Elengy
Natural gas is a gaseous fossil fuel consisting primarily of methane but including significant quantities of ethane, propane and heavier hydrocarbons. Natural gas may also contain inert gases such as nitrogen and carbon dioxide, along with small traces of other elements.
Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is natural gas that has been cooled to below -160°C to condense it into a liquid form for ease of transport. LNG takes up about 1/600th the volume of natural gas and mainly comprises methane (nearly 90%), ethane (5-10%), propane, butane and nitrogen (each less than 1%).
Liquefying natural gas involves a series of refrigerated cycles:
compressing a fluid known as a “refrigerant” → condensing using a source at ambient temperature → expansion → evaporation, which produces cooling.
The cycle takes place at increasingly low temperatures and involves different pressures and refrigerants.
Liquefaction plants comprise specially designed facilities to treat natural gas, along with other installations including steam generators and seawater pumps (source at ambient temperature), along with facilities to store and load the LNG.
On average, a liquefaction plant consumes 12% of the incoming natural gas.
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