Terminal Marítimo GNL Talcahuano is firmly committed to the environment and to sustainable development in the Biobío Region. For this reason, our company has produced a project with high environmental standards, taking into account the health and safety of the population, so as to deliver natural gas safely to our region, promoting the use of a cleaner and more efficient fuel with lower levels of CO2, NOx, SOx and particulate material.
Terminal Marítimo GNL Talcahuano has incorporated cutting-edge technology in order to avoid environmental impact on the surrounding areas. In effect, our project does not involve the use of sea water for LNG regasification into natural gas, since it will use a fresh water-glycol regasification system heated with hot water from a natural gas boiler, without the need to take any water from the sea. In this system, only 24m3 of water will be used, this quantity to be replaced only once every 5 years.
Another interesting aspect of this project is the recovery of natural gas from the boil-off gas (BOG) system that will be used to fuel the regasification and storage platform at the LNG terminal, thus avoiding the release of methane gas into the atmosphere, as happens in other projects, as well as providing fuel for the processes on board the unit.
In addition, the project includes the use of a subsea flexible gas pipeline with many environmental advantages, among which we highlight that it doesn’t suffer a corrosion degradation, it can be lay safely without unnecessary excavations or disturbance of the seabed; being really friendly with the Bay of Concepción environment. Also, being highly resistant to fatigue, the flexible pipe absorbs vibrations and seismic movements and the leakage problems during earthquakes or violent storms are mitigated.
Being this flexible pipe is totally manufactured and tested at the manufacturing plant, it does not need welding while is installed, thereby reducing gas emissions during installation. Since the flexible pipe comes in reels, during the installation process, the use of specialized vessel is a must; hence, a works site does not has to be set up on land.