Method of discharging residual liquid in liquefied gas tank

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10408385-B2
Application number	US-201615291841-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 12, 2016
Priority date	Apr 15, 2014
Publication date	Sep 10, 2019
Grant date	Sep 10, 2019

Abstract

Water is injected into a top of a liquefied gas tank (water injection step); residual stored liquid in the tank is vaporized by heats of water injected in the water injection step so that the vaporized gas discharges from the top of the tank (residual liquid vaporization/discharge step); even after all of the stored liquid is vaporized in the residual liquid vaporization/discharge step, the injection of the water into the tank is continued to melt ice solidified through cold heat appropriation of the stored liquid in the residual liquid vaporization/discharge step and return the temperature in the tank to normal temperature (hot-up step); and attained is water discharge from a bottom of the tank having the temperature in the tank returned to normal temperature in the hot-up step while inert gas is supplied into the tank (water discharge step).

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method of discharging residual liquid in a liquefied gas tank, comprising:
injecting liquid into the liquefied gas tank; and
vaporizing residual stored liquid in the liquefied gas tank into vaporized gas by heat transferred from the injected liquid so that the vaporized gas discharges from the liquefied gas tank,
wherein the injected liquid is water, and the steps of injecting liquid and vaporizing residual stored liquid further include:
a water injection step of injecting the water into the liquefied gas tank through a first existing nozzle on a top of the liquefied gas tank,
a residual liquid vaporization/discharge step of vaporizing residual stored liquid in the liquefied gas tank into the vaporized gas by heat transferred from the water injected in the water injection step so that the vaporized gas discharges from the liquefied gas tank through a second existing nozzle on the top of the liquefied gas tank,
a hot-up step of continuing the injection of the water into the liquefied gas tank after all of the stored liquid is vaporized in the residual liquid vaporization/discharge step to melt ice solidified through cold heat appropriation of the stored liquid in the residual liquid vaporization/discharge step, and wherein the hot-up step continues until after a temperature inside the tank is greater than 0° C., and
a water discharge step of discharging the water from the liquefied gas tank after the hot-up step, wherein the water discharge step includes discharging the water through a bottom of the liquefied gas tank, while inert gas is supplied into the liquefied gas tank through the first existing nozzle on the top of the liquefied gas tank.

2. The method of discharging residual liquid in the liquefied gas tank as claimed in claim 1 , wherein during the residual liquid vaporization/discharge step, the vaporized gas discharging from the liquefied gas tank through the top of the liquefied gas tank is burned in a flare stack.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein in the residual liquid vaporization/discharge step, the residual stored liquid is heated into the vaporized gas using only the heat transferred from the water injected in the water injection step.

Assignees

• Ihi Corp

Inventors

• SETAKA Hirotomo

Classifications

• F17C2260/048

  Refurbishing · CPC title

• F17C2260/015

  Facilitating maintenance · CPC title

• F17C2227/044

  by purging · CPC title

• F17C9/00

  Methods or apparatus for discharging liquefied or solidified gases from vessels not under pressure · CPC title

• F17C2221/033

  Methane, e.g. natural gas, CNG, LNG, GNL, GNC, PLNG · CPC title