LNG Plant

What is LNG?

Manufacturing Process

Benefits

With the increase in the growth of demand for natural gas, there has been unique technical challenges for the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) industry. The LNG gas plants are LNG generating systems which can be an individual unit solely for the purpose of producing LNG or can be a part of natural gas plant for producing natural gas, CNG and LNG. Commercial LNG processes usually design for base load (large scale) LNG plant. This is attained by utilizing complicated processes and equipment to reduce operation energy consumption. For small scale LNG plants, for instance, remote gas liquefaction, it is neither practical nor economical to use major commercial processes.

What is LNG?
The natural gas in its liquid form is known as LNG or liquefied natural gas. LNG is an odorless, non-toxic and non-corrosive liquid, and is produced from natural gas by cooling it at an atmospheric pressure of -160ºC. LNG is an efficient and safe way to transport natural gas across long distances and store it near consumers.

The LNG Manufacturing Process


The LNG Manufacturing Process involves 4 steps:

• Exploration and Production: Natural gas is pumped to the surface through various techniques and transported from the well head to processing plants
  
  
• Liquefaction Process: The process takes place in the plants All impurities are removed from the gas, prior to cooling. The gas is then cooled to -160º and allows it to be transported. This process is called liquefaction. The process produces a stable liquid ready for shipping.
  
  
• LNG Transportation: The LNG stored at -160º is transported onto LNG carrier ships or specially designed cryogenic road tankers or cryogenic sea vessels and stored in specially designed tanks. The gas is approximately 1/614th the volume of natural gas at standard temperature and pressure. As such it is very economical to transport over long distances where pipelines do not exist. Where moving LNG by pipelines is not economical or not possible, it can be transported by LNG vessels. The most common tank types are Moss Rosenberg (spheres), membrane (prismatic), or Self-Supporting Prismatic Type.
  
  
• Re-gasification Process: Compared to liquefaction, re-gasification is simple and it is purely physical and not chemical. The LNG is pumped out of the tanks pressurized and warmed. This leads the LNG to return to natural gas. While in storage, there is a slight warming of the LNG resulting in a small amount of gas at the top of the tank. This gas is then moved in to the natural gas transmission system.

Benefits of LNG

• LNG is used to cook food, heat our homes, enjoy a hot shower and even light our streets.
  
  
• You will save money on fuel by using LNG.
  
  
• Less noise, less congestion, and a smoother operation for LNG vehicles.
  
  
• LNG can be pressurized and vaporised to give LCNG, liquefied compressed natural gas. In other words, in LNG refueling stations can dispense two fuels - LNG & CNG - offering a several supply options to fleet operators.
  
  
• The benefits of LNG include greater energy density and low-pressure storage. As such, LNG has the greatest potential application for medium to heavy vehicles. Using LNG implies low-cost, low-weight fuel storage options and long driving range.