Essar plans 16 new LNG truck-loading bays
Essar is trying to preempt any R-LNG evacuation problems by planning 16 new LNG truck loading bays at its proposed 6m t/y Salaya LNG terminal.
More details are emerging from Essar’s proposal to revive its old plan to set up the Gujarat LNG terminal. Essar wants two truck-loading gantries, each with eight bays to load LNG into trucks.
"The LNG process area in the port will have facilities for direct loading onto tankers," says an Essar source. "This will be a modern facility where simultaneous LNG filling operations can be carried out at the 16 bays."
At each bay, a total of 20 cryogenic road tankers/day can be filled with LNG. Each gantry can fill and dispatch 160 trucks/day.
"LNG will be supplied to factories that do not have pipeline connections," we hear. Essar plans to regasify 4m t/y of LNG and send it out through pipelines, while the remaining 2m t/y will be sent out through the 16 truck-loading bays.
For smooth truck loading operations, Essar has proposed an intermediate storage tank with a capacity of 6000 cubic metres near the loading bays. LNG will be fed to the loading facilities from a manifold and supplied by pumps installed near the LNG storage tank.
Each loading skid will be equipped with an LNG loading arm. Boil-off gas generated during the loading process will be re-condensed into LNG, used for power generation or pumped to the gas pipeline.
At each loading bay, a local control panel will regulate the LNG flow. Before the tanker leaves the terminal, a weighing bridge will measure the LNG quantity on the truck.
Essar is also planning an LNG storage capacity of 220,000 cubic metres, excluding the 6000 cubic metres of storage at the truck loading bays. This will be divided between a 50,000-cubic metre land-based storage tank and a 170,000-cubic metre Floating Storage Unit (FSU) at the 350-metre jetty.