LNG Tech Trends: Latest LNG Innovations

[Editor's note: A version of this story appears in the December 2020 edition of Midstream Business. Subscribe to the magazine here.]      

Air Products to Supply Four Cryogenic Heat Exchangers to Sonatrach’s Facility in Algeria

Air Products said in September it will provide four MCR Main Cryogenic Heat Exchangers (MCHEs) to Sonatrach, Algeria’s stateowned oil and gas company, for its GL1Z LNG facility in Arzew, Algeria. The four heat exchangers will each have 1.3 million tonnes per year production capacity and will replace four supplied by Air Products in 1977, which are some of the longest operating MCHEs in the world.

The four MCHEs will be installed in the proprietary AP-C3MR propane pre-cooled mixed refrigerant liquefaction process at the multitrain facility.

“This is a very significant contract for Air Products to have won with a very important customer, Sonatrach, who has been a valuable customer of ours for many years,” said Air Products COO Dr. Samir J. Serhan. “Air Products is very proud that we built the original heat exchangers, which are still operating at the Arzew facility in Algeria and have been for over four decades.”

Typically, an LNG heat exchanger can be as large as over 15 ft in diameter and 180 ft long. A finished unit can weigh as much as 500 tons. The majority of total worldwide LNG is produced with Air Products’ technology.

Delta Offshore Energy to Use Stena Tech for LNG to Power Project in Vietnam

Delta Offshore Energy (DOE) has signed a technology license agreement with Stena Power & LNG Solutions to equip its offshore gas-to-power project in Vietnam.

Under the agreement, Stena will grant the company a license to use its Jetty-Less LNG receiving and regasification technology for the offshore LNG-to-power project in Bac Lieu Province. DOE will also employ Stena’s Self-installing Regas Platform (SRP) for the infrastructure to provide energy to the 3,200-MW power plant project.

“We are honored to play a key part in this important and largescale energy infrastructure project in Vietnam,” Stena CTO Svein Hellesmark said.

Bobby Quintos, DOE’s managing director of engineering, noted, “The metocean and tidal conditions in Bac Lieu are very challenging from a traditional FSRU deployment perspective, so we had to collaborate with Stena to think of out-of-the-box solutions in order to make this work, thus the development of the Jetty-Less solution for our project.”

Stena’s semisubmersible ATS unit contains all the required equipment, systems and safety features normally installed on a Jetty and can be adapted for all LNG carriers. The unit keeps costs low because it does not require propulsion, additional large machinery or manpower between loading operations.

Stena’s SRP legs are rooted to the seabed, with its platform well above the waterline, meaning it is not exposed to wave loads and motions, which is typically the case with traditional LNG regasification barges and FSRUs.

Samsung Heavy’s LNG Liquefaction Technology Certified by ABS

Shipbuilder Samsung Heavy Industries declared itself to be first in the shipbuilding industry with its own LNG liquefied process technology.

In early September, U.S. ship classification organization American Bureau of Shipping approved Samsung Heavy’s design for a natural gas liquefaction cycle technology. The shipbuilder said the approval means it can cut costs on technology fees and restrictions on equipment by no longer relying on overseas engineering companies for their technologies, the Korea Herald reported