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ABS has awarded Approval-In-Principle (AIP) to the LNG Lite™ concept developed by SeaOne Maritime Corp. of Houston, Texas. Following the ABS Guidance Notes on Review and Approval of Novel Concepts, the AIP process employs a variety of engineering and risk assessment techniques to test new concepts for acceptable levels of safety..

Evaluation of the SeaOne system included an assessment of the cargo containment and the gas processing systems under the ABS Rules and the International Gas Code (IGC).

The core technology in LNG Lite, named by SeaOne as the Compressed Gas Liquid™ or CGL™ method, is a liquefaction process for wellstream natural gas in which a hydrocarbon solvent causes cleaned natural gas to flash into a liquid state at a temperature of -40°F and pressure of 1,400 psig. The CGL is formed aboard a loading barge, loaded and transported in oceangoing ships using SeaOne's novel pipeline containment system. Literally a portable pipeline, the storage system consists of 42-inch pipe sections, nested together horizontally in a proprietary support structure and connected to form a continuous pipe that snakes through the ship's cargo area and through on-deck housings. The carrier concept is scalable, with proposed designs covering ship sizes ranging into the supertanker class.

The LNG Lite system proposes to deliver either pipeline-quality natural gas, as loaded at the wellhead, or fractionated products. The former could be loaded from the ship into a pipeline grid at the destination, the latter separated at the receiving end aboard an offloading barge. At 1,400 psi the containment system operates in the standard ANSI 600 pressure range and can make use of standard gas fittings, pipe and equipment.

SeaOne holds patents on the CGL process, pipeline containment system and loading and unloading technologies, and has patents pending on the overall LNG Lite transportation system concept. "Gas processing and cargo containment were the two critical areas of review for the gas carriers and barges,” says ABS Senior Staff Consultant Phil Rynn. “It is a unique solution, liquefying gas at other than cryogenic temperatures and using a containment system different than any other for its marine transportation. In 2007 SeaOne Maritime Corp. contracted with ABS for the latter to provide Classification and Certification Services for SeaOne’s gas carriers and containment system, barges and process systems, which is already underway. ”

ABS will provide the class notation for the gas carrier: A1-Compressed Gas Liquid Carrier, AMS, ACCU, SH-DLA, SFA. While these notations currently exist, this will be the first time they are configured in this fashion to identify a CGLC. For the loading and offloading barges, ABS will provide the class notation: A1 – Floating Production (and Offloading) System (FPS), AMCC, UWILD.

“It is an interesting classification,” adds Rynn. “It's compressed gas because it's a gas under pressure, but it's also a liquid, and so falls under the IGC code. It's not in the cryogenic temperature range like LNG, and thus can use industry accepted materials. When the concept evolved from gas processing aboard the integral gas carrier to processing on barges, at each end of the ship transit pipeline, we performed the HAZOP study for the ship and the terminal points,” he says. “The methodologies used for developing the ship and the containment system are known and approved by us. The system uses existing technologies, which SeaOne has combined in a new way,” Rynn notes.