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Liquid gas, or liquefied natural gas (LNG), is natural gas that has been transformed into a liquid for easier transportation, use, and storage. As far as space goes, gas in a liquid form takes up about 1/600 the room that natural gas would. LNG is odorless, non-toxic, has no color, and it does not cause corrosion. It is highly flammable, it can freeze, and it can cause asphyxia (suffocation, inability to breathe). This transformed version of natural gas is much easier to transport, especially when pipelines are not available.

The Components and the Transition
Natural gas is a fossil fuel consisting mainly of methane but it also contains quantities of butane, propane, ethane, and pentane (which must be removed before usage as a consumer fuel). It also includes carbon dioxide, helium, hydrogen sulfide, and nitrogen. The process from natural gas to liquefied natural gas causes the LNG to be anywhere from 90 to 99 percent methane. An LNG plant is constructed, and the natural gas will be fed through the facility. As the natural gas moves through the process, elements are removed from it. These elements include water, carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, and other components (such as benzene) which would freeze when incurring the low temperatures needed to maintain storage of the LNG once the transformation process is complete.

One of the most important parts of an LNG plant is the “train.” An LNG train is a vital component to the process as it provides a propane condenser, a compression area, and areas specifically for methane and ethane. LNG is highly flammable, as mentioned earlier, and, therefore, requires much care and precaution when working with all the substances involved. The largest LNG train in operation is currently in Qatar. The countries of Trinidad and Tobago and Egypt also have LNG processing facilities that are of large scale.

Transportation
Often, LNG is the preferred method to convey natural gas to its end users. Specialized “cryogenic” tanker trucks carry LNG over the road, or the same type of dedicated transport can extend to ocean-going vessels when distances between origin and destination are vast. It is then “regasified” and sent through pipelines to its final destination. LNG has less polluting environmental effects than gas or diesel fuels, but it is also more expensive to produce and store.

Regasification
Once the LNG arrives at its destination, it is reheated and re-gasified. The facilities that combine these efforts to turn LNG back into natural gas are called “regasification terminals” and they are generally connected to a pipeline network which distributes the natural gas where it needs to go.



Sherry Irvin
on behalf of the
BascoTec Internet Limited
Technologie Park 13
33100 Paderborn
Germany

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