Economic evaluation of natural gas hydrate as an alternative for natural gas transportation

Based on a proposed process for conversion of natural gas to natural gas hydrate, NGH, the amortized total capital investment, operation and maintenance costs and total cost for production of NGH have been obtained. The effects of different operational conditions such as seawater temperature as cooling media and hydrate storage temperature have been investigated. The economic parameters for marine transportation of NGH from Asaluyeh port in the south of Iran to the different gas markets, as a case study, have been obtained. Also, the required NGH ships and their operation costs for different gas markets have been estimated. (c) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.