Front.

Energy
DOI 10.1007/s11708-016-0397-7

REVIEW ARTICLE

Feier XUE, Yu CHEN, Yonglin JU

A review of cryogenic power generation cycles with liqueed

natural gas cold energy utilization

Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2016

Abstract Liqueed natural gas (LNG), an increasingly

widely applied clean fuel, releases a large number of cold
energy in its regasication process. In the present paper,
the existing power generation cycles utilizing LNG cold
energy are introduced and summarized. The direction of
cycle improvement can be divided into the key factors
affecting basic power generation cycles and the structural
enhancement of cycles utilizing LNG cold energy. The
former includes the effects of LNG-side parameters,
working uids, and inlet and outlet thermodynamic
parameters of equipment, while the latter is based on
Rankine cycle, Brayton cycle, Kalina cycle and their
compound cycles. In the present paper, the diversities of
cryogenic power generation cycles utilizing LNG cold
energy are discussed and analyzed. It is pointed out that
further researches should focus on the selection and
component matching of organic mixed working uids
and the combination of process simulation and experimental investigation, etc.
Keywords liqueed natural gas (LNG) cold energy,
power generation cycle, Rankine cycle, compound cycle

Introduction

Liqueed natural gas (LNG) is the nal product of natural

gas (NG) in the processes of de-acidication, de-hydration
and liquefaction, which comes to the ultimate state of
liquid mixture with a low temperature of 162C [1]. The
main composition of LNG consists of methane (90%),

ethane (0.1%5%), nitrogen (0.5%1%) and a small

amount of hydrocarbon of C3C5. Compared with the
conventional energies, such as coal and oil, the absence of
sulfur in LNG composition decreases the amount of
environmentally hazardous gases produced after regasication and combustion. Besides, the greenhouse gases
generated during NG burning are only 1/2 and 2/3 of an
equal amount of coal and oil, respectively. Considering the
severe environmental issue, it is reasonable to believe that
LNG with low emission problems will be the dominating
energy in the future in preference to coal and oil.
In practical applications, only after regasication can
LNG be used. However, the traditional ways of regasication using seawater or air vaporizer will lead to a huge loss
of the cold energy of LNG. Therefore, the establishment of
cryogenic power generation cycles utilizing LNG cold
energy becomes an important way to recovery cold energy.
Due to the high quality of electricity, turbine coupled to an
electrical generator is usually adopted to achieve electricity
output in cryogenic power generation cycles.
The present paper focuses on the power generation
cycles taking advantages of LNG cold energy, classifying
the existing studies into the key factors affecting basic
power generation cycles and the structure enhancement,
which provides a prole of alternative power generation
cycles using LNG cold energy.

2 Basic power generation cycles utilizing

LNG cold energy and the effects of key
factors
2.1

Basic LNG power generation cycles

Received October 23, 2015; accepted December 20, 2015

Feier XUE, Yonglin JU ( )

Institute of Refrigeration and Cryogenics, Shanghai Jiao Tong
University, Shanghai 200240, China
E-mail: yju@sjtu.edu.cn
Yu CHEN
College of Mechanical Engineering, Shanghai University of Engineering
Science, Shanghai 201620, China

Basic LNG power generation cycles utilizing cold energy

mainly include direct expansion of LNG, Rankine cycle
using intermediate cooling medium, and the combination
of aforementioned cycles. These three kinds of power
generation cycles have been in practical use with relatively
mature technology. In Osaka Gas Company in Japan, for
example, as early as 1979 and 1982, the Rankine cycle

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using propane as the working uid and the combined cycle

have been in use and achieved an output power of 1450
kW and 6000 kW, respectively [2].
LNG direct expansion is an open cycle, as shown in
Fig. 1, and converts the pressure exergy of LNG into power
output, which exploits LNG exergy in a relatively direct
but inefcient way. In this case, LNG from the storage tank
is pumped up and vaporized into NG with a high
temperature and pressure. NG is fed into the turbine and
is expanded to output electric energy by a generator linked
to a rotating shaft. The turbine exhaust is heated by a heat
source, where seawater or residual heat is always
employed, and nally is transported to users receiving
terminal as demanded. In spite of principle-simplicity and
cost-saving, the inefciency of direct expansion has
restricted it to the assisting of other basic cycles in
application.
In Rankine cycle, intermediate cooling medium (working uid with low boiling temperature is usually
employed) goes through four stages of condensation,
compression, vaporization and expansion to generate
power, using LNG as its heat sink and low quality heat
(including solar energy, air, water, industrial waste heat,
etc.) as its heat source, as presented in Fig. 2. Compared to
direct expansion, the Rankine cycle primarily utilizes
cryogenic exergy of LNG instead of pressure exergy and
achieves higher efciency in performance due to the
reduced turbine back pressure. However, the large
temperature difference between the single working uid
and LNG in the process of heat exchange in the condenser
always causes a great loss of exergy, which increases the
irreversibility of the whole cycle.

