The Oil Drum

92 comments on Empire On the Edge--Betting On LNG **

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TJ on January 23, 2006 - 4:27pm

Don't know about the rocket, but the liquid would instantly gasify on contact with the water. The water would eventually freeze into an ever-expanding ice floe, and the liquid methane would run out across the floe. The flowrate through the tanker hole would essentially be gravity driven; the tanker would depressurize quickly.

What happens next depends on the wind speed and direction. The cold methane will hug the ground; on land it will follow low points like valleys or streets. As it starts to mix with the surrounding air an opaque cloud will form from the condensation of water vapor. How fast it mixes depends on the wind turbulence. You would first get a severe asphyxiation danger from the cloud and then an explosion danger. If the cloud reaches the explosive limit then something like a automobile distributor could set it off.

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Nate Hagens on January 23, 2006 - 7:43pm

Great info Dave!

Question: how much BCF can be on one tanker, and if there was a problem, what is the size that that gas would expand to? In other words, how big is a billion cubic feet of gas in the air? I assume 1 billion cubic feet is 1000x1000x1000 so is a cube the size of three lengths of football fields on each side (per bcf)

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TJ on January 23, 2006 - 8:57pm

When the gas industry says cf of gas they usually mean standard cubic feet, which is at 60 deg F and 14.696 psia. So a billion standard cubic feet of gas at normal ambients occupies close to a billion cubic feet of actual volume (or water volume).

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Gets IT on January 24, 2006 - 4:47am

Largest LNG tanker now holds 'bout 145K m3 of tank vol => 3 BSCF (billion standard cubic feet)

probably increasing in future to 200K m3 of tank vol => 4 BSCF

Tanks are thinner towards the top and looks like future tankers will be using aluminum tanks to save weight.

Sandia Labs study classifies a successful terrorist attack on an LNG tanker as a, "Low probability, high consequence event." Radiated heat would be damaging within a 1 mile radius.