Canada’s largest ever liquid natural gas (LNG) project is underway in British Columbia, and AkzoNobel (Amsterdam, The Netherlands) is supplying customized protective coatings solutions for the landmark facility.
Situated in Kitimat, the LNG Canada project will feature four processing units, with a total capacity of 28 million tons (25.4 million metric tons) each year. The manufacturer is providing coatings from its Chartek range for the first phase of construction, which involves building 35 core modules in China.
The LNG supplied by the new facility is expected to have the least CO2 per ton of any LNG produced in the world. It will be destined for Asian countries, primarily China and Japan.
“We’re excited to be part of such a grand global project, which will eventually benefit tens of thousands of new energy users in Asia,” says Amanda Sheng, director of AkzoNobel’s marine and protective coatings business in Greater China. She adds that a boom in the global LNG industry is resulting in a significant upturn in new projects.
According to the manufacturer, China is expected to become the largest importer of LNG by 2024. Forecasts also suggest that annual global LNG demand will double by 2040.
In response, AkzoNobel says it has a long track record of providing performance-based design and engineering for coatings systems that are used on such projects.
Once the core modules for LNG Canada have been constructed and coated, which is expected to take around 18 months, they will be shipped to Kitimat for assembly. The coatings will provide essential functionality such as anticorrosion, passive fire protection, and cryogenic protection in the harsh environmental conditions of British Columbia.
“Thanks to our industry-leading coatings technologies, products, services, and engineering expertise in the LNG sector, we’re confident we’ll continue to support the industry’s global drive for efficient and sustainable coatings solutions across the value chain,” says Jean-Michel Gauthier, business director of the manufacturer’s marine, protective, and yacht coatings segment.
With origins in the Apollo space program, Chartek is an epoxy intumescent passive fire protection coating. As a preferred solution for fire protection in the oil and gas market, the company says it is widely specified for offshore applications, onshore oil refining, gas processing, petrochemical, and chemical industry projects.
Source: AkzoNobel, www.international-pc.com.