Summary
The share of liquified natural gas (LNG) in the international trade of natural gas (NG) is continually increasing. This presents increasing opportunities to build power plants to generate electricity at LNG regasification terminals rather than wasting the power generation potential of LNG at about −162°C by regasifying it by seawater, ambient air, or by burning NG. Typically, over 5% of the NG received at LNG plants is used to liquify the remaining incoming gaseous NG at environmental conditions. Theoretically, all the energy consumed at LNG liquefaction plants can be recovered at LNG regasification terminals. In this study, the theoretical and practical power generation potential of regasified LNG is investigated by performing energy and exergy analyses. It is shown that up to 0.191 kWh of electric power can be generated during the regasification of LNG per standard m3 of NG regasified. The potential economic gains associated with power generation at LNG regasification facilities are demonstrated by analyzing the 2018 LNG imports of Turkey as a case study and the world. It is shown that the 314 million tons of LNG imported globally in 2018 has the electric power generation potential of 88 billion kWh with a market value of over 10 billion USD. It also has the potential to offset 38 million tons of CO2 emissions.