Liquefied natural gas (LNG) production facilities require rugged, reliable valves for safe, efficient, and sustainable operations. It’s also critical to reduce complexity and use the right valves for the application across the facility’s lifecycle, from initial engineering through construction, commissioning, operations, and ongoing maintenance.
Emerson’s Andrea Sutti and Massimiliano Franco join me in the Emerson Automation Experts podcast to discuss the role of these critical valves and actuators in the world’s largest LNG project. They share the importance of selecting and testing the actuated valves to meet the requirements of safety, isolation and control applications.
Give the podcast a listen and visit the Valves, Actuators and Regulators for the Entire LNG Value Chain section on Emerson.com.
Transcript
Jim: Hi, everyone. I’m Jim Cahill, and this is another Emerson Automation Experts podcast. Today we’re on another episode in a four-part series that explores the role of control technologies in helping drive efficient and reliable LNG production. Emerson’s valves, regulators, and actuators empower the entire LNG value chain from the liquefaction process to transport and terminals, and from project startup and commissioning to long-term facility operations and maintenance. Today I’m joined by Andrea Sutti and Massimiliano Franco to discuss a successful installation, commissioning, and operations of a massive Middle East LNG facility. Welcome, gentlemen. Let’s begin by having you introduce yourselves.
Andrea: Hi, Jim, and thank you for this opportunity. Hi, everyone. My name is Andrea Sutti. I’m the Global Product Manager for Vanessa Triple Offset Valves.
Max: Hello to all of you. My name is Massimiliano Franco. I’m working for Biffi, a plant located in Italy. I’m responsible for the actuators in the actuation technologies SBU.
Jim: Well, with that great background, that’ll really help in our discussion today. So Andrea, let me start with you. Can you give us an overview of this massive LNG project in the Middle East?
Andrea: Yes. We are talking about the largest LNG plant to date. It is located in the Middle East, consisting in four mega-trains of LNG production. Each of them has the capacity of 8 million tons of LNG per year, a gigantic installation that is made even bigger by the fact that, differently from the conventional LNG facilities, this one also includes the gas treatment plant being located nearby the gas field. And by the way, there is also plan for further expansion adding two more production mega-trains.
Jim: Wow. It’s big already and about to get a lot bigger. That’s very impressive. Can you tell us some of the key challenges that this customer was facing in building this massive LNG facility?
Andrea: The customer challenges are reflecting the overall challenges of the entire LNG industry. We know the importance of the LNG for the global energy supply and the importance of the LNG as a key transitional greener fuel for the journey to net zero. All elements that put the LNG industry under the spotlight in terms of production capacity, efficiency, and reduced impact on the environment. All challenges that are reflected into demanding requirements for all the equipment and the components that are part of the LNG facility, among which the actuated valves play a very important role.
Max: Yes. Thank you, Andrea. Regarding the actuators in front of the customer, the responsibility to guarantee the performance and the delivery is a key factor. And that means you need to have a very strong cooperation between the actuator maker and the valve maker. Then these aspects, the synergy, and their ability to provide the solution is a crucial role on that type of project in general, but especially when you have mega projects. And Biffi and Vanessa have more than 50 years of cooperation together. And regarding the capability to provide what is requested by mega projects, just to give you some numbers, Biffi in the LNG in the last three years delivered more than 4,500 actuators per year divided by electrical actuators, pneumatic, and hydraulic type. Just to tell you, in terms of U.S. dollar, we are talking about for a total of $120 million.
Jim: Wow. That’s an impressive amount in what was sold there. Now, this project used thousands of Vanessa valves and Biffi actuators. Can you tell us about the type of applications they served?
Andrea: Yes, I will start by mentioning the emergency actuated valves that are protecting the personnel and the equipment in case of an emergency situation, and for which the quick and reliable response is crucial in order to guarantee safety. And then the on-off actuated valves operating molecular sieve process, that are required to perform thousands of cycles under very demanding process conditions, such as temperature fluctuations and the presence of particulates inside the gas. And finally, the core of the LNG facility, the liquefaction column where the natural gas is liquefied before being handled for transportation. For all these applications, the customer selected the Emerson Vanessa Biffi actuated valves because the recognized capability to release engineered solutions able to meet the demanding requirements of these critical applications.
Max: Yes, 100% agree, Andrea, with you. If an actuator valve fails, you can start to have dangerous situations and you can start to lose money. These two aspects in a big project is important, but when you have a mega project, it is a massive situation to avoid. Then the reliability of the actuator is crucial. And then you need to perform the correct sizing selection and the correct actuator selection according to the safety level requested that is different in each part of the plant. Just to give you an example, and Andrea explained and mentioned that is the molecular sieve. In that specific case, you have an extensive number of cycles requested, and then you need to guarantee the combination of actuator and valve with the capability to reduce as much as possible the maintenance interval between each maintenance activity. And the selection is crucial in term of torque and in term of other features. Then you need to know what is requested, you need to know what is the valve performances and the actuator that you can combine.
Jim: Yeah, now given all those Vanessa series 30,000 triple offset valves and being such a major component of the project, can you explain what sets these valves apart from traditional valve technologies?
Andrea: Let me answer this question by mentioning the four foundational elements of the Vanessa Triple Offset Valve that set this product apart from the competition of the traditional valves design. Starting from the quarter turn rotation that ensures superior performances in terms of fugitive emission containment compared to the traditional raising stem valves. And then, the frictionless design combined with the full metal construction make the Vanessa valve an extremely robust product, versatile, and capable to adapt to a wide variety of industrial applications with minimum maintenance required. And finally, the torque seating design, Vanessa valve requires minimum torque to operate. And this makes the package of Vanessa Biffi actuated valves more compact, cost-effective and reliable compared to the traditional position-seated valves.
Jim: Well, those are pretty four strong reasons why there’s so many of those in that project. And I know I’ve seen pictures that this also featured the largest Vanessa Series 30,000 Triple Offset Valves ever constructed. And maybe I’ll sneak in a picture when we post this to the blog. Can you describe the challenges in constructing these gigantic valves and what makes them necessary?
Andrea: Yes, we are talking about multiple units of 66-inch double flange cryogenic Vanessa valves configured for a class 600 piping. A gigantic 15-ton valve required special operations to perform cryogenic testing at the manufacturing location. And then 120-inch double flange valves with the largest cast body ever produced for a Vanessa triple offset, for which the best of the foundry technology had to be leveraged in order to ensure compliance with the dimensional, superficial and volumetric customer requirements. And finally, multiple units of the 126-inch valve with fabricated body, the largest ever produced Vanessa triple offset. I mean, for this valve, everything is just extraordinary. If you think about the common operations performed on conventional valves, such as components machining, assembly, testing, painting and so on and so forth, here they’re just becoming extraordinary. And they required accurate planning and study in order to ensure a flawless manufacturing and on-time delivery.
Jim: Well, that’s an impressive engineering feat in doing what’s required for such a massive facility. Let’s talk a little bit about Biffi’s role. How did their electric and pneumatic actuators complement the Vanessa valves in this project? With over 1,300 Vanessa valves with Biffi actuators installed in the project, it seems with such a massive order, coordination is key. How did the synergy between Vanessa and Biffi streamline the production and delivery of this complex solution?
Max: Yes, apart what Andrea described just now regarding how is important the valve and the performance, another aspect that is really necessary to take in consideration is that for mega projects, you need to consider a high number of pieces for valve and actuators. But these are just a limited part of the total amount of goods involved. Then if you have a huge effort for the big project, when you have a mega project, you have an exponential effort. That means you need to be capable to manage a massive number of suppliers. That means if you can limit, if you can reduce the number of partners as much as possible, this can guarantee a better selection, an easy management on the project at the beginning and during and also at the ending, and also more uniformity in the solution proposed. And then these aspect is very crucial.
Another aspect is that you need to have a supplier capable to provide the number of pieces. Then this is also important to reduce the number of suppliers. And how you can do it, then you need to be capable to work correctly with the valve maker in this case, because at the end in front of the customer, the package is an actuator plus a valve always. And you need to be capable to provide what they expect to receive from actuator point of view.
The capability to work together between Vanessa is confirmed by a very long historical presence and order during the last 50 years. And this cooperation started thanks to these two factories founded by two brothers. These two factories are very close to each other. This can also help to speed up the discussions as much as possible and clarify all the technical aspects. Another element is the capability to produce the number of pieces and the type of actuators for enough applications. Biffi can provide this capability in terms of production and in terms of the variety of actuators available in the same plan. And then, you can provide, as a single production point, the complete set of actuators used on this specific project. Then, in this case, it is pneumatic, electric, hydraulic, linear, and quarter turn.
You can combine these three aspects. Close cooperation, capability to provide the huge number of pieces, and the complete product range requested by the project. This means to guarantee a reduction of suppliers and this is another value for the EPCs and for the end users.
