An LNG train Capacity of 1 BSCFD is a realistic objective

Presented at Annual Conferenec in Barcelona, September 2000, by Henry Padarowski and Philip Hagyard, Technip.
With the sustained high growth of markets in natural gas, LPG and ethylene and the incentive to reduce
costs, capacities of gas processing trains for cryogenic recovery of ethane rich NGL have increased in
a spectacular way in just a few years. Thus natural gas treatment capacities of 28 Million Sm3/d
(1000 MMSCFD) and ethylene plants with outputs above 1 MTPA have become common if not
standard.
LNG production trains have also seen an astonishing progression in handling capacities.
600 MMSCFD, which was a research objective seven years ago, is now a reality and the question is
whether a train capacity of 1000 MMSCFD is worth consideration. Such an increase promises to reduce
the unit production cost of the LNG.
The dash for economies of scale in the risk sensitive LNG industry naturally raises questions of the
adaptation of processes and the configuration of machinery and other main equipment to remain within
the design limits of proven solutions.
The paper presents a study of options for gas pre-treatment, NGL extraction, liquefaction and nitrogen
removal. Gas pre-treatment draws on the lessons from large gas processing projects.
The heart of the paper presents the results from a study of four mixed refrigerant processes:
· Propane pre-cooled MCR (APCI)
· Dual Mixed Refrigerant (APCI)
· Dual Mixed Refrigerant (IFP)
· Single Mixed Refrigerant (GdF)
The case study assumes an LNG facility fed from the Qatar North Field with three GE Frame 7 gas
turbine drivers.
To evaluate their relative merits, each process scheme is developed and compared making the best
possible use of available equipment solutions.
The cost saving for a single train is estimated by comparison with two trains of 500 MMSCFD. The
concept proves to be feasible, with production per train of 6 Mtpa LNG and 0.7 Mtpa of C3+ NGL.