Just north of us, along the Fraser River and next to several industrial facilities, sits a gas storage facility installed by B.C. Hydro's Gas division back in the '70s.
Its purpose was and is to augment the supply of natural gas on cold days when the pipeline may not be able to meet the peak demand. The gas is stored in the most efficient way - by cooling/compressing it until it becomes a liquid - which today we call LNG.
Fast forward four decades and we now find ourselves thinking of LNG as the saviour of the provincial budget, the new gold to come from the North East corner of the province. LNG is regarded as the clean fuel of the future.
In addition to many proposals for exporting LNG from the Prince
Rupert area, attention is also being given to how it can be used here in B.C. What if the dirty bunker C found in ships could be replaced? How about replacing diesel fuel by cleaner LNG? Interest but no source of supply, and no infrastructure nearby.
Since B.C. Hydro days of the '70s, the B.C. government sold off its gas operations to B.C. Gas, renamed Terasen Gas, which was acquired by Kinder Morgan, and then more recently was brought back to Canada as Fortis B.C. by Fortis Inc. of St John's, Newfoundland.
They are taking the entrepreneurial initiative to look for LNG customers and to gradually build infrastructure to allow trucks - those serving the local and regional area - to convert to LNG.
To get the new business plans going they are doubling their Delta storage capacity, dramatically increasing the processing ability to convert gas to LNG, setting up a transfer station to fill 40 foot trailers to deliver the LNG to various fuelling depots, and working with trucking firms to encourage demand.
B.C. Ferries is "considering"
LNG for their three new ferries, and perhaps for some refits. While this will not make a big dent in B.C.'s use of LNG, it will contribute to cleaner air.
As a chemical engineer, I was quite interested in this plant expansion. I was fortunate enough to be given details and a tour of what looks like the best designed plant I have seen in a long time.
Because LNG is flammable as a gas and there's a lot of it, I was focussed on safety. What I learned is that if there was an earthquake followed by land liquefying followed by dikes breaking, the plant would be still there - safe. My concern about much bigger volumes being stored in Delta was met by the fact that the LNG, as produced, is to be shipped off to refuelling sites in 'small' containers - so no big concentrations to worry about.
Here is a Delta operation implementing a great idea at their own expense trying to introduce a business that makes sense for all of us. Last week while at Swartz Bay waiting for the ferry I spotted a semi going by into line with a fuel tank alongside the cab with the Fortis name on it. It's happening!
