Shipping costs tanker

Figure 2-3 Chemical ocean Tanker shipping costs.

If there were to be a dramatic increase in U.S. methanol use, most of the supply would have to be imported. Biomass-generated methanol might be economical in the long term, but there is a significant amount of so-called stranded natural gas in areas around the globe that could be converted to methanol and shipped by tanker at relatively low cost. There... 

The residue from crude distillation in North America is usually processed to an asphalt product as much as possible, since as a component of residual fuel oils it generally fetches a lower price than as asphalt itself. The residual fuel oil market is quite competitive since ships and tankers can choose to load at centers, which offer the lowest cost fuels. Also the price of the heavier grades of bunker fuel used to supply power stations has to be comparable to coal to be competitive. 

Hazardous Materials Transport According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, there are approximately 300 million hazardous material shipments of more than 3.1 billion metric tons annually in the U.S. bulk transport over land including shipping by tanker truck and rail car and by special containers on vehicles. The total annual direct cost of corrosion for this sector is more than 0.9 billion that includes cost of transporting vehicles ( 0.4 billion) and of specialized packaging ( 0.5 billion) as well as costs associated with accidental releases and corrosion-related transportation incidents. 

The shipping cost is much lower than that of natural gas. It has calorific (kcal N m" ) about one thousand times lower than oil, which not only cause high costs for transportation, but also requires specific assets (pipelines or LNG tankers) for their exploitation. 

The leading states in milk production in decreasing order are Wisconsin, Minnesota, New York, California, and Pennsylvania. These states produce - 45% of the U.S. milk supply. Less than 5% of the total production is used on farms and the remainder is sold for commercial purposes. Whereas milk and cream were formerly shipped in 19-, 30-, or 38-L cans from the farm to the plant, in the 1990s most commercial production, particularly for fluid milk, is moved in bulk from the cows to refrigerated farm tanks to insulated bulk tmck tankers and to the manufacturing plant. The investment in equipment and the cost of hired labor are associated with large, capital-intensive production centers. 

Shipping. Bulk milk is hauled to the processing plant in insulated tanks using tmck tanks or trader tankers. The milk is transferred from the bulk tank to the tanker with a positive or centrifugal-type pump. For routes of some distance, pick-up every other day reduces handling costs. 

The largest pipeline transport of gas, by far, is the movement of methane (natural gas). Natural gas can be Hquefted, but it is not pipelined in Hquid form because of cost and safety considerations. For overseas transport, it is shipped as Hquefted natural gas (LNG) in insulated tankers, unloaded at special unloading faciHties, vaporized, and then transported over land in pipelines as a gas. 

This would reduce the cost of inventory space, management, and insurance (it would also result in customers receiving fresher products where this is a factor). Furthermore, in applications where certificates of analysis are required prior to shipping or acceptance, time saved may translate into material holding and/or labor savings (e. g., for truck driver s or tanker crew s idle time awaiting authorization to depart). 

A tanker uses about 1% of its content as fuel on a round trip. This is a major part of the cost. The propulsion system has an efficiency of perhaps 40%. The propulsion has to overcome the drag forces on the ship. 

Many chemicals are liquefied by pressure and transported in tankers similar to the LPG shipping fleet. Transport cost is therefore similar to that of LPG or ammonia, which are transported in either pressurised or refrigerated vessels with eosts intermediate between liquids and specialised LNG carriers. LPG shipping eosts are seasonal and dependent on the business cycle. Typieal eosts for the spot carriage eost of LPG cargoes are illustrated in Figure 5.10 for three sizes of carrier. 

All petroleum shipping agencies are covered by some form of insurance that allows spill operations to be conducted under cost recovery. Insurance firms, sometimes also called indemnity clubs, have experts who monitor spill control operations to ensure that cleanup is conducted cost-effectively. International agreements are in place to ensure that tanker owners are covered by insurance and that certain minimum standards for oil spill cleanup are maintained. 

The cost of energy varies quite a bit from plant to plant. In some locations, energy sources are plentiful and inexpensive. For example, in Saudi Arabia, gas coming from an oil well is sometimes simply flared (burned). In other locations, fuel is quite expensive because it must be transported long distances. For example, in Japan, some of the natural gas is shipped in from Indonesia on liquefied natural gas (LNG) tankers, which are very expensive. Therefore, energy costs depend on location. The recent drastic drop in namral gas prices in the United States due to increased production from Marcellus shale has lowered (temporarily at least) energy costs. 

Compared with chemical methanol, the cost of shipping fuel methanol by sea should be significantly lower for two reasons. The first is that the exceptionally hi purity required of chemical methanol necessitates costfy delays while tankers are cleaned and inspected, and further expenses are associated with provision of dedicated tankers, analyses, and insurance. All these can be largely avoided since the fuel methanol specification allows considerably more latitude in impurity content. Second, because fixel methanol will be delivered in bulk to relatively few customers, supertankers can be used there is no reason that methanol should cost more per gallon to ship than any other liquid shipped in comparable volumes. Thus the ultimate cost of shipping methanol should be the same as crude oil, per gallon. 

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