Safety of liquefied natural gas bunkering operations and facilities

This chapter addresses the maritime industry’s transition toward the use of more environmentally sustainable maritime fuel, which is liquefied natural gas (LNG). The transition is ongoing and represents a major change in the technology, logistic supply chain, and port operations, where the refueling of the ships (bunkering procedure) is usually carried out. The chapter builds on the work completed by the EU Adrion projects Super-LNG and Super-LNG PLUS, which aimed to bridge the technical, safety, and legislative gaps that the maritime industry was facing to make such a transition. The chapter summarizes the reviews of the available LNG bunkering guidelines and regulations, the process safety risk analysis of the bunkering operations in port areas, and the remaining challenges in terms of specific hazardous phenomena, epistemic uncertainties, and directions on how to overcome them in the future. The chapter also reports on the LNG bunkering safety issues, and training arrangements, for example, physical events or online platforms for the stakeholders in the port, logistics, or organizations of the authorities.