Fig. 2

Fig. 3 Schematic diagram of Rankine cycle with direct expansion of LNG

concerned, the combined cycle is the most commonly used

one among cryogenic power generation cycles of LNG in
practical power plant.
2.2 Effects of key parameters of basic LNG power
generation cycles

The effects of key parameters on the cycle performance

chiey revolve around basic Rankine cycle and the
combined cycle for their extensive application. In this
section, LNG-side parameters, circulatory working uids
and input and output factors of crucial equipment are
discussed.
2.2.1

Fig. 1

Schematic diagram of direct expansion of LNG

The combined cycle is the integration of direct

expansion and Rankine cycle, as illustrated in Fig. 3.
The combined cycle can use the cryogenic and pressure
exergy simultaneously and the connection between the two
sub-cycles is realized through the condenser where the
working uid obtains the cold energy released by LNG.
The power output is generated from both the working uid
turbine and the NG turbine. As far as the efciency is

Schematic diagram of Rankin cycle

Effect of LNG-side parameters

Liu and Guo [3] have determined the impacts of LNG

temperature, pressure and concentration of methane in
LNG on LNG exergy. It is reported that the cryogenic
exergy, the pressure exergy and the total exergy of LNG
increase with the rising ambient temperature at a specied
composition of methane. When the pressure of LNG rises
up, the pressure exergy increases while the cryogenic
exergy decreases, both of which make the total exergy rst
reduce then level off. The reason for the decline of
cryogenic exergy is that the rise of the LNG pressure
makes itself a higher bubble-point, which accordingly
decreases the temperature difference between the LNG and
the ambient. In the meantime, the state of LNG gets much
closer to the critical section where there is a lower latent
heat of vaporization. In addition, the cryogenic exergy, the
pressure exergy and the total exergy of LNG increase as the

Feier XUE et al. Cryogenic power generation cycles utilizing cold energy of liqueed natural gas

mole fraction of methane rises at a specied ambient

temperature and pressure.
Bai [4] has adjusted the pressure and temperature of
LNG and the concentration of methane in LNG respectively in the proposed Rankine cycle using propane as the
working uid, with molar ow change of propane to match
the adjustment. The power output of the cycle is inuenced
by the above LNG-side parameters and it is further
analyzed that the rise of the methane composition in LNG
at a certain pressure will decrease the bubble-point of LNG
and increase the temperature difference between LNG and
the ambient, which clearly makes a higher cryogenic
exergy. Besides, the consequent decline of molar mass
causes an augmented pressure exergy, which improves the
overall ability of power generation.
The temperature difference and pressure difference
between LNG and reference environment mutually contribute to a considerable LNG cold exergy. The research
results above show that the temperature and pressure of
LNG directly inuence LNG exergy and the performance
of cycle while the concentration change of the dominating
composition of methane mediately alters the temperature
and pressure difference and affects LNG exergy as a result,
by changing its own physical attributes, embracing bubblepoint and molar mass, etc. Thus a proper type of cycle
should be chosen to utilize LNG exergy effectively
according to the condition of LNG. The concentration of
methane in LNG has determined the ability of cycle power
output within limit. As for the practical applications, the
upper bound of methane concentration interval can be
regarded as an ideal working condition and the lower
bound as a severe condition, so as to simulate practical
engineering in a comprehensive way.
2.2.2

Working uid

1) Single working uid

The principles of the selection of the single working
uid in cryogenic Rankine cycle and the combined cycle
are presented as follows: friendly to environment, large
heat of vaporization, good chemical and thermal stability,
high thermal conductivity, small kinetic viscosity, nearly
vertical liquid saturation line, non-toxic, easy to produce
and low cost, etc [5]. Moreover, the triple point of the
working uid should be lower than the lowest temperature
of system operation, which ensures that the solidication
and the jam of the working uid will not happen at any
place in the circulation [4].
Lu et al. [6] have selected different working uids
to compare their performance in sub-critical Rankine cycle
with LNG as its heat sink and seawater as its heat source.
The regularity appears similar when employing four
working uids of R152a (CH3CHF2), R290 (C3H8),
R600 (C4H10) and R134a (CH2FCF3) in the investigated
cycle, i.e., the total amount of electricity generated
from circulation rst increases and then decreases with

