buletinul institutului politehnic din iaşi - Universitatea Tehnică ...

BULETINUL INSTITUTULUI POLITEHNIC DIN IAŞI
Publicat de
Universitatea Tehnică „Gheorghe Asachi“ din Iaşi,
Tomul LVIII (LXII), Fasc. 4, 2012
Secţia
CONSTRUCŢII DE MAŞINI
ENERGY RECOVERY FROM REGASIFICATION OF LNG
BY
ANTONINO LA ROCCA 1 , VINCENZO LA ROCCA ∗2
and MASSIMO MORALE 2
1 University of Nottingham, UK,
Department of Mechanical, Materials and Manufacturing Engineering
2 Università di Palermo, Italy,
Dipartimento dell’Energia
Received: April 2012
Accepted for publication: June 2012
Abstract. The international forecasts on energy consumption in the next
future show an increasing trend due also to growing markets, and among this the
leading emerging economies connected to BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia,
India, China and South Africa). We need more and more energy. On the other
side the environmental problem is arising and the climate change is a more and
more pressing emergency. The latest environmental disasters, as the oil spill in
the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 and the earthquake with the following tsunami in
Japan in 2011, struck the public opinion and so, as in many European countries,
the nuclear program is under a deep revision or even stopped.
So it is necessary to utilize as well as possible all energy resources. Among
these resources, natural gas is undoubtedly one of the most used. A lot of gas
pipelines were build and many others are under construction or in project. At the
same time many countries utilizing gas are far from production countries, for
example Japan that actually is reconverting the national energy plan pushing up
on natural gas. Therefore the only way to utilize gas in these countries is to
achieve it by transportation with ships, and the better way is in liquid state, so it
is possible to maximize mass per unit volume.
The transport of natural gas is made by gas pipeline from gas field to the
harbour where are located the gasification terminal. In these industrial sites the
gasification process takes place with consumption of the natural gas itself, i.e. an
huge amount of energy is used in order to liquefy the gas.
∗ Corresponding author: e-mail: vincenzo.larocca@unipa.it