Air Products declared that it will deliver its cryogenic coil wound LNG (liquefied natural gas) heat exchanger to Shell’s Floating LNG (FLNG) facility, which will be constructed in the Browse Basin near the northwest coast of Western Australia.
Shell decided to proceed with its Prelude FLNG project in May 2011. A consortium of Samsung Heavy Industries and Technip will provide the front-end engineering design service to support the engineering work being carried out by Air Products. Shell will place its FLNG plant roughly 125 miles offshore which will be the world’s longest floating offshore plant with a length of 533 yards.
The set up of FLNG facilities could allow the development of gas liquefaction facilities on offshore gas fields and in turn prevent the requirement for extensive onshore infrastructure and long distance pipelines. This novel replacement to conventional onshore LNG facilities is a commercially viable and eco-friendly method for regularizing offshore gas fields.
According to Air Products’ Director of LNG, Jim Solomon, the company has been analyzing the design of FLNG facilities elaborately for more than a decade. It has conducted empirical analyses on its heat exchanger in sea motion influenced test rigs. Based on the results, the company has changed the design of its LNG heat exchanger to function effectively and safely in a floating environment, he said.