Mustang, Wood Group Garner Patent for LNG Conversion Process

Mustang Engineering, a wholly owned subsidiary of international energy services company John Wood Group PLC, and Wood Group have been awarded U.S. patent 715 5917 for a proprietary process to convert liquefied natural gas (LNG) into natural gas.

This environmentally friendly and fuel-efficient technology, marketed as the LNG Smart Air Vaporization (SAV) process, uses a closed-loop intermediate fluid circulating through fin-fan heat exchangers to extract heat from ambient air to vaporize LNG from its cryogenic state at -260°F back to pipeline temperatures for transporting and storage.

When compared with the more traditional submerged combustion vaporization technique, the SAV technology provides major reductions in fugitive air emissions (up to 100% under certain ambient conditions), and substantially lowers facility operating costs (through significantly reduced fuel gas usage). SAV also does not use seawater, thereby eliminating any negative impact on marine life in environmentally sensitive areas. The SAV process is currently being installed as the primary vaporization process at Trunkline LNG Company's Infrastructure Enhancement Project in Lake Charles, La., utilizing the existing Submerged Combustion Vaporizers (SCVs) as a backup heat source. The project, currently in the detail engineering phase, is on schedule to be commissioned in the 3rd quarter of 2008.

SAV is a key component of the suite of LNG Smart technologies, which also includes a small-scale LNG liquefaction process, various floating vessels with regasification and storage technologies (FSRUs), floating production storage and offloading vessels with onboard liquefaction (FPSOs), and horizontal LNG storage tanks.

Mustang is an independent services provider to the global oil, gas, chemical and industrial industries. The company specializes in design, engineering, procurement, project management and construction management and offers these services through its six business units: upstream oil and gas, midstream, pipeline, automation and control, refining and petrochemicals, and process & industrial. Mustang has a staff of 3,600 worldwide, with offices in the United States, United Kingdom and Australia. Its U.S. offices are located in Houston; Tampa, Florida; Birmingham, Alabama; Savannah, Georgia; Monroe, Louisiana; Martinez, California; Philadelphia; Greenville, South Carolina; and Wilmington, Delaware.

Wood Group is an international energy services company with approximately US$3 billion in sales, circa 20,000 people worldwide and operating in 44 countries. The Group has three businesses - Engineering & Production Facilities, Well Support, and Gas Turbine Services - providing a range of engineering, production support, maintenance management and industrial gas turbine overhaul and repair services to the oil & gas, and power generation industries worldwide.