Artificial gas storage tanks to be demolished
Print Edition
Three huge gas storage tanks on Jinshajiang Road in Putuo District will be demolished later this year, bringing the residents one step closer to natural gas and replace artificial gas by the end of next year.
The North Shanghai Gas Business Co Ltd told Shanghai Daily yesterday that they are applying for permission from related agencies like fire department to dismantle the steel cylindrical structures that stores artificial gas, also known as manufactured gas.
Two other tanks on Zhenbei Road will be renovated to store natural gas reserves for use in peak hours, a staff member of the gas company, surnamed Tang, said yesterday.
Shanghai has been optimizing the energy consumption structure of its residents to improve efficiency and environmental protection.
Clean energies like natural gas have a larger share in residential use, leaving manufactured gas storage tanks in surplus.
After the 26-year-old manufactured gas storage tank at Yanggao Road became the first to be demolished in 2011, Shanghai has torn down three other such facilities.
“Some tanks were or will be torn down because the current facilities of natural gas can meet the energy demand of surrounding areas. But tanks at other places may be renovated to store natural gas in the future,” Tang said.
According to Wenhui Daily, households using natural gas have reached 5.5 million by the end of last year, while the number of manufactured gas users has declined to 330,000.
Though there are still 2 million households that use liquefied gas, natural gas has already taken majority of the market share.
But some citizens are of the view that gas storage tanks should be retained in a suitable manner as a historical reminder of Shanghai’s development.
The first gas storage tank was built in Shanghai in 1864 with a capacity of 1,700 cubic meters and less than 100 users. Gas storage tanks were built in large scale when manufactured gas was promoted in the 1970s when there were very few high-rise buildings.
At its peak, Shanghai had 22 gas tanks with heights between 50 and 60 meters and a diameter of 50 meters.
Manufactured gas has played an important role in people’s lives, turning them away from smoky coal brick stoves, which were the traditional cooking methods in Shanghai before 1970s.
Coal brick stove
“In 1960s, the first thing my family did every morning was to light the coal brick stove,” said a citizen named Xiang Minbao. “It was really troublesome. We had to prepare paper scraps and firewood, and wave the fan for about half an hour to make sure the stove worked.”
For most Shanghai residents, it used to be a typical morning when almost all households would light coal stoves with smoke swirling around.
Manufactured gas came into prominence in the 1970s with daily consumption of its 2.37 million users surpassing 8 million cubic meters at its peak in the 1990s.
But by the end of last century, natural gas posed a challenge to manufactured gas. Environmental experts regarded natural gas as high-quality clean energy which did not produce sulfur dioxide or dust and reduced carbon dioxide emissions by 60 percent.
Nitrogen oxides emissions also dropped 50 percent compared with manufactured gas.
Natural gas was also preferred for its high combustion efficiency, with its calorific value 1.5 times higher than manufactured gas.
The supply of natural gas in Shanghai increased to 6.81 billion cubic meters last year from 110 million in 1999.
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