Increasing Demand for VE Technology Sampling Products for Gas Processing in LNG Production

Orbital Global Solutions’ (UK) USP is its ability to deliver unrivalled accuracy and response time for all natural gas (and related industries) sampling requirements, through its exclusively licenced VE Technology sampling products. LNG feed gas must be accurately analysed before liquefying it; Mercury can cause catastrophic heat exchanger failure if not managed and poses additional personnel health risks, Hydrogen Sulphide can cause corrosion problems, health risks and can poison other crucial plant catalysts such as in mercury removal units, and moisture becomes frozen during the liquefaction process causing blockages, reduction in performance, and safety concerns. Clearly the importance of effective sampling and measurement warrant significant time, attention and investment to achieve best possible performance.

Current industry standards (API 14.1, GPA 2166-5, ISO 10715), techniques and equipment are not necessarily optimised for this purpose and traditionally the equipment has been provided by general purpose EPC firms with little direct knowledge or expertise in the physics, chemistry and engineering requirements of accurate sampling and analysis. With the huge volumes of gas continually processed by these plants, the smallest (ppb) of measurement errors can add up to plant-scale problems – with an unplanned plant shutdown a possible outcome that could cost 10s of millions.

There are many sources of error caused by poor component selection and sample system design, and each and every one is a sampling failure that can put the plant at financial or safety risk. The danger being that some sampling failures remain unseen until the resulting issue becomes apparent. For example, a moisture sampling deficiency (failure) may not become apparent until ice formation. Plants cannot afford to operate in this way.

Patented VE Technology sample systems have been scientifically researched and developed from scratch to eliminate all known sources of sampling error, and even some that are not widely known. Some components have been designed in-house to achieve the required performance, where a commercially-available component was not considered suitable. When selecting equipment for such sampling applications, “good enough” is simply not good enough. Only the best will do, only VE Technology will deliver the safety, reliability and total process control required.