On the recovery of LNG physical exergy by means of a simple cycle or a complex system

The maximum and minimum temperatures available limit the usable fraction (or Carnot efficiency) of a power cycle. The construction of LNG terminals and the need to vaporize LNG offers a thermal sink at a very much lower temperature than seawater. By using this thermal sink in a combined plant, it is possible to recover power from the vaporization of LNG.

To this purpose, in this paper combined systems using LNG vaporization as low-temperature thermal sink are considered and their pros and cons are presented. A system utilizing waste energy as heat source and with a single working fluid is analyzed in detail. However, the use of a single fluid is not the best solution from a thermodynamic point of view. Thus, a series of cascading cycles is also outlined. In these systems, both the thermal source and the thermal sink are exploited as exergy sources.