US manufacturers will supply heat exchangers for new LNG export projects in Mozambique and the US, while the first Russian-made units are readied for domestic use
Mozambique’s first onshore LNG production facility, Mozambique LNG project, has selected US-based Air Products to provide its proprietary heater exchanger technology.
Mozambique LNG is being constructed by the multi-national engineering, procurement and construction contractor CCS JV, a joint venture comprised of affiliates of Saipem, McDermott and Chiyoda.
Supplying liquefaction technology for about 70% of the global operational capacity, NYSE-listed Air Products will provide two of its proprietary coil-wound main cryogenic heat exchangers (MCHE) for the project. Manufacturing will take place at its Air Products’ facility in Port Manatee, Florida. Some 55-m long and weighing 500 tonnes, the LNG heat exchangers will be transported by ship to the project site on the Afungi Peninsula in Cabo Delgado, Mozambique.
The Mozambique LNG Project will be the first onshore LNG project in Mozambique in southeast Africa. Air Products’ MCHEs will operate at the site as part of two separate LNG production trains designed to produce a nameplate capacity of 13 mta. Gas will be sourced from the Golfinho/Atum natural gas fields in Mozambique. Mozambique LNG anticipates commercial production in 2024.
When the contract was announced in March amid the coronavirus outbreak, Air Products executive vice president Dr Samir Serhan said he was “encouraged by the activity in the market and customers should know that Air Products’ expanded manufacturing facility is capable of addressing their LNG technological needs anywhere in the world.”
CCS JV chairman Roberto Uberti said: “We have been tasked with building the first onshore LNG export facility in Mozambique and one of the most efficient facilities in the LNG space. We are carefully selecting reliable and experienced technology providers and under this perspective the benefits of Air Products involvement are clearly consistent.”
Total operates Mozambique LNG with a 26.5% interest alongside ENH Rovuma Área Um, SA (15%), Mitsui E&P Mozambique Area1 Ltd (20%), ONGC Videsh Ltd (10%), Beas Rovuma Energy Mozambique Limited (10%), BPRL Ventures Mozambique BV (10%), and PTTEP Mozambique Area 1 Limited (8.5%).
Air Products is also involved with the Coral South floating LNG (FLNG) project, the first offshore FLNG project in Mozambique, which is expected to begin production in 2022.
US LNG export projects
Noting the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic in reporting the company’s Q1 2020 results, Chart chief executive Jillian Evanko said: “While big LNG projects are pushed to the right, we continue to see small-scale LNG projects progress on their original timelines, in particular for power generation applications.” Chart received a letter of intent for the process technology and associated equipment on Eagle’s small-scale Jacksonville LNG project.
Due to begin commercial operations in 2023, Jacksonville LNG export facility in Jacksonville, Florida, will use Chart Industries’ Integrated Pre-cooled Single Mixed Refrigerant (IPSMR) technology and liquefaction equipment technology, including heat exchangers and cold boxes.
Houston-based developer Eagle LNG Partners LLC selected Matrix Service Inc to engineer, procure, fabricate and construct the US$500M small-scale LNG export facility. Using Chart Industries’ technology, the facility will have a production capacity of 6.25M litres of LNG per day with 45.4M litres of storage, plus a marine terminal and truck-loading capabilities.
“Eagle LNG is experiencing a growing demand for LNG to serve small-scale export markets, while domestic demand for fuel-grade LNG continues to increase," said Eagle LNG chief executive Dick Brown.
With a capacity of 1 mta of LNG, the Jacksonville LNG Export Facility will serve the Caribbean, loading LNG onto small, oceangoing vessels for export to countries currently using heavy fuel oil or diesel for power generation.
Eagle LNG will continue to serve domestic marine LNG fuelling and export LNG in ISO containers for Caribbean markets from Eagle LNG’s Maxville LNG Facility, also located in Jacksonville.
Besides the Jacksonville LNG Export Facility, Eagle LNG’s investment in Jacksonville includes its Maxville LNG Facility and the Talleyrand LNG Bunker Station on JAXPORT at the Port of Jacksonville, which provides LNG for Crowley Maritime’s two dual-fuel container roro vessels that operate to San Juan, Puerto Rico.
By incorporating Chart’s nitrogen cycle liquefaction technology, Eagle LNG will not have to use hydrocarbon refrigerants. Chart’s IPSMR process technology, proprietary brazed aluminium heat exchangers, and cold boxes are well-suited for developing small- and mid-scale LNG projects. The technology makes it possible to optimise liquefaction systems over a wide range of site conditions. IPSMR process technology can be configured to match available gas turbine power, with single cold box capacity to 3 mta.
Reduced capex, increased efficiency and lower LNG production costs are key elements of Virginia-based Venture Global LNG’s Calcasieu LNG project in Cameron Parish, Louisiana. Set for commissioning in 2022, the project will use 18 identical factory-built liquefaction trains to produce 10 mta. The midscale modular LNG liquefaction technology is being manufactured by Baker Hughes in Italy and will be shipped fully assembled and incorporated into liquefaction blocks in Louisiana. Under a US$135M contract with Baker Hughes, Chart Industries is supplying its cold boxes and brazed aluminium heat exchangers for the Calcasieu Pass LNG project. The equipment will be produced at Chart Industries’ facilities in Wisconsin and Louisiana.
First Russian-made heat exchanger
Russia’s AtomEnergoMash (AEM), the mechanical engineering division of Rosatom, has signed a contract with Novatek to produce coil heat exchangers and medium-capacity cryogenic pumps. The agreement is in line with establishing a domestic supplier base for the production of pumps, heat exchangers and other equipment in support of Novatek’s LNG projects. The two firms began co-operating two years ago.
“Core equipment units at an LNG plant are coil heat exchangers that cool and liquefy gas,” commented AEM chief executive Andrey Nikipelov in the company’s newsletter. “We have made a number of pilot contracts for the supply of almost the entire range of key units for the fourth production line at Yamal LNG’s medium-capacity plant. These are coil heat exchangers, pumps, and new steel grades,” Mr Nikipelov noted.
AEM has an agreement with Cryostar (France), a subsidiary of Linde, to set up production of turbo expanders and high-performance LNG pumps in Russia.
AEM plans to expand the range of domestically manufactured machinery for large-capacity LNG plants, LNG-powered icebreakers and LNG carriers.
AEM subsidiary ZiO-Podolsk manufactured the first Russian-made heat exchanger, an ethane evaporator, for installation at the LNG plant in Sabetta, a Russian town beyond the Arctic Circle.
The plant will have a liquefaction capacity of 1 mta and will use Arctic Cascade, the first Russian technology for medium-capacity LNG production. The technology will be first used at the fourth production line at Novatek’s Yamal LNG plant. After the new line is commissioned and production at the other three is optimised, the total annual capacity of the Yamal LNG Project will increase from the current 16.5 mta to 18.5 mta.
AEM will produce five ethane evaporators and a flash evaporation tank for Yamal LNG. The ethane evaporator is a 15-m high and 2.6-m wide cylinder weighing 61 to 86 metric tonnes. Inside there are 3,800 heat exchanging tubes with a total length of 70 km. The evaporators operating at temperatures below -170 C are directly involved in the natural gas liquefying process.
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