Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Another energy source to watch...

Liquified natural gas (LNG) has until now been mostly an engineering curiosity. It seemed like a good idea, but the technology involved and public acceptance were pretty formidible obstacles to larger market share. Well, a few billion dollars can help that.

Creating LNG involves cooling normal natural gas to 260 degrees below zero Fahrenheit, sending it around the world in superinsulated ships and then re-gasifying it at its destination.

"It's one of the biggest investment trends in the world," said David Talbot, with the energy research firm John H. Herald. "That's what's happening. We're going increasingly from crude oil to natural gas."



Since it looks like the Canucks will be using more of their natural gas to melt oil from their vast shale/sands deposits, we may need alternate sources soon. This is what is frustrating about our energy problem: even if we can replace some foreign oil with ethanol, we could be importing more natural gas and even finished products.

No comments: