Liquefied natural gas (LNG) has become a critical instrument for balancing regional gas systems, especially in contexts where pipeline supply is constrained or politically uncertain. Onshore regasification plants—also called LNG receiving terminals—convert LNG at about −160 °C into pipeline-quality natural gas, typically at high pressure and near-ambient temperature. Their performance therefore influences not only terminal economics but also national energy security, because throughput constraints, unplanned outages, or inefficient operations can directly limit gas availability during peak demand.
The recent expansion of LNG infrastructure in Europe and Asia has revived scientific interest in improving the efficiency, flexibility, and resilience of each regasification plant. In parallel, pressure to reduce emissions and environmental impacts has driven new designs that recover the large quantity of “cold energy” embedded in LNG and reduce fuel use in vaporizers. This article reviews the latest peer-reviewed and technical studies on onshore regasification plant optimization, focusing on approaches most relevant to guaranteeing supply: (1) regasification thermodynamics and vaporizer optimization; (2) cold-energy recovery and integrated energy systems; and (3) operational, digital, and safety strategies that enhance reliability.
Thermodynamic and Equipment Optimization in the Regasification Plant
Vaporizer technology selection under site constraints
The vaporizer train is the heart of any regasification plant. LNG must absorb heat from an external source, commonly seawater or air, or from combustion of a small fraction of natural gas. The major industrial options are open-rack vaporizers (ORV, seawater-heated), submerged combustion vaporizers (SCV, gas-fired), intermediate fluid vaporizers (IFV, using a warmed glycol or propane loop), and ambient air vaporizers (AAV). Technology selection is not a static engineering choice; it is a multi-objective optimization problem involving capital cost, operating cost, seasonal heat availability, and environmental compliance. A widely cited engineering synthesis shows that ORV systems are energetically efficient in mild coastal climates but face ecological constraints on seawater temperature discharge; SCV provides high controllability and turndown but increases CO₂ and NOₓ emissions; IFV and AAV offer lower local environmental impact but depend strongly on ambient conditions and may require large footprints.
Recent scientific work has sharpened this trade-off by modeling heat-source variability and demand fluctuations, especially for European terminals that now operate closer to seasonal limits. Although many studies examine floating terminals, the underlying vaporizer optimization results transfer to onshore systems because the thermodynamic chains are similar.
Structural and coupled heat-transfer optimization of SCV and ORV units
SCV units are often installed as peak-shaving or backup capacity in onshore regasification plants because they can deliver high send-out independently of weather. A 2023–2024 series of heat-transfer studies introduced coupled multi-phase CFD and structural optimization to improve SCV thermal efficiency, emphasizing burner arrangement, tube bundle geometry, and gas–water contact time. These models show that small changes in structural parameters can materially reduce irreversibilities, leading to higher vaporization efficiency and lower fuel consumption per unit of gas sent out.
On the ORV side, recent thermodynamic analyses continue to highlight fouling control and seawater flow distribution as primary efficiency levers. While I do not have access to a single definitive 2025 meta-analysis comparing new ORV geometries, multiple recent papers (here and here) converge on the same message: ORV efficiency is constrained less by the tube material and more by boundary-layer management, anti-icing strategies, and adaptive control of seawater spraying to avoid energy waste during partial loads.
Exergy-based diagnostics to locate losses
A modern regasification plant is a chain of pumps, vaporizers, pressure control devices, and boil-off gas systems. Exergy analysis—tracking the useful work potential destroyed by irreversibility—has become the most common scientific lens for regasification optimization. Recent exergy and exergo-economic studies quantify where losses occur and therefore where retrofits yield the highest return. A 2022 thermodynamic assessment found that the largest exergy destruction typically occurs in vaporizers and throttling valves, especially where LNG is brought to pipeline pressure via large pressure drops rather than staged compression/expansion.
This matters for security of supply because exergy-heavy designs are frequently also flexibility-poor designs: they waste cold energy during normal operation and have limited room for capacity ramp-up during cold-weather peaks. Exergy diagnostics thus provides a rational basis for prioritizing upgrades that improve both efficiency and deliverability.
Cold-Energy Recovery and Integrated Systems
Why cold-energy recovery is now a core optimization pathway
When LNG warms from −160 °C to ambient in a regasification plant, it releases a vast amount of cooling potential. Historically, onshore terminals have dissipated this cold into seawater or air. New studies (here and here) emphasize that only a small fraction of global regasification capacity currently recovers this energy, leaving a major efficiency opportunity.
Cold-energy recovery is no longer treated as a “nice-to-have.” In regions facing tight winter gas balances, capturing cold energy can (1) reduce auxiliary fuel and power draw inside the terminal, freeing more gas for export to the grid; and (2) enable co-located industries—power, desalination, data-center cooling—that provide revenue streams supporting terminal expansion.
Power generation via Organic Rankine and direct expansion cycles
Two families dominate recent literature: Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) integration and direct-expansion (DE) systems. A 2023 study on multi-pressure DE layouts showed that staged expansion with internal heat recovery increases net power output relative to single-stage designs, while also mitigating operational risks from excessive cold-end pinch points.
