LNG Processing & Process Plants

What it is

Natural gas in its liquid state, is called LNG, or liquid natural gas. Liquid Natural Gas (LNG)
comprises of liquid hydrocarbons that are recovered from natural gases in gas processing plants,
and in some cases, from field processing facilities. These hydrocarbons involves propane,
pentanes, ethane, butane and some other heavy elements.

LNG accounts for about 4% of natural gas consumption worldwide, and is produced in dozens of
large-scale liquefaction plants. It is produced by cooling natural gas to a temperature of minus
260 degrees F (minus 160 Celsius). At this temperature, natural gas becomes liquid and its
volume reduces 615 times. LNG occupies 1/600th the volume of natural gas at atmospheric
temperature and pressure. The gas have high energy density, which makes it useful for energy
storageindouble-walled,vacuum-insulatedtanks.

The production process of LNG starts with, Natural Gas, being transported to the LNG Plant site
as feedstock. After filtration and metering in the feedstock reception facility, the feedstock gas
enters the LNG plant and is distributed among the identical liquefaction systems. Each LNG
process plant consists of reception, acid gas removal, dehydration/mercaptan removal, mercury
removal, gas chilling and liquefaction, refrigeration, fractionation, nitrogen rejection and sulfur
recovery units

Whenever the source of natural gas production is a long distance from

the location of potential usage and a pipeline is not a viable solution,
liquefaction of the natural gas may be an economical choice. The
liquefaction of natural gas reduces its volume about 600 fold and allows
the gas to be exported to distant ports as a liquid in LNG tankers.

New LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) production plants are constantly being
built to satisfy the growing global demand for natural gas. Likewise, in
order to reduce the unit production cost, liquefaction line capacity has
been increasing year by year and is currently topped by Qatar's mega LNG
lines, each producing about 8 Mtons/y of LNG.

Technology innovation and economies of scale have been the two key contributors to the industry's
progress. GE Oil & Gas has a long history of leadership in the evolution of LNG technology. Our sustained
commitment to innovative design and world-class engineering, and our production and testing
capabilities have allowed us to push the envelope of highly reliable, advanced LNG solutions.

How it works
The natural gas from the filed is first treated in a gas processing unit to remove higher molecular weight
hydrocarbons, sulfur compounds and water. It is then fed to the liquefaction process where it is,
depending on the process used, cooled in two or three cascade cooling cycles down to the liquefaction
temperature of -160C (- 256 F). The cold liquid LNG is then transferred to heavily insulated storage
tanks at atmospheric pressure, and from there it is loaded into LNG tankers for shipment.

Each of the cooling cycles requires a very large compression train which is typically driven by a gas
turbine. The 8 Mtons/y plants in Qatar are based on three trains, each driven by a 125MW Fr9E gas
turbine.

Features of LNG Plant

There exists a vast number of natural gas liquefaction plants designs, but, all are based on the
combination of heat exchange and refrigeration. The gas being liquefied, however, takes the same
liquefaction path. The dry, clean gas enters a heat exchanger and exits as LNG. The capital invested in a
plant and the operating cost of any liquefaction plant is based on the refrigeration techniques.

Though, Liquefied Natural Gas can also be extracted from cryogenic hydrocarbon extraction and petro-
chemical processes, but it requires careful consideration at these facilities to assure the process gas is
liquefiable.

LNG PLANT - TECHNOLOGY AND PROCESSING

The Process
The process through which Liquefied Natural Gas is produced consists of tree main steps, namely:-
Transportation of Gas (feedstock)

The best place to install the plant is near the gas source. The gas is basically transported through
pipelines or by truck and barge.

Pretreatment of Gas

The liquefaction process requires that all components that solidify at liquefaction temperatures must be
removed prior to liquefaction. This step refers to the treatment the gas requires to make it liquefiable
and includes compression, filtering of solids, removal of liquids and gases that would solidify under
liquefaction, and purification which is removal of non-methane gases.

And finally, Liquefaction of Gas.

The LNG Process

There is a four-step process to get natural gas into the UK Natural Gas transmission system and
on to homes and businesses in the UK from gas fields in remote locations.
There are several steps involved in LNG life cycle including:

Exploration to find natural gas in the earths crust and production of the gas for delivery to gas
users. Most of the time natural gas is discovered during the search for crude oil.

Liquefaction to convert natural gas into a liquid state so that it can be transported in ships.

