(132b) What Is the Safest Way to Move LNG?

The abundant supply of domestic natural gas in the US has led to the rapid development of infrastructure to process, handle, store, and transport the commodity. Liquefying the natural gas and handling as the cryogenic liquid LNG has been attractive due to low storage pressures and relatively high energy density. The LNG can then be stored onsite or distributed to end users. The 3 primary transport methods that can be considered for moving the LNG from the remote liquefaction facility to the domestic end user include: truck, rail, and pipeline. All three of these transport methods have pros and cons associated with them, including: regulatory requirements, deployment time scales, existing infrastructure, cost, and risk to the public. The risk of transporting LNG via any of these three methods is explored in detail here using commercially available software (PHAST Risk) along a representative route from Lubbock to Houston. Population densities along each potential route will be considered. The resulting societal and individual risk will be compared for the different transport modes.