Jim: Yeah, and it’s handy that the 2 plants are 10 kilometers apart to have that close collaboration and be able to really meet the challenge of just the sheer scale of this project. Now, I know that safety is always a major concern in a large-scale LNG project. How did the Vanessa valves and Biffi actuators address safety considerations, I guess both in terms of operation and emergency scenarios?
Andrea: There are several aspects that make the Vanessa Triple Offset Valve a superior solution in terms of response to customer safety requirements. For instance, the asymmetric design that allows Vanessa valve to leverage in-line pressure to trigger different valve behaviors in case of emergency applications. And then, the cavity-free design that avoids liquid LNG to be trapped anywhere inside the valve that can dangerously result in a sudden increase in pressure in case of temperature fluctuations. And then, the full metal construction that means inherently fire safe, but also means electrical continuity across all the components with no chance for electrical charges to be accumulated anywhere inside the valve that can result in a spark or a fire ignition. So, for all these reasons, the customers are increasingly selecting Vanessa Triple Offset Valves because they recognize their capability to respond to the increasingly demanding safety requirements from the industry.
Max: Yes, the safety level is a key point. And it is not always the same all around the plant. Then you need to combine what is necessary according to what is requested. You cannot over-configure the solution, okay? Because you also need to balance the cost and the complexity to manage that type of cost. Then you need to understand how to correctly configure the actuator solution to combine the features described just now by Andrea with the actuator’s performance. Generally, the safety of the LNG project or the ESD, the emergency shutdown, or the BDV blow-down valves is the capability to move in failure guaranteed by a solution made with springs. This means with a mechanical capability. Actuator with a mechanical capability to move in the fail position when requested. But on top of it, the correct combination between the valve & actuator is the point that gives you these added value in terms of safety capability.
Jim: Yeah, that’s very important to match it and meet what’s required for that safety instrumented function. This LNG project includes two future expansion trains that you mentioned earlier. What did Emerson do to ensure that our solutions would be adaptable to the expansion? Were there any specific design features with scalability in mind?
Max: The mega project involved a lot of aspects, but for sure costs that are related to how long it takes to complete the project, how is the complexity that you have to manage are aspects that you need to take into consideration. If you can reduce as much as possible the complexity and you can repeat as much as possible what you already successfully complete in the previous train and then you can use these experiences in the next train is the added value that it is to be usable and to something that Emerson can provide. Because we perform it as Biffi and Vanessa according to the expectation and the solution can be used, okay, with a reduced number of clarification and clarity. And this can speed up as much as possible the return on investment, the management of the other trains. This is the added value that Emerson can provide starting from the past successfully experience that can be translated on the additional trains that arise in the near future.
Jim: Well, that makes a lot of sense that, you know, you build on the success of what’s there and carry over as much as possible that fits the requirements of the new part there. So I guess let’s start winding things down a little bit. What lessons can be learned from this project for future LNG or large-scale energy projects?
Andrea: The LNG industry is progressively moving away from the traditional valve design to triple offset valves to fulfill the increasingly demanding needs. For large scale projects, the customers recognize the need to partner with trusted actuator and valve suppliers that are capable to leverage synergies and have a long history of proven in use successful applications. So, for all these reasons, the customer selected Emerson Vanessa Biffi actuated triple offset valves to fulfill the needs of the world’s largest LNG facility to date.
Max: Yes, I think that it is not more to add what according to what Andrea clearly explained. I think that the trend for the mega project is to reduce as much as possible or to use a defined set of suppliers because you already know what you have to do. The EPCs and the end user can trust about you. They know what they can ask. Do you have a defined channel? If these can be the added value to reduce the uncontrolled situation. And finally, you can have the result that you expect. And this is really important in general, but when you have a mega project that you need to multiply by two, by three, the dimension of the project, this aspect is very crucial.
Jim: Yeah, that’s a really critical point there that there’s already so much complexity in a project of that size. You don’t want to add to it by having a bunch of different suppliers and trying to figure out and finger-pointing if things aren’t working the way they should be able to go to one supplier, Emerson, for the critical needs of the valve and the actuator to meet the requirements of the service. Yeah, that just helps reduce the overall complexity in there. Well, this has been a great discussion. I want to thank you both so much for joining us today.
And for our listeners, if you want to learn more about these valves and actuators and a whole lot more around the entire LNG value train, go to Emerson.com/LNGvalves to learn a whole lot more. Andrea, Max, thank you so much for joining us today and sharing your expertise with our listeners.
Max: Thank you to you and goodbye to all.
Andrea: Bye everyone.
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