Shipping the LNG in special purpose vessels.

Storage and Regasification, to convert the LNG stored in specially made storage tanks, from the
liquefied phase to the gaseous phase, ready to be moved to the final destination through the
natural gas pipeline system.

1. Exploration and Production

Natural gas is pumped to the surface through techniques commonly used world-wide whether
in the North Sea or North Africa.

2. Liquefaction process

This activity takes place in the producing country:

All impurities are removed from the gas, which in the industry is known as sweetening, prior
to cooling.

The cooling of natural gas to -160 allows it to be transported. This process is called
liquefaction and produces a stable liquid ready for shipping.

The LNG is stored at -160 to await loading onto LNG carrier ships.

The process gas section of a LNG plant starts with the inlet gas. This gas is typically processed at
approximately 35 bar (500 psi). If the plant inlet pressure is low (i.e flare gas) the gas must be
compressed. If the plant inlet pressure is high (i.e. pipeline) then the gas pressure must be reduced,
typicallyacrossapressurecontrolvalve.
The process gas typically has contaminants (sour gas) that must be removed before liquefaction. An
amine plant is used to remove CO2 and H2S to levels that will not freeze at liquefaction temperatures.
After the contaminants are removed the gas (sweet gas) must be dehydrated to remove all of the water
content. The process gas is now ready for the first stage of refrigeration, which typically removes
heavier hydrocarbons to bring the gas stream to specification for liquefaction.

The heavy hydrocarbon stream (LPG) is treated in a de-methanizing column and reboiler set up. These
LPGs can be distilled to specification and made to a sellable product or used on site.

The process gas makes it final pass through the heat exchanger for liquefaction. Pressure is let down at
the storage tank to a specified tank pressure. This specified tank pressure and amount of subcooling
affects the overall refrigeration capacity requirement of the plant and ultimately the power efficiency.

3. LNG transportation

LNG is transported in special double-hulled ships built using two different technologies Moss
Rosenberg (spheres) and membrane (material with an expansion coefficient of practically nil)
with current carrier capacities varying between 20-50,000 m3 LNG (15 ships), 50-100,000 m3
LNG (15 ships) and 100-140,000 m3 LNG.

Larger carriers of some 165,000 - 200,000 m3 LNG are now under design.

Marine tugging contracts will be in place to assist ships enter the Haven waterway, dock and
depart.

Off-loading takes up to 24 hours and is managed using tried and tested procedures common to
all international facilities.

The LNG is off-loaded as a liquid and pumped from the jetty to storage tanks at the terminal.
The LNG remains at -160 for the duration of the process.

Once off-loading is complete the ship departs the Haven.

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4. Re-gasification process

This is the operational work of the terminals in Milford Haven:

Re-gasification is simpler compared to liquefaction, it is purely physical and not chemical.

The LNG tanks will be roughly 45m high and 80m in diameter. They are well insulated to keep
the LNG at -161 in stable liquid form.
 The tanks being built are two-wall tanks, with the first wall made out of nickel steel that
prevents low temperature failures. The outer wall is made out of concrete.

The LNG is pumped out of the tanks pressurised and warmed so that it returns to natural gas.

The natural gas is then pumped in to the UKs natural gas transmission system owned and
operated by National Grid (formerly Transco).

During the storage of LNG there is a slight warming of the liquid resulting in a small amount of
gas at the top of the tank. This gas is then moved in to the natural gas transmission system.

5. How do you store LNG?

LNG is stored in storage tanks of around 160,000 m3 capacity and stored just above
atmospheric pressure. The LNG tanks are of a full containment design. In a full containment
system two tanks are employed, an inner tank which contains the stored liquid, and an outer
tank which provides security in the event of any loss of containment or leak from the inner tank.

The inner shell is made of a special nickel alloy, designed to resist the low temperatures. The
outer shell is of pre-stressed concrete with a reinforced concrete base slab and roof.

Sophisticated automatic protection systems are employed to monitor the tank levels,
pressures, temperatures and any potential leakage from the inner tank.

UNIQUE TECHNOLOGY
 To produce liquid natural gas (LNG), the feedstock must be compressed, purified and cooled. To
accomplish this, Prometheus uses a modular approach comprised of the integrated modules. The
following is a landfill gas system, which is our most robust system given the impurities contained in the
feedstock. Some skids may be unnecessary or redesigned for particular gas compositions.

