ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The Alaska Railroad is making final preparations for the first U.S. rail shipments of liquefied natural gas, a fuel that could be used to alleviate pollution problems in the state’s second-largest city.
The railroad Tuesday will send two loaded 40-foot LNG containers from Anchorage to Fairbanks as part of a demonstration. Seven more round-trips over four weeks will follow, said Tim Sullivan, manager of external affairs.
“We’re going to take the information that we get in terms of our efficiencies, the logistics of moving this stuff, find out where we can improve, what we can improve, and the things we can’t improve, and start making decisions as to whether we can make this a line of business,” he said.
It will also depend on whether Fairbanks Natural Gas LLC, a company providing Cook Inlet natural gas to about 1,000 customers in Fairbanks, will want to use the railroad as a shipper.
Expansion of natural gas use is a longtime hope of Fairbanks residents looking for a cheaper alternative to fuel oil to heat homes.
Natural gas also is part of a state plan to clean up some of the worst winter air pollution in the country. The Fairbanks area regularly exceeds allowable federal fine particulate levels. Microscopic particulate inhaled deep in the lungs is linked to heart attacks, decreased lung function and premature death in people with heart or lung diseases.
Particulate is emitted by cars and coal-fired heating systems but especially by wood stoves.
A pipeline carrying North Slope natural gas past Fairbanks for shipment to out-of-state markets has been a dream for Alaska for decades. In the absence of a pipeline, Fairbanks Natural Gas moves LNG by truck.
Alaska Railroad workers this week are offering LNG safety training to emergency responders in Anchorage, Wasilla and Fairbanks.
“LNG is considered to be a lower risk hazardous material than other petroleum products that are moved,” Sullivan said.
Planning and applying for a Federal Rail Administration permit was a task that covered several years, Sullivan said.
The FRA in October issued a two-year permit that runs through December 2017. It authorizes three roundtrip trains per week. Each could carry 12 tanks per train. The containers can carry up to 7,024 gallons or 27,546 pounds of LNG chilled to minus 260 degrees.
