Global LNG Infrastructure

High-Pressure Storage and

Transport of Energy and CO2
Deepsea and
Arctic Field Development

LATTICE Technology

Daejun Chang, CEO

Job career
2012 ~ Now CEO LATTICE Technology
2009 ~ Now Associate professor, KAIST
2002 ~ 2007 Chief researcher, HHI
1998 ~ 2011 Senior researcher, HHI
Education
Ph.D., KAIST (Chemical Eng.), 1997
M.S., KAIST (Chemical Eng.), 1993
Research areas
Process simulation and optimization
Risk assessment
System safety and reliability
New systems for ships and offshore installations

Pl G. Bergan, CTO
Job career
2012 ~ Now CTO LATTICE Technology
2009 ~ Now Invited professor, KAIST
2005 ~ 2008 Senior Vice President, DNV
2001 ~ 2004 Vice President, DNV Research
1998 ~ 2001 Head of Corporate R&D Management
1986 ~ 1997 President, DNV Research AS NTNU
1971 ~ 1986 Professor, NTH(NTNU), Norway
Education
Ph.D., UC Berkeley (Structural Mechanics), 1971
M.S., NTH(NTNU) (Structural Analysis), 1965

Contents
Overview
Lattice Pressure Vessel (LPV)
Pump-free Booster
BOG Spray Recondenser
Pile-guided Floater

02

Research areas
Computational mechanics
Structural design and analysis
Energy storage systems
Materials technology
New types of floaters and ships

Overview
LATTICE Technology is a R&D company ready to collaborate with partners who are willing to develop
some of the core technologies into specific applications. Various forms of collaboration are conceivable based on mutual interest, ranging from base technology development to commercial applications.

Business model of LATTICE Technology

LATTICE Technology is a technology and knowledge company

that owns intellectual properties, licenses the technologies, and
expands its intellectual assets through R&D activities in the area
of the energy production, transportation, and utilization industries. Aiming at global LNG infrastructure, high-pressure storage and transport of energy and CO2, and deepsea and arctic
field development, LATTICE Technology has developed some
innovative technologies that are classified into six core groups:

Lattice pressure vessel (LPV)

Pump-free Booster
BOG Spray Recondenser
Pile-guided Floater
Large Seabed Tank
Other technologies

LATTICE Technology s core technologies and marketable products

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Lattice Pressure Vessel

Technological Challenges
In the domain of conventional pressure vessel technology, two types of pressure vessel are commercialized:
the spherical type and the cylindrical type. Some variations from these basic types, for example the bi-lobe
type, are also available.
Any conventional pressure vessel, however, is hard to scale up because the shell wall thickness inevitably
increases with the size in form of shell radius. Based on the conventional tank technology, pressure tanks
cannot be big in size, and big tanks cannot be pressurized; thus, pressure tanks are small and big tanks are
unpressurized. In consequence, the feasible domain in the combination of volume and pressure is limited by
these two constraints.

Solution by Lattice Technology

The Lattice Pressure Vessel (LPV) is a new tank
technology employing the internal lattice structure for load bearing. It has many valuable features that decreases CAPEX and OPEX with increasing safety.
-Applicable for very large design pressure
-Fully scalable to very large tank volume
-Very high volumetric efficiency (prismatic)
-Planar structural elements and outer surfaces
-Independent tank while lateral support is feasible
-No problem with partial filling, free from sloshing
-Production with repetitive geometry

LNG fuel tank of LPV type: 15,000 m3 and

7.5 barg (42m x 12m x 30m)

5,000m3 LNG fuel storage for Aframax crude carrier

04

The LPV was granted AIP (Approval-In-Principle) from

two classification societies:
KR: DJN03266-AIP-CD003, 27th March, 2013
ABS: OPN2973717-AIP, 2nd April, 2013
In order to verify the pressure-containing capability of the
LPV, a proto-type tank was built and tested in full compliance with ASME in January, 2014.

LPV with X-beam structure

The ideal volume efficiency of the LPV saves the installation space providing significant benefit to the ship
owner. One 15,000m3 LNG fuel tank of LPV type for 13,000 TEU container carriers saves about 900 containers. The LPG cargo tank of LPV type provides about 25% additional cargo space for LPG carriers.

15,000m3 LNG fuel storage for a 13,000 TEU container carrier

The world-first prismatic pressure vessel of LPV type

05

Pump-free Booster
Technological Challenges
Two schemes are conceivable for boosting such a cryogenic liquid as LNG: pump-based and PBU (pressure
boosting unit)-based boosting. In the former, the turbo-cryogenic machine, the pump, is often a source of
great concern due to the following reasons:
-Large fixed capital cost
-Complicated operation including cooldown
-High failure rate and subsequent maintenance
-No maintenance onboard
In the PBU-based scheme, part of the liquid inventory is vaporized by the PBU to pressurize the whole storage
tank. This scheme is difficult to apply to a large tank because
-The design pressure of the storage tanks has to be increased.
-All fluid in the tank needs to be heated to create sufficient pressure; this takes unduly long time for a
large tank.
-It is not easy to control pressure of a large storage tank by heating.
So, the PBU scheme is applicable only to small storage tanks.

Solution by Lattice Technology

The Pump-free Booster of LATTICE Technology utilizes two small boosters instead of a pump. There are no
moving parts. Each booster is equipped with a mini-PBU which is to pressurize the booster itself, not the main
storage tank. Two boosters are operating in a proper way to guarantee continuous supply of pressurized LNG.
The advantages of the Pump-free Booster are:
-Low fixed capital cost
-Simple operation
-Low failure rate
-Easy maintenance onboard
-No need of initial pressurization
of the main tank

Pump-free Booster

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There are two process configurations: parallel and series. In the former, the two boosters operate in an
alternating way; one is exporting the pressurized LNG while the other is charged with low-pressure LNG.
To the contrary, in the latter configuration the first booster sends pressurized LNG in an intermittent way,
and the second boost continuously exports the pressurized LNG.
The pump-free boost can be used for generator engines as well as the DFDE engine. It can also replace
the priming pump of the MEGI engines.

