A SOPHISTICATED, LOW-COST, ENERGY-EFFICIENT, SMALL-CAPACITY LNG VAPORIZER AND ITS PRACTICAL USE

摘要

Tokyo Gas in collaboration with Tokyo Gas Engineering has succeeded in developing a completely new kind of compact LNG vaporizer for small-capacity LNG terminals. It makes optimum use of ambient heat to vaporize LNG for the supply of town gas above the minimum allowable temperature requirement, even in cold regions. The new vaporizer costs 20% less to build than previous systems, and enables a massive 70% reduction in operating costs through considerably reducing reliance on fuel as a heat source. LNG vaporizer systems in small-capacity LNG terminals have up to now had hot water vaporizers for use during winter fitted alongside air fin vaporizers. The requirement for additional equipment to provide a heat source for the hot water vaporizers also made each system complex and costly. The new system combines an air fin vaporizer with a hot air source in one unit. The resulting system is simple, can be used throughout the year even in cold climates, and is very energy-efficient, and accordingly environment-friendly. The very first unit was installed at the Tokyo Gas Kofu satellite terminal, where it demonstrated excellent vaporizer performance. The first unit to be made commercially available in the Japanese market was operated for over a year by Chubu Gas at its Hamamatsu satellite terminal, and the units have been adopted for base load operation at a large number of terminals, including some in cold regions.