Plate-fin heat exchangers - An Ideal Platform for LNG

Process Innovation

Abstract

The large expansion predicted for the LNG trade is triggering changes in the conception of LNG
plants. Major efforts are aimed at increasing efficiency, increasing train capacity and minimizing costs
whilst improving safety and reducing environment impact.

IFP and Axens, in collaboration with BP, have explored new options for achieving these goals using
the IFP LiquefinTM process. A preliminary study had shown intrinsic benefits using this new process
compared to conventional ones. One of the key elements of this new process is the main exchange
line reducing the natural gas temperature from ambient down to cryogenic in one step. This exchange
line is composed of plate-fin heat exchangers, arranged in 4 cold boxes for a capacity about 4.5 mtpa.

This paper describes in detail the joint efforts of IFP and BP to further develop the design of such a
heat exchange line and explore possibilities for increasing the size or number of cold boxes to reach
capacities of nine mtpa. Selection of the optimal configuration, combining low cost, good distribution
and minimal stress, has been carried out in collaboration with heat exchanger vendors. This paper will
also discuss the assurance efforts and experience from analogues that were key in gaining comfort
with the process and equipment innovations.

Introduction

LNG trade has grown rapidly over the last three decades and now accounts for around 25% of all
international movements in natural gas. Although the major established market of Japan is mature,
Korean and European demand is still growing, which when combined with new and developing
markets in Asia and the Americas is expected to drive demand growth by as much as 10% per annum.

The LNG business has traditionally operated by setting up long-term supply-purchase contracts with
producers to satisfy investors’ needs to finance the capital intensive LNG projects. The emergence of
a greater variety of customers and new supply hubs, combined with deregulation in some markets and
more flexible supply arrangements, will lead to more competition and increased pressure to reduce
costs. Full chain costs have fallen approximately 30% since the early 1990s, and this trend is expected
to continue, delivering similar cost reductions again by 2010.

With liquefaction facilities accounting for almost 50% of the costs in a typical value chain, they are an
obvious focus for cost reduction efforts. The unit capital costs for LNG liquefaction plants have fallen
from an average of over US$400/tpa in the early 1990s to around US$200/tpa for recent, state of the
art, greenfield facilities like Trinidad’s Atlantic LNG Train 1. The developments that enabled these
cost reductions were driven by competition between producers wishing to supply LNG into expanding
yet competitive gas markets and technology suppliers and contractors eager to participate in these
multi-billion dollar projects. The opportunity presented by the rapid increase forecast for LNG
demand continues to stimulate this process, and has encouraged others to develop new technologies
and bring them to the market.

The Liquefin process developed by IFP, in collaboration with BP, and now marketed by Axens is one
such new technology. It is a non-integrated cascade process incorporating two refrigeration circuits
driven by identical drivers to reduce the amount of rotating equipment. Both circuits utilize multi-
component refrigerants, allowing a significant reduction in the size and cost of cooling equipment in
comparison with processes utilizing single component refrigerants. In addition, the use of brazed
aluminum plate-fin heat exchangers in the cold boxes offers substantial benefits over spiral-wound
heat exchanger designs. This and other features give the Liquefin process a projected unit capital cost
10-15% lower than even the most modern alternative processes.

This paper gives a brief summary of the process, the key innovations of the liquefaction technology
and its benefits, and discusses in detail the design and assurance of the key process innovation,
namely the plate-fin heat exchanger based main cryogenic exchanger.

Liquefin Process Description

The Liquefin process operates according to the typical flow scheme presented in Figure 1. The pre-
refrigeration of the gas is achieved by using a mixed refrigerant instead of propane. In this process,
the pre-refrigeration cycle is operated at a much lower temperature than when propane is used and the
temperature is decreased down to about –60 °C (-75°F). At this temperature, the cryogenic mixed
refrigerant can be completely condensed, so that the quantity of cryogenic refrigerant is substantially
reduced. The molar ratio between the cryogenic mixed refrigerant and LNG can be in some cases
lower than one. The overall required power is reduced, as a good part of the energy necessary to
condense the cryogenic mixed refrigerant is shifted from the cryogenic cycle to the pre-refrigeration
cycle. Moreover, this shifting of energy leads to a better distribution of the necessary heat exchange
area and the same number of cores in parallel can be used all along the line between the ambient and
the cryogenic temperatures.

