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The Panigaglia plant
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The Panigaglia regasification plant is made
up of areas for receiving, storage, regasification, vapour recovery,
correction of the final gas, auxiliary and safety systems.
The receiving area is where the tankers dock and the gas is transferred
to the storage tanks. Payloads vary from 25,000 to as much as
65,000/70,000 cubic metres.
The LNG is conducted to the storage tanks by a pipeline which crosses
the 500-metre-wide wharf.
The storage area consists of two vertical, cylindrical tanks, each with
a capacity of 50,000 cubic metres inside which submerged pumps are
placed for the transportation of LNG.
The liquefied natural gas is stored at a temperature of -160°C and at a
pressure slightly higher than atmospheric.
The regasification area is made up of pumps for the transportation and
the pressurization of the LNG, and of vaporizers.
The LNG drawn from the storage tanks by means of submerged pumps is
pressurised and sent to the vaporisers. The regasification of the LNG is
achieved by means of submerged combustion vaporisers.
The vapour recovery system uses compressors which convey the vapours
produced by the tanks to an absorption tower where they are condensed by
a countercurrent flow of LNG.
The correction of the final gas has the purpose of maintaining the
specific quality of the gas introduced into the transport network,
thereby guaranteeing the interchangeable nature of the regasified LNG
with the other natural gases transported via pipeline.
The plant is governed by an automatic distributed control system and is
equipped with a programmable logic-based system.
The regasification plant is controlled and
operated remotely by the automated Centralised Control Room. This system
is divided into two subsystems:
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Distributed Control System (DCS) whose
functions include the acquisition, processing and regulation of the
process parameters, and the supervision of the plant;
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programmable logic-based automation and
blocking system (PLC), which governs the start-up, stopping and
blocking of the equipment sequences as well as activating automatic
safety procedures in the event of emergency.
The auxiliary systems area comprises all the
support activities relative to main process, such as the electrical
substation, the fire-fighting system, the heat dispersion systems and
the station for the gauging of the quality and quantity of the gas
introduced onto the network. |