the evaporation temperature rising, which conrms that

there exists an optimal evaporation temperature where
the power output gets the maximum. Meanwhile, R290 is
proved to be with the comprehensively optimum properties
in contrast to other working uids in enthalpy drop within
equal entropy, saturation pressure and other attributes.
Corresponding to a heat source temperature of 20C,
the best evaporation temperature of R290 maintains at
11.08C.
Liu et al. [7] have established the dependencies between
LNG utilized temperature and unit power output in LNGseawater Rankine cycle. It is revealed that at a specied
LNG vaporization pressure, an optimal LNG utilized
temperature exists which makes the unit power output
maximum. In view of the existence of temperature
difference between cold and hot uids in the heat transfer
process happened in condenser, the optimal condensing
temperature of working uid is supposed to be deduced
according to the optimal LNG utilized temperature to
obtain the max output.
Consequently, the optimum condensing and vaporizing
temperature ought to be taken into account as part of the
principles when selecting the single working uid in
Rankine cycle and the combined cycle.
Zhang et al. [8] have screened and constructed the
refrigerant uids in LNG-seawater power system, adopting
a novel group contribution method (GCM). Vital attribute
values, in which critical point, thermal conductivity,
enthalpy of vaporization and heat capacity are included,
can be calculated based on GCM in the selection of
working uids. According to GCM calculation model,
CHF3 is recommended to be a prior choice to the
conventional refrigerant uids embracing R22 (CHClF2),
R134a (CH2FCF3) and R410a with the evaluating
indicators of LNG exergetic efciency and thermal
efciency. High density of CHF3 decreases the total ow
rate in circulation and economizes the material cost; its
lower boiling point makes trans critical cycle possible,
which improves the overall cycle performance; a larger
heat capacity reduces the ow rate of working uid at a
required amount of heat transmission, shrinks the size of
the pipelines, and decreases the pump power input.
2) Mixed working uids
Although Rankine cycle and the combined cycle
employing propane as working uid are the most feasible
ways to recovery LNG cold exergy, isothermal phase
change process of single medium in condenser makes a
great LNG exergy loss which connes the cycle performance to a relatively low level. Considering the fact that
the condensing temperature of mixed working uid
matches well with LNG vaporization temperature, due to
the temperature-variation phase change of mixed media,
the single working uid is supposed to be substituted by
the mixed one to enhance the overall cycle performance.
The mixture of R22 and R142b (CH3CClF2) has been
proved to perform better than any one of two pure

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refrigerated uids in LNG cold energy power system,

according to the study conducted by Kim et al. [9].
However, the gradually severe environment issue constricts the use of Freon, and organic mixed uids turn into
commonly employed media.
Zhu et al. [10] have compared the performance of
propane and ternary mixed uids consisting of propane,
ethylene and isobutane at a mole fraction ratio of
0.39:0.16:0.45 in LNG-air Rankine cycle. The investigation shows that the LTMD (logarithmic mean temperature
difference) of ternary mixed uids gets much smaller than
the propane and the utility efciency of cold energy is
increased by 41.04%.
Wang [5] has proposed an isentropic uid, which is a
mixture of propane and isobutane at a mole fraction ratio of
0.7:0.3, in the LNG-waste gas Rankine cycle. The
isentropic mixture is able to maintain the turbine exhaust
at a lower pressure and temperature, and consequently
improves the efciency of the turbine. It is reported that the
cycle employing the isentropic mixture performs with the
highest thermal efciency when altering the mole fraction
ratio of propane and isobutane under the similar working
condition. However, adding isobutane to pure propane to
constitute the mixture will elevate the allowable minimum
condensing temperature and narrow working uid operational temperature interval of the cycle.
Chen [11] has adopted the mixture of propane and
butane as working uid in Rankine cycle using LNG as its
heat sink. The study states the variation trend of the
exergetic efciency of vaporizer and condenser along with
the change of mixing ratio and mixture ow rate. When the
ow rate of mixture is xed, the variation tendency of the
exergetic efciency of the vaporizer along with the change
of the mixing ratio is complex while the exergetic
efciency of the condenser declines as the concentration
of propane in mixture rises up. Additionally, there exists an
optimal mixture ow rate where the exergetic efciency of
the vaporizer reaches the peak while the exergetic
efciency of the condenser declines with the ow rate of
the mixture rising.
Besides, plenty of researches have been devoted to
Rankine cycle and combined cycle employing ammoniawater mixture as its working uid. Miyazaki et al. [12]
have built a combined cycle with exhaust gas as heat
source and LNG as heat sink to separately analyze the
performance of ammonia-water and water vapor. It is
presented that the exergetic efciency and thermal
efciency of the former is 1.53 and 1.43 times of the
latter, respectively. Gao and Wang [13] have proposed a
novel LNG power generation cycle employing ammoniawater as the working medium in the basis of conventional
thermodynamic cycle and LNG cold energy utilization.
The thermal efciency of this novel cycle rises up by
14.5% and the exergetic efciency reaches 53.6%. It is also
concluded in the report that the critical reasons for
efciency improvement are the decrease of average

