Qatargas adapts pace setting environment technology

The new technology has been in place and running successfully for over a month at the Qatargas 1 liquefied natural gas processing plant in Ras Laffan City.

This new innovative technique allows Qatargas to reduce the amount of chlorine added into the cooling seawater by over 50%. It reduces blockages caused by fouling.

The system has seen the close collaboration between the Environmental Affairs, Engineering and Operations divisions of the company.

Control of biological fouling in the cooling system, by the addition of chlorine, is critical to allow a smooth and trouble free operation of any industrial plants using seawater for cooling. The environmental and operational benefits gained from Pulse-Chlorination™ lead to injecting less chlorine into the cooling seawater system.

Through utilizing Pulse-Chlorination™ the chlorine producing equipment should operate more efficiently and the time intervals needed between inspection and maintenance may increase, thereby reducing the amount of waste to be disposed, in addition to operational and emissions related performance improvements.

One of the drivers for this project is that the state environmental regulator has been incrementally reducing the maximum chlorine concentration permitted in discharged cooling seawater from 0.2 to 0.05 milligrams per liter. To put this into perspective the concentrations are much lower than the concentration found in recreational swimming pools or that used to disinfect drinking water.

Pulse-Chlorination™ represents one of the Best Available Techniques (BAT) within the European Union for seawater chlorination. By adopting this new technique Qatargas significantly reduces the environmental footprint that cooling seawater has on the marine environment in and around its operations.