Why use lng

This amount of natural gas is equivalent to a year supply based on current domestic consumption rates. Currently virtually all of Canadian natural gas exports go to our sole customer: the United States.

However, in recent years, U. This has caused a regional oversupply, driving prices down in North America. It has also decreased demand for Canadian natural gas in markets in the U. Countries such as China and India, for example, are forecast to increase their natural gas consumption by by per cent and per cent respectively IEA, Overall, global consumption of natural gas is expected to increase by 45 per cent by Canada has a number of advantages in accessing these markets.

Canada is a trusted trading partner that the world sees as producing environmentally sustainable oil and natural gas.

Natural gas is the cleanest-burning hydrocarbon. It produces 40 percent fewer GHG emissions than coal when burned to produce electricity. China has indicated a desire to switch to greater use of natural gas to reduce its dependence of coal, which is also a major cause of smog and other air pollutants.

As a result, global energy demand is expected to double by when compared to Aerial view of gridlined surface as a simulation of a rotating globe of the earth emerges from the surface, continents visible in a mustard colour and the oceans between in pale blue, the globe casting a faint grey shadow in a south-easterly direction.

But some natural gas resources are in remote locations: transporting the gas long distances by pipeline can be costly and impractical. The solution? The simulation of the globe morphs into a teardrop of blue liquid against the white, gridlined background. The drop of liquid rolls downwards and disappears. We liquefy the gas by cooling it, which shrinks its volume for easier, economical and safe transportation by ship.

Zoom in on a vertical cylindrical shape, a simulated pipeline, as it emerges out of the white, gridlined background. Pan down to oblique, horizontal angle of the pipeline as coloured particles flow frame left to frame right, all still against the white background with grey gridlines and shadows. Pull back to an aerial view of a network of pipes along which particles are flowing, all stemming from one pipe, similar to the shape of a fork, but with many tines.

So, how is liquefied natural gas produced? Natural gas extracted from the ground contains impurities, water and other associated liquids. First it is processed to clean it. It goes through a series of pipes and vessels where gravity helps separate the gas from some of the heavier liquids.

Pull back and pan to an aerial view of the whole plant, one of the large towers displaying the Shell logo. Zoom to another section of the plant, showing a single pipeline, through which multi-coloured particles are flowing into a tank. Zoom to close-up of particles, showing the yellow particles, representing carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulphide, being absorbed into the background, disappearing, leaving green, blue, turquoise and purple particles flowing from frame-left to frame-right.

Blue particles, representing water, next veer towards a faint, grey circular opening in the background, disappearing from the simulated flow of particles. Turquoise particles, representing mainly propane and butane, also veer towards yet another circular opening in the background, leaving many green and some purple particles, representing methane and ethane respectively.

Pull back to rear view of green and purple particles flowing away and disappearing to the top of frame as a bright white section slowly opens up at the top of the pipeline, still indicated by the white gridlined background. Other impurities are then stripped out. Natural gas is a dominant fuel for the production of paper, metal, chemicals, petroleum, stone, clay, glass, clothing and food processing industries. Natural gas is also used as an essential raw material for many common products such as paints, fertilizer, plastics, antifreeze, dyes, photographic film and medicines.

In the last several years, most of the new power plants built in the United States have used natural gas because it is a clean-burning fuel. Over , transit buses, taxi cabs, package delivery trucks and other vehicles operating in the US are fueled with clean-burning natural gas, according to the Natural Gas Vehicle Association. Source: Natural Gas Vehicle Association. LNG fueled vehicles. Some heavy duty vehicle fleets are moving to LNG as their fuel of choice.

LNG allows more energy to be stored onboard a vehicle in a smaller volume. Launched in May , this project brings together European truck constructors, transport companies and LNG suppliers and distributors and aims to establish LNG as a credible truck fuel alternative for medium to long-distance journeys. Elengy is closely monitoring the development of LNG fuel in Europe as a potential growth driver.

The competitiveness of LNG and its low impact on the environment herald promising development: by , it is estimated that the use of LNG as a road vehicle fuel will amount to 20 Mtpa million tons per annum. The growing impact of this human activity on the environment is pushing the International Maritime Organisation and the European Union to implement stricter regulations , lowering the maritime fuel sulphur limits in waters around the world.

This ambitious directive positions LNG as a solution for the future for maritime fleets as they take the necessary steps to comply with this directive. In addition to a lower environmental impact, LNG is the primary energy offering the best thermodynamic yields and hence the best energy efficiency. Currently, the great majority of ships fuelled by LPG are in Norway. However, vessels navigating coastal or river routes using LNG as a marine fuel are beginning to emerge in other European countries, such as Denmark, Sweden, Finland, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.

The potential uses of LNG are not limited to use as a file of maritime or road transport.