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Language: English

Conflict of Interest: In relation to this article, we declare that there is no conflict of interest.

Publication history: Received December 2, 2006
Accepted May 8, 2007

This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/bync/3.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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Optimal operation of the boil-off gas compression process using a boil-off rate model for LNG storage tanks

Myung Wook Shin Dongil Shin¹ Soo Hyoung Choi² En Sup Yoon^†

School of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul 151-742, Korea ¹Department of Chemical Engineering, Myongji University, Gyeonggi 449-728, Korea ²Division of Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Chonbuk National University, Jeonju 561-756, Korea

Korean Journal of Chemical Engineering, January 2008, 25(1), 7-12(6), 10.1007/s11814-008-0002-9

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Abstract

Proper handling of boil-off gas (BOG) significantly affects the operational efficiency as well as the safety of the whole LNG gasification plant. Due to the not well-known inherent dynamics, it has been suspected that the BOG compressors are being operated at too much capacity, unnecessarily consuming too much energy. An empirical model is proposed for the estimation of the boil-off rate (BOR) in an LNG storage tank, based on the specification supplied by the LNG storage tank manufacturer. By using the BOR model, an optimal operation algorithm is proposed for a safe and energy-saving BOG compressor operation, which minimizes the power consumption while preparing against the potential failure of one of the operating compressors. Case study results indicate that the energy consumption could be reduced by a half of the conventional method, by increasing the tank pressure while the safety is maintained. The proposed method is expected to be able to contribute to improving the efficiency of the whole gasification plant operation and control without tempering the safety requirements.

Keywords

LNG Gasification Process Boil-off Gas Compressors Dynamic Modeling and Optimization Energy-saving Operation

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