LNG Storage & Transport.

LNG has been safely transported across the oceans for more than 60 million miles of safe transport during the past 40 years, and these double-hulled tankers are specially designed and built to carry LNG. On land, LNG is stored at atmospheric pressure15 in specially engineered and constructed double-walled storage tanks, and most of these tanks have three-foot concrete exterior walls and an inner tank that is constructed from a steel-nickel metal alloy specifically designed to accommodate the cold LNG. Should a leak develop in the inner wall, all of the LNG would be contained in the space between the inner and outer walls, sophisticated monitoring systems provide constant surveillance for any internal leaks. LNG is converted back into natural gas by pumping the fluid from the storage tank and heating it to regasify the liquid, and the gas is then ready for delivery through natural gas pipelines to homes and businesses. But in certain cases the construction of gas pipelines is technically impossible or too expensive, for example to bring Nigerian gas to Europe, or to take gas from Qatar to Japan. To resolve this problem, a method of maritime transport based on the liquefaction of the gas (LNG, liquified natural gas) has
15 Atmospheric pressure is the pressure at any given point in the Earths atmosphere. In most circumstances atmospheric pressure is closely approximated by the hydrostatic pressure caused by the weight of air above the measurement point. Low pressure areas have less atmospheric mass above their location, whereas high pressure areas have more atmospheric mass above their location. Similarly, as elevation increases there is less overlying atmospheric mass, so that pressure decreases with increasing elevation. A column of air 1 square inch in cross section, measured from sea level to the top of the atmosphere, would weigh approximately 14.7 lbf. A 1 m (11 sq ft) column of air would weigh about 100 kilonewtons (equivalent to a mass of 10.2 tonnes at the surface).

been introduced. Gas takes up a lot of space and has to be concentrated before it can be taken aboard a ship for transportation. Two basic ways are a) the gas can be change into liquid chemical products such as ammonia or methanol, or into synthetic liquid hydrocarbons, b) or it can be cryogenically liquefied (at 160 C) and transported in LNG tankers. As the number of liquefaction plants has increased, so, the number of LNG tankers has gone up equally fast. LNG Tankers use advanced technologies and need highly expensive materials, such as special steels, which can withstand very low temperatures, they also require excellent temperature insulating materials, which means that transport by LNG tankers work out 4 to 5 times more costly per unit of energy transported than oil transport. However, despite the high cost, the economic flexibility and geopolitical advantages of LNG industry have made it onto the success it is today. A country that wants to import LNG needs to build special harbors, called LNG Terminals16, where LNG tankers can unload their cargo. These terminals contain three main types of facilities as a) LNG unloading facilities (special jetties for LNG tankers, with pipes for pumping LNG from the tankers to the land installations), b) LNG Storage tanks and c) facilities for regasifying the LNG and piping it into the importing countrys gas pipeline distribution system or directly to major consumers such as power plants. When regasified, a cubic meter of LNG will provide about 600m3 of gas atmospheric pressure. Unlike oil, the gas is in a gaseous state at normal pressures and temperatures, and this means that, for the same quantity of energy, it occupies a volume 600 times greater than that of oil. Therefore, there is no question of chartering vessels to transport gas in its gaseous state. That would cost 600 times too much! How is LNG transported? LNG is transported in large, specially designed ships. These ships are double-hulled and have a capacity of 138,000 cubic meters17 or more. The vessels are fitted with a special cargo containment system inside the inner hull to maintain the LNG at atmospheric pressure and minus 260 degrees Fahrenheit. There are about 130 ships currently in the LNG fleet and more than 50 additional ones are on order. The different types of LNG tankers. Shipbuilders can opt for two different technologies18: LNG tankers with independent cylindrical, or more often, spherical tanks, house within the hull. LNG Tankers within membrane tanks housed within the hull, as the membrane is made of nickel or special steel which insulates the tanks and makes them impermeable and able to withstand temperature of -160
16 Liquefied natural gas is used to transport natural gas over long distances, often by sea. In most cases, LNG terminals are purpose built ports used exclusively to export or import LNG. 17 The cubic metre (US spelling: cubic meter, symbol: m) is the SI derived unit of volume. It is the volume of a cube with edges one metre in length. An alternative name, which allowed a different usage with metric prefixes, was the stre. Another alternative name, not widely used any more, is the kilolitre. 18 A Floating Production, Storage and Offloading vessel (FPSO; also called a unit and a system) is a type of floating tank system used by the offshore oil and gas industry and designed to take all of the oil or gas produced from a nearby platform (s), process it, and store it until the oil or gas can be offloaded onto waiting tankers, or sent through a pipeline.

