Liquefied natural gas or LNG is natural gas that has been converted to liquid form for ease of storage or transport. Liquified natural gas takes up about 1/600th the volume of natural gas at a stove burner tip. It is odorless, colorless, non-corrosive, and non-toxic. When vaporized, it burns only in concentrations of 5% to 15% when mixed with air. Neither LNG, nor its vapor, can explode in an unconfined environment.
The liquefaction process involves removal of certain components, such as dust, helium, water, and heavy hydrocarbons, which could cause difficulty downstream, and then condensed into a liquid at close to atmospheric pressure (Maximum Transport Pressure set around 25 kPa (3.6psi)) by cooling it to approximately . The reduction in volume makes it much more cost-efficient to transport over long distances where pipelines do not exist. Where moving natural gas by pipelines is not possible or economical, it can be transported by specially designed cryogenic sea vessels (LNG vessels) or cryogenic road tankers.
