A binary particle swarm optimization algorithm for ship routing and scheduling of liquefied natural gas transportation

With the increasing global demands for energy, fuel supply management is a challenging task of today’s industries in order to decrease the cost of energy and diminish its adverse environmental impacts. To have a more environmentally friendly fuel supply network, Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) is suggested as one of the best choices for manufacturers. As the consumption rate of LNG is increasing dramatically in the world, many companies try to carry this product all around the world by themselves or outsource it to third-party companies. However, the challenge is that the transportation of LNG requires specific vessels and there are many clauses in related LNG transportation contracts which may reduce the revenue of these companies, it seems essential to find the best option for them. The aim of this paper is to propose a meta-heuristic Binary Particle Swarm Optimization (BPSO) algorithm to come with an optimized solution for ship routing and scheduling of LNG transportation. The application demonstrates what sellers need to do to reduce their costs and increase their profits by considering or removing some obligations

Life cycle greenhouse gas emissions of multi-pathways natural gas vehicles in china considering methane leakage

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Elsevier via the DOI in this recordNatural gas has been promoted rapidly recent years to substitute traditional vehicle fuels. However, methane leakages in the natural gas supply chains make it difficult to ascertain whether it can reduce greenhouse gas emissions when used as a transport fuel. This paper characterizes the natural gas supply chains and their segments involved, estimates the venting and fugitive leakages from natural gas supply chains, decides the distribution among segments and further integrates it with life cycle analysis on natural gas fueled vehicles. Domestic natural gas supply chain turns out to be the dominant methane emitter, accounting for 67% of total methane leakages from natural gas supply chains. Transportation segments contribute 42–86% of the total methane leakages in each supply chain, which is the greatest contribution among all the segments. Life cycle analysis on private passenger vehicles, transit buses and heavy-duty trucks show that compressed natural gas and liquefied natural gas bring approximately 11–17% and 9–15% greenhouse gas emission reduction compared to traditional fossil fuels, even considering methane leaks in the natural gas supply chains. Methane leakages from natural gas supply chains account for approximately 2% of the total life cycle greenhouse gas emissions of natural gas vehicles. The results ascertain the low-carbon attribute of natural gas, and greater efforts should be exerted to promote natural gas vehicles to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions from on-road transportation.National Natural Science Foundation of ChinaInternational Science & Technology Cooperation Program of Chin

The gas market and LNG shipping in transition : the potential impact on the Algerian LNG industry.

The world gas and LNG markets are witnessing an unprecedented growth within a short period of time. Technological development has considerably reduced the costs of gas and LNG projects enabling this fuel to enter in competition with crude oil and coal.

How sustainable is liquefied natural gas supply chain? An integrated life cycle sustainability assessment model

Integrating sustainability into the distribution network process is a significant problem for any industry hoping to prosper or survive in today's fast-paced environment. Since gas is one of the world's most important fuel sources, sustainability is more important for the gas industry. While such environmental and economic effects have been extensively researched in the literature, there is little emphasis on the full social sustainability of natural gas production and supply chains in terms of the triple bottom line. This research aims to perform the first hybrid life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA) of liquefied natural gas and evaluate its performance from the natural gas extraction stage to LNG regasification after delivery through maritime transport carriers. LCSA is used for estimating the social, economic, and environmental impacts of processes, and our life cycle model included the multi-region input–output analysis, Aspen HYSYS, and LNG maritime transport operations sustainability assessment tools. The results spot the light on the most contributors of CO2-eq emission. It is found that LNG loading (export terminal) is the source that generated the highest carbon footprint, followed by the MDEA sweetening unit with the contribution of 40% and 24%, respectively. Socially, around 73% of human health impact comes from SRU and TGTU units which are the most contributors to the particulate matter emission. Based on the interpretation of life cycle results, the environmental indicators show better performance in the pre-separation unit and LNG receiving terminal representing a sustainability factor equal to 1. In terms of social and economic impacts, the natural gas extraction stage presents the best performance among all other stages, with a sustainability factor equal to 1. Based on this study's findings, an integrated framework model is proposed. Various suggestions for sustainability strategies and policies that consider business sustainability and geopolitics risk are presented

Calibrating Liquefied Natural Gas Export Life Cycle Assessment: Accounting for Legal Boundaries and Post-Export Markets

The climate impact of liquefied natural gas (LNG) export from North America is one of the most pressing questions for Canadian and world energy policy today. This paper performs the first life cycle assessment (LCA) of the greenhouse gas emissions from LNG exports from Canada, assuming that importing countries use the natural gas for electricity generation. It shows that the climate impact of LNG depends on where it is sent. If LNG from Canada displaces electricity in coal-dependent countries, it will likely lower global greenhouse gas emissions. If it displaces electricity from countries that rely on low carbon sources such as hydroelectricity and nuclear power, it will likely increase global emissions. A broad suite of policy and regulatory measures is discussed for reducing greenhouse gas emissions due to LNG export, from life cycle regulation to facility-level emissions management

