North America has more options available for transporting liquefied natural gas (LNG) by truck and rail this year, which may help small projects and remote locations.
Cryopeak LNG Solutions unveiled its Super-B Train truck trailer in January, which has a 70% greater capacity than standard trailers. The company said it completed the largest-ever North American LNG delivery of approximately 18,000 gallons in February to Coeur Mining’s Silvertip mine on the Yukon/British Columbia border.
In early July, Cryopeak completed an 18,000-gallon delivery by truck in the Northwest Territories, Canada, to the Northwest Territories Power Corporation’s (NTPC) power generation facility in Inuvik..
The company has been delivering LNG to Inuvik for 3 years, where natural gas is the primary fuel for the community. The delivery is in line with NTPC’s efforts to make low-carbon electricity available across the Northwest Territories.
Another initiative, which could help small-scale LNG projects is a recent rule authorizing bulk transportation of LNG by rail.
In June, the US Department of Transportation (USDOT) and the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), in consultation with the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), issued their final rule for the transportation of LNG in DOT-113C120W9 (DOT-113)-specification tank cars. Enhanced thicker carbon steel outer tanks, additional operational controls, and remote monitoring of the pressure and location of the LNG tank cars are required.
The USDOT rule also requires a two-way end of train or distributed power system when a train is transporting 20 or more LNG tank cars in a continuous block, or 35 or more such tank cars anywhere in the train.
In addition to helping small-scale LNG projects, energy intelligence group Natural Gas Intelligence said the new USDOT regulations could help stakeholders at a time when larger export terminals are facing development hurdles amid a global gas glut and lower prices.