In the Liquefin process, both mixed refrigerants are used in the same way as pure components. The
mixed refrigerant is condensed and vaporized at different pressure levels in each section, without any
phase separation or fractionation. In this way, the exchange line can be kept very simple and compact.

A very significant advantage of this new scheme is the opportunity to adjust the power balance
between the two cycles. It is thus possible to use directly the full power provided by two identical gas
turbines, without any transfer of power from one cycle to the other.
CW

CW

Dry natural 40°C

gas
-30°C
Frame 7

Scrubber

Hot Oil

Condensates -60°C
CW
Frame 7

Main exchange
line
-160°C
LNG

Figure 1 - Liquefin general scheme

Liquefin Process Innovations

1
The Liquefin process has much similarity with the well-known propane pre-cooled multi-component
refrigeration (C3/MR) process, but with two major differences: namely, it is a dual mixed refrigerant
cycle and the exchange line, which consists of a series of cold boxes.

• This dual mixed refrigerant process operates with a very low pre-cooling temperature (typically
minus 60ºC) obtained by a C2/C3 refrigerant mixture, so that the cryogenic mixed refrigerant is
completely condensed when entering the cryogenic stage. This configuration has a lot of advantages:
¾ a higher efficiency: no energy is lost condensing mixed refrigerant in the cryogenic stage
¾ the power can be balanced between the two mixed refrigerant cycles, allowing the use of two
identical turbines
¾ the air-coolers or sea water condensers for the C2/C3 mixed refrigerant are much smaller, as this
mixed refrigerant condenses over a range of temperatures
¾ the cryogenic mixed refrigerant is a simpler C1/C2 mixture with a small quantity of nitrogen
added as required to reach the final temperature. Apart from this composition, the cryogenic
compressors will be very similar to the existing compressors driven by GE Frame 7 gas turbines
in the larger LNG plants.
¾ the use of two mixed refrigerants gives a lot of flexibility: the pre-cooling temperature and the
composition of both mixed refrigerants can be modified so as to follow summer/winter
temperature variations and get optimum efficiency all year round.

The use of a C2/C3 mixture as refrigerant has been proven in existing plants, for instance in the
chilling of the LPG product at Badak LNG Plant [1].

• All the heat exchange between the natural gas and the two mixed refrigerants (and between the two
mixed refrigerants) is done in a single exchange line, made of plate-fin heat exchangers inside a few
cold boxes (see Figure 2)
¾ All major plate-fin heat exchanger vendors can make these cold boxes and IFP/BP have been
working particularly with Chart, Nordon Cryogenie and Kobe in the design development and
assurance of the main heat exchanger cold boxes.
¾ The main heat exchanger design has been based on minimum number of cold boxes each
compactly laid out to minimize cryogenic pipe runs. Within the cold boxes, the piping between
cores is also minimized by creative sizing of cores for the different heat exchange duties.
¾ All fluids are distributed in single phase between the cold boxes and between the cores inside the
cold boxes. At J-T valves where two phases are generated, there will be one J-T valve per cold
box with a small distributor drum inside the cold box that separates liquid and vapor before
distributing them separately between the cores. They are then re-mixed inside the cores with
special devices proprietary to each vendor.
¾ IFP and BP have worked closely with the plate-fin heat exchanger manufacturers to derive a main
heat exchange line with similar architecture of plate-fin heat exchangers inside the cold boxes.
Thus, the cold boxes can now be purchased from any of the three vendors without impacting the
plant design or the P&I diagrams
¾ This exchange line is modular: each cold box contains several parallel lines of two cores in series.
The number of cores and cold boxes depends upon the capacity of the unit and the site conditions
(roughly 1-1.5 mtpa per cold box or up to 3.25 mtpa for the “double pack” arrangement, i.e., two
rows of parallel sets of two cores in series in one cold box).
¾ With the modular concept, all limitations in size that exist for spiral-wound exchangers are
removed.

