International Journal on Architectural Science, Volume 4, Number 1, p.

14-23, 2003

DESIGN ANALYSIS OF A REFRIGERATED WAREHOUSE USING LNG

COLD ENERGY
K.H. Yang and S.C. Wu
Mechanical Engineering Department, National Sun Yat-Sen University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan 80424
(Received 27 September 2002; Accepted 9 January 2003)

ABSTRACT
An innovative design approach has been performed using latent heat of the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) during
evaporation to provide cooling for 500 USRT cold storage warehouse. In compared with the conventional,
mechanical cooling designs, tremendous energy savings can be experienced and is discussed in detail in the
paper.

1.

INTRODUCTION

During the energy crisis in the 1970s, oil prices

hiked to a record high of 42 USD per barrel, which
imposed a lot of pressure economically on oil
importing countries such as Taiwan. To diversify
energy resources as a counter-measure, it was
decided to import LNG from ASEAN countries
such as Indonesia and Malaysia, so that most of the
fossil-fueled power plants, which were burning
coal and oil, would switch into natural gas (NG).
Natural gas is a more environmentally friendly fuel,
which contains over 92% of methane, depending
on the source of product. When LNG is vaporized
into NG, tremendous cooling capacity will be
generated during this phase-changing process.
Conventionally, this was done by pumping
seawater through the open rack vaporizer (ORV),
such that heat was transferred from seawater to
LNG, and vaporized it into a gaseous state, for
industrial and household usage. The chilled water
was normally dumped into sea again. Fig. 1 shows
the conventional process. LNG was pumped from
the tanker A to the storage tank B. In order to
maintain a steady flow condition, the boil-off gas
(BOG) from the tank at point C was extracted and
cooled by the cooler D and recharged into the
tanker at point E to form a circulation loop. Part of
the BOG at point F was re-compressed at the BOG
compressor or point G, condensed and re-charged
into the LNG supply loop at point J. While, part of
the boil-off gas shown at point H, was incinerated
at the burning tower. On the other hand, pump 1
located inside the storage tank transports LNG
from the tank, through point I and J, boosted by the
pump 2 to a higher pressure at point K, and
vaporized at the ORV by the sea water loop shown
by point M and N and supply to the customers at
the gaseous state, denoted by the point L. During
this process, only a few part of the LNG cold
energy was recovered by re-condensing BOG.

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This open heat exchanger loop is not only a waste

of huge cold energy or cooling capacity, but will
cause thermal pollution to the coastal fishery area
also when cold water was re-injected into the sea.
In this project, an innovative design has been
performed to reclaim the cold energy for a -35oC
cold warehouse. Conventionally, this was done by
installing mechanical refrigeration systems,
necessitating tremendous electrical power to drive
the refrigerant compressor working in such a low
temperature. In this study, a closed loop LNG heat
exchanger system will be designed to replace the
mechanical, or vapor-compression refrigeration
(VCR) cycle, with a technical and economical
feasibility study to justify its application.

2.

EVALUATION OF LNG COLD

ENERGY RECLAIM POTENTIAL

LNG imported to Taiwan has a chemical

composition of 90.5% CH4, 6.2% C2H4, and 2.33%
C3H8 in molar fractions. Its thermal properties can
be calculated by the Redlich-Kwang-Soave (RKS)
State equation [1]. However, to meet the demand
side higher pressure at the local power utilities, it is
necessary to pressurize LNG from -162oC at 100
kpa atmospheric pressure, to around 8 Mpa, or 80
atm. Therefore, a calculation model with much
broader range of temperature and pressure should
be adapted, such as the Peng-Robinson (PR) state
equations [2]. Both calculation models have
similar accuracy on light hydrocarbons, but the
RKS tends to over-estimate on density calculations,
so the PR model is used in this study.
PR state equations:

P = RT

(V b)

(V(V + b) + b(v b))

(1)

International Journal on Architectural Science

where P is the pressure of LNG, kPa; T is the

temperature of LNG, K; V is the volume of LNG,
M3; and R is the gas constant, kPa.m3kg-1.K-1.

a=

x i x j (a i a j ) 0.5

E = H Pin 162 C H Pout t

(2)

where the subscripts stand for the enthalpy H at

different temperature and pressure Pin, Pout. The
temperature of LNG at liquid state is around -162
o
C, while the temperature of NG at gaseous state is
about 20oC in maximum. And the reclaimed energy
potential is expressed in E.

b = x i bi
i

a i = a ci i

a c = 0.45724

R 2 Tc2
Pc

i 0.5 = 1 + (0.37646 + 1.54226i + 0.26992i 2 )(1 Tri )

b i = 0.07748

The pressurization process will change the LNG

boiling point, which in turn, will change the cold
energy amount that can be reclaimed. The cold
energy potential can be calculated from the
enthalpy change of LNG across the ORV, or:

R Tci
Pci

where x is the mole fraction of each substance, is

the acentric factor, Tri = Ti/Tci. The subscript c
means critical state.

