Introduction
Workshop 1: Small to Medium-Scale
LNG Liquefaction
As construction costs of large-scale liquefaction
plants zoom from $200 per ton-year of capacity to more
than $500 per ton-year, interest in small and medium-scale
LNG plants is growing. These plants are being built
primarily for five reasons: (1) development of remote
gas fields too small for large-scale liquefaction; (2)
end-of-pipeline distribution, such as the projects being
implemented in China and Brazil, (3) peakshaving, such
as the new Yankee Gas plant in Connecticut, (4) boil-off
liquefaction onboard LNG carriers, and (5) transportation
fuel, such as the projects being promoted by Boone Picken's
company, Clean Energy, that is enjoying record price
spreads against diesel fuel. Other theoretical applications
include offshore liquefaction, which has been viewed
as a desirable alternative to large land-based units.
At least a dozen projects ranging from one million
to one-hundred million cubic feet per day (7,000 to
700,000 metric tons per year) are under development.
Manufacturers such as Black & Veatch, Liquefied
Natural Gas Limited (LNG Ltd), Kryopak and Praxair are
able to purchase off-the-shelf equipment more readily
available than state-of-the-art trains. This workshop
will consider the economics of small and medium-scale
liquefaction to large-scale systems and review their
trends and applications.
Workshop 2: Cryogenic Piping for
LNG
New cryogenic piping is reported to provide
such an improvement over conventional foam-insulated
lines that LNG can be transported up to ten miles without
significant heat loss and vaporization. Applications
are expanding rapidly as both import and export terminals
apply the technology to try to trim months off of plant
startup schedules. Moreover, ships might be loaded or
offloaded remotely from shore-based facilities, providing
faster liquefaction plant startup when tank completion
is delayed, eliminating the need for a jetty, and alleviating
marine traffic and enhancing safety by separating the
ship from the shore-based storage. This workshop will
provide an update on how, why and where cryogenic piping
is being applied. |
