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Technology

LNG Plant Technology for Cold Climates

Courtesy of Sakhalin Energy Investment

An enormous amount of petroleum and natural gas lie untapped in the Arctic Circle. There are abundant natural resources, but the Arctic Circle is covered with permanently-frozen soil. There are many cold climate-related issues to be conquered before developing these natural resources.
Chiyoda Corporation succeeded the Sakhalin 2 Project on Sakhalin Island, where Russia’s first LNG liquefaction plant was constructed. This is an engineering, procurement and construction project to produce LNG with natural gas collected off Sakhalin Island.
We adopted a liquefaction process called a double mixed refrigerant (DMR) process for the first time in the world because of the unique location-related condition of Sakhalin and its cold climate.

The low temperature of raw material gas, the low outdoor temperature and the low water temperature in the Arctic Circle help improve liquefaction energy efficiency for the production of ultra-low-temperature LNG. However, the large change in outdoor temperature in the Arctic Circle throughout the year affects production. For instance, the design temperature is 26°C in the summer and −18°C in the winter in Sakhalin.
adopting the double mixed refrigerant process and using mixed refrigerants (propane and ethane) for pre-cooling. The components of the refrigerants are adjusted according to the seasonal changes of the outdoor temperature. Operational points for both pre-cooling and liquefaction cycles are also adjusted.
In addition, heat tracing is applied for the purpose of preventing various facilities from freezing because the plant is exposed to below-zero temperatures.