China boasts a prosperous Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) market. In 2018 alone, 280 billion cubic meters of natural gas has been consumed. With China’s coal-to-gas conversion policy and a fast-growing economy, we can expect an increasing demand for LNG in the years ahead. To better serve the enormous Chinese market, ENN Energy Holdings Limited, one of the largest energy service providers in China, is turning to VeChainThor Blockchain for optimized quality control and supply-chain management. Nationwide, ENN is operating 187 project cities that cover a connectible urban population of 94.57 million in China.

The composition, calorific value, and gasification rate of LNG vary depending on sources and processing, given that, to ensure quality and safety, it’s essential to keep track of the relevant data in a timely and accurate manner. For the same reason, gas pressure changes during transportation and the time of arrival shall also be recorded. Traditionally, the data are recorded by different personnel on the supply chain and transmitted through various communication tools manually, which is time-consuming and vulnerable to human errors.

That’s why the VeChainThor Blockchain and IoT technology has been brought into play. In August 2018, at the China International Gas & Heating Technology and Equipment Exhibition 2018, ENN, VeChain, a leading enterprise-level public blockchain platform, and Shanghai Gas, a state-owned company that accounts for more than 90% of Shanghai’s total gas market, signed a strategic cooperation agreement to develop a VeChainThor Blockchain-based LNG solution.

In this partnership, ENN is responsible for the design and system construction of LNG-related business scenarios. VeChain is responsible for providing blockchain core technology and the necessary software services. Shanghai Gas is the overseeing party who ensures the solution expands across the national LNG market.

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This solution was first adopted by Zhoushan LNG Storage and Distribution Centre during the first phase prior to a full rollout.

In this case, VeChainThor Blockchain is applied in combination with IoT devices to facilitate supply-chain management. Upon arrival, the gas will be injected into different tanks, from there each tank of gas is assigned a tank number, associating with the relevant data stored on the blockchain, such as clarification value, sources, and the like. When trucked out to retailers, logistics information and the LNG quality reports will be uploaded to the blockchain as well. Through this process, the data of LNG from carrier to local distributors can be cross-validated and verified on the blockchain.

In addition, the introduction of the VeChainThor Blockchain is making it possible to extend supply-chain finance to warehouse receipt pledge, quality traceability, and safety assurance and more. With the authentic and encrypted data available for checking,  supply-chain finance service providers are now provided with an enhanced tool for information query and verification.

Moving forward, VeChain will work even more closely with ENN to promote the model to other LNG projects and various business scenarios, generating value for both the real economy and the end consumers.

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