The main exchange line arrangement is at the heart of the liquefaction technology and significant
effort has been made to ensure optimal and foolproof operation of such an assembly – this is
discussed further in later sections.

2
 Figure 2 – Liquefin typical cold box arrangement

Liquefin Process Benefits

• Efficiency
The first advantage of the process is the high efficiency: comparing like for like, the process will
produce about 6-15% more LNG with the same gas turbines than other established liquefaction
processes. This efficiency improvement is related both to the use of mixed refrigerant for the pre-
cooling and to the use of plate-fin heat exchangers.
¾ The low temperature difference all along the cores between hot and cold side (see Figure 3) brings
an improvement of the energy efficiency and hence the power consumed per tonne of LNG is
lower (or for the same gas turbines, the quantity of LNG produced is higher).

3
 Enthalpy Curves - Pre-refrigeration Core Enthalpy curves - cryogenic core
60 0

Temperature (°C)
Temperature (°C)
40 -20
-40
20
-60
0
-80
-20
-100
-40 -120
-60 -140
-80 -160
0 50 100 150 200 250 0 50 100 150

Enthalpy (MW) Enthalpy (MW)

Figure 3 – Liquefin main exchange line enthalpy curves

¾ The cryogenic mixed refrigerant enters the cryogenic section in a fully liquid state so that no
energy of this cycle is wasted in condensing the mixed refrigerant. The quantity of cryogenic
refrigerant is much lower than in the C3/MR process (roughly 1 mole of cryogenic mixed
refrigerant for 1 mole of natural gas), thus the overall efficiency is improved.
¾ The pressure drop is very low on both hot and cold side of the plate-fin heat exchangers and this
brings an additional efficiency advantage for Liquefin.
¾ As Liquefin is not submitted to the manufacturing limits of main heat exchangers, the efficiency
can be as good for very large capacities as it is for smaller ones.
¾ Liquid turbines, which are now proven and widely used in LNG plants, will bring higher
increases of capacity with Liquefin because the total stream of the cryogenic mixed refrigerant
passes through the turbine.

• EPC schedule
In a conventional LNG plant project, the critical long-delivery items are the gas-turbines/compressors,
main heat exchanger (assumed to be spiral wound) and storage/export system. Pre-ordering of
compressors/drivers is usual in LNG projects, so that the critical path is shifted to the main heat
exchangers and the LNG storage/export system. The shorter fabrication schedule for plate-fin heat
exchanger based cold boxes, as shown in Figure 4, could permit a significant reduction in the overall
LNG project schedule for new plants, provided that an appropriately innovative LNG tank
construction contract is employed. As a minimum, it allows deferral of the large capital cost of the
main heat exchanger and gives more time to firm up the LNG process design. For LNG plant
expansions where additional tankage is not required, the schedule benefits can easily be captured.

M onth 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
Core Design
Cold boxes
design
Manufacture
of cores
Manufacture of cold boxes
Cold Box 1 Cold Box 2 Cold Box 3 Cold Box 4
ready ready ready ready

Figure 4 - Typical cold box fabrication schedule

• Layout
The use of cold boxes allows a more efficient use of space and reduction in the plot area. As shown in
the 3-D view in Figure 5, the liquefaction unit is limited to refrigeration compressors, air coolers, the
heat exchanger cold boxes and the scrub column - the common facilities such as pre-treatment,
fractionation and flash gas sections are not shown. The reduced space necessary for the heat exchange
line is clear to see - this results in significant reduction of cryogenic piping when compared with
pipework in plant layout with large kettle chillers and spiral wound exchanger.

