Abstract In receiving terminal, liquid natural gas (LNG) needs to be re-gasified by the ambient heat generally supplied by seawater. Unfortunately, a great amount of LNG cold energy is wasted during this process, resulting in energy inefficiency and environmental implications. Seawater freezing desalination (SFD) should be an effective way to use cold energy of LNG in terms of energy match and operation cost. According to the properties of LNG, this work aims to develop a direct contact type ice generator, which integrating some special designs such as jacketed cylinder, nozzle arrangement and gas floatation, in order to improve heat transfer and phase separation in the SFD process. Through dynamic analysis on refrigerant atomization, the changes in speed and diameter of refrigerant droplet are obtained. The analysis results are helpful to further improve the design and operation of ice generator. In addition, the work also experimentally investigated the effects of some predominate factors on determining overall performance of ice generator, comprehensively considering ice generation and desalination. The experimental results could be significant for the SFD project by using cold energy of LNG.

中文翻译：

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一种利用LNG冷能进行海水冷冻淡化的直接接触式制冰机

摘要 在接收站，液化天然气（LNG）需要利用海水提供的环境热量进行再气化。不幸的是，在此过程中浪费了大量 LNG 冷能，导致能源效率低下和环境影响。海水冷冻淡化（SFD）从能源匹配和运营成本的角度来看，应该是利用LNG冷能的有效方式。根据LNG的特性，本工作旨在开发一种直接接触式冰发生器，它集成了夹套气缸、喷嘴布置和气浮等一些特殊设计，以改善SFD过程中的传热和相分离。通过对制冷剂雾化的动态分析，得到了制冷剂液滴速度和直径的变化。分析结果有助于进一步改进制冰机的设计和运行。此外，该工作还通过实验研究了一些主导因素对决定制冰机整体性能的影响，综合考虑了制冰和海水淡化。实验结果对利用LNG冷能的SFD项目具有重要意义。