Wyoming liquefied natural gas storage facility release

Tom has surveillance video; cryogenic vapor cloud spreads ~500 yards, finds ignition source, flame rushes back to source. Used as evidence that ignition is never the limiting factor in a large gas release.

If it occurs when the guy is doing the backhoe, yeah, you get the spark. But this was a fatigue crack. When you've got gas coming out at 900 psi on a 42-inch diameter pipe, it'll find its own ignition source. Could be 50 yards away, could be 450 yards away as it spreads out. I've got a nice video of a tank — a production and storage facility out in Wyoming — and you can see the release on the surveillance video. This was liquefied natural gas, and you can see this white cloud of cryogenic liquid and gas spreading out, and you can see it go off the screen. About four or five seconds later you can see the flame rushing back, because it went off about 500 yards away until it found its own ignition source, and the flame comes right back to the source. Surprise, surprise. Finding an ignition source is not a hard thing for a big catastrophic release.

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