International
Small-scale LNG plant in Florida to serve maritime, onshore markets
Houston — As ocean-going vessels pursue compliance with the clean-fuel mandates of IMO 2020, a small-scale LNG liquefaction plant in Jacksonville, Florida, is supplying bunker fuel to the maritime industry and fuel for onshore rail and electric power.
JAX LNG, a joint venture project of Pivotal LNG and NorthStar Midstream, is the first small-scale liquefaction facility in the US with both dockside and truck-loading capabilities, enabling it to supply LNG to both maritime and onshore markets, according to a company statement.
The project, which went into operation last fall and recently completed equipment installation, has the capacity to produce 120,000 gallons of LNG per day and a storage capacity of more than 2 million gallons of LNG.
In addition, the project can be expanded by adding two liquefaction trains and a second storage tank, which would increase LNG production capacity to 600,000 gal/day and storage capacity up to 4 million gallons, developers said.
JAX LNG is one of a growing number of small-scale LNG projects being built in locations chiefly in Florida and along the East Coast to take advantage of the expanding supply of US shale gas, which can be converted to LNG to serve a number of growing markets, including the maritime fuel industry and onshore rail, manufacturing and electric power industries.
“IMO 2020 is definitely driving a long overdue change, which supports cleaner air by significantly decreasing sulfur emissions from marine vessels,” said Tim Hermann, president of Pivotal LNG and manager of the JAX LNG plant located at Dames Point at Jaxport.
Converting marine engines to run on natural gas “is the best long-term strategy for creating compliance with IMO 2020,” Hermann said in an interview last week.
IMO 2020 regulations, the International Maritime Organization’s new marine-fuel sulfur limit rules which come into force in January, will cap global sulfur content in marine fuels at 0.5%, below the current level of 3.5%.
GAS SOURCED FROM PEOPLES GAS
The facility sources its gas from the Peoples Gas distribution system in Jacksonville. “In addition to that, we have invested in upstream pipeline capacity so we have firm supply,” Hermann said. The plant has contracted for firm transportation capacity of just under 15,000 Mcf/d, enough to supply 100% of its liquefaction capacity, he said.
For smaller vessels, JAX LNG can deliver LNG directly from its docks. According to Hermann, larger ocean-going vessels “prefer to be fueled on the water side by a bunkering barge,” such as the Clean Jacksonville owned by TOTE Maritime Puerto Rico. By employing bunkering barges, “we can actually provide bunkering fuel to customers well beyond Jacksonville, up and down the southeast coast of the US, in other ports,” Hermann said.
The JAX LNG project site is also close to existing rail line infrastructure, which can be extended to the site, “so that we can begin making deliveries into rail markets,” Hermann said. Last month, President Donald Trump signed an executive order instructing the Department of Transportation to put forward a rulemaking designed to make it easier to transport LNG by rail line. DOT is expected to finalize the new rule within the next 13 months.