GP range pneumatic actuators have been installed at a South Korean LNG Terminal. The terminal houses four Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) storage tanks, each capable of storing up to 52.8 million gallons, a 45,000 tonne Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) tank, and a regasification plant.
Rotork has been providing actuators at the terminal since it was first constructed, with over 100 electric and pneumatic actuators installed during the initial front end engineering (FEED) phase of development. Additional GP actuators have now been installed as part of the site’s phase 2-2 expansion, with further electric and pneumatic actuators due for installation later this year.
The actuators have been installed on the terminal’s 32-inch main pipeline where they will perform an open/close function, which is used for the flow of both LNG and natural gas in its gaseous form. As these fluids are cryogenic, absolute control over the pipeline is critical. In the event of an emergency, the flow can be cut off immediately by the fail-safe functionality of the GP pneumatic actuators.
Fail-safe functionality can be provided in either direction due to the spring-return module inside the GP range. These are inherently safe because they can only be removed from the centre body (which incorporates a pressure relief valve) once all of the spring forces have been released.
The GP range of heavy-duty scotch yoke actuators provides a torque output of up to 600,000 Nm (442,537 lbf.ft). Available with double-acting or spring-return configurations, they are certified to IP 66M/67M, ATEX 2014/68/EU, and are certified for use at SIL3 as a single device following IEC 61508.