Pre-Purification Module. The multipurpose, highly effective Pre-Purification Module removes

corrosive sulfur compounds, low concentrations (parts per million) of non-methane-organic compounds
(NMOCs) including siloxanes, and water from the LFG process stream and also compresses the LFG from
~2 psig to ~50 psig or more as required.
Bulk Purification Module. The Bulk Carbon Dioxide (CO2) Purification Module further purifies
the LFG process stream by removing CO2 from the gas stream. The CO2 is removed using a proprietary
cryogenic freezing technique that simultaneously pre-cools the methane (CH4) and any nitrogen (N2)
while freezing out the CO2.
Liquefaction and Post-Purification Module. The combined Liquefaction and Post-Purification
Modules liquefy the purified LFG and enhance the concentration of CH4 in the LNG by dynamic flash
evaporation of the N2. The N2 rejection steps reduce the N2 concentration to less than 3% in the LNG.
Refrigeration Module. The Refrigeration Module provides the cooling to the process stream in
the purification and liquefaction modules. The refrigeration system is a closed loop system that uses a
separate refrigerant and therefore remains immune from process stream variations. Careful use of the
cryogenic refrigerant allows maximum pre-cooling of the LFG process stream in stages, which is an
important feature for increasing the thermodynamic efficiency of the overall purification and
liquefaction.
Instrumentation and Controls Module. The entire LFG-to-LNG system is controlled by a
distributed control system (DCS) that has inputs from all the components and process variables in the
system.

NATURAL GAS PROCESSING

Natural gas processing plants, or fractionators, are used to purify the raw natural gas extracted from
underground gas fields and brought up to the surface by gas wells. The processed natural gas, used as
fuel by residential, commercial and industrial consumers, is almost pure methane and is very much
different from the raw natural gas.

Raw natural gas typically consists primarily of methane (CH4), the shortest and lightest hydrocarbon
molecule. It also contains varying amounts of:

Heavier gaseous hydrocarbons: ethane (C2H6), propane (C3H8), normal butane (n-C4H10),
isobutane (i-C4H10), pentanes and even higher molecular weight hydrocarbons. When processed
and purified into finished by-products, all of these are collectively referred to as NGL (Natural
Gas Liquids).
Acid gases: carbon dioxide (CO2), hydrogen sulfide (H2S) and mercaptans such as methanethiol
(CH3SH) and ethanethiol (C2H5SH).
Other gases: nitrogen (N2) and helium (He).
Water: water vapor and liquid water.
Liquid hydrocarbons: perhaps some natural gas condensate (also referred to as casinghead
gasoline or natural gasoline) and/or crude oil.
Mercury: very small amounts of mercury primarily in elemental form, but chlorides and other
species are possibly present.[1]

The raw natural gas must be purified to meet the quality standards specified by the major pipeline
transmission and distribution companies. Those quality standards vary from pipeline to pipeline and are
usually a function of a pipeline systems design and the markets that it serves. In general, the standards
specify that the natural gas:

Be within a specific range of heating value (caloric value). For example, in the United States, it
should be about 1,035 5% Btu per cubic foot of gas at 1 atmosphere and 60 F (41 MJ 5% per
cubic metre of gas at 1 atmosphere and 0 C).
Be delivered at or above a specified hydrocarbon dew point temperature (below which some of
the hydrocarbons in the gas might condense at pipeline pressure forming liquid slugs which
could damage the pipeline).
Be free of particulate solids and liquid water to prevent erosion, corrosion or other damage to
the pipeline.
Be dehydrated of water vapor sufficiently to prevent the formation of methane hydrates within
the gas processing plant or subsequently within the sales gas transmission pipeline. [2][3]
Contain no more than trace amounts of components such as hydrogen sulfide, carbon dioxide,
mercaptans, nitrogen, and water vapor.
Maintain mercury at less than detectable limits (approximately 0.001 ppb by volume) primarily
to avoid damaging equipment in the gas processing plant or the pipeline transmission system
from mercury amalgamation and embrittlement of aluminum and other metals. [1][4][5]

TYPES OF RAW NATURAL GAS WELLS

Raw natural gas comes primarily from any one of three types of wells: crude oil wells, gas wells, and
condensate wells.

Natural gas that comes from crude oil wells is typically termed associated gas. This gas can exist
separate from the crude oil in the underground formation, or dissolved in the crude oil.