The role of project finance in the natural gas industry: the Ichthys LNG project

The following case study describes the circumstances that led to the launch of the Ichthys LNG Project in Australia, one of the largest in the natural gas industry. The case illustrates the most significant phases of the project’s development, from the initial conception to the final investment decision announced in January 2012 and the consequent financial close, reached after a complex project finance operation. The goal of the case study is to provide a comprehensive analysis of the main features of the financing arranged and the mitigation techniques used to manage the risks associated with massive integrated gas projects

Risky Business: The Issue of Timing, Entry and Performance in the Asia-Pacific LNG Market

Canada’s federal government has championed the prospect of exporting liquefied natural gas (LNG) to overseas markets. The government of British Columbia is aggressively planning to turn itself into a global LNG-export hub, and the prospect for Canadian LNG exports is positive. However, there are market and political uncertainties that must be overcome in a relatively short period of time if Canada is to become a natural gas exporter to a country other than the United States. This report assesses the feasibility of Canadian exports and examines the policy challenges involved in making the opportunity a reality. Demand for natural gas in the Asia-Pacific region is forecast to grow over 60 per cent by 2025. LNG trade is expected to make up nearly two-thirds of global natural gas trade by 2035. Supply in the Asia-Pacific region is limited, requiring significant LNG imports with corresponding infrastructure investment. This results in substantial price differentials between North America and the Asia-Pacific countries, creating a potentially lucrative opportunity for Canada. The lower North American prices are a reflection of the fact that there is a surplus of gas on this continent. Canada’s shipments to its sole export market, the United States, are shrinking in the face of vast increases in American production of shale and tight gas. Canada has a surplus of natural gas and there is growing demand in the Asia-Pacific region. Proponents argue that all Canada needs to do is build and supply facilities to liquefy gas and ship it across the Pacific; the reality is not so simple. Timing is one of the key challenges Canada faces. Producers around the world — including in the newly gas-rich U.S. — are racing to lock up market-share in the Asia-Pacific region, in many cases much more aggressively than Canada. While this market is robust and growing, the nature of the contracts for delivery will favour actors that are earliest in the queue; margins for those arriving late will be slimmer and less certain over time. As supply grows, so too does the likelihood of falling gas prices in the Asia-Pacific region, making later projects less lucrative. LNG projects are feasible only on the basis of long-term contracts; once a piece of market share is acquired, it could be decades before it becomes available again. Currently, there are more proposed LNG-export projects around the world than will be required to meet projected demand for the foreseeable future. Delays beyond 2024 risk complete competitive loss of market entry for Canadian companies. B.C. is behind schedule on the government’s goal of having a single terminal operational by 2015. Of equal concern is the lack of policy and regulatory co-ordination, with disagreements between governments over standards, process and compensation for those stakeholders involved in the potential LNG industry. Issues as basic as taxing and royalty charges for gas shipments between provinces and locating facilities and marine-safety standards remain unsettled in Canada. The B.C. government has announced plans to levy special taxes on LNG, a policy that could render many current proposals uncompetitive. The LNG market is much more complicated than current discussions suggest; this report delves into every aspect relevant for Canada as a potential exporter. The prospect for Canada expanding into the Asia-Pacific market is entirely viable. Canada has almost everything going for it: political stability, free-market principles, immense resources, extensive infrastructure and industry experience. Everything, that is, except a co-ordinated regulatory and policy regime. Without that, Canada could be shut out, stuck relying on a single U.S. gas-export market that, increasingly, does not need us

Shipping and sustainability liquefied natural gas as an alternative fuel : evidence from Portugal