4
 Cold boxes
assembly

Frame 7

Figure 5 - 3D view of the liquefaction section

• Large Capacity
One of the major factors in LNG plant cost reductions has been the capacity of the liquefaction unit.
In the last 10 years, LNG train size has increased from ~2.5 mtpa to 5.2 mtpa currently in design and
this has been dominant in reducing LNG plant unit costs to approx. 50% (see Figure 6). The capacity
is limited mainly:
¾ By the maximum size of gas turbines in mechanical drive (the largest so far is the GE Frame 7
- about 80 MW )
¾ By the maximum size of the spiral wound exchanger used in most large base-load plants
4.5

4
Train capacity MTPA

3.5

2.5

1.5

0.5

0
1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010

Start-up date

Figure 6 - LNG train capacity increase

The Liquefin process has many features that make it possible to build larger capacity LNG plants and
hence significantly reduce the specific cost:
¾ There is a single compact heat exchange line made up of several plate-fin heat exchangers
(PFHEs) in a cold box. PFHEs have large heat exchange areas per unit volume (to 2000 m2/m3)
and low approach temperatures can be realized with a relatively small exchanger volume.
Furthermore, as the cold boxes are modular, there is no size limitation for the heat exchange line.
More cores per cold box, or more parallel cold boxes allow unlimited increases in capacity.
¾ The power consumption in each MR cycle is balanced. Thus the power from two large turbines
such as GE Frame 7s can be fully used without any limitation on operation or efficiency. There is
also the possibility to use two or more parallel gas turbine lines or electrical motor driven
compressors of equal power, which would give increased capacity and potentially better
availability. Configurations with four GE Frame 6, four LM6000, four Trent DLE or large
electrical motors (>40MW) have been studied in developing an idealised LNG train that would
never stop producing completely.

5
Thus, capacities of up to 6 mtpa can be reached with two Frame 7 gas turbine drivers and available
gas compressors. With parallel compression lines for each mixed refrigerant and some compressor
development, this limit can be pushed even further.

• Cost
Several factors mentioned in the preceding paragraph lead to potential cost reductions with the
Liquefin process:
- The ability to increase plant capacity that has a significant bearing on unit cost of LNG production;
- The single PFHE exchange line that replaces the costly spiral-wound heat exchangers and the large
kettle chillers;
- Compact plot area, which reduces long runs of low temperature pipework
- Reduced size of air cooled condensers and
- Multi-sourcing of all equipment including the main heat exchange line.

Studies have shown that with Liquefin, the cost of the liquefaction unit itself can be decreased by up
to about 15%. Overall, including utilities, pre-treatment, storage, etc, the difference is reduced to
something around 7%, but with the increased capacity for the same gas turbines, the cost per ton of
LNG is lower by up to about 20% when compared with competing process.

• Operability
A previous study [2] carried out with the help of a major engineering company investigated the
operability and reliability of the Liquefin technology. P&I diagrams and operating procedures (start-
up, shut-down, warm-up, turndown) were developed. Potential hazards and operational upsets were
examined to confirm that the Liquefin process could handle these. This analysis confirmed the
advantages of the technology in terms of operability and reliability, due to a relatively simple,
modular process that makes it easy to control and manage transients.

Furthermore, the Liquefin process offers unmatched flexibility to adapt process conditions for
maximum production in scenario of daily or seasonal temperature variations. This flexibility is made
possible by changing the pre-cooling temperature and/or mixed refrigerant compositions, with
appropriate sizing of the equipment.

• Modularity
The trend of increasing LNG plant capacities now poses problems in finding a ready market for all the
LNG produced: multi-customer demand has to be aggregated before a new project can get off the
ground. This makes LNG projects commercially more complex and they can therefore take longer to
bring to fruition.

The concept of building an LNG plant that increases production capacity in a “modular” manner,
thereby breaking the “scale conundrum”, is therefore attractive in enabling projects to get off the
ground with fewer customers and a reduced resource pool, whilst maintaining the ability to grow.
Such a development concept is now possible with the unique features of the Liquefin Process that
incorporates all the heat exchange for liquefying gas to LNG in one intensified assembly of plate-fin
heat exchangers in cold boxes.

It is thus now possible to design a liquefaction unit with a series of “natural gas liquefier units” or
NGLU, consisting of such cold boxes supplied with the two levels of refrigerants and clean gas to
produce LNG. This will permit capacity “upgrade” with additional modules of NGLU’s combined
with expansion of refrigerant supply and feed gas treatment.

Furthermore each of the NGLU can be delivered to the plant site as a complete pre-assembled unit
(PAU) ready for hook-up, commissioning and start-up. This permits significant reduction in cost,
schedule, safety and 1st years reliability.

