UTILITIES: Liquid Gas

One of the chief headaches of the natural gas industry is the problem of balancing summer & winter load. Enough natural gas to heat a city’s homes is far too much to brew its summer tea. Thus most pipe lines from the gas fields have either too much capacity for most efficient operations, or too little.

Cleveland’s East Ohio Gas Co., subsidiary of Standard Oil Co. (N. J.), has too little. From Ohio and West Virginia fields it can pipe no more than 200,000,000cubic feet a day, which has meant a shortage in many a cold winter. Unwilling to spend several million dollars for a new pipe line, East Ohio has also discarded plans for storage tanks, because 150,000,000 cubic feet of needed reserve would fill 30 huge tanks, be an intolerable fire hazard.

Last week East Ohio extricated itself from the dilemma. Proudly announced by President Charles Eugene Gallagher was a scheme that got the storage problem down to three dinky (57-foot) spherical tanks, the expense down to $1,000,000, the fire hazard to zero. The scheme: liquefaction. Against next winter’s peak demand. East Ohio will next fall compress natural gas under 600 pounds of pressure, liquefy it by cooling at 250° F. below zero, pour it into insulated sphericals. In the three tanks, Utilitarian Gallagher will have the liquid equivalent of 150,000,000 cubic feet, compressed to 1/600 its gaseous volume. Heated by steam, the liquid will again vaporize and go out through East Ohio’s mains next winter.