Fifteen years of research experience and good test results have been decisive in the development of a commercial LNG heat exchanger for the export of Snøhvit gas.
Over many years StatoilHydro and its German partner Linde have cooperated on the development of a competitive system.
A pilot plant was built at Mossel Bay in South Africa, in association with Petro SA, to test and qualify it.
Exhaustive programmes were set up to investigate and demonstrate the spiral-wound heat exchanger's mechanical integrity, as well as the correctness of its thermal, hydraulic and geometrical design under various operating conditions.
Petro SA's subsequent incorporation of the prototype in their own daily LNG operations gave valuable insight into its performance over five years, including frequent starts and stops and the use of quite high temperature gradients.
Proving easy to operate and extremely robust, Linde had the desired confidence to produce and market commercial versions.
Published 2007-09-28, 21:23 CET | Updated 2007-09-30, 21:03 CET