6
Main Heat Exchanger Cold Box Design Assurance

The plate-fin based main heat exchanger cold box is one of the novelties of Liquefin. Although the
selected PFHE manufacturers have extensive experience of similar equipment, IFP has worked to
obtain extensive knowledge and assurance of this special equipment.

One of the strengths of IFP is that they have a large number of scientists that work on a wide range of
subjects. A team comprising of process engineers, heat transfer specialists, fluid dynamics specialists
and mechanical specialists was gathered to study all aspects of the use of these exchangers in this
specific application, in close co-operation with the PFHE manufacturers. The work of these scientists
was twofold: firstly to understand and model the problem, and secondly to prepare tools that the
process engineers could use by themselves for checking the critical points of the vendors’ designs.

The thermal and hydraulic design of the proposed exchangers was verified first. Several commercial
tools exist to model the heat exchange in PFHE. These tools have been checked with the
experimentation data within IFP and other research centres and found to be reliable. It has been
decided to use the HTFS model, which has a very user-friendly interface and easy links with Hysys,
so that process engineers can handle it after reasonable training.

• Fluid dynamics studies

For 4.5 mtpa, the number of cores is 24 arranged in 4 cold boxes each with 6 parallel cores as one
option. For larger capacities (6+ mtpa), the number of cores and/or cold boxes would be higher. It is
important to ascertain that the calculated thermal and hydraulic performance will not be decreased by
poor design of the distribution system between the cores.

IFP Fluid Dynamics specialists have developed a model (see Figure 7) to calculate the flow-rate to
each core of a cold box as a function of the header/manifold arrangement, pipe dimensions and
fittings, and taking into account the actual pressure drop across the core. This model has been linked
through a Visual Basic interface to the HTFS simulator, MULE which allows calculation of the
thermal performance and associated core pressure drop, starting from the flow-rates generated by the
IFP model. Several iterations are necessary to reach convergence.

With this model, it is now possible to verify the design provided by a vendor, and to propose
enhancements if merited. It is also possible to simulate a problem in one of the cores (e.g. partial
plugging) and to see the effect on the fluid distribution and on the overall thermal performance.

7
 24/06/2002
FGT= total flowrate kg/h 78408.00
FG=total gas flowrate / number of cores kg/h 13068.00 DPE 76369.8969 Pa
ROE=inlet density kg/m3 30.90
ROS=outlet density kg/m3 41.98 N Flow Flow DP Bilans %flow
MUE=inlet viscosity Pas 1.4E-05 1 13106.9032 13107 76370 0.012279 100.30%
MUS=outlet viscosity Pas 1.0E-05 2 13082.1348 13082 76370 0.010992 100.11%
3 13064.4849 13064 76369.9 0.002716 99.97%
4 13053.3246 13053 76369.8 0.01457 99.89%
5 13048.1808 13048 76369.9 0.001796 99.85%
NE=number of parallel cores in the cold box (<10) (-) 6.00 6 13052.9432 13053 76370 0.002882 99.88%
DCE=cold box inlet pipe diameter m 0.35 0 0 0 0 0 0.00%
DLE=core inlet pipe diameter m 0.15 0 0 0 0 0 0.00%
LI=Pipe length before the fist T m 3.7 0 0 0 0 0 0.00%
LB=Pipe length between T's m 1.8 0 0 0 0 0 0.00%
average speed m/s 3.66 total 78408 13068 0.000794
average speed m/s 6.65 OBJ 0.04603
DCS=cold box outlet pipe diameter m 0.3
DLS=core outlet pipe diameter m 0.125
LE=Pipe length between core and T (inlet) m 0.5 Le
Dce
LT=Pipe length between core and T (outlet of core)m 0.5 Dle
average speed m/s 3.67 Ku
average speed m/s 7.05 Dls
Dcs
Lt

