PetrolPlaza new products report: Flexible LNG pipe system from BRUGG Pipe Systems

Kelly Crellin, President Brugg Pipesystems, recently told PetrolPlaza that pipes that the company has developed for LNG handling that use polyurethane foam insulators are more price attractive compared with alternative pipes based on vacuum insulation that they also make.

> Click to watch our video interview with Kelly Crellin: www.PetrolPlaza.com/tv

Both pipes have one single main objective which is to keep temperatures of the LNG (Liquid Natural Gas) at about minus 600 degrees Fahrenheit. The main purpose of the LNG transportation industry is to maintain those temperatures so gas remains liquid and condensed. When gas is compressed into a liquid, it is easy to transport in large quantities but keeping it cold is the “most difficult aspect” for LNG handling equipment that must be considered, he said.

So the company has developed two piping systems which both aim to keep temperatures of the liquids as low as needed but the use of polyurethane greatly reduces costs, he added in an interview with PetrolPlaza during the PEI NACS show in Las Vegas.

There have been large reserves of natural gas found, particularly in the US, in recent years but what really matters is the industry’s ability “to take that volume and liquefy it and then use it in transportation in ships or trains or large motor vehicles on the road,” Crellin explained. “We are in the process of developing products that support that energy source,” he added.

The company was well positioned to develop the piping systems because of its experience in stainless steel corrugated pipeline manufacturing combined with separate expertise obtained in Europe with work “in the cryogenic industry” which is technology related to extremely low temperatures, Crellin said.

As a result of their efforts, the company has come up with “two versions of the pipe which are unique to the industry, unique to Brugg, both utilizing our stainless steel corrugation,” he said.

One product is a vacuum insulated pipe which utilizes ”a multi-layered pipe system which uses our corrugated steel pipe as the carrier pipe” and a return line. This pipe also incorporates some high-tech materials for insulation as well as "space where we create the vacuum before that pipe is sealed and installed," Crellin said.

The vacuum insulation pipe is “the most efficient known way to maintain” the temperatures as low as needed, he said.

“We also developed a second version which utilizes our polyurethane foam insulator, although slightly less efficient as an insulator (...) the polyurethane foam insulation allows us to provide at a lower cost that same high level of quality and maintenance of lower temperatures,” Crellin said.

The polyurethane pipe is “slightly less efficient but to the end user the difference is negligible”, he said. LNG equipment is important as it allows the tapping of a resource that is cleaner, he said.