C while protecting the hull from being exposed to low temperatures. A standard LNG Tanker19 (135,000 cubic metric) transports the same amount of energy as an oil tanker of half the size (70,000 TdW), but cost three times more. LNG has been safely transported across the oceans for more than 60 million miles of safe transport during the past 40 years. These double-hulled tankers are specially designed and built to carry LNG. On land, LNG is stored at atmospheric pressure in specially engineered and constructed double-walled storage tanks.

Photo of spherical tank LNG carrier

Most of these tanks have three-foot concrete exterior walls and an inner tank that is constructed from a steel-nickel metal alloy specifically designed to accommodate the cold LNG. Should a leak develop in the inner wall, all of the LNG would be contained in the space between the inner and outer walls. Sophisticated monitoring systems provide constant surveillance for any internal leaks. LNG is converted back into natural gas by pumping the fluid from the storage tank and heating it to regasify the liquid. The gas is then ready for delivery through natural gas pipelines to homes and businesses. Safety of Gas Transportation - What safety features are designed into LNG import terminals? At onshore facilities, safety features include methane detectors, Ultraviolet or Infrared (UV/IR) fire detectors, and closed-circuit TV. Other safety features include offsite monitoring, training requirements for personnel, and restricted access to terminal property. In addition, the stringent design parameters for LNG import terminals require that proper measures are in place in the unlikely event of a spill or equipment failure. LNG is not explosive, toxic, or carcinogenic. Vaporized LNG is lighter than air. If
19 Qatar (QatarGas) has the worlds largest LNG vessel built to date. The name of the first Q-Max (266,000 cubic meter) LNG carrier is Mozah.

a spill occurs, the vapor will rise and dissipate, leaving no trace in the environment. Although portions of an LNG vapor cloud may be flammable, the flame speed of an unconfined cloud is slow and it will not explode. In contrast, gasoline and fuel oil are extremely flammable and, in their liquid state, are toxic. If these hydrocarbons are spilled, the environmental impact is severe. LNG itself does not burn because it does not contain oxygen. Natural gas burns only within the narrow range of a 5 to 15 percent gas-to-air mixture. If the fuel concentration is lower than 5 percent, it cannot burn because of insufficient fuel. If the fuel concentration is higher than 15 percent, it cannot burn because there is insufficient oxygen. For LNG to burn, it must be released, vaporize, mix with air in the ignitable ratio, and find an ignition source. What safety features are designed into LNG ships? The ships safety systems are divided into ship handling and cargo system handling. The ship-handling safety features include sophisticated radar and positioning systems that alert the crew to other traffic and hazards around the ship. Also, distress systems and beacons automatically send out signals if the ship is in difficulty. The cargo-system safety features include an extensive instrumentation package that safely shuts down the system if it starts to operate out of predetermined parameters. Ships are also equipped with gas- and fire-detection systems. LNG will not explode because it contains no oxygen to react with the fuel. Even LNG vapors in an open environment cannot explode because there is not enough oxygen to react with the fuel. LNG spill studies have shown that high winds rapidly dissipate the LNG vapor and low winds (or no wind) keep the flammable vapor cloud very close to the source.

To help you visualize what is the concern about the possible danger with a typical LNG Tanker is..
First, picture a football field Imagine an LNG Tanker filling an entire football field

Actually, a typical LNG Tanker is longer than three Football Fields

LNG Tanker Holding Capacity: A typical LNG Tanker holds more than 33 million gallons of LNG which equals 20 billion gallons of Natural Gas The amount of gas released from just one LNG Tanker would be 20 times Greater than the amount of LNG that incinerated one square mile of Cleveland in 1944

LNG Tanker Energy Equivalent: The energy content of a single standard LNG tanker (one hundred twenty-five thousand cubic meters) is equivalent to seven-tenths of a megaton of TNT, or about fifty-five Hiroshima bombs