The calculation result of the LNG cold energy

potential under various temperature and pressure
was shown in Fig. 2. It is noticed that the cold
energy potential decreased while LNG was
pressurized. For example, at 8 Mpa, LNG would
have an enthalpy of 786 kjkg-1, only amounts to
88% of its value at atmospheric pressure.
Based on statistics from September 1, 1998 to
August 31, 1999, the annual LNG consumption rate
in Taiwan is around 396.52 million metric tons,
equivalent to a daily average of 10864.31 metric
tons, or 452.67 tons.h-1.

Fig. 1: A schematic diagram showing the conventional LNG transporting process using ORV
for evaporation

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1000

LNG pressure=1atm
LNG pressure=30atm
LNG pressure=50atm
LNG pressure=80atm

energy (kj/kg)

800

600

400

200

0
-200

-150

-100

-50

50

LNG temperature(C)

Fig. 2: Calculation result of the LNG cold energy potential under various temperature and pressure
When LNG was imported from ASEAN countries,
it was pumped from the tanker and stored in
the 60 m-diameter storage tank at -162 oC liquid
state. Pumped out at -148 oC, it was pressurized in
two stages, from atmospheric pressure to 3 atm,
and then to 83 atm while entering the ORV. It
leaves ORV at 15 oC with a pressure drop of
around 20 atm, and stays at 63 atm. Therefore, the
calculation yields a total heat exchange capacity of
743Mj per ton of LNG across the ORV.
Combining with the daily LNG utilization rate in
our study, which is around 10,864 ton/day, then it
accounts for 1932 Gcal cold energy wasted per day,
or equivalent to 26,662 Refrigeration Tons (USRT)
cooling capacity, enough to provide residential
cooling for around 8800 families during the
summer. This has been validated by an
experimental investigation through measuring the
sea water loop with flow rate and temperature
differences entering and leaving the ORV. As
shown in Fig. 3, T1 and T2 denote the measuring
points of the sea water inlet and outlet temperatures
at the ORV, resulting at 27.3oC and 23.5oC
respectively. The point F denotes the sea water
flow rate measuring location, resulting at 2123.8
ton.h-1. The accumulated heat exchange capacity is
26682 USRT. Compared with our estimation, the
deviation is within 3%.
Furthermore, Fig. 4 shows a statistics and
prediction of the LNG import to Taiwan.
Following the completion of the second phase of
LNG storage extension project in 1996, the annual
import rises from 150 metric tons to 450 metric
tons, and expected to reach 900 metric tons at the
year of 2020. The huge amount of cold energy to

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be reclaimed is beyond doubt and waiting to be

explored.

3.

SYSTEM DESIGN FOR COLD

WAREHOUSE USING LNG RECLAIMED COLD ENERGY

In order to reclaim cold energy during LNG

evaporation process, it is necessary to construct a
closed heat exchange (HX) loop using secondary
refrigerant, as shown in Fig. 5. In addition, the
ORVs are still needed as a means for adjusting the
appropriate portion of heat to be reclaimed without
interrupting the normal NG supply to the power
utilities. In other words, either the closed-loop heat
exchanger or the ORV, each will provide a certain
percentage of evaporation heat needed to vaporizer
LNG into NG, and can be adjusted subject to the
cooling load of the warehouse. On the ORV side,
residual LNG was evaporated accordingly so that
NG at its outlet still maintains the normal
temperature and pressure needed for the power
utilities.
In this project, LNG cold energy will be utilized to
supply cooling to a 110 RT cold storage warehouse
operating at -35 oC, another 390 RT warehouse at
-20oC, and to provide 146 RT cooling capacity for
air-conditioning in preparative rooms at around 15
o
C. Fig. 6 shows a flow chart of the complete
warehouse system using cold energy reclaimed
from LNG, named the LNGCW system, with major
design parameters indicated.

International Journal on Architectural Science

Computer simulation has been performed following

the first law of thermodynamics along the flow
process. Heat and mass balance of the system was
calculated as shown in Fig. 7 where each
component, including heat exchangers, pumps, and

storage tanks were connected according to the

system flow chart. After an iterative design and
simulation process, the system schematics has been
finalized. Fig. 8 gives an outlook of the completed
LNG cold warehouse architectural design.

denotes the measuring point,

T for temperature, F for mass
flow rate of sea water

Fig. 3: The schematic diagram of the full-scale experiment in measuring the LNG cold energy
released by ORV through sea water

The Import of LNG

11
10
9

1x10 ton

6
5
4
3
1995

2000

2005

2010

2015

2020

2025

year

Fig. 4: Prediction of LNG import quantity from ASEAN countries to Taiwan in next decades

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Fig. 5: A schematic diagram indicating cold energy reclaimed from LNG evaporation process
for cold warehouse application