exothermic temperature and proper matching between the

vaporization and the condensation. Wang et al. [14] have
adopted a heat recovery vapor generator (HRGV), where
vaporization is classied into three different regions
including a sub-cooled region, an evaporation region,
and a super-heated region, to replace the conventional
vaporizer in Rankine cycle using ammonia-water as the
working medium. An optimal components ratio of
ammonia and water is discovered at an ammonia mass
fraction of 0.7 to obtain the peak of the net work output in
the discussed cycle.
2.2.3
ment

Inlet and outlet thermodynamic parameters of equip-

Research on the inlet and outlet key parameters of

equipment provides available directions for cycle optimization, which is conducted by changing key parameters to
obtain the variation regularity of cycle power output,
thermal and exergetic efciency and other valuable
indicators. The inspected parameters include but are not
limited to the turbine inlet temperature and pressure, as
well as the vaporizer outlet temperature, etc.
In LNG-seawater combined cycle, the increase of the
turbine inlet temperature of the working uid and NG will
markedly improve the overall power output of cycle, as
reported by Bai [4]. Rao et al. [15] have suggested LNGresidual heat Rankine cycle using ethane as its working
uid and presented that the systematic thermal efciency
and total power output increase with the pressure ratio
ascending between the vaporizer outlet pressure and the
condenser outlet pressure of the working uid. Xue et al.
[16] have proposed a two-stage LNG-exhaust gas Rankine
cycle. It is pointed out that the cost per net power output
increases with the rising turbine inlet pressure and the mass
ow of the working uid in each stage, which indicates an
enhancement in cycle economic performance.

Structural enhancement

A few studies [17,18] of the structural enhancement are

conducted toward LNG direct expansion. Most structural
enhancement types in LNG cold energy power cycles are
built on Rankine cycle and Brayton cycle. Meanwhile,
Kalina cycle which characteristically employs absorber
and separator are proposed to make use of the property of
non-azeotropic mixtures. Compound cycles with higher
structural complicacy are established by integrating
Rankine cycle, Brayton cycle or Kalina cycle to make
better cycle performance available.
3.1

Structural enhancement based on Rankine cycle

The working uids employed in Rankine cycle vary from

most widely used propane to ethane, ammonia-water,

Feier XUE et al. Cryogenic power generation cycles utilizing cold energy of liqueed natural gas

organic refrigerating mixture and CO2, etc. The heat

sources are also extended from seawater to industrial waste
heat, exhaust gas, geothermic heat, and solar energy, etc.
Kim and Kim [19] have conducted a modied combined
cycle with regeneration, using a low-level heat of 200C
and ammonia-water as working uid at an ammonia mass
fraction of 60%, as presented in Fig. 4. In this ammoniawater cycle, the liquid ammonia-water, which is rst
pumped up by the working uid pump, is preheated in the
regenerator by the hot stream of the exhaust mixture from
the turbine. The process utilizes the heat of turbine exhaust
to raise the inlet temperature of turbine and to improve the
work output afterwards. Huang et al. [20] have proposed a
trans critical regenerative Rankine cycle, adopting CO2 as
the working medium and LNG and geothermic heat as the
heat sink and heat source, respectively. Figure 5 depicts the
schematic diagram of the system. The regenerative
Rankine part is accomplished by the working uid of
CO2. The heat source consisting of water vapor and CO2 is
condensed by the working uid of CO2 and LNG
successively then fed to the separator where liquid water
outows from the bottom and CO2 from the top. The CO2
separated from water transfers heat to LNG and nally
turns into the state of liquid for recovery. In this system, the
cold exergy of LNG, on the one hand, drives the working
uid to export power through turbine, and on the other,
provides cooling capacity of CO2 liquefaction to control
carbon emission.

