(60e) Integrate LNG Terminal with Power Plant to Achieve BTU Control and Efficiency Enhancement

The rising demand with declining domestic natural gas production in the United States (U.S.) has resulted in the need to expand or build Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) terminals. The recent installation of many gas fired power plants as well as consideration for future power plant are some of the reasons for increased gas demand. At present over 2% of the total natural gas demand in the U.S. is met by imported LNG. It is expected that over the next 20 years, the supply from the imported LNG will make-up 15 to 20 % of the total U.S. natural gas demand.

The imported LNG originating from various parts of the world has different compositions and heating value (BTU) characteristics. This is due to the characteristic of the produced gas and the amount of processing (LPG extraction) at natural gas liquefaction facilities abroad. Imported LNG containing higher heating value compared to the maximum pipeline specifications requires processing to adjust BTU value specified by the pipeline companies. One of the ways for controlling the heating value from the imported LNG is to extract Natural Gas Liquid (NGL). In the U.S. Gulf Coast area, the existing infrastructure provides means to easily transport and fractionate NGL for a feedstock to the Gulf Coast area petrochemical industry. Similar pipeline infrastructure and markets for NGL in certain areas of the United States such as North East Coast are not available. This present a special problem in disposal of NGL extracted from the imported LNG. Consideration of gas fired power plant near the LNG receiving terminal can provide opportunity for a solution to this problem.

This paper presents a solution to the challenging problem for the LNG receiving terminal operators, in the regions such as North East United States, in controlling the BTU from the imported LNG to meet the pipeline heating value specifications. The paper discusses how the integration of the LNG terminal with a power plant would achieve both, the BTU control for the imported LNG and an increase in the overall efficiency for the combined terminal and the power plant.