Have You Considered High-Pressure LNG Releases? They Are More Likely Than Catastrophic Failures

LNG import terminals in the U.S. are required to estimate flammable vapor hazard zones to ½ LFL based on a design spill from a single accidental source. The flammability hazard zones following an LNG spill are generally calculated using a heavy gas dispersion model such as DEGADIS. The current standards have no requirements to model consequences from high-pressure LNG releases.

There are high-pressure processing equipment in LNG import and export terminals (e.g. vaporizers in LNG import terminals) that can result in a two-phase aerosolized release of LNG. Consequences of LNG release from such high-pressure locations should be estimated using jet dispersion and thermal radiation models. This paper presents jet discusses consequences, failure frequencies and risk mitigation measures for LNG high-pressure releases.