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What Elon Musk and SpaceX Mean for Investing in LNG (liquefied natural gas) - Starships and Stocks - YouTube
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hello welcome back just聽
gonna take a sip [slurping]
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today we are talking about what Elon Musk and聽
SpaceX have to do with the natural gas industry.聽聽
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I love it when industries intersect like this it聽
just keeps things interesting. Last week on May聽聽
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5th, Starship number 15 or SN15, successfully聽
completed SpaceX's fifth high altitude flight聽聽
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test of a Starship over here in Texas. The SpaceX聽
spacecraft and super heavy rocket are collectively聽聽
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referred to as a "Starship" and they are designed聽
as a fully reusable transportation system to carry聽聽
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crew and cargo to earth orbit, to the moon, to聽
mars and beyond. Starship will be able to carry聽聽
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more than 100 metric tons and will be the world's聽
most powerful launch vehicle ever developed. And聽聽
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thus concludes the SpaceX PR portion of this聽
video. What caught my attention was in the聽聽
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latest press release is that the Raptor engines聽
that propel the starship use supercooled liquid聽聽
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methane and liquid oxygen. Liquid methane聽
is also known as LNG or liquefied natural聽聽
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gas. The raptor engine was one of the first to be聽
powered with liquid methane and is designed to be聽聽
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used about a thousand times. Now this is not any聽
breaking news - the first raptor engine flew in聽聽
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2019. But the fact that the test flights are still聽
happening two years in is a good sign that it is a聽聽
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viable technology. Now I know a lot of you work聽
at the energy sector, you invest in natural gas聽聽
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as a commodity or in LNG companies and I thought聽
this would be an interesting development to watch.聽聽
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Currently there are dozens of LNG facilities聽
around the world that process methane and cool聽聽
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it to liquid temperatures to make it easier聽
to export and ship around the world. Most聽聽
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of the time the natural gas is only stored at聽
super cooled liquid temperatures for transport聽聽
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and then as soon as it reaches its destination聽
it is re-gasified and put into a pipeline to聽聽
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use for things like power generation, ground聽
transport, heating and coolin-... Heating and聽聽
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cooling?! Heating and cooking! While natural gas聽
is still a hydrocarbon, when refined and burned聽聽
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it produces 25% to 30% less carbon dioxide per聽
joule than oil and 40% to 45% less than coal. It聽聽
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is often referred to as a "bridging" energy source聽
between conventional fossil fuels and renewables.
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The main benefit of using methane is that it is聽
higher performance than other fuels, meaning the聽聽
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rocket can be smaller. It is lower cost too which聽
means the total cost of launching can be bought聽聽
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down. Methane also prevents buildup of deposits in聽
the engine compared to other fuels like kerosene,聽聽
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this is a process known as coking. And according聽
to Japan's Aerospace Exploration Agency, it is聽聽
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less evaporable and better suited for vehicles聽
that travel to space for prolonged periods of time聽聽
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such as inter-orbit transporters and planetary聽
probes. Next the possibility of explosion is lower聽聽
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and it is therefore safer and LNG is high density聽
so the propellant tank can be smaller which it's聽聽
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suitable for large size launch vehicles such as聽
a reusable transporter. According to industry聽聽
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analyst SpaceWorks, methane may also be available聽
on the surface of mars and if we could extract聽聽
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methane from the Martian surface and potentially聽
the lunar surface we wouldn't need to transport聽聽
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fuel or as much fuel into space. This process is聽
known as in-situ resource utilization or ISRU.聽聽
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So as space travel becomes more prevalent are聽
we going to see a new market for LNG? Will this聽聽
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change where we build our LNG facilities? And what聽
does this mean for other modes of transportation聽聽
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as we move towards more sustainable options? Could聽
we see LNG used for air travel? For airlines,聽聽
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fuel represents about 35% of the operating聽
costs and if you compare this to SpaceX,聽聽
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it accounts for less than one percent. It is聽
technically possible to use LNG for aircraft聽聽
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but it would require a complete redesign聽
of airplanes and no one has really solved聽聽
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the challenges around a cryogenic fueling聽
system yet. But the cost saving is there so聽聽
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it's something that we'll just have to watch and聽
see. So that is all for this week! As always let聽聽
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me know your thoughts in the comments below and聽
we will see you in the next video. Okay byyyeeee
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