3 June 2014

Costain’s Adam Jones, a Process Engineer in the Natural Resources Division based in Manchester, has won the prestigious Gas Processors Association (GPA) Europe’s 2013 Aungier Award for writing a paper on a new process for the production of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG).

The paper, which was co-authored with Grant Johnson, FES Oil & Gas Manager at Costain, was called “A New Process for Improved Liquefaction Efficiency” and described Costain's innovative, patented modification of the dual-nitrogen expander process for producing LNG.

The technology increases the efficiency of the process and allows for a greater amount of LNG to be produced for a specific power consumption, ultimately resulting in increased revenues for the operator. The process is ideally suited to small-scale onshore and Floating LNG applications due to its advantages in safety, operability and reliability.

Adam, who joined Costain in July 2012, delivered the technical paper at the 30th Anniversary GPA Europe meeting in Edinburgh in September 2013, attended by 150 senior technical and managerial personnel from major operators and suppliers in the natural gas processing industry.

GPA Europe makes a discretionary annual award to the presenter of what is judged to be the best paper by a student or a young professional at one of four conferences during the year. The award is in memory of Bob Aungier, the founder chairman of the European Gas Processors & Suppliers Association (GPSA), and comes with a £1,000 cash prize. Adam said he wanted to present at GPA Europe because it presented a great opportunity to network with other industry professionals from across Europe and talk about the innovative work Costain is undertaking in this area.

“It was an opportunity to talk about some of the core technical topics which underpin a lot of the process engineering work we carry out at Costain in front-end solutions,” said Adam.

“LNG is a fascinating area to be in because of the many technical and safety challenges which arise, in part, from the extreme low temperatures associated with LNG Processing. There are also a lot of exciting developments taking place that really capture the imagination, like Floating LNG, which is essentially taking a LNG production plant and putting it on the deck of a ship. This is a huge technical challenge but it also has enormous implications for the industry. LNG also has a key role to play in the global energy supply chain, not least in helping us keeping the lights on in the future,” Adam said.

Adrian Finn, FES Process Technology Manager at Costain, sits on both the Programme Committee and Management Committee of GPA Europe. While he could not vote in the process, due to Adam being a contender, he said: “I’m not at all surprised that Adam’s enthusiasm and presentation skills impressed the judging panel, along with a very good technical paper.”

The GPA Committee will present Adam with his award at their Annual Conference in Madrid on September 17th-19th.

The paper was published in the April 2014 edition of “LNG Industry”. To see Adam’s paper, please click here.

 

 

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