Fig. 4 Schematic diagram of the regenerative Rankine cycle

with direct expansion of LNG [19]

Poly-stage inclination is another important approach of

Rankine cycle to make structures enhanced, mainly based
on the theory of cascade utilization of LNG cold energy
according to LNG regasication curve.
Yang [21] has established a LNG-seawater two-stage
Rankine cycle of horizontal focusing on 7 MPa LNG in the
condition of super-critical regasication. As demonstrated
in Fig. 6, the loops from left to right in turn are the rst and
second stage of the whole system and ethane and
propylene are employed respectively. In this system, the
working uids in the two stages obtain LNG cold energy
successively and individually drive their own Rankine subcycle. Compared with the Rankine cycle employing only

Fig. 5
[20]

Schematic diagram of CO2 regenerative Rankine cycle

Fig. 6 Schematic diagram of two-stage Rankine cycle of

horizontal [21]

propylene, the proposed two-stage Rankine system has an

improvement in electrical power output by 36.47%.
In view of the great exergetic loss in the condensers of
the horizontal cycle, Yang [21] has established a threestage vertical cycle to reduce the systematic exergetic loss,
as illustrated in Fig. 7. The loops from the bottom to the top
are the rst, second and third stage, using propylene,
ethylene and ethylene as working uid, respectively. Both
of the outlet gases from turbine in the top and the central
stage are divided into two streams, one of which is used to
assist the LNG regasication through HX2 and HX1.
Besides, the top stage takes seawater as its heat source
while the central and bottom stage respectively utilizes
exothermic heat from the turbine exhausted in the previous
stage. The transformation from horizontal type to vertical
type implements the segmented utilization of LNG cold
energy, which improves the performance of the whole
system.
Considering the fact that the condenser outlet temperature of LNG is still low and the corresponding part of LNG
cold energy is not utilized yet, Choi et al. [22] have
established a triple cascade Rankine cycle, as displayed in
Fig. 8. In Cd1, LNG acts as the cold uid and the out
working uid as the hot uid; in Cd2, the central working
uid works as the hot uid while LNG and outer medium
provide cold capacity; in Cd3, only inner working uid
serves as hot uid while the other three uids absorb the

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Fig. 7 Schematic diagram of three-stage Rankine cycle of

vertical [21]

Fig. 8
[22]

Schematic diagram of three-stage cascade Rankine cycle

heat released. Compared to the basic Rankine cycle, the

thermal efciency of the proposed one is signicantly
increased at the expense of higher systematic structural
complexity and instability due to adopting the multi-stream
heat exchangers.
A brief summary of main structural improvements of
Rankine cycles [4,5,12,14,15,21,2328] is presented in
Table 1.
3.2

Structural enhancement based on Brayton cycle

Brayton cycle, which makes use of LNG cold energy to

reduce the compressor inlet gas temperature, signicantly
reduces the power consumption of the compressor under
the condition of a specied compression ratio and
improves the net work output of the circulation; the
temperature curves of LNG regasication and working gas
cooling match better than those in the Rankine cycle
employing single working medium, which can effectively
improve the cycle thermodynamics performance. The
typical nitrogen Brayton cycle combining with LNG direct

expansion is exhibited in Fig. 9. On one side, the

compressed LNG passes cooling capacity to nitrogen,
goes through heat exchanging with heat source and is fed
to NG turbine to export power. On the other side, nitrogen
obtaining cooling capacity enters the compressor at a lower
temperature, and after heated by heat source it enters the
turbine for power output in a state of high temperature and
high pressure and then returns to the LNG-nitrogen heat
exchanger.
Agazzani et al. [29] have proposed an improved Brayton
cycle employing helium as the working uid and heat of
combustion as the heat source. A regenerator has been
installed between the helium compressor and HX2 to
increase the helium turbine inlet temperature, as presented
in Fig. 10. Morosuk and Tsatsaronis [30] have built up a
novel Brayton cycle, as shown in Fig. 11. After two-stage
compression with intermediate cooling, air assists fuel
burning in the combustion chamber combustion. Then
combustion gas with a high temperature enters the gas
turbine for power output and the exhaust provides the heat
for helium Brayton cycle. LNG completes direct expansion
through the NG turbine after vaporizing in HX1 and HX2.
Dispenza et al. [31] have established another structureenhanced Brayton cycle, using open NG combustion
exhaust gas from two-stage expansion as the heat source.
The overall power output of the proposed circulation
comes from both the expansion of helium and NG, in
which way the power-output ability of the whole cycle is
improved. Other researchers also put forward cycles
similar to Dispenzas structure [32,33].
Considering the fact that most of the turbine power
output is consumed by compressor driving, which limits
the net work output of the whole system, a cascade of
compression and expansion becomes one of the
approaches to modify Brayton cycle. Tomkw and
Cholewiski [34] has proposed a novel Brayton cycle
with two-stage compression and two-stage expansion, as
shown in Fig. 12. Both HX1 and HX2 are multi-stream
heat exchangers, which provide intermediate heating for
two-stage expansion and intermediate cooling for twostage compression, respectively. In addition, the complex
MGT (mirror gas turbine) cycle is recommended by
Kaneko et al. [35]. In this proposed cycle, LNG is rst
employed for intercooling of four-stage air compression
then fed to the NG turbine to export electrical power in gas
state. NG out of the NG turbine burns with the compressed
air in the combustion chamber then goes into the gas
turbine. In spite of the superior performance compared to
basic types, the structural complexity of MGT restricts its
scope of practical application.
3.3

