Jumboizing

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Jumboizing

It is no exaggeration to say that the history of LNG plants is the history of jumboizing and efficiency. The demand for LNG has increased since the value of natural gas as an energy source was recognized, and the energy consumption of Japan and other East Asian countries with few natural resources increased because of their economic growth. Along with the demand for LNG, price competition with other energy resources like petroleum and price competition among LNG producers has become fierce. There are two ways to reduce LNG production costs: lowering the costs of plant construction and controlling the costs of operating plants. In general, it is said that costs arising from jumboizing are not simply proportional to the capacity of systems, but there is the advantage of scale. For instance, even when the capacity of a system doubles, the construction cost of the system can be less than double the cost. The figure below illustrates the change of the size of LNG plants constructed by Chiyoda Corporation. As the figure illustrates, the size of LNG plants has increased rapidly since 2000.

The jumboizing of LNG plants cannot be attained simply through conventional design technology, but can be realized only after overcoming various hindrances through accomplishing challenging technological improvements and completely new technological improvements.

The following are some examples:

Even more accurate production technology is necessary for the core of LNG plants, including main heat exchangers, refrigeration compressors and driving machines. In addition, equipment used for producing these machines also needs to be supersized.
In order to transport supersized machines and materials, transportation (vehicles, ships, etc.) needs to be supersized, and roads and piers sometimes need to be reconstructed.
Special construction equipment and construction methods sometimes need to be developed in order to install supersized equipment and pipes at construction sites.
In addition, an enormous number of workers come from various areas of the world to construction sites. So, in order to complete a project successfully, it becomes important to give work instructions to workers with different cultural backgrounds, manage the workers, secure safety, and provide food, clothing and housing for them.

As LNG plants are supersized, the loss of a client entering into a long-term delivery contract becomes tremendous if their LNG plant stops due to breakdown. In addition, their responsibility for supplying LNG will also increase. Therefore, highly reliable LNG plants are required so they rarely break down, and can be restored quickly even if they do break down. Through advanced safety design technology and analysis technology, and through our experience constructing numerous large LNG plants, Chiyoda Corporation has become one of the few companies that can design and construct highly reliable LNG plants that rarely break down, and stop safely and restore quickly in the event of a breakdown.

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Jumboizing