Beirut Arab University

Faculty of Engineering Fall 2017

Chemical and Petroleum
Eng. Dpt.

4. Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG)

PTRE 413

Dr. Rami HARKOUSS

Chairman
Introduction
Most natural gas is transported from the wellhead to a
processing plant, and thereafter, to consumers in high
pressure gas transmission pipelines.

At remote locations, separated by large bodies of water

from the market, liquefying the natural gas for transport
is likely to increase further.

The much lower physical volume of liquefied natural gas

(LNG) relative to gaseous natural gas can reduce
transportation costs by allowing delivery using cargo
ships or transport trucks instead of pipelines (Hudson et
al., 2003).
The properties of LNG (one volume unit of LNG
yields 600 units of standard gas volume) allow for its
long distance transport by ships across oceans to
markets and for its local distribution by truck
onshore.

Occasionally, liquefaction of natural gas also

provides the opportunity to store the fuel for use
during high consumption periods close to demand
centers, as well as in areas where geologic conditions
are not suitable for developing underground storage
facilities.
The refrigeration and liquefaction process is the
key element of an LNG project, and for most
estimates it can consume about 35% of the
capital expenditure, and up to 50% of the
subsequent operating costs.

There are several different licensed processes

available with varying degrees of application and
experience (respect to their trade names and the
companies that have introduced them).
In fact, the appropriate process selection is a
complicated result of local conditions, feed makeup,
and especially, the size of the LNG plant.

From the late 1990s, there has been a clear trend

towards larger capacity liquefaction plants. LNG “trains”
are designed for capacities up to 8 million tons per
annum (MTPA) equivalent to about 1.2 Bcf/d.

One metric ton of LNG contains 54.6 Mscf of gas, thus

one MTPA contains 5.46 × 107 Mscf/yr or 1.5 × 105
Mscf/d or 0.15 Bcf/d.
The LNG Process

–160°C

mainly methane

High and low level refrigerant

LNG is returned to a gaseous state in a regasification
facility at a receiving terminal.

The quality specification of the resulting gas is set by

pipeline transmission companies and end users, and
the gas is distributed by conventional gas pipelines.

Some criteria:
 Acceptable heating values
 Removal of the heavier hydrocarbon components
 Removal of some aromatic hydrocarbons
Typical LNG Compositions at Different Terminal Locations
(Yang et al., 2003)
 LNG Liquefaction
Liquefaction is based on a refrigeration cycle, where a
refrigerant by means of successive expansion and
compression, transports heat from the process side to where
the natural gas is.

LNG plants often consist of a number of parallel units,

called trains, which treat and liquefy natural gas and then
send the LNG to several storage tanks.

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 is more efficient thermodynamic process,
requiring less power per unit of LNG produced, and they
apply to all liquefaction processes.
The most commonly utilized LNG technologies is the
“Propane Precooled Mixed Refrigerant (PPMR™)/C3 MR
Process”.

“Natural gas” is assumed to be pure methane. The raw feed

will be taken as 25°C and 40 bar, and the product LNG (liquid
methane) at 4 bar and –150°C. For sizing purposes, one 8-
MTPA process in two parallel 4-MTPA trains is considered.

Ideal Cooling Process

m is cst:
Heat transfer is given by

where U is the overall heat transfer coefficient, in W/m2-s-K.

The coefficient of performance (COP) for a refrigeration cycle is equal to

The maximum COP:

Example: Assessment of a simple cooling
Methane enters the system at 25°C and 40 bar. It is
cooled and condensed in one step to –150°C and 4 bar.
Data are given as: (Basis is 1 kg)
 Solution

The refrigerant side of the cooler were operated as an evaporator at –150°C, and the
process side is at an average temperature of (–150 + 25)/2 = 67.5°C, the average
temperature difference in the exchanger would be approximately 82.5°C A reasonable
overall heat transfer coefficient might be 500 W/m2-K or 0.500 kJ/s- m2-K.
For the base case of 8 MTPA, the rate is 253.7 kg/s. Thus,
the heat transfer area required for this size unit would be
253.7 kg/s × 20.1m2/(kg/s) = 5,100 m2.

The refrigeration cycle operating between the –150°C (123

K) process side, and an assumed 25°C (298 K) ambient
temperature is COP = 1/(298/123 – 1) = 0.703

Thus, the required cooling is 830.2 kJ/kg, the minimum

work is Qc/COP = 830.2/0.703 = 1.18 MJ/kg. For the flow
rate of 253.7 kg/s, this becomes 299 MW.
 LNG Carriers
Very large vessels capable of carrying cryogenic liquids have
been constructed to transport LNG across the seas. These
vessels grew considerably in size, from less than 30,000
cubic meters in the mid 1960s, to over 250,000 cubic
meters in 2009.
 Moss type LNG
tanker

Membrane type LNG

tanker
 General info
The design natural boil off rate is about 0.15% per day for
vessels built since 1993. Prior to that time, the standard
boil off rate was 0.25%.
The density of LNG is 26.5 lb/ft3 or 425 kg/m3.
1 metric ton of LNG occupies 2.35 m3.
The capacity of the largest vessel built by 2009 of 267,000
m3 translates to about 113,000 metric tons.
One metric ton contains 54.6 Mscf of natural gas.
This means that the largest ship contains, fully loaded,
almost 6.2 Bscf of gas.
Example 6-5 from the textbook is a gd example for LNG
transport