ORC-based systems are receiving renewed attention because of improved working fluids and turbine designs that tolerate cryogenic gradients. An industry-academic overview in 2024 describes ORC placement between ambient heat sinks and LNG, highlighting measurable efficiency gains in terminals retrofitted with compact exchangers and optimized fluid selection.
For onshore regasification plants, the implication is clear: cold-energy recovery can offset internal electricity consumption by high-pressure pumps and control systems, making the regasification plant closer to self-powered during high send-out mode.
Multi-product integration: air separation, CCHP, and industrial coupling
The newest scientific direction is integrated energy systems that combine LNG cold with other thermodynamic needs. A 2024 hydrogen/energy systems paper optimized a combined air-separation unit (ASU) and ORC powered by LNG cold, demonstrating multi-objective improvements in both energy efficiency and greenhouse-gas intensity.
Earlier but still influential work on combined cooling, heating, and power (CCHP) suggests that LNG cold combined with waste heat sources can enable tri-generation platforms, especially near industrial hubs.
Not every onshore regasification plant will have a suitable industrial neighbor, and some sites face permitting barriers. Still, the scientific consensus is that integrated cold-energy platforms are the most promising route to large step-changes in terminal efficiency without sacrificing reliability.
Boil-off gas (BOG) recondensation and emissions minimization
BOG is unavoidable in LNG storage and transfer; if not managed, it becomes both a supply loss and a methane-emissions risk. A 2024 optimization study on BOG recondensation proposed multi-objective design methods that use LNG cold to re-liquefy BOG, reducing flare needs and improving overall terminal efficiency.
From an energy-security standpoint, BOG optimization increases “effective send-out,” because less gas is consumed internally or vented. Environmentally, it also reduces methane slip, which is crucial for social acceptance and permitting of new onshore regasification plants.
Operational, Digital, and Resilience Strategies for Guaranteed Supply
Flexibility-oriented operations and capacity planning
Energy crises since 2021 shifted onshore regasification plants from baseload to highly variable service. Recent European operational data show that terminals are now marketed via short-term regasification slots and must ramp quickly to fill storage ahead of winters. Although these are not academic case studies, they illustrate the operational environment that scientific optimization must address.
Scientific work (here and here) increasingly frames flexibility as a constraint in optimization models: vaporizer trains are sized not only for peak hourly send-out but also for rapid startup, high turndown ratios, and redundancy against single-unit failures.
Digital twins and advanced control (state of evidence)
Digitalization—especially model-predictive control and digital twins—has become common in process industries, but I cannot confirm the existence of a large, peer-reviewed 2025 corpus specifically on digital twins for onshore regasification plants. What I do know from recent technical articles is that terminals are adopting integrated control of pumps, vaporizers, and BOG systems to minimize energy use while tracking pipeline pressure requirements.
Given the complexity of transient LNG unloading and vaporization, digital twin methods are a logical extension, but verifying their quantified benefits for onshore regasification plants will require more openly published studies.
Safety-driven layout and risk optimization
Supply guarantees require safe, continuously operable assets. Risk-informed design optimization has therefore gained traction. Even when studies focus on floating systems (here and here), their quantitative risk-trade-off frameworks (hazard identification, multi-attribute decision analysis, separation distances, and economic weighting) are directly applicable to onshore regasification plants, where land constraints and public proximity can be more challenging.
Risk-optimized layouts increase uptime by reducing incident probability and by enabling maintainability without shutting down entire process trains. In a modern terminal, “safety optimization” is thus inseparable from “availability optimization.”
Coordinating onshore terminals with the wider gas system
A final strand of recent literature (here, here and here) compares onshore vs floating regasification assets to understand how different infrastructures support security of supply. While floating units provide speed and flexibility, onshore terminals offer larger storage, more robust integration into national grids, and opportunities for deep efficiency retrofits.
The practical implication for optimization is that onshore regasification plants should be tuned to play their comparative advantage: high-availability baseload plus surge capacity during emergencies, with minimized internal energy consumption so that more imported LNG reaches end users.
Conclusion
The latest scientific studies depict onshore regasification plant optimization as a multi-layered challenge: thermodynamic efficiency, environmental performance, and operational resilience must be improved simultaneously to guarantee energy supply. At equipment level, vaporizer selection and geometry optimization—especially for SCV and ORV units—reduce fuel use and widen operable envelopes. At system level, cold-energy recovery via ORC or direct-expansion cycles, coupled with industrial integrations such as air separation, offers the largest near-term efficiency gains. Finally, optimizing BOG recondensation, plant layouts, and flexibility-oriented operations supports high terminal availability in volatile demand scenarios.
Some emerging topics, notably digital twins tailored to regasification plant transients, appear promising but still lack a substantial open peer-reviewed evidence base. Nonetheless, the converging trajectory of research is clear: future onshore regasification plants will be hybrid energy hubs that not only regasify LNG reliably but also valorize its cold energy, lowering net emissions and strengthening national gas security.
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