Method and apparatus for reliquefying and returning boil-off gas (BOG) to a liquefied natural gas (LNG) tank, the method including: Withdrawing BOG (F2) from the headspace of an LNG tank; compressing the BOG in a first compression stage to a first pressure p.sub.1 between 8 and 18 bara and tapping of a first portion of this gas; further compressing a second portion of the gas from step in a final compression stage to a second pressure p.sub.2?120 bara; cooling at least part of the further compressed gas to a first temperature T.sub.1 between ?20? C. and ?100? C.; expanding the gas from step to a third pressure p.sub.3 between 8 and 20 bara; and separating the gas from step into a liquid phase and a gaseous phase to combine the gaseous phase with the tapped first portion of the gas from the first compression stage and to return the liquid phase into the LNG tank.

Provided is a partial reliquefaction system including a boil-off gas (BOG) compression system receiving a BOG exiting from a liquefied natural gas (LNG) storage tank, a high-pressure compression section receiving a BOG stream from the BOG compression system, a heat exchanger effectuating a temperature drop of the BOG stream, an expander receiving the cooled BOG stream after passing through the heat exchanger, and a separator vessel for receiving a gas/liquid mixture, wherein a gas portion of the gas/liquid mixture is recirculated through the heat exchanger to act as the cooling medium for the heat exchanger.

A ship comprises an engine; a first self-heat exchanger which heat-exchanges boil-off gas discharged from a storage tank; a multi-stage compressor which compresses, in multi-stages, the boil-off gas that passed through the first self-heat exchanger after being discharged from the storage tank; a first decompressing device which expands one portion of the boil-off gas compressed by the multi-stage compressor; a second self-heat exchanger which heat-exchanges the other portion of the boil-off gas compressed by the multi-stage compressor, with the boil-off gas expanded by the first decompressing device; and a second decompressing device which expands the boil-off gas pre-cooled by the second self-heat exchanger and cooled by the first self-heat exchanger, wherein the first self-heat exchanger uses the boil-off gas discharged from the storage tank as a refrigerant for cooling the boil-off gas that passed through the second self-heat exchanger after being compressed by the multi-stage compressor.

A ship comprising an engine is disclosed. The ship comprising an engine comprises: a self-heat exchanger which heat-exchanges boil-off gas discharged from a storage tank; a multi-stage compressor which compresses, in multi-stages, boil-off gas that passed through the self-heat exchanger after being discharged from the storage tank; a first decompressing device which expands one portion of boil-off gas that passed through the self-heat exchanger after being compressed by the multi-stage compressor; and a second decompressing device which expands the other portion of the boil-off gas that passed through the self-heat exchanger after being compressed by the multi-stage compressor, wherein the self-heat exchanger uses boil-off gas discharged from the storage tank and boil-off gas expanded by the first decompressing device as refrigerants for cooling boil-off gas compressed by the multi-stage compressor.

A ship including a storage tank for storing a liquefied gas includes: a boil-off gas (BOG) heat exchanger installed on a downstream of a storage tank and heat-exchanges a compressed BOG (a first fluid) by a BOG discharged from the storage tank as a refrigerant, to cool the BOG; a compressor installed on a downstream of the BOG heat exchanger and compresses a part of the BOG discharged from the storage tank; an extra compressor installed on a downstream of the BOG heat exchanger and in parallel with the compressor and compresses the other part of the BOG discharged from the storage tank; a refrigerant heat exchanger which additionally cools the first fluid cooled by the BOG heat exchanger; and a refrigerant decompressing device which expands a second fluid sent to the refrigerant heat exchanger, and then sends the second fluid back to the refrigerant heat exchanger.

Disclosed is a BOG reliquefaction system. The BOG reliquefaction system includes: a compressor compressing BOG; a heat exchanger cooling the BOG compressed by the compressor through heat exchange using BOG not compressed by the compressor as a refrigerant; a pressure reducer disposed downstream of the heat exchanger and reducing a pressure of fluid cooled by the heat exchanger; and a second oil filter disposed downstream of the pressure reducer, wherein the compressor includes at least one oil-lubrication type cylinder and the second oil filter is a cryogenic oil filter.