Air Products has celebrated the rollout of the first LNG heat exchanger manufactured at its new production facility in Manatee County, Florida, US. The facility, which covers 300 000 ft2, doubles the manufacturing capacity of the company.
Once the event concluded, the heat exchanger was transported from to the property of Port Manatee, where it was loaded onto a barge and shipped to a customer for a major LNG project along the US Gulf Coast.
Sandy McLauchlin, General Manager – LNG & CryoMachinery Engineering & Manufacturing at Air Products, said: “I am proud to say that no one in the world builds coil wound heat exchangers as large as we do. The largest LNG plants in the world use our technology. We needed a second manufacturing location, which would eliminate any transportation limitations regarding product size.
"When we selected this site, we believed it provided us with everything we needed in an operational location. I can tell you we made a wise choice. This new facility will help us maintain our market leadership position.
"It remains to be seen how big we will build one here, but we are confident that at this new location, we can build an LNG heat exchanger to the size of whatever the market requires."
Jim Solomon, Director – LNG at Air Products, added: “As the world's energy needs continue to increase, demand for cleaner energy is at the forefront, and natural gas is the cleanest of all the fossil fuels. In order to achieve the greatest economies of scale, even larger capacity LNG heat exchangers for LNG plants are being required by our customers."
"Our process technology and the LNG heat exchanger are the heart of an LNG plant. Our technology operates at some of the most remote locations around the world where vast fields of natural gas are located, and it is our liquefaction process that unlocks this stranded natural resource and thus makes it economical to be shipped around the world for energy use."
Edited from press release by David Rowlands