O transporte marítimo é um elo vital do comércio mundial graças à sua capacidade, confiabilidade e relação custo-eficácia no transporte de grande quantidade de bens; nenhum outro modo de transporte consegue alcançar tais economias de escala. Mas este argumento subestima os custos reais. A frota marítima internacional, excluindo barcos de pesca e navios militares, produziu em 2012 cerca de 796 milhões de toneladas (Mt) de dióxido de carbono (CO2) e 816 Mt de dióxido de carbono equivalente (CO2e) de gases de efeito de estufa (GEE) combinando dióxido de carbono (CO2), metano (CH4) e óxido nitroso (N2O) correspondendo a cerca de 3,1% das emissões globais (IMO-International Maritime Organization, 2015; Rahman e Mashud, 2015) e é um dos setores de mais rápido crescimento em termos de emissões de GEE (Gilbert, Bows e Starkey, 2010; Bows-Larkin, 2014) previstas aumentar entre 102% a 193% em relação aos níveis de 2000 até 2050 (Bows-Larkin, 2014), crescendo a uma taxa mais elevada do que a taxa média de todos os outros sectores, com excepção da aviação. Como as emissões marítimas são produzidas, em grande parte, em mar aberto e por navios registados em países de bandeira de conveniência, foram excluídas dos compromissos nacionais no âmbito do Protocolo de Quioto de 1997, que cedeu o controlo à IMO o organismo da ONU responsável pelo sector1. De acordo com o Maritime Knowledge Centre da IMO, a frota mercante mundial de navios com pelo menos 100 gross tonnage (tonelagem bruta) era composta por 93.161 navios no final do ano de 2016. Espera-se que um número crescente de navios mercantes entre em operação nas próximas décadas, nomeadamente navios porta-contentores de grande capacidade, navios metaneiros e outros adstritos a actividades diversificadas como produção, armazenamento e descarga de gás natural e de petróleo (em inglês Floating Production Storage and Offloading - FPSOs). Os combustíveis marítimos tradicionais também produzem emissões de óxido de enxofre (SOx), óxidos de azoto (NOx) e micropartículas e o impacto sobre o ambiente dos poluentes primários e secundários resultantes da combustão do fuelóleo pesado (HFO) tem contribui para a acidificação, eutrofização e formação de ozono (O3) fotoquímico (Bengtsson, 2011). Um efeito particularmente pernicioso na saúde das populações expostas é a mortalidade prematura relacionada com micropartículas inaláveis associadas com o aumento do cancro de pulmão e problemas cardiorrespiratórios (Corbett et al., 2007) e, embora os efeitos nocivos mais graves sejam particularmente sentidos nas zonas costeiras e em áreas próximas das atividades portuárias, estes efeitos também ocorrem no interior dos países devido às condições predominantes dos ventos (Corbett, Fischbeck and Pandis, 1999) incluindo efeitos transfronteiriços (Nore, 2011). Em Portugal e de acordo com o World Resources Institute, as emissões de CO2 com origem nos combustíveis marítimos cresceram 24,5%, entre 2003 e 2012, em linha com o crescimento mundial (de 26,8%) no mesmo período de dez anos (World Resources Institute, 2015). Nesta tese, para efeitos de monetarização das emissões produzidas pela frota mercante nacional serão utilizados os dados do Inventário Nacional de Emissões, dados de 2014, os quais revelam que, embora o contributo do sector para o registo nacional seja mínimo – devido nomeadamente à exiguidade da frota – o potencial de danos causados não é de todo despiciente. Técnicas para aumentar a eficiência energética e tecnologias de mitigação dos efeitos nocivos - scrubbers, (depuradores) e dispositivos catalíticos - têm sido desenvolvidas e implementadas -, no entanto, embora o seu contributo para a descarbonização do sector deva ser levado em conta, estas tecnologias não correspondem à alteração pretendida do paradigma energético e podem constituir um incentivo ao business-as-usual. Por outro lado, o recurso a combustíveis com menor conteúdo de enxofre como o diesel marítimo é contraproducente uma vez que as emissões dos motores a diesel foram recentemente classificadas como cancerígenas pelo Centro Internacional de Investigação do Cancro (Oeder et al, 2015). O que isto significa é que embora o diesel corresponda ao exigido futuramente pelo Regulamento Tier III emitido pela IMO, na realidade não respeita suficientemente as preocupações com a saúde humana. De qualquer modo as refinarias não teriam provavelmente capacidade suficiente de fornecer todo o diesel necessário para abastecer a frota mundial. Por outro lado, as medidas de redução de poluentes emitidas pela IMO poderão ver seus efeitos reduzidos pelo crescimento esperado da atividade marítima nas próximas décadas e são destinadas a ser adoptadas lentamente ao longo de um largo período de tempo e mostram um progresso muito lento no contexto de evitar um aumento de temperatura superior a 2ºC acima dos níveis pré-industriais (Gilbert, 2013; Bows-Larkin, 2014), daí a necessidade urgente de investir em novas tecnologias e em novos tipos de combustíveis.The objective of this Ph.D. thesis is to provide important inputs for the decarbonisation of marine transport and climate change mitigation policies concerning liquefied natural gas (LNG) as a substitute fuel. Real-world results show efficiency gains from LNG compared with traditional fossil fuels burned on-board vessel’s engines even when equipped with mitigation technologies. Yet, this is a necessary but not a sufficient condition to LNG be elected as a substitute fuel. For a fuel switch of such order of magnitude to occur within a major end-use sector, other requirements are to be fulfilled: the government intervention in the public interest, and, to justify such policy intervention, the degree of social acceptability. This is accomplished by developing a social cost-benefit analysis (SCBA) performed at a regional basis after the assessment of the trade-off between the provision level of the good and Portuguese nationals’ disposable income had been examined. SCBA attaches money prices - a metric of everything that everyone can recognise - to as many costs and benefits as possible in order to uniformly weigh the policy objectives. As a result, these prices reflect the value a society ascribe to the paradigm change enabling the decision maker to form an opinion about the net social welfare effects. Empirically, emissions from the Portuguese merchant fleet weighted by their contribution for the National Inventory were used to quantify and monetise externalities compared with benefits from LNG as a substitute marine fuel. Benefits from the policy implementation are those related with the reduction of negative externalities. Costs are those determined from the price nationals are hypothetically willing-to-pay for. Conclusions show that benefits are largely superior to the costs, so action must be taken instead of a doing nothing scenario. Apart from the social ex-ante evaluation, this thesis also imprints the first step for developing furthermore complete studies in this aspect and it can help fill policy makers’ knowledge gap to what concerns to strategic energy options vis-à-vis sustainability stakeholders engagement. Although it addresses Portuguese particularities, this methodology should be applied elsewhere

