Cold energy recovery from liquefied natural gas regasification process for data centre cooling and power generation

Abstract

This process simulation study investigates the utilisation of cold energy from Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) regasification for meeting the cooling and electrical demands of a data centre with 5000 racks. The study proposes a cogeneration system based on an organic Rankine cycle (ORC) to generate power and chilled water at 5 °C by using the cold energy released from a 5 MMTPA LNG regasification plant. The simulation results demonstrate that a double-stage ORC system, which has ethane and propane as working fluids, can fully satisfy the data centre's cooling requirement of 34.6 MW. Additionally, it produces 15.8 MW of power that can serve 46% of the data centre's electrical demand. The maximum energy and exergy efficiencies are 58% and 33%, respectively, when the system is optimised for the maximum work output. Economic analysis reveals a levelized cost of electricity of 0.04 US$/kWh and an internal rate of return (IRR) of 29%. Moreover, the cogeneration system leads to an annual reduction of 210 kilotons of CO2 emissions, which makes it a promising and environmentally-friendly alternative.