Bechtel Corporation,
Houston, TX 77056 Application of Boil Off Gas
Cyrus B. Meher-Homji
Bechtel Corporation,
Houston, TX 77056
Compressors in Liquefied
Pradeep Pillai
Natural Gas Plants
Bechtel Corporation,
Houston, TX 77056 This paper discusses complexities and challenges of managing boil off gas (BOG) in
liquefied natural gas (LNG) liquefaction plants. Most publications in the past have
Dipanjan Bhattacharya focused on regasification terminals and have not addressed the area of liquefaction
Bechtel Corporation, plants. The paper discusses the generation and management of BOG and the associated
Houston, TX 77056 networks and machinery to manage it. BOG options available for both Greenfield plants
and in debottlenecking situations are covered. The advantages and disadvantages of dif-
David Messersmith ferent options and compressor systems are covered and the concept of dynamic simula-
tion as an analysis tool is addressed. [DOI: 10.1115/1.4028576]
Bechtel Corporation,
Houston, TX 77056
Journal of Engineering for Gas Turbines and Power APRIL 2015, Vol. 137 / 041702-1
C 2015 by ASME
Copyright V
impacts on LNG production, plant efficiency and environmental considerations exist for shipment and also at receiving terminals.
emissions. LNG liquefaction processes, always results in the generation of
Integral to the efficiency of the LNG facility is the management BOG. This BOG produced is generally the result of staged flashes
and handling of BOG. This paper discusses the ways and means that are used to produce LNG at near atmospheric pressure in the
of increasing the capacity of the plant and/or reducing the opera- tanks as well as the BOG produced due to heat leak into the LNG
tional costs of the facility by improving the management of BOG. tank and associated piping during HOLD mode (nonship load-
Most publications in the past have focused on regasification termi- ing) of operation.
nals [311], and while this paper focuses on liquefaction, several In the ConocoPhillips Optimized Cascade Process, BOG
of the concepts would apply to regasification and multidirectional resulting primarily from rundown flash is generated and is
terminals. The paper also addresses the range of compression returned to the methane loop by the BOG compressor. However,
machinery available and the range of typical parameters found in during ship loading there is a significant incremental quantity of
industry. An overview of BOG management is provided in BOG generated due to vapor displacement at ship loading rates,
Ref. [9]. system heat leak (in loading lines, etc.) and flashing of the LNG
The LNG which is predominantly methane is stored in cryo- at ship cargo storage pressure. This BOG generated during ship
genic tanks at a temperature of 162 C with a pressure slightly loading is generally warmer than the BOG generated during
above the atmospheric pressure. The LNG tank is in a constant HOLD mode due to additional superheat from the ship blow-
boiling state. The total BOG flow is a combination of the entire ers, vapor return lines, etc. Consequently, during ship loading,
vapor generated from rundown flash, heat leak, barometric pres- the tanks are forced to operate at higher pressures as can be seen
sure changes, pump energy, and net hydraulic grade. If this vapor in the Fig. 5 below which shows ship BOG vapor versus tank
is not drawn off by the BOG compressor, the tank pressure will pressure.
increase to the point when venting will be required. In a multitrain LNG facility, depending on the different operat-
The BOG compressor is used to compress the evaporated gas and ing scenarios involving ship loading, and hold of the different
in the case of the process shown in Fig. 3, to return it to the methane trains, the tank pressure can vary significantly. An example with
compressor to blend with the feed gas and be liquefied again. six operating cases is shown in Fig. 5.
BOG from the ship vapor return header is normally mixed with
the BOG from the tanks and then compressed by BOG compres-
2 BOG Generation in LNG Liquefaction Plants sors which, depending on the LNG process, compress the BOG
The overall generation and transport of BOG is shown in Fig. 4 back to the process or compress it to be used as high pressure fuel
[9,12]. While the focus of this paper is on liquefaction, similar gas in the plant.
Journal of Engineering for Gas Turbines and Power APRIL 2015, Vol. 137 / 041702-3
behaves as a secondary feed stream which uses part of the avail- between the bearing machines (variable IGVs)
able refrigeration power to recondense and form LNG. In most cases, fixed speed motors are used but it is possible to
Since there can be large variation in the BOG flow and enthalpy consider VFD applications as well.
between various operation modes it is important to design the pro- A typical reciprocating BOG compressor is shown in Fig. 8.
cess refrigerant loop system components to handle this BOG flow In the case of the centrifugal compressor designs, variable
in a hydraulically and thermodynamically efficient manner. Also, IGVs are typically used in order to provide turndown. To date,
it is valuable to cool the ship return vapor in a similar manner. several overhung machines have been used at LNG facilities.
Hydraulic and thermodynamic limitations could result in a sig- These machines are motor driven and have a large gearbox, with
nificant decrease in fresh feed processed, thereby lowering LNG the compressor operating on the pinion at high speed. Single or
production. There might be a need to design bigger refrigerant multistage designs can be used. Variable IGVs are invariably
exchangers to cool the additional BOG and minimize temperature used, and in some cases additional turndown can be obtained by
approach in order to limit the vapor volume to the refrigerant
compressors. These refrigerant exchangers will also need to be
hydraulically designed in order to limit the pressure drop from
additional BOG flow, thereby limiting vapor volume load to the
refrigeration compressors.
Refrigeration compressor design should consider the additional
BOG load and its impact on compressor speed/capacity. Heat inte-
gration, within the process plant, may be reconfigured to increase
the efficient use of refrigeration energy.
An optimal design of refrigeration plant components while inte-
grating various BOG operating modes, assist in increasing overall
LNG production.
Fig. 11 Flows and pressure ratios (four cases) used for compar-
isons between compressor types, inlet temperature 5 2160 C
Journal of Engineering for Gas Turbines and Power APRIL 2015, Vol. 137 / 041702-5
the BOG system and LNG tanks are always in a transient state.
This means that the tank levels are always changing (increasing or
decreasing) depending on mode of operation (hold mode or ship
loading mode). This variation in tank level means a continuous
change in tank boil off. This effect is more pronounced during
ship loading operations when warmer vapor from the ship returns
back to the BOG system. Since the entire BOG system is a Fig. 18 Scatter plot showing BOG compressor parameters
dynamic operation and never really at a steady state, dynamic showing differential pressure and inlet temperature (carrier
simulation is a powerful and effective tool to analyze the system. based applications)
Journal of Engineering for Gas Turbines and Power APRIL 2015, Vol. 137 / 041702-7
Nomenclature
BOG boil off gas
FEED front end engineering design
IGV inlet guide vane
LNG liquefied natural gas
MTPA million metric tonnes annum
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