Natural gas from gas wells and from condensate wells, in which there is little or no crude oil, is termed
non-associated gas. Gas wells typically produce only raw natural gas, while condensate wells produce
raw natural gas along with a very low density liquid hydrocarbon called natural gas condensate
(sometimes also called natural gasoline or simply condensate).

Raw natural gas can also come from methane deposits in the pores of coal seams. Such gas is referred to
as coalbed gas and it is also called sweet gas because it is relatively free of hydrogen sulfide.

DESCRIPTION OF A NATURAL GAS PROCESSING PLANT

There are a great many ways in which to configure the various unit processes used in the processing of
raw natural gas. The block flow diagram below is a generalized, typical configuration for the processing
of raw natural gas from non-associated gas wells. It shows how raw natural gas is processed into sales
gas pipelined to the end user markets.[6][7][8][9][10] It also shows how processing of the raw natural gas
yields these byproducts:

Natural gas condensate

Sulfur
Ethane
Natural gas liquids (NGL): propane, butanes and C5+ (which is the commonly used term for
pentanes plus higher molecular weight hydrocarbons)

Raw natural gas is commonly collected from a group of adjacent wells and is first processed at that
collection point for removal of free liquid water and natural gas condensate. The condensate is usually
then transported to an oil refinery and the water is disposed of as wastewater.

The raw gas is then pipelined to a gas processing plant where the initial purification is usually the
removal of acid gases (hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide). There are many processes that are
available for that purpose as shown in the flow diagram, but amine treating is the process that was
historically used. However, due to a range of performance and environmental constraints of the amine
process, a newer technology based on the use of polymeric membranes to separate the carbon dioxide
and hydrogen sulfide from the natural gas stream has gained increasing acceptance.

The acid gases removed by membrane or amine treating can then be routed into a sulfur recovery unit
which converts the hydrogen sulfide in the acid gas into elemental sulfur. There are a number of
processes available for that conversion, but the Claus process is by far the one usually selected. The
residual gas from the Claus process is commonly called tail gas and that gas is then processed in a tail
gas treating unit (TGTU) to recover and recycle residual sulfur-containing compounds back into the Claus
unit. Again, as shown in the flow diagram, there are a number of processes available for treating the
Claus unit tail gas. The final residual gas from the TGTU is incinerated. Thus, the carbon dioxide in the
raw natural gas ends up in the incinerator flue gas stack.

The next step in the gas processing plant is to remove water vapor from the gas using either the
regenerable absorption in liquid triethylene glycol (TEG)[3], commonly referred to as glycol dehydration,
or a Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) unit which is regenerable adsorption using a solid adsorbent.[11]
Other newer processes requiring a higher pressure drop like membranes or dehydration at supersonic
velocity using, for example, the Twister Supersonic Separator may also be considered.

Mercury is then removed by using adsorption processes (as shown in the flow diagram) such as
activated carbon or regenerable molecular sieves.[1]

Nitrogen is next removed and rejected using one of the three processes indicated on the flow diagram:

Cryogenic process[12] using low temperature distillation. This process can be modified to also
recover helium, if desired.
Absorption process[13] using lean oil or a special solvent[14] as the absorbent.
Adsorption process using activated carbon or molecular sieves as the adsorbent. This process
may have limited applicability because it is said to incur the loss of butanes and heaver
hydrocarbons.

The next step is to recover the natural gas liquids (NGL) for which most large, modern gas processing
plants use another cryogenic low temperature distillation process involving expansion of the gas
through a turbo-expander followed by distillation in a demethanizing fractionating column.[15][16] Some
gas processing plants use lean oil absorption process[13] rather than the cryogenic turbo-expander
process.

The residue gas from the NGL recovery section is the final, purified sales gas which is pipelined to the
end-user markets.

The recovered NGL stream is processes through a fractionation train consisting of three distillation
towers in series: a dethanizer, a depropanizer and a debutanizer. The overhead product from the
deethanizer is ethane and the bottoms are fed to the depropanizer. The overhead product from the
depropanizer is propane and the bottoms are fed to the debutanizer. The overhead product from the
debutanizer is a mixture of normal and iso-butane, and the bottoms product is a C 5+ mixture. The
recovered streams of propane, butanes and C5+ are each "sweetened" in a Merox process unit to
convert undesirable mercaptans into disulfides and, along with the recovered ethane, are the final NGL
by-products from the gas processing plant.
Legend:

Located at gas wells

Located at gas processing plant
Red indicates final sales products
Blue indicates optional unit processes available