Structural enhancement based on Kalina cycle

The advantage of Kalina cycle which employs the nonazeotropic mixtures (ammonia-water is used mostly) as the
working medium mainly lies in two aspects: the variable

Feier XUE et al. Cryogenic power generation cycles utilizing cold energy of liqueed natural gas

Table 1 A brief summary of main structures of enhanced Rankine cycles

Type enhanced
RC a)

The
combined
cycle

Installing
regenerator

Poly-stage RC

Researchers

Structural
description

Working uid

Heat source

Cycle characteristics

Rao et al. [15]

RC

Ethane

Residual
heat

When the temperature of heat source is below 260C and LNG vaporizing
pressure is greater than a certain value, auxiliary heat source should be
applied for LNG regasication in case of insufcient heat transfer in the
condenser.

Wang et al. [14]

RC

Ammoniawater

Residual
heat

Cycle uses HRVGb) instead of general vaporizer to enhance turbine inlet

temperature of ammonia steam.

Miyazaki et al.
[12]

RC + DEC c)

Ammoniawater

Exhaust
gas

Temperature glide occurred in heat transfer process in the condenser between

ammonia-water and LNG effectively reduces heat loss.

Bai [4]

RC + DEC

Ethane

Residual
heat

Working medium compressed by the pump exchanges heat with cold water
and waste heat successively; cooling capacity obtained by cold water can be
used for air conditioning system or compressor cooling, etc. Two-stage heat
exchanging improves the turbine inlet temperature.

Cao and Lu [23]

RC + DEC

Propane

Seawater

Working medium propane vaporized by seawater is shunt for two strands,

one of which drives Rankine cycle and the other directly transfers heat to
LNG out of the condenser; both strands get remixed through mixer and fed
into working medium pump.

Wang et al. [24]

Trans critical
RC + DEC

CO2

Sun et al. [25]

RC + DEC

Propylene

Solar
energy

Water heated by solar energy and assistant electric heater provides heat
needed for the system. Propylene completes Rankine cycle as working uid.

Sun et al. [26]

Regenerative
RC + DEC

Mixture
(methane:
ethylene:
propane
mol%=
0.3:0.4:0.3)

Residual
heat

MSCHE (multi-stream cryogenic heat exchanger) is used to substitute

conventional vaporizer in the cycle. In MSCHE, LNG through the rst
channel releases a large amount of cold; boosted mixed working medium
sent into the second channel gains cold energy then completes heat transfer
to refrigerant and external heat source respectively and expands to output
power; high-temperature gas from medium turbine outlet goes into the third
channel as a hot uid to release heat. In addition, cold energy obtained by the
refrigerant from mixed medium will be supplied to the air conditioning
system.

Wang [5]

Regenerative
RC + DEC

Mixture
(propane and
isobutane)

Exhaust
gas

Working medium is vaporized by regenerator and exhaust gas heater in

succession, which effectively realizes utilization of exhaust gas waste heat
and reduces condenser loads.

Yang [21]

3-stage RC
of horizontal

Ethane/Ethane/
propylene

Seawater

Considering three-stage recovery of LNG cold energy, LNG successively

acts as cold uid for left ethane RC, central ethane RC and right propylene
RC. Three loops from left to right operate individually and in each loop twostage expansion is achieved by working medium with intermediate heat
absorption from seawater.

2-stage RC CO2/R245fa
of horizontal (CF3CH2CHF2)
+ DEC

Residual
heat

LNG serves as the heat sink for super-critical CO2 Rankine cycle and R245fa
Rankine cycle while residual heat provides requisite heat in the opposite
order.

Exhaust
gas

Lower ethylene Rankine cycle and upper propane Rankine cycle are linked
through ethylene-propane heat exchanger where ethylene is vaporized and
propane is condensed. Additionally, a strand of stream from propane turbine
is elicited to heat LNG out of ethylene condenser and fed to propane pump in
liquid state.

Seawater

Ethylene, the working uid of the upper Rankine cycle, is divided into three
shares after expansion, one of which is directly used for LNG regasication,
and two remaining shares supply needed heat for two-stage expansion in the
lower propylene Rankine cycle, which makes up the systematic defect of
insufcient work output.