MODELING OF LNG SUPPLY CHAIN GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS

The projected increase of LNG trade in the next decade poses a major challenge to countries that also are planning how to meet international climate goals. Not only does the end-use of the fuel cause greenhouse gas emissions; expansive, sprawling supply chains to produce, upgrade and transport the gas emit significant but variable amounts of GHGs to the atmosphere. LNG is an appealing source of energy supply to less resource-rich countries with developing economies. Energy outlooks and projections indicate that regardless of the aggressiveness of the global response to climate change over the next few decades, natural gas usage in developing parts of the world is likely needed to support economic growth. As a result, it is important to help decision-makers by giving them tools to assess climate impact when making long-term decisions regarding energy usage. This studied used an engineering-based LCA model to calculate emission ranges for The results of this study indicate that emissions from prolific LNG supply chains that are projected to continue producing gas for decades. The results for each field show a very large range between best-case and worst-case emissions, with individual supply chains potentially varying by up to 37 times. The discussion evaluates ways to improve emission quantification efforts for the LNG supply chain, and individual emission reduction opportunities for selected emission sources, like fugitive emissions, that substantially contributed to the modeled emissions variability. During my five-year professional career, I have had the opportunity to work on climate change issues in the oil and gas industry from multiple vantage points; I have worked on issues relating to both the oil and gas supply chains, worked for a major international oil and gas company and a not-for-profit non-governmental organization, and taken on technical challenges in both the upstream and downstream segments of the supply chain. My current work primarily focuses on developing market-based solutions to incentivize rapid emission reductions throughout the oil and gas supply chain and increase the transparency of emissions data within these supply chains. This Capstone Project explores challenging technical and policy issues relating to the emissions footprint LNG supply chains and has allowed me to explore these challenges more in depth. Most significantly, I was able to use existing literature data along with a publicly available LCA model to evaluate the emissions impact of LNG supply chains. In my current professional work, I will continue to use the data cited in this study and the modeling framework used to further develop an understanding of the posed research question

HYBRID LIFE CYCLE SUSTAINABILITY ASSESSMENT OF LIQUIFIED NATURAL GAS SUPPLY CHAIN

Integrating sustainability into the distribution network process is a significant problem for any industry hoping to prosper or survive in today's fast-paced environment. Since gas is one of the world's most important fuel sources, sustainability is more important for the gas industry. While such environmental and economic effects have been extensively researched in the literature, there is little emphasis on the full social sustainability of natural gas production and supply chains in terms of the triple bottom line. The basic objective of this dissertation is to perform the first hybrid life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA) of liquefied natural gas and evaluate its performance from natural gas extraction to LNG regasification after delivery through a maritime transport carrier. LCSA is used for estimating the social, economic, and environmental impacts of processes, and our life cycle model included the multi-region input-output analysis, Aspen HYSYS, and LNG maritime transport operations sustainability assessment tools. The results spot the light on the most contributors of CO2-eq emission. It is found that LNG loading (export terminal) is the source that generated the highest carbon footprint, followed by the MDEA sweetening unit with the contribution of 40% and 24%, respectively. Socially, around 73% of human health impact comes from SRU and TGTU units, which contribute most to particulate matter emissions. Based on the interpretation of life cycle results, the environmental indicators show better performance in the pre-separation unit and LNG receiving terminal representing a sustainability factor equal to 1. In terms of social and economic impacts, the natural gas extraction stage presents the best performance among all other stages, with a sustainability factor equal to 1. Based on this study's findings, an integrated framework model is proposed. Various suggestions for sustainability strategies and policies that consider business sustainability and geopolitics risk are presented