Thermodynamic analysis of direct expansion configurations for electricity production by LNG cold energy recovery

The analysis developed resorting to a simplified thermodynamic model, shows that using a direct expansion configurations with multistage turbine, values of power production typical of optimized ORC plant configurations (120 kJ for each kg of natural gas that flows through the plant) can be obtained. The development of a direct expansion plant with multistage turbine and internal heat recovery systems could permit to approach the production of more than 160 kJ for each kg of flowing liquefied natural gas. Considering values of the mass flow rate typical of LNG gas stations (e.g. 70 kg/s); this corresponds to an output power ranging between 8.3 MW and 11.4 MW.