The idea of liquefying gas began in 1914 in the United States of America as a patent, and in 1917 Britain made the first commercial operation in West Virginia, but the actual exploitation of gas took its course when Britain signed a fifteen-year contract with Algeria in 1961 to supply the first with less than about one million tons of gas. Natural liquefied annually. After that, liquefied gas operations gradually spread around the world until it reached approximately 40 ports for liquefied gas currently and included Arab countries such as Sea Gas in Egypt, Qatargas and Ras Gas in Qatar, and Yemen LNG in Yemen.

Characteristics of LNG

Stored in liquid form at a temperature of 161.5 degrees below zero and atmospheric pressure approx.

Its density is about 440 kg/m3 (less than half the density of water) when it is a liquid, when it becomes a gas and its volume is about 600 times that of its liquid state.

It has no taste, color, or odor. It can be inferred that it leaked into the surrounding atmosphere from the clouds or clouds that emerged around the place of the leak due to its absorption of the heat of the atmosphere and thus the condensation of water vapor in the air in the form of clouds.

Non-toxic but choking.

It causes metals, plastics, rubber and any other material that would normally be flexible or ductile to break down into shattered glass.

It causes cold burns (called frostbite) if it comes into contact with the body because of the huge temperature difference between the body, liquefied gas.

It causes a cold explosion (without combustion) when mixed with water and this phenomenon is called the rapid transition phase.

Its combustion energy is about 49 megajoules/kg, which is very clean compared to other oil combustion materials such as diesel and gasoline, and methane is the main component in it.

liquefied natural gas

Some believe that gas can be used as a fuel in its liquid state and this is wrong, but the real reason behind liquefying gas is to facilitate its transportation only. Economic studies and research have proven that the costs of transporting gas in the liquid state across seas and oceans are much less expensive than transporting it in the gaseous state. The reason is that liquefied gas (mostly methane) takes up about 600 times less space than in the gaseous state. In the case of thinking about gas pressure in sea containers in order to reduce the volume, the container walls will have to be designed with a large enough thickness to bear the pressure of the gas and thus constitute a heavy burden on ships. As for liquefied gas, although its density is much more than that of natural gas, it remains much less than the density of steel, for example, which is used in the design of the container at atmospheric pressure.

LNG gas companies

Qatar is the world’s largest exporter of LNG, while Algeria is its first producer. Below are some of the producing companies with their average annual production:

Northwest: 4.4 million tons per year

Sea Jazz: 5.5 million tons per year

Yemen LNG: 6.7 million tons per year

Tango: 7.6 million tons per year

Sakhalin: 9.6 million tons per year

Qatargas: 7.8 million tons per year

RasGas Qatar: 15.6 million tons per year

Basra Gas Company (recently)

LNG Dangers

Liquefied natural gas does not pose a great danger unless it is handled with a kind of carelessness. Among these risks:

The explosion of the container it contains when its temperature rises above the liquefaction point (-161.5 degrees Celsius) and it can be accompanied by combustion if there is an ignition source in the air, in which case it becomes difficult to control it.

Sufficient amounts of liquefied gas can cause suffocation and death, as well as freezing due to extreme cold.

Cold blast when in contact with water.

Fire and explosion hazards in LNG facilities are due to the presence of flammable gases and liquids, liquids, oxygen and ignition sources during loading and unloading work.

The tragic Skikda incident that occurred in Algeria in 2004 is conclusive evidence of the extent of the danger, as nearly everyone in the facility (27 people) was killed. Also, an accident occurred before that in 1973 in the United States and killed 37 people, and another more tragic accident that occurred before it in Cleveland in 1944 resulted in 128 deaths.

Air emissions: Air pollutant emissions (both continuous and discontinuous) in LNG facilities include combustion sources for electricity generation (and heat, for example, drying and liquefaction activities in natural gas liquefaction plants and LNG regasification activities in gas receiving stations). liquefied natural gas), as well as the use of compressors, pumps and reciprocating actuators (eg boilers, turbines and other engines). It may result from polluting emissions released from the burning and firing process