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Mahesh

20/03/24 14:31 PM IST

First SSLNG plant commissioned

In News
  • India’s largest gas utility GAIL (India) Ltd recently commissioned the country’s first SSLNG unit at its Vijaipur complex in Madhya Pradesh.
About SSLNG
  • Still seen as a nascent industry globally, SSLNG refers to liquefaction and transportation of natural gas at a significantly smaller scale and using unconventional transportation mediums as compared to the regular large-scale liquefaction, regasification, and transportation infrastructure and processes.
  • SSLNG basically pertains to supplying gas in its liquid or super-chilled form—LNG—to industrial and commercial consumers through specialised trucks and small vessels in regions that do not have pipeline connectivity.
  • In the relatively traditional use cases like supplying compressed natural gas (CNG) for vehicles and piped gas for households and manufacturing units, the buyer would regasify the LNG using small vapourisers, and then supply it to end users.
  • In cases where the fuel is to be used directly in its liquid form, it would be supplied to end users as it is without regasification.
  • The SSLNG chain can start from an existing large-scale LNG import terminal, from where LNG is transported to consumers by cryogenic road tankers or small vessels, instead of being regisfied and supplied through pipelines.
  • It can also start from a location that has ample natural gas supply or production by setting up small liquefaction plants there.
  • GAIL’s SSLNG unit at Vijaipur is essentially an example of the latter. GAIL’s Vijaipur complex is the company’s largest gas processing facility.
Significance
  • Built at a cost of Rs 150 crore, the Vijaipur facility has SSLNG skids with a combined capacity of 36 tonnes per day and associated liquid handling systems.
  • The plant includes treatment skids—zeolite pretreatment skids (ZPTS)—and liquefaction skids, known as cryo boxes, for converting natural gas to LNG.
  • The natural gas is first processed in the ZPTS at a pressure of approximately 15 bar for removal of the non-desirable components such as nitrogen, water, sulphur, and carbon dioxide (CO2).
  • It is then fed to the cryo box, where it is compressed through a four-stage compressor to a pressure of around 260 bar.
  • The temperature of the gas is then cooled down through the propane-based external refrigeration system to around -60 to -70 degrees celsius, and is subjected to an expansion such that the temperature drops to below minus 140 degrees celsius, thus allowing it to liquefy.
  • This small-scale LNG unit is controlled by an automated web-based supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system.
  • The LNG produced from the plant will be dispatched through cryogenic LNG tankers to nearby areas for use in city gas distribution (CGD) networks as CNG and piped gas, and for proposed LNG filling stations for fuelling medium and heavy-duty vehicles.
LNG as fuel
  • Heavy duty trucks and inter-city buses are seen as a potential growth segment for LNG as an automotive fuel.
  • As compared to diesel, which is the dominant fuel in India in these segments, LNG is a significantly cleaner fuel with reduced CO2 emissions and negligible amounts of other pollutants like particulate matter, nitrogen oxide, and sulphur dioxide, while providing slightly higher range with a similar-sized fuel tank.
  • LNG has been used aggressively and successfully as a fuel for medium and heavy commercial vehicles in various countries, most notably in China.
  • It is also usually notably cheaper than crude oil, from which diesel is derived. Although India depends on imports to meet around half of its natural gas requirement, the dependency level is much lower than in the case of crude oil.
  • If LNG indeed is able to replace a significant chunk of India’s diesel consumption volumes, it could lead to substantial foreign exchange savings for the country.
  • Challenges include lack of easy availability of LNG-powered vehicles, a virtually non-existent LNG retail network, higher initial price of LNG vehicles as compared to those powered by diesel, and absence of an LNG vehicle financing ecosystem.
Source- Indian Express

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