Parallel configuration

Series configuration

The synergic effect magnifies if the pump-free booster is combined with the LPV LNG fuel tank for the
LNG fuel gas supply system.

Twin cryogenic pumps with cylinder

fuel tanks

Pump-free Booster with LPV LNG

fuel tank

07

BOG Spray Recondenser

Technological Challenges
Boil-off gas (BOG) is the single most important factor to consider in designing and operating LNG-based
systems. The BOG generated during LNG bunkering behaves significantly differently from that of the LNG
carriers or onshore terminals where BOG handling is a well-established practice. The fuel LNG storage tank
onboard will be pressurized due to the external heat ingress. Before LNG bunkering, the high-pressure BOG in
the tank should be removed and transferred to the LNG bunkering facility which may be a bunkering terminal
or a bunkering shuttle. This BOG is characterized by being intermittent and may represent a considerable
peak pressure load. That is, the LNG bunkering operation should consist of two serial sub-operations: one for
BOG transfer and the other for LNG transfer.
A conventional type BOG reliquefaction system is based on direct liquefaction of vapor into liquid, and difficult
to apply to this case. One solution with the conventional technology is to increase the liquefaction capacity to
deal with the peak load. Of course, this is economically discouraging due to the considerable equipment cost.
Another solution is to keep the liquefaction capacity for the average load and liquefy the BOG gradually by extending the BOG transfer sub-operation and delaying the LNG entire bunkering operation. Note that both solutions should be on the idling mode for the LNG transfer sub-operation. That means, they should experience
frequent load changes which may cause equipment failure and impose operational complexities on the crew.

Solution by Lattice Technology

The BOG Spray Recondenser of LATTICE consists of the BOG recondensing unit and the LNG subcooling unit as
shown in the figure. The recondensing
unit is a tank half filled with LNG. Part
of the LNG discharged from the recirculation pump is recycled to the spray
nozzles, and the rest is delivered to the
LNG subcooling unit and ultimately to
the spray nozzles.

Process concept of BOG Spray Recondenser

08

Operation of the BOG Spray Recondenser is continuous and steady. The incoming BOG during the
BOG transfer sub-operation is mixed with the sprayed LNG. This leads to increase in the pressure and
temperature of the LNG. Consequently, the pressure of the BOG recondensing unit increases on over the
sub-operation. As the BOG supply is stopped for the LNG transfer sub-operation, the low-temperature
LNG from the LNG subcooling unit, which is typically a nitrogen refrigeration system, starts to cool down
the LNG and finally brings the
pressure and temperature back
close to the initial state. Over the
both sub-operations, the rate of
the LNG circulation and the load
of the LNG subcooling unit are
kept constant to attain the steady
operation.

Schematic layout of BOG Spray Recondenser

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Pile-guided Floater
Technological Challenges
Two solutions have been employed for large installations offshore: the GBS (gravity-based structure) type and
the floating platform type. Since the GBS type stands on the seabed, it can be applicable only to shallow to
medium depth waters.
The floating type usually looks like a ship or a rectangular platform. It is normally kept in place by a series of
mooring lines. It has almost no limitation regarding the water depth. The floater motion, however, is the critical
weakness of this type. The dynamic motion due to waves may cause large fluid motion within storage tanks
(sloshing) which lead to severe fluid impact (slamming) against the tank walls creating damage. This is particularly a problem for LNG tanks of the membrane type. These problems may prevent this type of tanks from
being used out at sea with partial filling; which typically prevent such tanks from being used in connection
with FPSOs and floating LNG terminals (FLNG). Yet another floating platform type should also be mentioned,
the tension leg platform (TLP), which makes use of pre-tensioned, straight anchoring cables (tethers). These
platforms can typically be used for water depth ranges of 300 to 1000m; unfortunately they are not suited for
carrying large storage tanks.

Solution by Lattice Technology

The concept of the Pile-guided Floater is illustrated in below. The piles are fixed to a seabed holding frame,
and the floater moves up and down along the piles in accordance with tides and ocean swells. Since the horizontal movement of the floater is restricted by the pile system, only the slow vertical movement will take place.
In consequence, the sloshing load in the cargo tanks will be negligible for this type of floater.

Concept of Pile-guided Floater: Principle

10

A major advantage of the Pile-guided Floater is that it provides satisfactory conditions for ship-to-ship
cargo transfer even in rather rough sea conditions. A shuttle tanker is moored to the guiding piles or the
floater itself. The relative motion between the shuttle tanker and the floater becomes negligible in horizontal direction and small in vertical direction. If necessary, the seabed frame can be strengthened by an
additional structure to withstand all the horizontal loads from the floater and the shuttle tanker.

Pile-guided Floater: 60 m depth

The Pile-guided Floater will be
best suited for shallow water
and near coastal applications,
such as for various types of
fluid storage and fluid transfer
terminals. Not shown in the figures is a capability of extending
the height of the pile fixing bottom frame into a subsea frame
support system with considerable height. In such case this
type of platform may also be
used in deep waters (often defined as more than 60 m) up to
more than 100 m.

LNG Carrier

LNG-BT
LNG-BS
(Bunkering Terminal) (Bunkering Shuttle)

Bunkering terminal as a Pile-guided Floater mooring

an LNG carrier and two bunkering shuttles

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LATTICE Technology
Eureka Building (N27), KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology)
291 Daehak-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, 305-701, Republic of Korea
www.lattice-technology.com
contact@lattice-technology.com