Pressure drop in the core Bar 0.745

Ku = ∆P/(flow-rate)
2
Pa/(m3/h)^2 5.40E+06 Li Lb Lb

Figure 7- Part of IFP distribution model interface

For the partial plugging scenario analyzed, for example, it can been shown that an incidental decrease
of mixed refrigerant in one core will reduce the quantity of LNG condensing and increase the pressure
drop in adjacent passages of this core which will hence take less feed gas. As a result, the other cores
will get more of the feed gas and more mixed refrigerant, which will ensure an increased heat
exchange so that the average LNG temperature is not significantly changed, i.e. the system is self-
correcting (see Figure 8).
MR2 cold side : pressure drop vs flow-rate LNG output temperature vs
abnormal flow-rate in one core
15.0%
variation on MR2 cold side

0.12
Temperature difference
compared to nominal

between average LNG

Total pressure drop

10.0%
output and nominal

0.1
5.0%
0.08
0.0%
(°C)

0%
-15% -10% -5% 5% 10% 15% 0.06

-5.0% 0.04
∆P on the plugged core
-10.0% ∆P on the other cores 0.02

0
-15.0% -15% -10% -5% 0% 5% 10% 15%

MR2 flow-rate variation compared to

Abnormal core flow-rate vs normal (% variation)
nominal
Figure 8 - Effect of abnormal flow-rate in one core

• Mechanical studies
These exchangers are widely used in a variety of cryogenic applications and the Liquefin cold boxes
will not be any bigger or colder than existing ones used for air separation or ethylene. However, the
huge cost of LNG plants makes it necessary to avoid any risk and to study carefully the behavior of
PFHE in this application. The connecting pipework can be studied using existing codes, but the effect
of thermal stresses inside the cores is not something that is well understood in detail.

8
Two effects have been addressed: the effect of axial temperature gradient in the core and the effect of
horizontal temperature variations. Temperature profiles calculated by the process engineers for
normal, transient and upset conditions have been used in the computation of stresses within the core.

The difficulties of the stress calculations come from several factors:

¾ “lacuna” material: the aluminum core has void spaces with relatively thick side-bars and very thin
aluminum fins
¾ non-isotropic material: the fins are all oriented in one direction, so that the resulting material
properties are not the same in all directions
¾ rectangular section: there is no axis of symmetry which would simplify the calculation.

The solution was to use homogenization methods with 3 dimensional finite element analyses. These
homogenization methods will allow passing from the core scale stresses to the fin scale (see Figure 9)
stresses. With these calculation methods, any possible process situation can therefore be analyzed.

σ33 analysis

Figure 9 - Analysis of core stresses, first at core scale, then at fin scale in the worst place

Three cases have been investigated on an early process design:

¾ Normal operating conditions
¾ Operational upset: mixed refrigerant compressor trip and ESD malfunction – worst case for
temperature induced stress
¾ Thermal shock: a theoretical case where the side bars is 10°C hotter than the fins including those
immediately adjacent

These studies have shown that the resulting stresses in these scenarios are low, confirming that plate-
fin heat exchangers are intrinsically robust in this application.

• Lessons learned from cold box operation in existing cryogenic plants

9
Information on the application and operating experience of plate-fin heat exchangers has been
compiled from many sources. Extracts of lessons learned have been compiled for consideration and
appropriate mitigation in the design, engineering and operation of the Liquefin process. Some of the
issues to be considered are discussed below:

