Leghorn The crossing takes 40 minutes, past cruise ships and ferries. Then the boat is suddenly next to the black and orange colossus, whose bow is anchored to the seabed with heavy chains: The “FSRU Toscana” looks like a ship, but is one of three liquefied natural gas terminals that Italy operates.
This system has been in use here, 22 kilometers off the coast of the port city of Livorno, since 2013. It is more than 300 meters long, 48 meters wide and has four balloon-shaped gas holders that reach into the sky. 30 employees are permanently on board.
LNG has been Europe’s new hope since the Russian invasion of Ukraine at the latest: With “Liquefied Natural Gas”, liquefied natural gas, the continent wants to become less dependent on Russian energy imports. Germany alone is planning four LNG terminals – so far there is not a single one in the Federal Republic.
How exactly does the technology work? How safe is the conversion of liquefied natural gas? And do the billion-dollar purchases still make sense if Europe wants to rely on green hydrogen as an energy alternative in the near future?
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How exactly does gas conversion work?
Liquefied natural gas takes up around 600 times less space than in the gaseous state. Significantly larger quantities can therefore be transported on a ship than in gas form. More than 40 percent of the liquefied natural gas for the terminal in Tuscany comes from the USA, but ships from Nigeria, Algeria and Peru also land here. All unloading slots are fully booked by the end of September.
When a ship arrives, pilots steer it right next to the terminal. Yellow gripper arms with suction nozzles lower to pump the liquefied natural gas into the four orange tanks. They can accommodate 137,000 cubic meters. It takes at least 24 hours for a full charge to be stored on board the “Floating Storage Regasification Unit” (FSRU), the floating gas converter.
Handelsblatt on site: Visit to the LNG terminal in Livorno
The liquefied gas is cooled down to minus 160 degrees. This is the only way to reduce the volume. The regasification facility at the front of the terminal looks like a tangle of pipes. It is nothing more than a heat exchanger in which the gas is heated with filtered seawater. A few more degrees are enough – and the liquefied natural gas returns to its gaseous state.
The natural gas is first pumped 120 meters towards the seabed via the pipeline at the bow and then fed into the grid via the connection to the mainland. “It’s really a very simple technology that doesn’t pose any particular risks or pollution,” says Maurizio Zangrandi, head of the LNG subsidiary of Snam, Italy’s largest pipeline operator.
Snam also has a stake of around 49 percent in the company OLT, which operates the terminal in Tuscany. On average, a ship arrives here every eight days. Because converting the energy stored in the terminal can take up to seven days, depending on the delivery volume.
How is LNG used?
In the mid-1960s, Snam, then still a subsidiary of the energy supplier Eni, was one of the first companies in the world to set up a regasification plant. The “Panigaglia” plant in La Spezia (Liguria) went into operation in 1971 and is still in operation today. It’s a classic on-shore terminal, so it’s on land, right in the port. The facility has a storage capacity of 100,000 cubic meters of LNG per charge.
When fully charged, the floating terminal can even hold 137,000 cubic meters of liquefied natural gas. This produces 3.75 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year, covering around five percent of Italy’s gas needs. Together, the country’s three terminals have a volume of 16 billion cubic meters – that corresponds to a good 20 percent of national demand. Similar, sometimes much larger systems are also in the ports of Barcelona, Marseille or in Zeebrugge in Belgium.
When ships dock directly at the quay, the LNG is pumped via unloading arms into tanks, which can be thought of as large thermos flasks. There, the natural gas remains in liquid form until industry or households require it. Only then is it converted – and fed into the natural gas grid. This makes it possible to react on a daily basis, in contrast to gas from Russia or Azerbaijan, which takes a good two days through the pipelines to Italy.
Italy’s third LNG terminal operates in the Adriatic Sea near Rovigo. It is on the sea like the one in Livorno, but it is not an anchored boat, but a platform firmly built on the seabed, similar to oil drilling.
How safe is liquefied natural gas?
“There are no chemical processes, refining or industrial waste in the regasification plants,” explains LNG expert Zangrandi. There have never been any major accidents. “There is only a physical change of state from liquid to gas.” The gas is flammable, but compared to other compounds natural gas is very volatile.
You could even throw a match into one of the liquefied natural gas storage facilities: there isn’t enough oxygen to ignite the gas. “The match would go out immediately,” says Zangrandi. And even if there were a leak, not much would happen: as soon as LNG leaks, it immediately vaporizes and rises into the air. “Compared to other fuels, there are no bubbles that could remain on the ground and ignite.”
What will the LNG terminals of the future look like?
It is the middle ground between Livorno and La Spezia: a floating LNG terminal that is not anchored to the seabed but docks directly at the port to feed in the gas converted on board. “This eliminates all the paperwork required to build infrastructure on land,” says LNG expert Zangrandi.
The second advantage: The FSRU ships that are needed for this can already be found on the market. “You can also build new ones while you’re still waiting for the permits.” The third advantage: flexibility. “If at some point you realize that there is no longer a market for the terminal locally, you can simply move it to another location,” explains Zangrandi.
Italy’s government has decided to commission two more floating LNG terminals. Snam was commissioned with the implementation. The first two systems of this type should also be ready for use in Germany this year.
How big is the market – and what are the costs?
There are currently a good dozen floating LNG terminals that have been completed and are operational. On top of that, there are about 200 LNG tankers that so far only transport the liquefied natural gas back and forth, but could be upgraded with a gas conversion module. A new FSRU can be built from a simple tanker in just a few months.
The boat trip to the LNG terminal off the Tuscan coast took 40 minutes.
(Photo: Christian Wermke)
Terminals are currently selling for 400 to 500 million euros on the market, depending on the size of the storage on board. LNG terminals can also be rented, prices here can be around 200,000 euros per day.
Can LNG terminals also be used for green hydrogen?
For most energy experts, natural gas is only a temporary solution. The trend is towards so-called green hydrogen, which is produced using renewable energies. LNG terminals are now in demand all over the world, dozens are being built, and the liquefied natural gas tankers are being converted.
Will the entire infrastructure become obsolete if green hydrogen catches on? No, says Snam director Zangrandi. “You only need appropriate materials in the tanks that are also suitable for storing hydrogen at low temperatures.” In the liquid state, the materials would have to be able to withstand minus 190 degrees for hydrogen, i.e. a little more cold than for liquefied natural gas.
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For example, the steel used to transport hydrogen in gaseous form is essentially the same as that used to transport natural gas. “Steel pipelines have no problem transporting hydrogen.” Natural gas and hydrogen can even be mixed in a pipeline: Snam has been experimenting for years with increasing the proportion of hydrogen in the pipeline.
More: How a Greek shipowner is helping Germany’s gas supply.