In Sep­tem­ber, Deutsche ReGas started the construction of an LNG (liquefied natural gas) terminal in Lubmin in the north­east of Germany. Being the leading man­u­fac­tur­er of easy- to-use, reliable LNG transfer systems and LNG bunker­ing systems in the world, Manntek provides all the cou­plings and so­lu­tions in the dis­tri­b­u­tion chain.

An FSRU (Floating Storage and Re­gasi­fi­ca­tion Unit) will be placed in the Lubmin port to regas the LNG to natural gas and feed the gas grid. But due to the shallow waters in the port the FSRU can’t be fully loaded and a fully loaded LNG-carrier can’t enter the harbour, which puts several de­mand­ing chal­lenges on the ap­pli­ca­tion and pro­ce­dures.

– This has been solved by placing an FSU (Floating Storage Unit) outside the coast­line in the Baltic Sea, from which the liq­ue­fied natural gas will be brought to the FSRU by three smaller shuttle vessels, explains Henrik Thunborg, Business De­vel­op­er LNG at Manntek.

In one un­load­ing pro­ce­dure, each of the smaller vessels can take on up to 10,000 cubic metres of LNG to the FSRU, which in turn convert it to a gaseous state on board and then feed it into the gas network.

– The vessels will work 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, Henrik Thunborg says. The slight­est delay will mean that house­holds will run out of gas, so it is a very chal­leng­ing project where every­thing must work smoothly. Not least, the couplings.

Challenging timetable

The timetable for the project is also chal­leng­ing, with up to 4.5 billion cubic metres of gas per year expected to be fed into the German trans­mis­sion grid as early as December 2022.

– I believe the tight timetable is one of several reasons why we at Manntek got the op­por­tu­ni­ty, Henrik Thunborg says. Besides being safe, reliable and ef­fi­cient, our LNG transfer systems are also flexible, time-saving and easy to use. Ad to that, our ex­per­tise and long ex­pe­ri­ence ensures the im­ple­men­ta­tion of the solution.

– Manntek has always been very involved in the work with quality as­sur­ance in the industry, Henrik Thunborg continues. We have finalised all the tests for ISO 21593, the international standard that regulates the technical requirements of LNG couplings. This means that our DCC couplings are safe for use in all possible conditions and under any circumstances.

Manntek is well prepared

– Fur­ther­more, hydrogen importing is also foreseen at the Lubin terminal in the future, and Manntek is well prepared, right now closing an important gap in the distribution chain of liquid hydrogen. Successful liquid hydrogen fuelling all starts with the coupling, and we already have a tested and approved coupling ready to be used.

For more information visit www.manntek.se

2nd December 2022