History of LNG
The history of LNG is very diverse with many different factors contributing to what we know and use today. LNG stands for liquefied natural gas. This natural gas is drilled for and extracted from the earth in a gaseous state. LNG is a natural forming composite of methane, water, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, oxygen, sulfur and other hydrocarbons. In this respect it is very similar to petroleum, but it is a much cleaner burning fossil fuel therefore making it a more in demand fuel to our eco friendly economy.
The only problem with natural gas is that it occupies such a large space thus making it difficult to transport aboard conventional vessels, but a solution to solve this was invented. In 1914 Geoffrey Cabot discovered a way to liquefy natural gas and transport it using a barge. To do this Cabot refrigerated the gas to a negative two hundred sixty degrees below zero, and kept the gas at this constant temperature. In this cold state, the natural gas liquefied and reduced its volume by about 600 to 1. LNG is non toxic, odorless, colorless, non corrosive and when vaporized it burns only in certain percentages with air. These variables contribute to make a very superior energy supply that they world will depend on highly in the future.
With this liquefying technique it became very lucrative to start producing natural gas around the world. A few countries that have very large LNG reserves are Algeria, Australia, Brunei, Indonesia, Libya, Malaysia, Nigeria, Oman, Qatar, and Trinidad and Tobago. As one can see these countries are very different than they typical oil producing nations that the world formerly relied on for fuel production. This really decreases our dependency on unstable Middle Eastern countrie ...