Western Railroad Discussion > Question about transportation: Would it ever be effici

It appears that natural gas is most efficiently moved via an elaborate pipe system across the US. Could RR's be used to move the gas from the pipe terminals to more local distribution? Would there be a need for specially designed cars? Thanks

No and yes, respectively.

BobE

LPG is done in the same manner.

To clarify a little bit, some LPG is moved in special railcars, but I don't think the amount is significant, most is moved by truck, or by pipeline before it is compressed to liquid form.

As far as LNG is concerned, natural gas is so easily and widely transported by pipeline. I doubt if rail could ever break into that market except perhaps for transporting locomotive LNG between fueling stations if that ever becomes widespread, but then again who knows? Nobody predicted the current explosion of crude oil transport by rail....

The correct answer to the original posters questions should be - No and no.

Natural Gas pipelines that distribute Gas to Powerplants, Industries and Homes, and Compressed Gas not Liquids. To Get Methane into liquid form you need to both compress it and refrigerate it. The next heavier gas Ethane is slightly easier to liquify but usually isn't, normally it is piped to plastic producers for cracking into olefins and other plastic feedstocks. Propane is the next heavier gas and is the first to be readily compressed into a liquid, then comes Butane and Isobutane.
These three products are commonly moved by rail into areas without NGL pipelines, loadings of these products were averaging about 7k to 7.5k per week. Products heavier than the Butanes are commonly lumped into a category called "Natural Gasoline" as these are the products that are blended to make motor gasoline, they include Pentane, Hexane, Benzine, and others.