Research Profiles

Air pollution, which causes over seven million deaths per year, is the most significant and specifically related to health impacts. Nearly 90 percent of the urban population worldwide was vulnerable to pollution not meeting the World Health Organization guidelines for air quality. Many atmospheric carbon oxides, nitrogen oxides, and particulate matter emitting sources, such as inefficient energy and polluting transportation, directly impact health. Natural gas maritime transport from various parts of the world (carbon supplied to consuming areas) has become more critical. Natural gas liquefaction offers a cleaner and more efficient transportation option and also increases its storage capacity. It is expected that natural gas has reduced the human health impact compared with other traditional fuels consumed. This research establishes a life cycle assessment model of air emission and social human health impact related to LNG maritime transport to investigate the impact of each type of fuel used for the numerous maritime carriers. In order to build a model for air emissions and social human health impact assessments based on hypotheses on various unknown criteria, a calculation model is used. The results revealed Conventional-2 fuel type as the lowest human health impact for annual mode calculations, followed by Conventional-1, Q-Max, and finally Q-Flex. The analysis method for the per year demonstrated discrepancies in the relative human health impact due to the variation of the annual LNG demand by each destination and not only per the trip needs. The results show the importance of using a relatively cleaner fuel type like Conventional-2 in reducing the health impact of LNG maritime transportation. Moreover, it shows how the difference in the air emissions as well as the human health impact based on the destination’s location and annual LNG demand.

Global interest in LNG products and supply chains is growing, and demand continues to rise. As a clean energy source, LNG can nevertheless emit air pollutants, albeit at a lower level than transitional energy sources. An LNG plant capable of producing up to 126 MMTA was success-fully developed and simulated in this study. A hybrid life cycle assessment model was developed to examine the social human health impact of the LNG supply chain's environmental air emission formation. The Multiregional Input-Output (MRIO) database, the Aspen HYSYS model, and the LNG Maritime Transportation Emission Quantification Tool are the key sources of information for this extensive novel study. The research's findings began by grouping environmental emissions sources according to the participation of each stage in the supply chain. The MDEA Sweetening plant, LNG loading (export terminal), and LNG transportation stages were discovered to have the maximum air emissions. The midpoint air emissions data estimated each stage's CO2-eq, NOx-eq, and PM2.5-eq emissions per unit LNG generated. According to the midpoint analysis results, the LNG loading terminal has the most considerable normalized CO2-eq and NOx-eq emission con-tribution across all LNG supply chain stages. Furthermore, the most incredible intensity value for normalized PM2.5-eq was recorded in the SRU and TGTU units. Following the midpoint results, the social human health impact findings were calculated using ReCiPe 2016 characterization variables to quantify the daily loss of life associated with the LNG process chain. SRU and TGT units have the most significant social human health impact, followed by LNG loading (export terminal) with about 7,409.0 and 1,203.9 (DALY / million Ton LNG produced annually), respectively. Natural gas extraction and NGL recovery and fractionation units are the lowest for social human health consequences.