Gassing Up (Purging) Cargo Tanks After lay up or dry dock, the cargo tanks are filled with inert

gas or nitrogen. If the inerting has been done with inert gas, when the vessel arrives at loading port the cargo tanks must be gassed up (purged) prior to cool down. Inert gas contains a small quantity of water vapour and has a dew point of approximately -40 C. Gassing up lowers the dew point and avoids ice formation during loading. Additionally inert gas contains approximately 15% carbon dioxide. CO2 sublimates from vapour to solid at -78 C, gassing up removes CO2. LNG is supplied by the terminal to the liquid manifold where it passes to the stripping/spray header via the appropriate ESD liquid valve. It is then fed to the LNG vaporizer and the LNG vapour produced is passed at 20 C to the vapour header and then into each tank. As LNG vapour at 20 C is lighter than inert gas, the inert gas is therefore exhausted up the tank loading line to the liquid header. The inert gas is then vented to atmosphere via the no.1 mast riser. When 5% methane is detected at the no.1 mast riser, the purged gas must be directed ashore, preferably by free flow to avoid turbulence within the cargo tanks. Gassing up is normally considered complete when the methane content, as measured at the top of the cargo line, exceeds 80%. The target value for Nitrogen and inert gas CO2 is equal or less than 1%. This will usually entail a minimum of one and a half times the change in tank volume. Some operating procedures may recommend two times the change in tank volume. Cooling Down Cargo Tanks Prior to loading a maiden cargo, or after circumstances have required the vessel to be gas free, the cargo tanks will be inert and at ambient temperature. After the cargo system has been gassed up, the headers and cargo tanks must be cooled down before loading can commence. The cool down follows immediately after the completion of gassing up, using LNG supplied by the terminal. The rate of cool down is limited for the following reasons: To avoid excessive pump tower stress Vapour generation must remain within the capacity of the high duty compressors To remain within the capacity of the nitrogen system to maintain the required pressures within the interbarrier spaces. LNG is supplied from the terminal to the spray header which is open to the cargo tanks. When the cargo tank cool down is nearing completion, the liquid manifold crossovers, liquid header and loading lines are cooled down. Generally the cool down of he cargo tanks is considered complete when the 4 lowest temperature sensors in each tank reach -130 C (Membrane type) or the equator temperature is below -130 C (Moss type)1. Cool down should take between 8 and 12 hours. Cool down of moss type vessel takes longer than membrane vessels.
1

On some vessels the temperature requirement to commence loading is -110 C and not -130C

Different methods are used to determine the amount of cool down required; in our report 4 methods are implemented: Method 1: The total LNG quantity required for cooling down is calculated by multiplying the difference of the equator temperature in each tank between before and after cool down by the cubic meters LNG needed to lower the tank equator temperature 1 C (known value). This method is only used for a moss type design. Method 2: The ship has cool down tables that gives the amount of LNG (expressed in MMBTU) required to cool down the tanks from the temperature2 before cool down to the temperature required to start loading (often -130C). This method can be used for Moss type and membrane vessels Table 1 is an example of a cool down table for a Moss type, Table 2 is an example of cool down tables of a membrane vessel. Table 1: Cool down table Moss type Equator temperature 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 -5 -10 -15 -20 -25 -30 -35 -40 -45 -50 Required LNG (MMBTU) 65639 61969 59726 57799 56014 54124 52117 50366 48714 47008 45283 43554 41823 40105 38387 36674 34941 Equator temperature -55 -60 -65 -70 -75 -80 -85 -90 -95 -100 -105 -110 -115 -120 -125 -130 Required LNG (MMBTU) 32983 31025 29531 28036 26529 25019 23512 22006 20428 18787 16912 14849 12247 9134 5252 0

Remark: - tables are for all tanks (cargo volume= +/- 140000 m) - LNG density= 470 kg/m - Calorific Value= 46520 BTU/kg Table 2: Cool down table Membrane type
2

Moss type: reference to equator temperature Membrane: reference to average temperature excluding values of the top sensors

Average temperature excl top 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 -5 -10 -15 -20 -25 -30 -35 -40 -45 -50

Required LNG (MMBTU) 17921 17479 17000 16525 16083 15684 15326 15007 14715 14433 14147 13837 13489 13089 12629 12102 11505

Average temperature excl top -55 -60 -65 -70 -75 -80 -85 -90 -95 -100 -105 -110 -115 -120 -125 -130

Required LNG (MMBTU) 10833 10096 9297 8441 7534 6585 5588 4545 3436 2242 1180 832 555 320 127 0

Remark: - tables are for all tanks (cargo volume= +/- 155000 m) - LNG density= 442.72 kg/m - Calorific Value= 51857 BTU/kg Method 3: Same as method 2 however the cool down tables express the quantity of LNG needed for the cool down in cubic meter LNG and not in MMBTU Table 3 is an example of a cool down table for a Moss type, Table 4 is an example of cool down tables of a membrane vessel. Table 3: Cool down table Moss type Equator temperature 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 -5 -10 -15 -20 -25 Required LNG (m) 3002 2834 2732 2643 2562 2474 2383 2304 2228 2151 2070 1991 Equator temperature -55 -60 -65 -70 -75 -80 -85 -90 -95 -100 -105 -110 Required LNG (m) 1509 1419 1351 1283 1213 1145 1074 1006 934 860 774 679

-30 -35 -40 -45 -50

1913 1834 1755 1677 1598

-115 -120 -125 -130

560 417 240 0

Remark: - tables are for all tanks (cargo volume= +/- 140000 m) - LNG density= 470 kg/m - Calorific Value= 46520 BTU/kg Table 4: Cool down table Membrane type Average temperature excl top 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 -5 -10 -15 -20 -25 -30 -35 -40 -45 -50 Required LNG (m) 781 761 740 720 701 683 668 654 641 629 616 603 588 570 550 527 501 Average temperature excl top -55 -60 -65 -70 -75 -80 -85 -90 -95 -100 -105 -110 -115 -120 -125 -130 Required LNG (m) 472 440 405 368 328 287 243 198 150 98 51 36 24 14 6 0

Remark: - tables are for all tanks (cargo volume= +/- 155000 m) - LNG density= 442.72 kg/m - Calorific Value= 51857 BTU/kg Method 4: This method calculates the amount of LNG used during the cool down operation based on the number of nozzles, duration of the cool down, flow capacity. In this method a formula ( to be supplied by the Ch.Off ) must be used that calculates the amount of cubic meters LNG used for the cool down.