Integration of a small scale liquefaction unit with an LNG plant to convert end flash gas and boil-off gas to incremental LNG

摘要

Disclosed is a method of retrofitting a full-scale LNG plant to enhance the LNG production capacity of the LNG plant and a method for operating such a retrofit plant. A small scale LNG plant having a capacity less than 2 MTPA can be integrated with a main LNG plant having a capacity of at least 4 MTPA such that end flash gas and boil off gas from the main LNG plant can be liquefied by the small scale LNG plant as incremental LNG. It has been found that the production capacity of the integrated system can be improved by increasing the temperature of the gas stream exiting the main cryogenic heat exchanger of the main LNG plant between 5° C. and 30° C. as compared with the design temperature.