Fig. 6: A schematic diagram showing the LNGCW system flow

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Fig. 7: An energy and mass balance simulation result of the LNGCW system

Fig. 8: An outlook of the completed LNGCW architectural design

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4.

indicated that the APCL ranged from 91% during

the summer and down to 76% in the winter.
Assuming 330 operation days a year, the LNG
consumption rate of the LNGCW system can be
calculated as shown in Fig. 10, where the daily
average flow rate is 11.2 ton.h-1 and reached its
peak of 12.3 ton.h-1 in July. Steady state energy
estimation method is used for the cooling load
calculation, energy analysis and the power
consumption of refrigeration system in this project.
It can be calculated for different values of outdoor
temperature and multiplied by the corresponding
numbers of hours. This method can be accurate if
the indoor temperature and internal gains are
relatively constant and if the systems are to operate
for a complete season as recommended by the
ASHRAE Handbook [3]. The calculated power
consumption and energy savings of the LNGCW
system was plotted in Fig. 11, indicating a monthly
energy savings of 1,050 MWh on the average.

ECONOMIC FEASIBILITY STUDY

Based on the design analysis shown above, major

components were sized accordingly enabling an
economic feasibility evaluation of the LNGCW
systems vs. a conventional mechanical refrigeration
(CMR) system.
The LNGCW system necessitates 3 specially
designed close-loop heat changers and storage
tanks etc., introducing higher initial investment at
the cost of 12.8 million USD. On the other hand,
the CMR system consists of huge refrigerant
compressors and condensers, etc. at a cost of
around 8.3 million USD. In this way, the operation
cost plays a key role in justifying economic
feasibility. The CMR system suffers from operating
in low evaporator temperature causing reduced
refrigerant mass flow rate and smaller cooling
capacity. In addition, the high compression ratio
between condenser and evaporator demands higher
power consumption which worsens the case. The
operation power demand is around 2321 kW. On
the other hand, the LNGCW system, with an
inherent low evaporative temperature of -162 oC,
can easily provide cooling capacity at a higher
temperature of -30 oC by way of a simple heat
exchanging process. The operation power demand
is 379 kw, or 16% of that of the conventional CMR
system.

Economic assessment is performed using the life

cycle cost (LCC) method by calculating the present
worth during each period of time.
Pv = A

(1 + i) n 1

(3)

i (1 + i) n

where Pv is the present worth, A is the annual

money saving by reduce electricity consumption, i
is the effective discount rate, and n is the total
number of years.

Based on the outdoor design temperature of 34 oC,

the average partial cooling load (APCL) of the cold
warehouse was calculated as shown in Fig. 9. It

average partial cooling load %

95
90
85
80
75
70
65
1

10

11

month
Fig. 9: Annual cooling load estimation of the cold warehouse in this study

20

12

average LNG flow rate for LNGCW(ton/h)

International Journal on Architectural Science

12.5
12
11.5
11
10.5
10
9.5
9
1

10

11

12

11

12

month
Fig. 10: Annual LNG consumption rate of the LNGCW system

LNGCW power saving per month(MWh)

1200
1150
1100
1050
1000
950
900
850
1

10

month
Fig. 11: Annual operational power savings estimation of the LNGCW system

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saving electricity cost 1000 USD

The input parameters include annual inflation rate

at 1%, rediscount rate at 4%, assuming an double
declining depreciation rate for 15 years of major
equipment and no residual value left after that.
Local power tariff was inputted at 6.5 cents per
kwh. Fig. 12 indicated that the monthly average
operation cost savings is about 70,000 USD. Fig.
13 furthers shows the simulation result, indicating
that the payback is at around 3.5 years. This
represents a promising project with both technical
and economical feasibility.

5.

CONCLUSIONS

During its vaporization process, tremendous

cooling capacity can be reclaimed. In this study,
the feasibility to design and construct a refrigerated
warehouse by using LNG cold energy has been
demonstrated both technically and economically.
The payback of the 500 USRT cold warehouse is
expected to be within 3.5 years, which is now
funded by the Chinese Petroleum Corporation of
Taiwan for construction.

78
76
74
72
70
68
66
64
62
60
58
56
1

10

11

12

month
Fig. 12: Annual operational cost savings estimation of the LNGCW system

6000

Net Present Value( 10

US dollars)

8000

4000

Payback Year

2000

0
0

10

12

14

16

year
-2000

Fig. 13: The life cycle cost analysis of the LNGCW system in this study

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REFERENCES
1.

H.T. Liu and L.X. You, Characteristics and

applications of the cold heat exergy of liquefied
natural gas, Energy Conversion & Management,
Vol. 40, pp. 1515-1525 (1999).

2.

W.C.
Edmister,
Applied
hydrocarbon
thermodynamics, Vol. 1, Gulf Publish Company
(1984).

3.

ASHRAE Handbook - fundamentals, Chapter 28,

American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and
Air-Conditioning Engineers, Atlanta, USA (2001).

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