Fifteen Years of Field Experience in LNG Expander Technology
Abstract
From the earliest days of gas liquefaction, the
thermodynamic process advantage of employing cryogenic
liquefied gas expanders in place of throttling valves was very
well recognized. The available technology was unable to offer
reliable cryogenic liquefied gas expanders until the aerospace
industry developed materials and designs suitable for the
cryogenic environment.
LNG expanders reduce the high pressure of the condensed
LNG by converting the static pressure energy of the fluid into
electricity and sub-cooling the refrigerated LNG. The Carnot
efficiency of the liquefaction process is significantly increased
by using LNG expanders, resulting in a very short amortization
time of less than six months for the financial investment in
LNG expanders.
During the past fifteen years cryogenic LNG expanders have
experienced an accelerated development in design and
performance. Every newly built LNG liquefaction plant since
1996 has included two or more LNG expanders operating in
each train.
The evolutionary design and performance of LNG expanders is
presented, discussed, and fifteen years of practical field
experience is demonstrated. Particular linear and non-linear
phenomena in rotor-dynamics and fluid dynamics that are
specific to the design and operation of single phase and twophase
LNG expanders are described. An outlook for upcoming
and future requirements of the LNG Expander Technology
indicates trends towards both much higher and much smaller
flow rates, together with much higher pressures. New design
concepts to meet these future requirements are also disclosed.
Description
LectureSubject
TurbomachinesCollections
Citation
Patel, Vinod; Kimmel, Hans (2011). Fifteen Years of Field Experience in LNG Expander Technology. Turbomachinery Laboratory, Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station. Available electronically from https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /172579.