interesting article that Bakken crude may have too much liquid propane when shipped. Well head producers supposed to remove most ( unknown % remaining ) A very telling statement in article is that the shaking of rail cars can cause propane to gas out of liquid. Maybe if any derailment fire non damaged cars from same shipper / provider should be tested for propane ?
http://insideclimatenews.org/news/20140305/oil-train-made-riskier-producers-deliberately-leaving-volatile-gases-crude-0
The volatility and consistency of Balkin Crude is reportedly unstable and varies from well to well and time to time. The LaMagentic wreck brought this information out adding that the oil companies had not informed the railroads nor emergency services-fire departments of this danger.
I am getting a kick out of the present political/government proclamations and rants in a show of shows since most of what has been said this week for instance, has been said for the past year. Oil companies and their drilling affiliates as well as their transportation officers have not been forthcoming with the information needed for railroads to make decisions nor first responders to be prepared. Plus none of the GIGs (Government Issued Garbage) tells the truth nor whole story. They publically aim their remarks to the railroads not revealing that the railroads do not own the cars, that car builders and leasing companies do own the cars and supply to the shipper oil companies what they request or require. Builders and leasing companies cannot know nor build cars unless they know what is needed to meet the product. In other words, it all falls in the lap of the oil and gas companies and their drillers to know the dangers of what they have to ship and the safety of the vehicles in which they are shipped and see that the builders build and supply the cars to the shippers before the shippers contract with the railroads. Somebody here is not being a conscientious, responsible, and honest citizen.
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As far as the shaking-tank-car theory goes:
1. The fireballs at the BNSF Castleton, ND wreck happened as the crude train was just starting on its journey, rather than after a thousand miles of shaking.
2. If more gas evolved as the car went shaking along, vapor pressure would build up, and would either be released by a pressure relief valve, or we might have exploding tank cars just as they roll down the track.
Also, in the Canadian report on Lac Megantic, sample analysis showed high flammability, but the density is not particularly low as you might expect for high gas content. The also stated there is no standard sample test for determining gas content of crude.
Your linked article is in a journal that is obviously biased toward environmentalism, so I hope to hear from a more neutral source.
It was stated in the OP linked article:
Producers might be tempted to leave in some of the natural gas liquids because there aren't enough gas-processing facilities or pipelines in the Bakken to handle all the methane, ethane, propane and butane that is suspended in the crude when it comes out of the ground...
Energy companies have been scrambling to install the infrastructure they need to support the boom. But they face awkward economics. Constructing gas plants and pipelines is expensive and involves a lengthy permitting process...
The pipelines needed are not the type long distance pipelines that would need lengthy environmental review or financial arrangements. They are short gathering lines to in-field gas plants, which have appropriately quicker environmental review. The gas plants would separate out the propane and butane, which would then travel on their own type of rail car.
Edit; P.S.: Of course the major product of the gas plants is methane (aka. natural gas). The most efficient transport to market is gas pipeline, which would require a lengthy financing and permitting process. An interim solution would be the install a refrigeration unit at the gas plant to convert to LNG and transport by rail tank car. Perhaps an electric company would use the gas right there for a power plant. An options to a gas plant worth exploring might be re-injecting the raw gas back into the oil/gas reservoir as is done elsewhere.
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