Liquid Natural Gas in the United States: A History

The liquid is 1/600 the volume of the gas, but it requires storage at an extremely low temperature, 1-260°F. This worked well until 1944, when a liquid natural gas (LNG) tank in Cleveland ruptured and caused a fire with 130 fatalities. The fire did not end the industry but caused it to pause. Over the next few years the problems in materials, design, standards, and siting were solved. The recognition that liquefaction made LNG transportable without a pipeline was the breakthrough. In 1959 a shipload of LNG went from Louisiana to Britain and restarted the LNG industry. It is now a major worldwide energy industry and the topic of this work.