Transporting natural gas?

Question

Transporting natural gas?

Answer 1

Natural gas is transported by compressing it and injecting it into distribution pipelines. They just finished a 36" diameter pipeline that collects natural gas produced in Colorado and Wyoming and distributes it for use back East in Ohio.

This caused the price of gas for all the users in Colorado and Wyoming to increase because now there is a larger market for the gas........Bummer.

Answer 2

Natural gas can also be compressed until it becomes liquid. It is called LNG then. It can be transported by truck, train and by ship then.  You can get small cans of LNG for use in some portable stoves. Much like propane, only more expensive. Natural gas is a smaller molecule that propane, so it uses a different jet (smaller). It has fewer BTU's than propane/oz. so propane has dominated the bottle gas world. BUT natural gas is lighter than air and rises, where as propane is heavier than air and sinks.  This did bring about the use of natural gas as a stove and heater fuel aboard boats for a while. Cost of bottled natural gas caused propane to become the favored fuel on boats today, even though natural gas was safer.

When transporting large amounts of natural gas, it is classified as a HazMat load. It does require special licensing and that the vehicles transporting it have special markings. natural gas compressed is ID#1971  and in liquid form ID#1972. It is a class 3 Hazardous Material. You use guide #115 in the Emergency Response Guide Book for both Liquid and compressed Natural Gas.