Cao et al. [27]

Zhu et al. [28]

Yang [21]

2-stage RC
of vertical

Ethylene/
propane

2-stage
Propylene /
regenerative ethylene
RC of vertical

Geothermic After absorbing the heat from geothermic water, CO2 is fed into the turbine
heat
to export electrical power; LNG heated by CO2 and the ambient, in gas state
is also sent into the NG turbine to do work.

Notes: a) RCRankine cycle; b) HRGV heat recovery vapor generator; c) DEC direct expansion cycle

temperature evaporation of the working uid reduces the

irreversibility of endothermic process and the small
temperature change in the condenser of basic working

medium, which contains less solute, alleviates irreversibility of condensation process.

In recent researches, the working media used in Kalina

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Fig. 9 Schematic diagram of Brayton cycle with direct expansion of LNG

Fig. 12 Schematic diagram of two-Stage Brayton cycle [34]

Fig. 10 Schematic diagram of the regenerative Brayton cycle

with direct expansion of LNG [29]

absorbing heat from the heat source, ammonia-water

mixture with a high temperature is fed into the separator
which separates the mixture into rich ammonia vapor and
weak ammonia-water solution. The rich ammonia vapor
drives the medium turbine and the exhaust is condensed by
LNG and boosted into the absorber, where the vapor is
remixed with weak ammonia-water solution, which has
completed heat exchanging with the LNG in the
regenerator and the throttling. The NG turbine exhaust
obtains heat from the remixed solution and is transported to
users terminal while the remixed solution cooled by the
LNG cold energy enters the working uid booster and
returns to exchange heat with the external heat source. In
this loop, the rich ammonia vapor possesses a great ability
to export power and the weak ammonia-water solution
with a high temperature can provide the heat needed for
LNG direct expansion, both of which increase the power
output from the cycle.
3.4

Fig. 11 Schematic diagram of improved Brayton cycle with

direct expansion of LNG [30]

cycle have been extended from ammonia-water to

ethylene-propane mixture and trauoromethane-propane
mixture, etc. Structural enhancement based on Kalina
cycle includes installing regenerator, two-stage expansion
or combination with LNG direct expansion, etc. The main
structures of Kalina cycles are summarized in Table 2
[4,3639].
Figure 13 is a schematic diagram of a novel Kalina cycle
combined with LNG direct expansion, adopting ammoniawater mixture as the working medium [36]. After

Compound cycles

The Rankine cycle, Brayton cycle, Kalina cycle and LNG

direct expansion are frequently integrated to form
compound cycles which have a superior cycle performance
with relatively complex structures. Some researchers have
also established novel compound cycles combining with
the gas turbine. The main structures of compound cycles
are presented in Table 3 [2,34,4044]. The compound
cycles raised by Zhang and Lior [42] and Tomkw and
cholewiski [34] are elaborated as follows, respectively.
Zhang and Lior [42] have set up a near-zero CO2
emission thermal cycle combining the CO2 super-critical
Rankine cycle with the CO2 Brayton cycle. As shown in
Fig. 14, NG turbine exhaust burns with the product of air
separator unit (ASU) in the combustion chamber and the
combustion gas expands in the gas turbine and provides
heat for CO2 vaporization in three-channel and common
heat exchangers successively. Then the mixture out of the
common heat exchanger is fed to the separator which
separates water out of the bottom and CO2 out of the top.

Feier XUE et al. Cryogenic power generation cycles utilizing cold energy of liqueed natural gas

Table 2 Summary of main structures of Kalina cycles

Structural description

Working uids

Heat source

Utilization efciency of available energy/%

Liu and Guo [37]

KC

Mixture (ethylene: propane

mol% = 0.600.40)

Seawater

25.3

Liu and Guo [38]

KC

Mixture (trauoromethane:
propane mol% = 0.730.27)

Seawater

23.5

KCa) + DECb)

Mixture (trauoromethane:
propane mol% = 0.730.27)

Industrial waste
heat

24.0

Shi and Che [39]

KC + DEC

Mixture (ammonia: water

mass% = 0.500.50)

Industrial waste
heat

33.28

Wang et al. [36]

KC + DEC

Mixture (ammonia: water

mass% = 0.520.48)

Industrial waste
heat

39.33

Researchers

Bai [4]

Notes: a) KCKalina cycle; b) DECdirect expansion cycle

Fig. 13 Schematic diagram of Kalina cycle with direct expansion of LNG [36]

