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Shell bets big on gas

Tom Jackson

February 22, 2012 |

Construction News

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LNG is the best alternative transportation fuel of the future, company says

With a project due to start this summer, Shell has given notice that it intends to develop and promote liquefied natural gas (LNG) as the best alternative to diesel for the heavy truck transportation market.

The first of these projects is centered around the LNG plant that Shell is currently building at its Jumping Pound gas processing facility in the foothills of Alberta, Canada. Shell will transport LNG from the plant to a series of Flying J truck plazas along a route dubbed the Canadian Green Corridor.

Shell will initially truck in LNG from third parties, but by the third quarter of next year will be supplying them with LNG from the Jumping Pound LNG plant.

Why LNG? “We believe it is the fuel of the future,” says James Burns, general manager LNG for Transport Americas. “It is abundant, affordable, and available.” And the benefits he cites are considerable. Compared to diesel, LNG:

Produces 20 percent fewer greenhouse gas emissions
Costs roughly 30 percent less
It is produced domestically
It contains no sulfur, less corrosive and creates fewer engine deposits.
Extends equipment life and reduces maintenance

Shell has been in the global LNG business for almost 50 years. But new applications of technology, such as hydraulic fracing in shale gas deposits, has made gas supplies more readily available in North America to allow for the economic production of LNG. This year, for the first time ever, Shell will be producing more natural gas globally than oil as the world’s reliance on natural gas increases.

“Five years ago we were importing LNG,” Burns says. “Today, supply is so great, the industry is looking at exporting LNG.”

Unlike compressed natural gas (CNG), which has to be pressurized to 3,500 psi, LNG is natural gas cooled to 260-degrees Fahrenheit / 160-degrees Celsius turning it into a liquid. It then can be stored as a liquid in insulated tanks without further refrigeration, taking up 1/600 the volume compared to its gaseous state.