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Technology

Floating LNG Plant Technology

There are numerous gas fields that have been discovered but have yet to be developed in the world, including many minor marine gas fields. Conventional development methods require submarine pipelines from marine gas fields to land areas where LNG liquefaction plants are located. However, it is difficult to lay submarine pipelines if a gas field is far away from land or if it is too deep, and it is not economical in the case of small gas fields.
One promising concept is that, the realization of LNG FPSO (a floating production, storage and offloading system) has been drawing attention as a means of developing undeveloped marine gas fields and providing a liquefaction plant at sea.
The practical realization of floating LNG (FLNG) and LNG FPSO requires the development of a whole system including safety and related peripheral technology. Chiyoda Corporation will work on the practical realization of FLNG and LNG FPSO through the integration of all kinds of technology.

The practical realization of FLNG requires many technological elements to be solved, and they are intertwined with each other in a complicated way. Even though each element is based on existing technology, the ability to mix them optimally and integrate them wholly is required. In particular, there are technological issues unique to facilities floating on the sea, which are that there is an impact on the capacity of liquefaction due to wave vibration (declining liquefaction efficiency, lowering plant operation rates, shortened life cycles and potential accidents); an impact on storage (potential accidents due to sloshing liquid levels in tanks); and an impact on shipping (lowering operation rates and higher potential accidents); therefore, it is important to take measures to solve these problems.
Because liquefaction, storage and shipment facilities need to be mounted on the limited size of a vessel’s body, FLNG requires higher density facilities, and damage caused by accidents becomes extensive compared with on-shore plant. It becomes necessary to take safety measures specific to FLNG. In addition, it is difficult to maintain facilities in such limited space. Even if only for the selection of a liquefaction process, it is important to review all the aspects including the efficiency of liquefaction, plant operation rates, facilities costs, operating costs, safety and facility maintenance, and to evaluate them comprehensively.
With the technologies acquired and accumulated through the design of on-shore LNG plants and floating LNG plants, Chiyoda Corporation will bring forward the practical realization of FLNG and LNG FPSO by combining the technologies effectively.