Floating Liquefied Natural Gas (FLNG) is an innovative technology designed to enable the exploitation of offshore gas resources that would otherwise remain undeveloped. 7 ) Due to environmental or economic factors, it is not yet economically feasible to develop these sources via a land-based LNG operation. 8)
In essence, FLNG is defined as either a ship or barge that can sail or be towed to offshore gas discoveries. The technology can be employed to extract gas, freeze it to a liquefied form or offload the LNG to tankers.
Since all processing is done at the gas field, there is no requirement for long pipelines to shore or compression units to pump the gas to shore.These advantages reduce significantly the environmental footprint anywhere.
In addition, environmental disturbances will be minimized during decommissioning because the facility can easily be disconnected and removed prior to being re-deployed elsewhere. Translating these manufacturing advantages onto Titan, the natural gas could be extracted and refined solely on the planet. The refinery and transport might be done by unmanned robotic vehicles, dirigibles and robots emulating human mechanical capabilities. There are other technological issues to overcome like transporting the FLNG from Titan to the earth or to nearby planets where significant manufacturing or reprocessing can occur.
References:
1) http://www.jhuapl.edu/newscenter/pressreleases/2011/110506.asp
2) http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/09/090915-saturn-lightning-storms.html
3) http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/10/081028-titan-lightning-life_2.html
4) http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/science/index.cfm
5) http://www.jhuapl.edu/newscenter/pressreleases/2011/110506.asp
6) http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Cassini-Huygens/SEMBJCHHZTD_0.html
7) http://www.retailenergy.com/hybrid/Liquified%20Natural%20Gas.htm
Article comments
1 - Costello
Hope the program is not in danger with all the cuts.
Is your ID in quotes because it's not your real name?
2 - Dr Dreadful
This article is a mess, and considering the numerous factual errors it contains I assume that the good doctor (if such he is - looks like an anagram to me) is not an astronomer or planetologist.
The most glaring one is the statement that there is crude oil on Titan. It is true that hydrocarbons exist there, and that crude oil is a hydrocarbon, but the two terms are not synonyms. A hydrocarbon is simply a chemical compound comprised of hydrogen and carbon. On Titan, the predominant hydrocarbon is methane.
I'm also perplexed by the author's account of lightning storms on Saturn, which appears to have no connection to anything else in the article. Neither does he explain what the moon's open bodies of liquid have to do with the variability of its magnetic field.
Bizarre.
3 - Dr. Joseph S. Maresca
The presence of crude oil implies that an animal life form existed on that planet, and their bodies decomposed without enough air/gas to decompose properly (as is how the crude oil formed on earth). Titan's water stock is frozen into chunks as hard as granite.
The word implies is being utilized. Next, let me deal with the opening findings of Casini.
"Saturn's orange moon Titan has hundreds of times more liquid hydrocarbons than all the known oil and natural gas reserves on Earth, according to new data from NASA's Cassini spacecraft. "
The statement by itself justifies the planned explorations. Lastly, the lightening is another potential energy source which can be harnessed. Remember, we are now where the Wright Brothers were at the beginning of the previous century. Look where aviation took us after the Wright Brothers. If we pursue these energy technologies, the best is yet to come for
sure. There is certainly more promise in pursuing hydrocarbons on Titan over the next century than fission nuclear power.
We won't know for sure what's on Titan until the exploratory probes have completed their work. The initial findings provide an important perspective with regard to Titan, its environment and the potential for energy exploration this century and next.
4 - Dr Dreadful
Dr Maresca, you have it backwards. Again, crude oil and hydrocarbons are not the same thing and your assumption that those on Titan came from the decay of living organisms is unwarranted. There are hydrocarbons on Jupiter and Saturn as well - planets without a solid surface. Organic compounds are called that not because they are derived from living organisms, but because they are the building blocks of life.
There may indeed be life on Titan - there's less ethane and acetylene in the atmosphere than there ought to be, and one possible explanation is that something is eating the stuff - but the hydrocarbons in and of themselves aren't the telltale signature.
Agreed that the presence of hydrocarbons on Titan warrants further exploration, but the cost of extracting and exploiting them, even using robotic technology, is so astronomical as to make it unfeasible for the foreseeable future - probably until long after Earth's oil supplies have dried up.
Mining the upper atmospheres of Jupiter and Saturn for hydrocarbons might actually be easier, since the tankers wouldn't have such a big gravity well to climb out of in order to ship the stuff back to Earth.
5 - Dr. Joseph S. Maresca
This century will come upon a commercializable "Artificial Sun" or Tokamak. The existence of fusion power will be an important precursor to cheaper space exploration utilizing robotics and similar instrumentalities.
Our Titan probe will take 7 years or so to reach its destination. Again, travel speeds will accelerate much like airplane speeds accelerated from the Wright Brothers to supersonic speeds now experienced in transcontinental flights. By mid-century, we might
be able to reach Saturn in half the time or less.
This will be dependent upon progress made in harnessing the artificial sun or Tokamak.
There may be significant potential for harnessing the tremendous lightening described in the article. Again, transmission technologies are still evolving. In addition, we need to perfect the material sciences in order to have commercializable robotics operating on Titan and its challenging environment.
I agree that mining the upper atmospheres of Jupiter and Saturn for hydrocarbons would be easier in all likelihood.
NASA has found an oily liquid lake filled with hydrocarbons on Titan, Saturn's Earth-like moon.
It's the first liquid lake found away from Earth. Named Ontario Lacus, it is bigger than Connecticut and Rhode Island combined. And, it's filled with oil. Or, at least it has liquid ethane, a component of crude oil.
Now all we have to do is figure out how to transport it 800 million miles through space, and the energy crisis is solved. Right?
6 - zingzing
is that free verse?
7 - Dr Dreadful
Nah, he's commenting from his iPhone or something.