COST SAVINGS THROUGH AN OPTIMAL LONG-TERM PLAN ON VAPORIZER INSTALLATION

摘要

KOGAS(Korea Gas Corporation) has three R/Ts(Receiving Terminals), which are located at Pyungtaek, Inchon, and Tongyoung cities in South Korea. The R/Ts are under geographically particular situation or near a power plant producing wasted heat. These are very important points to optimize the number of vaporizers in R/Ts having above double capacity of vaporization, which are so over facilitated due to the low performance of ORVs(Open Rack Vaporizer) in winter. The purpose of this study is to determine the optimal number of vaporizers and to reduce total cost with keeping an optimal ratio for a long time.rnKOGAS carried out an analysis to find the optimal ratio of vaporizers at each R/T with the monthly mean temperature of seawater and mean production of NG(Natural Gas), and also determined the spare ratio of vaporizers with a developed weight factor by use of only SCV increase for severe winter. From the analysis on 2005 year, the optimal ratio of ORVs to SCVs(Submerged Combustion Vaporizers) was found as 9 to 18 at Inchon, 11 to 12 at Pyungtaek, and 6 to 1 at Tongyoung, respectively.rnConsequently, KOGAS could establish an optimal long-term (to 2017 year) plan on vaporizer installation in three R/Ts with the lowest total cost including initial cost, operating cost, and maintenance cost. Furthermore, KOGAS is now going on increasing the productivity of LNG vaporizers as one of R&D goals in order to diversify its business and its competitive power in the domestic and foreign market.