaction cycle, before getting stored and
prepared for transport. Due to capacity and
LNG technology like refrigerants and coolers,
LNG is most commonly transported using
designated LNG carriers, transferring large
quantities of LNG by sea. LNG loading takes
place at the exporting site and is then shipped
to an onshore receiving terminal or an offshore
unit with receiving capabilities. It is then
heated for purposes of regasification and
prepared for distribution to a gas network,
where it can be utilized as fuel for instance for
power generation.

A traditional LNG value chain which consists of

natural gas production and exploration, liquefaction
and storage, shipping, and finally, receiving,
regasification and distribution

This article will focus on the second link in the

chain, namely the process taking place at the
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LNG plant before shipment.

What is an LNG plant?

The LNG plant makes out the “black box” of
LNG production where completely or partially
untreated, raw natural gas in a gaseous state
comes in, and refined LNG is shipped out. In
general, two main processes take place at the
plant: the gas treatment process and the
liquefaction process. If natural gas is sold in
gaseous state, liquefaction facilities are not
necessary. This typically applies to areas with
access to a pipeline network. However, when
gas markets and gas fields are far apart,
production costs are sufficiently low, and
marine ports where a plant can be built is
relatively close to the gas field, conditions
facilitate LNG production.

LNG plant sites can be potentially massive in

size and make out an expensive part of an
LNG project. Production capacity and plant
size vary, but key infrastructure in addition to
the specific gas treatment and liquefaction
equipment include equipment for handling
boil-off gas (BOG) like venting, flaring or re-
liquefaction, send-out-systems and cryogenic
storage tanks. The individual systems are
often closely integrated. The plant also
requires infrastructure for LNG loading to
ships, which in case either a jetty or the
jettyless transfer system can be used.      

LNG plants are most commonly placed

onshore, but for offshore gas fields,
production, treatment, liquefaction, storage
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and transportation can take place using

floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) facilities.

LNG is stored in dedicated storage tanks at an LNG

plant before export

How does the pre-

liquefaction treatment
of natural gas work?
The well stream of plant feed comes in
gaseous form by pipe. Natural gas extracted
from the ground contains impurities, water and
other associated fluids, so before liquefaction
can take place, the gas needs to go through a
treatment process to remove undesired
substances. The gas goes through a series of
vessels, compressors and pipes where gas is
stepwise separated from heavier fluids and
impurities.

First, water and condensate are removed,

followed by removal of acid gas (carbon
dioxide, CO2), hydrogen sulfide (HS2) and
mercury (Hg). These substances are
unwanted, as they may cause ice forming
during liquefaction and corrosion in pipelines
and LNG heat exchangers. The remaining
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is precooled, and other, heavier, natural gas

liquids are then separated from the mix before
liquefaction takes place. Removed
hydrocarbons can be stored and sold
separately. The remaining gas mostly consists
of methane and some ethane, which is
brought to liquefaction.

How does liquefaction

of LNG work?
Transporting compressed gas long distances
by pipe can be costly and time consuming, but
by cooling natural gas to -162°C, it turns into
liquid matter, and its volume decreases by 600
times. This makes it possible to transport the
gas by ship, and this process is made possible
at the LNG plant. The liquefaction and LNG
cooling process are based on thermodynamic
refrigeration cycles, and takes place in
cryogenic heat exchangers, which absorbs
heat from the natural gas. Flash gas and BOG
can be used as fuel for turbines used for
onsite power generation.

We mainly separate between two main types

of liquefaction processes: the classical
cascade process where different refrigerants
which vaporize at different temperatures are
used, and the mixed refrigerant cycle where a
continuous, single blend of refrigerants is
cooled. Either way, the end product is LNG,
which is stored in cryogenic tanks on site
before being shipped off.

Last updated: Apr 20, 2021

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This article is co-written by Magnus Eikens

and Mats Møller.

Want to learn more?

Read more about the LNG market here

About Magnus Eikens

Chief Commercial Officer
Visit at LinkedIn

As co-founder of ECONNECT,
he has developed and brought
to life the world's first jettyless
transfer system. He holds a
decade of experience in
business development,
strategy and
commercialization, and is also
a member of the Board of
Directors of Energy Network
Norway (ENN): a network of
industry professionals and
global companies leading
Norway’s commitment to Clean
Energy.

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