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Kansas City, Mo., June 20, 2002 -- Black & Veatch Pritchard, Inc. (BVPI), a subsidiary of Black & Veatch Corporation, is pleased to announce the completion of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility in Pinson, Ala.
BVPI was responsible for the engineering, procurement and construction of this facility. The facility is owned by Alabama Gas Corp. (Alagasco), which is a subsidiary of Energen Corp. and is the largest distributor of natural gas in Alabama serving more than 470,000 customers.
The LNG facility was built to meet the increased peak demands of its growing customer base. LNG plants convert natural gas to a liquid form by refrigeration at -260? F. The LNG can then be stored in large tanks ready for use when needed to supply gas to a pipeline or directly to users. Storage of the gas in a liquid form requires 1/600 of the volume required to store the gas in a vapor form.
The Alagasco facility is expected to produce LNG at a rate of 12 million cubic feet per day; this is four times the rate of the original liquefier, which was built in 1965.
Black & Veatch Senior Project Manager, Javid Talib said, "The partnership between Alagasco and Black & Veatch was a paid dividend near the conclusion of this successful project. Both groups worked together as a team, which was a key element in the success of the project."
The process for gas liquefaction uses a single mixed refrigeration loop developed by BVPI called the PRICO® process. Many of the early LNG peak shavers utilized a variety of cascade liquefaction processes from which gas was cooled in a series of timely steps that required a variety of refrigerant types.
This system was complex and generated maintenance costs for multiple refrigeration systems. The use of the PRICO process will not only reduce equipment count and costs, but will also reduce the number of instruments involved in the control system by 50 percent or more.
"The use of a single refrigeration system is the key to success for a simple and reliable LNG plant," said Black & Veatch Vice President and LNG Technology Manager Brian Price. "The old-fashioned cascade systems were not as cost effective and weren't as reliable. The use of a single system is expected to reduce equipment and instrument costs."
The Alagasco plant will be used primarily for peak load shaving or peak shaving, the process whereby natural gas is liquefied, stored during off-peak season months and then vaporized during the winter months to augment the pipeline supply as a way to meet peak demand.
"The increased capacity and dependability offered by this new plant will provide Alagasco with significantly more flexibility to meet its peak customer demand," said Director of LNG Operations Bruce Painter, Alagasco.
About Black & Veatch
Black & Veatch Corp. is a global engineering, construction and consulting company specializing in infrastructure development in the fields of energy, water and information.
Founded in 1915, Black & Veatch serves its clients with conceptual and preliminary engineering services, engineering design, procurement, construction, financial management, asset management, information technology, environmental, security design and consulting, and management consulting services. Headquartered in Kansas City, Mo., the employee-owned company has more than 90 offices worldwide. The company's Web site address is www.bv.com.
Black & Veatch Pritchard, the Process Division of Black & Veatch, specializes in natural gas plants, petroleum refining, sulfur recovery, petrochemical and chemical plants, compressor stations and cogeneration units. Black & Veatch Pritchard has been a pioneer in LNG technology since the 1950s and is well positioned to support the natural gas utility industry by providing engineering, procurement and construction services to the liquefied natural gas (LNG) industry.
The company has been involved with approximately 20 percent of the world market and 15 percent of the United States and Canadian market for liquefaction and revaporization plants. These plants have a capacity of 15 billion cubic meters per year worldwide and 55 million cubic feet per day in the United States and Canada.
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