SPX Profiles

Liquid Natural Gas Heating Towers

SPX Cooling Technologies has developed a new family of vaporization systems that utilize heat from the atmosphere offering unique capabilities for customers like ConocoPhillips.

With the growing demand and increasing price for natural gas in the US, Europe, and Asia, the transport of natural gas via ocean tankers is increasing in demand. This process involves cooling the natural gas to –260°F, so that it is liquefied (LNG) and loaded efficiently and transported via tanker. At the receiving end, the LNG must then be reheated back to a gaseous state. The amount of heat required to vaporize the LNG in a typical 1 billion cubic feet per day (BCF/d) plant is approximately 850 MMBTU per hour. In most cases, this heat is delivered through burning natural gas in high efficiency vaporizers, consuming between 1.5- 2.5 percent of the terminal’s total throughput.

A new family of vaporization systems have been developed that use heat from the atmosphere working in parallel with gas combustion units. In these applications, the amount of natural gas required has been reduced by 60-90 percent on an annual basis. SPX’s unique, patent-pending heating tower designs offer unique capabilities that allow maximum atmospheric heat transfer while optimizing footprint and electrical power consumption.

Coupled with a proprietary sizing, selection, plant modeling, and optimization methodology, SPX is uniquely qualified to design and build the optimum solution that delivers the greatest long term value. Additionally, in conjunction with SPX Financial Services, financing is available too. SPX can deliver a system with zero capital investment, allowing the terminal operator to pay for the system based on the actual BTUs delivered.

VX400 Series – Wind Adapted Variable Discharge

Typical Heating Tower
To handle the heating load requirement of one billion cubic feet per day (BCF/d) for a terminal in the US Gulf area.

• A 12 fan cell tower (model XF499) with 10-meter fans (250 hp motors) delivers 90 percent of the annual heat load.
• Each cell measures 54’-0 x 54’-0.
• Each cell delivers enough heat to vaporize 83.3 MCF per day of natural gas.

All of the above estimations are based on typical US Gulf area annual weather conditions.

Key Features
• Vaporization system utilizes heat from the atmosphere
• Natural gas consumption reduced 60-90% annually
• Patent-pending designs offer unique capabilities allowing maximum atmospheric heat transfer
• Optimizes footprint and electrical power consumption
• SPX Financial Services can deliver a financing system with zero capital investment
• SPX delivers the greatest long term value PR-LNG VX400 Series – Wind Adapted Variable Discharge