OREANDA-NEWS. October 25, 2012. As well as being able to provide up to 20% of the UK’s gas supply, Grain LNG may soon offer a drive through service for road tankers to load up on liquid gas to distribute around the country.

National Grid Grain LNG, the operator of a Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) importation terminal on the Isle of Grain in Kent since 2005, is looking at plans to develop an LNG loading service for road tankers.

LNG at -161° Celsius is unloaded from ships at the terminal and stored in cryogenic tanks. When needed, the liquid gas is reheated and pumped into the national gas network to be used by homes and businesses. These new plans would see National Grid loading LNG from the storage tanks and on to road tankers for distributors to take to HGV refuelling stations as well as to off-grid industrial and commercial users.

Jon Carlton, Director of UK LNG at National Grid said:

“Using LNG as a road fuel can reduce CO2 emissions by up to 30% and particulates by as much as 90% compared to diesel, and could help the UK significantly in meeting the carbon reduction target.”

“With the financial advantages LNG has over other fossil fuels also becoming more widely recognised, it is forecast that demand for a tanker loading service will grow rapidly”.

Grain LNG has extensive experience in operating major LNG infrastructure. It is also ideally located close to the major ports and road networks in South East England and in close proximity to the proposed ‘Blue Corridor’ routes, which are intended to support LNG fuelled HGV fleets across Europe.

National Grid has launched an open season to gauge market appetite for the new offering. Depending on when regulatory and planning approvals are given, services could be up and running late 2014 / early 2015.