Systems and methods to create and store a liquid phase mix of natural gas absorbed in light-hydrocarbon solvents under temperatures and pressures that facilitate improved volumetric ratios of the stored natural gas as compared to CNG and PLNG at the same temperatures and pressures of less than −80° to about −120° F. and about 300 psig to about 900 psig. Preferred solvents include ethane, propane and butane, and natural gas liquid (NGL) and liquid pressurized gas (LPG) solvents. Systems and methods for receiving raw production or semi-conditioned natural gas, conditioning the gas, producing a liquid phase mix of natural gas absorbed in a light-hydrocarbon solvent, and transporting the mix to a market where pipeline quality gas or fractionated products are delivered in a manner utilizing less energy than CNG, PLNG or LNG systems with better cargo-mass to containment-mass ratio for the natural gas component than CNG systems.

This invention provides a means of loading, processing and conditioning raw production gas, production of CGL, storage, transport, and delivery of pipeline quality natural gas or fractionated products to market. The CGL transport vessel utilizes a pipe based containment system to hold more densely packed constituents of natural gas held within a light hydrocarbon solvent than it is possible to attain for natural gas alone under such conditions. The containment system is supported by process systems for loading and transporting the natural gas as a liquid and unloading the CGL from the containment system and then offloading it in the gaseous state. The system can also be utilized for the selective storage and transport of NGLs to provide a total service package for the movement of natural gas and associated gas production. The mode of storage is suited for both marine and land transportation and configured in modular form to suit a particular application and/or scale of operation.

The present invention relates to a natural gas hydrate tank container loading system for transporting natural gas hydrate, and the present invention provides a natural gas hydrate tank container loading system which enables automated connection of an electric power line and a boil-off pipe, and may automatically connect an electric power line and automatically connect the pipe by simultaneously stacking respective natural gas hydrate tank containers, in order to solve problems of a transportation method using the existing natural gas hydrate tank containers in the related art in that an operation of connecting an electric power line to a refrigerator for minimizing the occurrence of boil-off gas and maintaining a phase equilibrium condition in the tank containers and an operation of connecting the pipe for discharging the boil-off gas need to be manually and individually performed for long-distance transportation of a large amount of natural gas hydrate by using a ship, which causes an inconvenience.

A system and method for the estimation of a sloshing response of a sealed and thermally insulating tank for transporting liquefied gas. A statistical model is trained using a supervised machine learning method on a set of test data that may include sea test data, the statistical model being capable of estimating a sloshing response of the tank depending on a tank fill level and a current sea state, and optionally at least one of a draught, speed or course of the vessel. The statistical model trained in this manner is used to estimate a sloshing response of a sealed and thermally insulating tank for transporting liquefied gas. In an alternative embodiment, the statistical model estimates the sloshing response from a tank fill level and a current sea state, and optionally from at least one of a draught, speed or course of the vessel.

An assembly for storing and transporting compressed fluid, such as compressed natural gas, that includes a plurality of hexagonally stacked pipe stored in a cargo hold in or on a vessel, that includes a lower support, side supports and a forcing mechanism that presses strongly down on the pipes so that they cannot move relative to themselves or the vessel on which they are placed. The friction between the pipes causes the plurality of pipes to act as part of the vessel in terms of its structure. The stacked pipe is supported by a plurality of spacers, such as convex side up pipe segments for maintaining a gap between adjacent ones of said plurality of pipes in a same row in said stacked pipe. A load equalizer may be located above the plurality of pipes for distributing the compressive force from the forcing mechanism.

To obtain an economical hull structure by employing an independent prismatic tank having a large tank volume with respect to a ship size and reducing material cost.

Provided is a LNG ship having a structure in which a substantially prismatic tank is installed inside a hold while not being integrated with a hull structure material, wherein a tank bottom surface is provided with inclined surfaces formed at the left and right sides of a center line direction of the ship as a boundary so that each angle intersecting a horizontal line becomes equal to or smaller than 4.0°, and support bodies integrated with the hull structure material are arranged so as to correspond to the inclined surfaces and the tank is put on the support bodies.

The present invention describes mixed cargoes barges or carriers (100,100a,200,300,400,500) for carrying bulk cargoes (BC), shipping containers (132, 134), IMO tanks, general cargoes and fluid cargoes. The bulk cargoes and shipping containers can be transported on load-plates (110,110L,110R,110a-110f,210,210L,210R) that are configured pivotably on a deck (108, 208) or in a hull (103), whilst fluid cargoes are stored in storage tanks (130,230) located below the deck or in the hull (103). The bulk cargoes can be discharged by tilting the load-plate or loading the bulk cargoes on tilted load-plates, so that the bulk cargoes fall onto an adjacent conveyor (150,250). When a load plate or a segmented load-plate is emptied of bulk cargoes, the empty load space can then be utilized to carry shipping containers, IMO tanks or general cargoes. Various ways of folding and stowing away the segmented load-plates to free up loading spaces for mixed cargoes.

A gas supply marine vessel and a floating refueling facility are described. The gas supply marine vessel includes a hull with an upper deck having an elongated cargo cavity formed therein. Gas interface modules are disposed in the cavity and extend between hull sides, each module having a plurality of fuel vessel docking stations. A plurality of stacked fuel container assemblies are fluidically coupled to the docking stations. A gantry, movable along the length of the cavity, straddles the cargo cavity between hull sides. An articulating crane is mounted on the gantry and it utilized to move fuel container assemblies to a fuel container depression formed in the deck of the floating refueling facility. The floating refueling facility may include a concave side to facilitate mooring adjacent a shoreline, the concave side forming angled extensions at corners of the deck with a linkspan extending from each of the angled extensions.

This invention provides a means of loading, processing and conditioning raw production gas, production of CGL, storage, transport, and delivery of pipeline quality natural gas or fractionated products to market. The CGL transport vessel utilizes a pipe based containment system to hold more densely packed constituents of natural gas held within a light hydrocarbon solvent than it is possible to attain for natural gas alone under such conditions. The containment system is supported by process systems for loading and transporting the natural gas as a liquid and unloading the CGL from the containment system and then offloading it in the gaseous state. The system can also be utilized for the selective storage and transport of NGLs to provide a total service package for the movement of natural gas and associated gas production. The mode of storage is suited for both marine and land transportation and configured in modular form to suit a particular application and/or scale of operation.

Systems and methods to create and store a liquid phase mix of natural gas absorbed in light-hydrocarbon solvents under temperatures and pressures that facilitate improved volumetric ratios of the stored natural gas as compared to CNG and PLNG at the same temperatures and pressures of less than −80° to about −120° F. and about 300 psig to about 900 psig. Preferred solvents include ethane, propane and butane, and natural gas liquid (NGL) and liquid pressurized gas (LPG) solvents. Systems and methods for receiving raw production or semi-conditioned natural gas, conditioning the gas, producing a liquid phase mix of natural gas absorbed in a light-hydrocarbon solvent, and transporting the mix to a market where pipeline quality gas or fractionated products are delivered in a manner utilizing less energy than CNG, PLNG or LNG systems with better cargo-mass to containment-mass ratio for the natural gas component than CNG systems.