Development and industrial tests of the first LNG hydraulic turbine system in China

The cryogenic hydraulic turbine can be used to replace the conventional J-T valve for LNG or mixed refrigerant throttling and depressurization in a natural gas liquefaction plant. This advanced technology is not only to enhance the efficiency of the liquefaction plant, but to usher a new trend in the development of global liquefaction technologies. China has over 136 liquefaction plants, but the cryogenic hydraulic turbines have not been deployed in industrial utilization. In addition, these turbines cannot be manufactured domestically. In this circumstance, through working on the key technologies for LNG hydraulic turbine process & control system development, hydraulic model optimization design, structure design and manufacturing, the first domestic cryogenic hydraulic turbine with a flow rate of 40 m3/h was developed to recover the pressure energy from the LNG of cold box. The turbine was installed in the CNOOC Zhuhai Natural Gas Liquefaction Plant for industrial tests under multiple working conditions, including start-stop, variable flow rates and variable rotation speeds. Test results show that the domestic LNG cryogenic hydraulic turbine has satisfactory mechanical and operational performances at low temperatures as specified in design. In addition, the process & control system and frequency-conversion power-generation system of the turbine system are designed properly to automatically and smoothly replace the existing LNG J-T valve. As a result, the domestic LNG cryogenic hydraulic turbine system can improve LNG production by an average of 2% and generate power of 8.3 kW.