South Korean shipbuilder Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) has held a demonstration ceremony for the installation of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) regasification system using glycol on board a 170,000 cbm LNG floating storage regasification unit (FSRU) at its Ulsan shipyard.
Since the glycol regasification process is free from saltiness unlike a system that uses seawater, it can minimize corrosion in major equipment including heat exchangers and lower the risk of explosion that a system using propane may be exposed to, according to the shipbuilder.
Regasification system is a key facility for an LNG FSRU that receives gas from offloading LNG carriers and provides gas send-out through pipelines to shore.
LNG FSRU takes a year less and costs half as much as an onshore LNG terminal to complete. The facility, better known as “the LNG plant on the ocean” , can also move from place to place where the energy demand is in growth as it has its own propulsion system.
After being granted an approval in principle (AIP) for the system from Lloyd’s Register last month, HHI said it is in the process of receiving the recognition for the system from other classification societies as well.
HHI completed FSRU Independence, the world’s first newbuilding LNG FSRU in 2014.