GasPro ’14: LNG and NGL integration boosts plant throughput, revenues

By Adrienne Blume

HOUSTON -- During Day 1 of the inaugural GasPro North America conference, Aleisha Marty, program manager for Linde Process Plants Inc.'s StarLNGL technology, spoke about managing uncertain LNG market growth with integrated LNG and NGL technology.

Ms. Marty is a patent developer for the StarLNGL process.

The LNG value chain in the US is complicated and somewhat fractured. "For a long time, it's been kind of a chicken-and-egg scenario," Ms. Marty said. There is little infrastructure, a reluctance to invest without offtake agreements, and a reluctance to sign offtake agreements without adequate infrastructure.

However, integrating the existing infrastructure of NGL with LNG makes LNG more economically attractive and enhances producers' NGL market position, Ms. Marty explained.

The StarLNGL process takes a portion of the cryogenic tower vapor and sends it to a liquefaction process. The vapor is further cooled with EcoRel refrigeration technology, producing an LNG product.

Boiloff gas, which is often flared in a standalone LNG facility, is sent back to the residue gas pipeline, eliminating waste.

Since the StarLNGL technology is a compact, modular design, it is less expensive than a standalone LNG plant—about 50% less, Ms. Marty said. It also eliminates redundant infrastructure, and it does not impact the availability or reliability of NGL operations.

Additionally, StarLNGL increases ethane and propane recovery and total plant throughput. When a StarLNGL unit was bolted onto a 220-MMscfd NGL plant, it resulted in a 10% increase in total plant throughput.

The gross profit of a typical NGL plant with an added StarLNGL unit is more than $100 MM/yr, which results in a payback of less than six months for the StarLNGL process.

Furthermore, the LNG produced can be priced at approximately 50% to 70% of existing LNG values, Ms. Marty said, making it possible to undercut the market and capitalize on flexibility in pricing structures.