TOWARD THE FUTURE OF ENERGY: WITH SICK
Onshore storage of liquefied natural gas (LNG), regasification, and gas delivery: A well-known construction company is building an LNG terminal hub with adjacent gas-to-power plant in Panama. The showcase project is of great economic importance to the region and completion is planned within one year. SICK is in charge of engineering and design of the customized metering skid for custody transfer measurement of the natural gas quantities transported.
Natural gas is intended to strengthen Panama’s economy. An initiative from the president of Panama is gaining momentum. The LNG terminal and the gas-to-power plant in the Colón province on the Atlantic coast of Panama are scheduled for commissioning in 2019. In addition to supplying the power plant with gas, 15 million households and industrial installations near the Panama Canal and Colón are being supplied with electricity. The EPC company received the order to construct both the gasand-steam turbine power plant and the onshore LNG import terminal with a tank holding 1,800,000 m3. This plant covers an area of 20 ha and is looking to do more than just be the LNG distributor hub in this region. It will also establish itself as a storage reserve for alternative
fuels for marine vessels.
On a pier, the gas cooled to −160 degrees Celsius is transported in cryogenic pipes from the new jetty to the LNG tank. On the way to the power station, the liquefied gas will be regasified to natural gas. The amount of gas to be delivered and charged to the power station has to be correct. SICK is providing an 8" metering station with gas meters, a process gas chromatograph, and a flow computer with supervisory function. These are the major components of the measuring station for controlled recording and metering of the enormous quantities of energy supplied in form of natural gas. This metering skid in the form has two main measuring runs – one inlet and one outlet DN200 pipe. The designed Z configuration of these pipes are for full redundancy allowing the switching of the gas over to the other metering run to allow maintenance work or testing to be completed. It also allows “series proof” testing of the system from one master custody transfer meter (“master”) against the other duty custody transfer meter.
An intelligent mix
Correct configuration of this station is crucial for the profit of the operating entity and the investors. Thus, the main task of the metering skid is exact measurement of the gas quantity. Two gas flow meters ‒ FLOWSIC600 ‒ have been selected for this measuring task. Thanks to its ultrasonic technology, there are nearly no measurement uncertainties. FLOWSIC600 is one of the most reliable industry-tested meters. Advanced diagnostics is a further plus. The process gas chromatograph checks the composition of the gas and provides the flow computer with the hydrocarbon values where they are combined with the flow volumes to produce standardized measured values. The Flow-X flow computer from SICK records the data of the various assemblies of the station and transmits the information to the control centers. This is measurement technology of high precision with fast signal processing and very high computing and memory capacity for a wide variety of documentation purposes. It also makes the flow computer from SICK the ideal choice for custody transfer measurements using the FLOWSIC600 ultrasonic gas flow meter.
In this project, SICK is in charge of engineering, design, and supply of the complete skid. The skid frame is made from stainless steel and is engineered on a floating unit to be earthquake-proof to measure reliably even in the event of dangerous vibrations. Additional measuring instruments can be added at any time. This also includes temperature and pressure transmitters or valves for changeover between the metering runs. Even in the planning phase, SICK weighed in with its technological knowledge of systematic project design with numerous planning options so that the individual requests of the customers can be implemented.