The cooled CO2 goes through a two-stage compression

and returns to the combustion chamber. One stream of the
CO2 from the low-level compressor completes the supercritical Rankine cycle. In the present compound cycle,
LNG cold energy is used for cooling the inlet gases of the
compressors and the CO2 condensation, while the

systematic power output is generated by the Rankine

cycle and the gas turbine. One part of the CO2 produced by
NG combustion acts as the working uid of the Rankine
circulation and the other part is condensed into liquid for
storage instead of direct discharge to the environment,
which makes the whole cycle close to zero-CO2 emission.
The integration of Rankine cycle and Kalina cycle is
established by Tomkw and Cholewiski [34], as
illustrated in Fig. 15. The reason for the employment of
krypton-ethane mixture as working medium in the Kalina
part is that the boiling point of krypton differs far away
from that of ethane, which makes it easy to separate one
from the other; besides, it is harder for the inert gas krypton
to react with other components. Representative devices of
Kalina cycle are the separator and the absorber. The former
separates the krypton-ethane mixture into rich krypton gas
which accomplishes two-stage expansion for power output
and weak krypton solution which heats the mixture pump
outlet liquid krypton-ethane solution. The latter remixes
rich and weak krypton solution back to krypton-ethane
mixture. The three-channel condenser realizes the connection between the propane Rankine cycles and the Kalina
cycles, where LNG works as the cold uid and propane
and rich krypton turbine exhaust serve as the hot uids.

Table 3 Summary of main structures of compound cycles

Structural description

Working uids

Heat source

Utilization efciency of
available energy/%

Xia et al. [40]

BCa) + regenerative RCb)

+ DECc)

Nitrogen/ammonia-water

Industrial waste heat

51.04

Lu and Wang [41]

RC + DEC + gas turbine

Exhaust gas/ammonia-water

Heat of combustion

Super-critical RC + BC

CO2/CO2

Heat of combustion

50

Researchers

Zhang and Lior [42]

Shi et al. [43]

RC + DEC + gas turbine

Exhaust gas/water vapor

Heat of combustion

59.24

Najjar [44]

RC + 2-stage DEC + gas

turbine

Propane/exhaust gas

Seawater-heat of combustion

35.84

Hisazumi et al. [2]

2-stage RC + gas turbine

+ 2-stage DEC

Freon/water vapor/exhaust gas

Heat of combustion

56

RC + KCd)

Propane/mixture of krypton and ethane

Seawater

18.8

Tomkw and Cholewiski [34]

Notes: a) BCBrayton cycle; b) RCRankine cycle; c) DECdirect expansion cycle; d) KCKalina cycle

10

Front. Energy

Fig. 14

Schematic diagram of integration of Rankine cycle and Brayton cycle [42]

Fig. 15

Schematic diagram of integration of Kalina cycle and Rankine cycle [34]

Remarks and conclusions

The present paper approximately classied studies of the

power generation cycle utilizing LNG cold energy into key
factors affecting basic power generation cycles and
structural enhancement. Thanks to the existing mature
technology in basic loops, studies of key factors can
effectively provide valuable guidance for deeper optimization of the practical projects. The great diversity of
structural enhancement provides a new way for further
modication of power generation cycle using LNG cold
energy. Several aspects worthy of deeper development in
the future mainly include:

1) Component analysis of organic mixed working uid

employed in Rankine cycle and the combine cycle
At present, employing organic mixed working medium
in Rankine cycle and the combined cycle has become an
important and feasible approach for cycle optimization.
However, most existing researches are simply conducted at
a xed mixture component ratio, which does not make a
detailed and systematical analysis of the selection of
mixture components and determination of its ratio. The
original intention of using mixture medium is to nd a
better matching of temperature curve between the working
medium and LNG, so that the mixed working medium
components will closely relate to LNG components to

Feier XUE et al. Cryogenic power generation cycles utilizing cold energy of liqueed natural gas

some degree. It will be of great signicance to dene the

criteria of choosing mixture components and the component ratio according to different sources of LNG.
2) Combination of cycle simulation and experimental
investigation
Current structural improvement mainly depends on the
process simulation by software, which makes it worth
noticing that devices in simulation process are always set
to operate under an ideal condition and will consequently
bring a larger deviation to evaluate the feasibility of the
proposed cycle. It is difcult to establish experimental setup in LNG power generation system, but it is of great
importance to transform from plentiful theoretical studies
to practical appliance. Therefore, the combination of cycle
simulation and experimental investigation will pose great
challenges but it is a right step toward the right direction
for LNG cold energy power generation system in the
future.
3) Feasible and economical analyses
For those theoretically mature cycles of LNG cold
energy power generation, feasible and economical analyses can be supplemented for further practical implement,
including type selection of vital devices, pipeline establishment of circulation, cost evaluation of equipment, calculation of annual power generation benet and life of
returning investment, etc.

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