Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
Optimized Cascade services are provided by ConocoPhillips Company, Phillips LNG Technology
Services Company and Bechtel Corporation via a collaborative relationship with ConocoPhillips
Company. Optimized Cascade, the Optimized Cascade logo, ConocoPhillips and its logo are
trademarks of ConocoPhillips Company. Bechtel and its logos are trademarks of Bechtel Group
Inc.
59
$800
(USD million)
$1,000
$600
$400
$200
$0
$1.00
$2.00
$3.00
$4.00
$5.00
60
Simulation Studies
An alternative to the configuration with all gas fired turbines is a design that uses
steam turbines to drive the methane compressors. The steam is generated from
waste heat off the propane and ethylene turbine exhaust.
A dynamic simulation study was undertaken to determine the operational viability
of the combined cycle driver design. The dynamic model for an existing LNG
plant was modified to incorporate the waste-heat system and turbines for the
methane compressor. For simplicity, it was assumed that each steam turbine
had an independent steam header. The heat recovery steam generator (HRSG)
was a single pressure HRSG. The HRSG was equipped with duct-firing to
provide 25% more heat. The dynamic model was built in Aspen Hysys 2002,
utilizing a proven high-fidelity approach (Valappil et al, 2004). The combined
cycle driver configuration was designed utilizing GT Pro and modeled on
Invensys Dynsim platform.
The combined cycle plant operation was compared with that or the base LNG
plant under normal and abnormal conditions. In order to establish equivalency of
the two configurations, feed gas volume to the combined cycle plant was reduced
by the difference in fuel gas consumption. This resulted in same amount of LNG
as the base plant.
61
62
63
due to the inherent inertia and time lag associated with the steam system and
supplemental boiler, respectively. However, the suction pressures settle out to
the same steady-state value for each configuration.
64
Economic Analysis
Reliability, availability, and maintainability (RAM) are three primary components
that influence LNG production at a liquefaction facility. As described earlier,
reliability is a key feature for the Optimized Cascade process using the two-inone train concept.
The largest single impact on production is the availability of the turbine drivers.
Reliability of most proven gas turbines is in excess of 99% and availability is over
of 96%. The availability is highly dependent on the owners scheduled
maintenance strategy and the turbine selected (i.e. frame or aeroderivative).
A detailed economic evaluation is needed to justify a combined cycle liquefaction
plant. The value provided by the increase in thermal efficiency of the combined
cycle plant will have to be evaluated against the increase in capital and
maintenance costs and the decrease in plant availability. The cost of operations
and maintenance does not have a major impact on the economic analysis and
can be ignored in a preliminary evaluation.
The major factors affecting the economics are the cost of gas supply and the
LNG sales price. Gas supply to a liquefaction facility is also an issue, as it is
usually constrained in some manner. A combined cycle design conserves some
feed gas that can be valued in at least two ways.
The first method assumes that the feed gas rate decreases while keeping the
LNG production constant. The savings would be the value of the feed gas saved
using the cost of the gas. The second technique assumes that the fuel gas
saved would be converted into LNG. The extra LNG could be produced by two
different schemes. In the first, the feed gas rate remains constant and the LNG
production rate increases. This increase will likely require some additional
investment to increase capacity. The second way would be to produce the LNG
when the gas supply is no longer at plateau, but has declined. The actual gas
production would keep the plant full longer. Both methods should be evaluated
in pre-FEED in order to maximize the value to the owners.
Conclusion and Discussion
This paper demonstrated the operational viability of a combined cycle driver for
ConocoPhillips Optimized Cascade process. For the chosen configuration, the
hallmark flexibility of the Optimized Cascade process was retained. A HRSG
with duct firing may be necessary to maintain performance over various
operating upsets.
65
The decision on driver selection should take into account a rigorous economic
analysis. Steam turbines lead to decreased availability and increased start-up
times. The impact of these variables should be balanced against potential gains
from efficiency improvements. Further, it should be recognized that a combined
cycle configuration need not be limited to the liquefaction. There is increasing
interest for LNG facilities driven by electric motors alone (Martinez et al, 2005).
In such cases, the combined cycle concept could be utilized for on-site power
generation to monetize efficiencies.
References
66
Biography
67
68