Design of an Intermediate Fluid Vaporizer for Liquefied Natural Gas

The intermediate fluid vaporizer (IFV) owns various advantages over other types of liquefied natural gas (LNG) vaporizers. Research findings related to the design of an IFV, including configurational variations, selection of candidate working fluids, one-dimensional steady-state thermal model, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model for thermal dynamic analysis, and cold energy recovery have been reviewed. Further updates to the current one-dimensional thermal model are needed. A three-dimensional unsteady CFD model should be established for the instantaneous flow and heat transfer analysis. Integrating the LNG regasification and cold energy recovery will bring more complexity in process design, optimization, and operation.