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Principle of Refrigeration.
When a liquid evaporates a cooling effect is produced. For
example, a few drops of volatile liquid i.e. after shave. Poured on
to the hand gives a cold sensation, as it evaporates rapidly taking
heat out of the skin.
Cryogenic technology
In physics, cryogenics is the study of the production of very low
temperature (below 150 C, 238 F or 123 K) and the behavior of
materials at those temperatures.
Liquefied natural gas or LNG is natural gas (predominantly methane,
CH4) that has been converted temporarily to liquid form for ease of
storage or transport.
Liquefied natural gas takes up about 1/600th the volume of natural gas
in the gaseous state. The LNG is carried on ships in liquefied form at a
temperature of approximately 162 C (260 F).
In many pressure tankers, the tanks weighed as much as the cargo. With
refrigeration equipment onboard, the reduced pressure of the cooler
cargo created savings in the weight of the steel needed in the cargo
tanks, thereby increasing cargo carried.
The solution for larger payloads (cargo carrying capacity) was
refrigeration. By cooling the cargo, the pressure can be reduced and
there is a consequent reduction in the thickness and weight of the cargo
tanks.
What was needed for the vessel design was:
(a) Onboard refrigeration equipment to maintain the cargo within
specified temperature and pressure limits;
(b) Steel in the tanks which would remain ductile at the low
temperatures of LPG and LNG; and
(c) Tank insulation that would protect the hull structure
Tank material for Cryogenic temperatures
Where a tanker has been designed specifically to carry fully refrigerated
ethylene (with a boiling point of -104 deg C at atmospheric pressure ) or
LNG (atmospheric boiling point -162C), nickel-alloyed steels, stainless
steels (such as Invar) must be used for the material of tank construction.