Comparative Investigation of Storage and Transportation Methods of Natural Gas via Compression, Adsorption and Hydrate

Due to the substantial growth of transportation vehicles, utilization of green fuels such as natural gas is regarded as one of the challenging ways against air pollution. Unfortunately, natural gas is far behind the gasoline in terms of energy per unit volume. Therefore, some alternative safe and low cost techniques are under investigation to store and transport gas in a least possible volume. Different gas storage and transportation techniques are depend upon the gas reservoir, distance to consumption market, total investment and other operation parameters and each one has its own specification. In this article, three methods of compressed natural gas (CNG), adsorbed natural gas (ANG) and natural gas hydrate (NGH) as alternative techniques for natural gas storage in vehicles as well as effective means of transporting large amounts of natural gas by ships, are considered and compared in different aspects.