LIQUID NATURAL GAS-WATER REACTIONS

Natural gas continues to grow in importance as a fuel in industrialized nations. Most often the sources of natural gas do not coincide geographically with areas of high demand. Many of the marine ventures span long distances such as Alaska-Japan, Algeria-U.S. or Great Britain, etc. Questions are raised by local and national regulatory agencies about possible hazards which may exist. One of the most often recurring questions originates from the presumption that a spill of LNG could occur as a result of a collision, or even an accident during transfer. In such cases, LNG would contact water and most certainly boil. The subsequent evolution of a cloud of inflammable vapor, carried downwind and dispersed, raises real questions of possible explosion and fire hazards. One important element of input data necessary in any dispersion calculation is the rate of vaporization of LNG on water. Such data are very scarce. Also, as recently publicized in some Bureau of Mines tests, there have been reports that LNG spills on water may lead to explosions that are not accompanied by a flame, but do show sufficiently high pressure waves to cause damage to equipment in the immediate vicinity of the spill. This article surveys the published and much of the unpublished literature dealing with the spill of LNG on water (and other liquids), presents new data on explosion hazards, and suggests a tentative mechanism which delineates, at least qualitatively, the origin of these explosions.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • For an extended version of this paper, including all the heat transfer results, order Document No. 01622 from National Auxiliary Publications Service (NAPS), c/o CCM Information Corp., 866 Third Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10022; remitting $2 for microfiche or $5 for photocopies.
• Corporate Authors:

  American Institute of Chemical Engineers

  345 East 47th Street
  New York, NY  United States  10017
• Authors:
  • NAKANISHI, E
  • Reid, R C
• Publication Date: 1971-12

Media Info

• Features: References;
• Pagination: p. 36-41
• Serial:
  • Chemical Engineering Progress
  • Volume: 67
  • Issue Number: 12
  • Publisher: American Institute of Chemical Engineers

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Explosions; Hazardous materials; Liquefied natural gas; Spills (Pollution)
• Old TRIS Terms: Lng explosions; Lng spills
• Subject Areas: Freight Transportation; Marine Transportation; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00046145
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: American Institute of Chemical Engineers
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Sep 18 1973 12:00AM