Hamworthy has signed a contract with Gasum OY, a natural gas importer and wholesaler in Finland, to supply an LNG production plant to be delivered in mid 2010. The contract is for a 20,000 tons per year capacity LNG plant that will eventually replace the existing plant in Sköldvik, about 60km east of Helsinki. The new plant will more than double the existing production capacity.
Located next door to an air separation facility the plant will use liquid nitrogen, a product from the air separation process, to liquefy the natural gas. The scope of Hamworthy’s work includes engineering, procurement, construction, installation and commissioning of a pre-treatment plant, liquefaction system and storage tanks.
Hamworthy Gas Systems AS is owned by UK-based Hamworthy Plc and based in Asker outside Oslo, Norway. The company is a leading supplier of small scale LNG production technology and gas processing systems. Better known for its supply of systems and products in the marine and offshore markets Hamworthy Gas Systems also delivers turnkey onshore LNG production plants for its customers, allowing them to bring methane to markets. This then contributes to the increased use of a cleaner and more cost effective source of energy.
Øystein Bruno Larsen, Director, Onshore LNG Facilities, said: "Our process know-how and skid-fabrication designs have been successful in securing this contract, which exposes us to the international arena of the fast growing LNG market.”
Hamworthy delivered its first onshore LNG production facility in early 2003. This has a liquefaction capacity of 20,000 tons per year and is based on a single-stage reversed Brayton nitrogen cycle.
In mid 2007 Hamworthy commissioned its second onshore LNG production facility based on a two-stage reversed Brayton cycle with a liquefaction capacity of 84,000 tons per year. Its efficiency was improved by 35% and through operations it has shown that it possesses a high degree of flexibility and robustness, which is particularly important for offshore producers.
The company has now developed onshore plants and LNG FPSO designs with single train capacities in the range of 0.5 to 1 million tons per year. At the other end of the scale, a ‘mini’ LNG plant particularly suitable for the liquefaction of bio gas, and the production of LNG as vehicle fuel, is also under development.
Gasum is the sole importer of natural gas and transmission provider in Finland and currently anticipates an increase in Finnish natural gas consumption of 12 TWh (28%) on current level (43.4 TWh) by 2020. The focus of the growth will be on combined heat and power production, with natural gas replacing coal-fuelled production.
Gasum is working to increase the use of natural gas as a transport fuel. In recent years Gasum has invested heavily in public natural gas filling stations. Currently there are five filling stations in Finland. The plan is to increase the number of stations to 30 by the year 2010. Finland’s national climate and energy strategy, which is due to be brought before Parliament in late autumn, will also have a major impact on the use of natural gas in Finland.
