LNG cold energy utilization: Prospects and challenges

Highlights: • Abundant amount of cold energy can be recovered during LNG regasification. • A comprehensive review on the state-of-the-art LNG cold energy utilization systems is provided. • LNG cold energy can be utilized for power generation, air separation, air conditioning and desalination. • Technologies to utilize LNG cold energy are analyzed and compared. -- Abstract: Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is widely used in many countries around the world primarily as a mode of transport for natural gas. However, massive amount of energy (around 830 kJ/kg of LNG) is wasted during the regasification process in the LNG regasification terminals. Therefore, the technologies to utilize the LNG cold energy have received significant attention over recent decades. In this paper, we review various studies on the current LNG cold energy utilization systems, including power generation, air separation, desalination, cryogenic carbon dioxide capture, and NGL recovery. Utilizing LNG cold energy on such systems can improve the energetic and exergetic efficiencies significantly. Furthermore, several potential applications to utilize LNG cold energy in the future are proposed and discussed to broaden the perspectives of the researchers in the community. Among these potential applications, recovering LNG cold energy on cold chain for food transportation, data center cooling and hydrate based desalination are very promising. Finally, the limitations and challenges to be addressed for LNG cold energy utilization are discussed in detail.