¾ Moisture/water: Any water in the exchangers will freeze and is likely to cause inter-passage
failure. It is therefore good practice not to get the PFHE wet and to keep coldbox cores under
pressure with nitrogen until they are connected to the plant. Pipework leading to the coldbox has to
be thoroughly dried and, before startup, a procedure for deriming (drying out) the unit should be
implemented.
¾ Mercury: Hg contamination is a consideration in any facility using aluminum PFHE. Feed gas
mercury content needs to be checked and, if amounts detected are significant, Hg guard beds
should be installed.
¾ Mol sieve dust/particle removal: If molecular sieve particles or fines enter the heat exchanger, they
may wedge within the fins of the plate-fin exchanger. Good filters specified to remove particles to
1 micron should be provided. It is also advisable to install facilities to back-puff the exchangers to
remove any dust that may build up. This is accomplished by installing a rupture disc (set at 3-5bar)
on the outlet flange and back flowing nitrogen into the exchangers.
Similarly, it is also good practice to consider at an early stage other solid contamination such as
scale, “compressor material”, and make appropriate provision.
¾ Other Contaminants: On the refrigerant side, it is important to keep seal and lube oil out of the
system so that it does not accumulate in low points or congeal on the plates. In this respect, the use
of gas seals would be preferred. Where use of seal oil is unavoidable, provision of connections to
hook-up solvent wash facilities, either vapor degreasing or a pumped solvent circuit, would be
advisable.
¾ Cooldown/warmup rate: PFHEs are tolerant of upsets, fast cooldown and overpressure but streams
have to be kept balanced. A check of the startup procedure is necessary to confirm that it is
possible to lower the temperature at the rate recommended by the vendor. Installation of skin
thermocouples to measure the progress of core heating and cooling rates is also required.
¾ Mechanical design/piping: Every effort needs to be made to avoid undue stress on the aluminum
cores, whether mechanical or thermal, during handling, pipework fit-up and operation. Attention
needs to be given to the two-phase flow patterns around the pipework arrangement in terms of
hydraulic design, sizing and appropriate slopes.
¾ Leak Detection/Repair: The cold box with its perlite insulation should be purged with nitrogen and
the exhaust fitted with gas detectors to detect when leaks occur. A procedure to repair leaks or to
change out cores should be provided by the vendor.
¾ Performance monitoring: Adequate temperature measurement points must be provided across the
cold box passes to enable long-term trends in exchange efficiency to be monitored.
Careful application of lessons such as the above learned from operating plants will be key to ensure
successful application of plate-fin heat exchangers in a Liquefin technology based liquefaction unit.

Conclusion

Our work has confirmed the feasibility of building an LNG plant based on the Liquefin process and
the plate-fin based main heat exchanger. A number of leading contractors have carried out
engineering studies at various project stages from preliminary to front-end design. They have
confirmed the viability and advantages stated in this paper and their willingness to engineer a plant
based on the Liquefin technology.
BP have participated in the development and evaluation of the Liquefin process and are well advanced
in assurance of the design of the main heat exchanger cold boxes – the key innovation in Liquefin. BP
10
has included Liquefin in the ‘select’ phase of its emerging LNG projects, where it is competing with
evolving technology from established suppliers.

IFP, the technology owners, are currently licensing the technology through Axens (an IFP wholly
owned subsidiary) and a large team is already set up to support licensing and technology
enhancement. Axens is currently working on a number of baseload projects at various stage of
development from preliminary studies to front-end engineering. We hope that at least one of these
will progress to execution phase in the near future.

In conclusion, we believe that plate-fin heat exchanger based cold boxes have now developed
sufficiently for use in base-load LNG production. Their application in the Liquefin process could
become a new standard for the LNG business and will offer distinct competitive advantages over
other current technologies.

References

[1] Budi Santoso, Fatchurrachman

Driving Revenue by Eliminating LPG flaring
Session 113 - AIChemE spring National Meeting, New Orleans, Louisiana, March 10-14,2002

[2] Khakoo M., Fischer B., Raillard J.C.

The Next Generation of LNG plants
LNG13, Seoul, Korea, May 14-18, 2001

Béatrice Fischer Murtaza Khakoo

Principal Research Engineer
Institut Français du Pétrole (IFP) - CEDI
Beatrice Fischer has been a Principal Research
Engineer in a development division of IFP since
1996, working on new gas processes and, in
particular, natural gas liquefaction.
She joined IFP in 1977 as a process engineer and in
1989 became process group leader (catalytic reformer
group).
She graduated from Ecole Centrale de Paris in 1973,
and received her Ph. D. from Université de Lyon in
1977.
Senior Process Engineer
BP Exploration
Murtaza Khakoo joined BP after graduating
from University College, London, in 1977 with
a degree in Biochemical Engineering. After an
initial period spent in R&D and refinery work
he joined E&P in 1982 and worked on many
O&G and LNG projects (e.g. Miller Gas,
Vietnam Gas, PNG LNG) and operational
support (Das LNG Plant). In 2000, he co-
ordinated LNG technology development
activities and is currently working on the
uptake of the Liquefin process in emerging BP
Projects.

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