Virtual pipeline system

(SOFC+LNG vaporizer)
虛擬天然氣管路系統
Electric Energy Express
Sept. 23, 2019

For presentation at “Gas Asia Summit 2019”, Oct. 30, 2019 Singapore

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Background
• Natural gas becomes the most popular energy among all fossil fuel energies
• Besides burning natural gas for heating and cooking, turning the gas turbine
for power generation will be the key application for natural gas due to less p
ollution and easy to handle
• The current global natural gas proven deposit is reaching 197 Trillion cubic m
eters (BP, 2019), and can support the consumption for at least another 50 ye
ars (eia, 2018).
• More gas reserves has been exploring from time to time.
• The natural gas fields (or wells) are normally located in remote areas, and ne
ed lay the pipelines transporting to the consumers

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Supply & demand
• Those rich natural gas deposit countries are usually not big consumpti
on countries, and far away from the demanding markets
• To lay land pipeline or sea pipeline to reach those customers are eithe
r technically infeasible, or economically not justified
• Currently, the most popular way to transport natural gas is to chill the
gaseous CH4 down to – 162⁰ C degree into liquid form (LNG - Liquid N
atural Gas), then load on trucks, trailers, railway cars and/or vessels fo
r transportation

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LNG delivery path

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LNG value chain
• Once LNG arrives at the designated site, via highway vehicles, railway cars
or waterway barges, small vessels or large LNG tankers; it needs to be unl
oaded to cryogenic tanks
• A regasification process is required to change the liquid form CH4 into gas
eous, then deliver to customers via local gas grid
• The regasification process will need a vaporizer that will provide heat sour
ces to heat up from -162 ⁰C to 20-30 ⁰C
• 1 ton LNG can be regasified into 1,440 m³ natural gas
• 1 m³ LNG can be regasified into 600 m³ natural gas

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LNG via highway
• Depending on highway safety code in different countries, the max. ha
ul weight will be different
• 42 tons is about the total weight allowed in Taiwan (tractor+trailer+ca
rgo)
• Assume it’s 45 tons, then 30 tons of LNG will be delivered
• 30 x 1,440 = 43,200 m³ natural gas will be served
• 216,000 kWh electricity will be generated from the SOFC generator sy
stem
• Can support 3,000 households’ power needs for one week

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LNG via railway
• The railway safety code will limit some operations for LNG cryogenic t
anks hauled
• It must comply with some ISO standards
• In some countries with narrow railroad pitch (1.067 m), the max. weig
ht track can handle will be 90 tons per car
• If it’s 90 tons, then 70 tons LNG per car can be retrieved
• It will provide 70 x 1,440 = 100,800 m³ natural gas
• Can support 3,000 households’ power needs for about 2 weeks

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LNG via waterway
• For cross oceans larger vessels, usually per cargo will load 160k m³ LNG;
some even can be at 216k m³ (Q flex)or 266k m³ (Q max)
• For some coastal service LNG vessels, the loading capacity varies widel
y, from 5k m³ to 80k m³
• ISO cryogenic LNG tanks loaded on the barge type vessels can be transf
erred to the on-shore facilities, and hauled to the customers’ site
• Or, the unloading mechanism from vessel to the on-shore cryogenic tan
ks (STS) is required.
• The on-shore LNG tanks’ capacity varies widely, from couple thousand
m³ to 160k m³ to even over 200k m³
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LNG regasification
• There are many techniques available to heat up LNG, for examples,
• (1) The most popular method is the open air, using the temperature
difference between ambient air and LNG. For working under cold we
ather, the efficiency is low. Large space is required.
• (2) At most LNG receiving terminals, the open rack method is used. U
sing the sea water at 4-10⁰ C to heat up the LNG. Need large space to
install racks, more power and water treatment to circulate sea water,
need to comply with EPA’s water emission code (sea water in and out
within 5 ⁰C)

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• (3) Submerged combustion is using a gas fired burner to heat up the
water, then let LNG travel through the heated water. It consumes ext
ernal energy to heat up the air travel through the water bath.
• (4) Intermediate fluid is taking refrigerant or/and water/glycol mixtur
e go thru heat exchange to heat up the LNG

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SOFC
• A power generation system, taking natural gas (or hydrocarbon fuels) as
feedstock, going through a series of chemical reactions, generates elect
ricity, heat and some CO2
• Energy distribution at output: electricity 60-70%, heat 20-30%, exhaust
10%
• Known as the highest energy conversion technology
• With 1 m³ natural gas (with heat value 9,500 - 9,700 Kcal) can generate
5-6 kWh electricity, plus 2,200 - 2,400 Kcal heat, and about 330 - 350g C
O2
• Categorized as a green energy
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 AC Power Hot Water

Inverter Supplementary
Boiler
DC Power
Air

Desulfurizer Reformer Fuel Cell Stack

Natural Gas Hot Water

Exhaust Hot Water Storage Tank

Water
Gas Heat
Treatment
Condensed Exchanger
Cold Water
Water
Fuel Cell Generation System Exhaust Hot Water Supply System

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LNG vaporizer
• Using the heat generated by SOFC, going through the patented proces
s and set-up to heat up the LNG
• Primary heat source comes from the heat exchanger of SOFC with the
hot water shower
• Secondary heat source is the exhaust which is at the range of 70⁰ C, a
hot air shower is provided
• For some urgent cases, if a higher thru put is needed, an electric heate
r will heat up the hot water reservoir to speed up the heating process
• External energies are not required, all come from the SOFC linked

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SOFC + LNG vaporizer
• One system can offer two kinds of energy i.e., electricity and natural g
as
• Implementing electricity grid and gas grid at the same time
• Capacity is scalable
• No energy wasted, such as BOG
• No huge up-front budget allocated for capacity not immediately requi
red

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 BOG
SOFC
unit
Hot
Water LNG
Tank tank
tank

Grid
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Addressed markets
• Off-shore islands
• Remote communities (north of 45⁰ latitude)
• Rural areas (electricity grid or/and gas grid not covered)

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Contact

Ling-yuan TSENG
Electric Energy Express
E-mail: ly.tseng@3e.com.tw
Phone: +886 920-476785

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