Update | LNG on the move
LIQVIS and VTG successfully trial LNG rail transport in Germany
Uniper LNG subsidiary LIQVIS and rail logistics specialist VTG have successfully trialled rail transport of liquefied natural gas in specially developed tank wagons. Chart Ferox provided technical support for filling operations at the Elbe port, Brunsbüttel. The LNG was then transported 800 km by rail to Uniper’s Ingolstadt power plant. VTG has collaborated with Chart Ferox to develop an innovative rail tank wagon for LNG that can “bypass shipping routes, road haulage and the pipeline network to transport LNG across Europe.” The new wagons employ thermally insulated tanks to keep the liquefied gas at constant temperature during filling and transportation. “VTG already has the expertise and the logistic concepts that are needed to move LNG around
Europe’s rail networks,” says Heinz Jürgen Hiller, business development, LNG Europe, VTG. “As a kind of ‘pipeline to go’, our LNG tank wagons can permanently supply LNG to whole industries with a voracious appetite for energy.” “In recent years, a strategically favourable location at the point where the Elbe flows into the Kiel Canal has combined with close proximity to the port of Hamburg and direct access to the Baltic and Scandinavian markets to establish the Elbe port, Brunsbüttel, as one of the leading LNG terminals on Germany’s North Sea coast,” says Frank Schnabel, MD of Brunsbüttel Ports GmbH/ the SCHRAMM Group. “Both truck-to-ship and ship-to-ship LNG bunkering are business as usual in Brunsbüttel, and plans for an LNG import and
distribution terminal are proceeding apace. LNG could then be redistributed from Brunsbüttel by rail (in co-operation with VTG), by LNG bunker vessel or via the pipeline network.”
LNG rail transport trials underway: loading operations at the Elbe port, Brunsbüttel. © VTG AG
Factory LNG: liquefaction at small-to-mid scale
MAN Energy Solutions and Woodside Energy – a “pioneer of the Australian LNG industry” – have signed a co-operation agreement aimed at commercialising at what is described as “an innovative solution for small-to-mid scale LNG production.” Known as Factory LNG, the technology combines Woodside’s intellectual property and LNG experience with MAN’s “global manufacturing and project-execution expertise.” The concept involves a 0.05 Mtpa (nominal) unit, the size of 40-foot ISO shipping container, that can
be transported via standard heavy-lift shipping and trucking logistics. It also includes MAN’s HOFIM® high-speed, oil-free, integrated motor-compressor technology, proven in, for example, subsea compression-station applications.
Factory LNG offers 10 years’ “low-to-no touch” maintenance and provides flexible layout options making it easily adaptable to site constraints. The partners believe the newly developed concept has the potential to “unlock liquefaction capabilities at multiple locations around the
globe.” The system is designed and manufactured to be scalable so customers can increase the number of Factory LNG units used as the market grows, delivering LNG at pace with demand. Wayne Jones, chief sales officer and member of the executive board of MAN Energy Solutions, said: “Liquefied natural gas represents an essential bridging technology towards a carbon- free future. With our new solution, LNG can be broadly applied, opening up significant potential for customers worldwide.”
LNG virtual pipeline replaces diesel at Australian gold mine
A virtual pipeline of LNG trucked over 650 km is fuelling Ora Banda Mining’s Davyhurst gold mine, about 150 km north of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia.
It is expected to reduce the mine’s carbon emissions by about 25 000 t over the next five years.
Aggreko gensets at Davyhurst gold mine, Western Australia
Aggreko Australia Pacific MD, George Whyte, described Davyhurst as “a great example of how
a mine which previously operated on diesel wanted to operate on cleaner fuel.” The mine has five Aggreko rental generating sets running on LNG and two using diesel, total installed capacity 8.2 MW.
The mine power station, using high speed piston engines, is described as “very suitable for transient loads and for the introduction of solar at a later stage.”
Rosatom sees opportunities in LNG
Atomenergomash, mechanical engineering division of Rosatom (Russian state nuclear corporation) has completed the construction of what it describes as “Europe’s first and the third in the world test rig” for medium- and large-scale LNG plant equipment, eg pumps, expanders and compressors.
The rig will be used for certification tests on both Russian and imported equipment.
Rosatom says LNG is now a key development focus for its non-nuclear businesses and says that in 2020, the “first large-scale LNG pump in the history of the Russian gas and petrochemical
12 | September 2021 |
www.modernpowersystems.com
industry was put into commercial operation.” This electric pump was developed and manufactured by Afrikantov OKBM (an Atomenergomash company), which is also a developer of marine based reactors and small modular reactor technology (see pp 35-36).
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