Performance enhancement of water bath heater at natural gas city gate station using twisted tubes

Natural gas is transported from producing regions to consumption regions by using transmission pipelines at high pressures. At consumption regions, the pressure of natural gas is reduced in city gate stations(CGSs). Before the pressure reduction process, the temperature of natural gas is increased usually by using a water bath heater,which burns natural gas as fuel, to protect against freezing of natural gas. These types of heat exchangers have a low efficiency and consume a lot of fuel to generate the required heat. In the current study, the twisted configuration of the heating coil is proposed and investigated to enhance the heat transfer through a water bath heater with a nominal capacity of 1000 m^3·h^-1. Firstly, the implementation procedure is validated with data collected from the CGS of Qaleh-Jiq(located in Golestan province of Iran). A very good agreement is achieved between the obtained results and the real data. Then, three different twist ratios are considered to examine the twisting effects. The proposed technique is evaluated in the terms of velocity, temperature, and pressure variations, and the results are compared with the conventional case, i.e. straight configuration. It is found that both the heat transfer rate and the pressure drop augment as the twist ratio is raised. Finally, it is concluded that the twisted tubes can reduce the length of the gas coil by about 12.5% for the model with low twist ratio, 18.75% for the model with medium twist ratio, and 25% for the model with high twist ratio as compared to the straight configuration.

Two-stage robust power cost minimization in a natural gas compressor station

Optimal operation of a compressor station is important since it accounts for 25%to 50%of a company’s total operating budget.In short-term management of a compressor station,handling demand uncertainty is important yet challenging.Previous studies either require precise information about the distribution of uncertain parameters or greatly simplify the compressor model.We build a two-stage robust optimization framework of power cost minimization in a natural gas compressor station with nonidentical compressors.In the first stage,decision variables are the ON/OFF state of each compressor and discharge pressure.The worst-case cost of the second stage is incorporated in the first stage.Firststage decision variables feasibility is discussed and proper feasibility cuts are also proposed for the first stage.We employ a piece-wise approximation and propose accelerate methods.Our numerical results highlight two advantages of robust approach when managing uncertainty in practical settings:(1)the feasibility of first-stage decision can be increased by up to 45%,and(2)the worst-case cost can be reduced by up to 25%compared with stochastic programming models.Furthermore,our numerical experiments show that the designed accelerate algorithm has time improvements of 1518.9%on average(3785.9%at maximum).

Simulation of natural gas transmission pipeline network system performance

Simulation has proven to be an effective tool for analyzing pipeline network systems （PNS） in order to determine the design and operational variables which are essential for evaluating the performance of the system. This paper discusses the use of simulation for performance analysis of transmission PNS. A simulation model was developed for determining flow and pressure variables for different configuration of PNS. The mathematical formulation for the simulation model was derived based on the principles of energy conservation, mass balance, and compressor characteristics. For the determination of the pressure and flow variables, solution procedure was developed based on iterative Newton Raphson scheme and implemented using visual C＋＋6. Evaluations of the simulation model with the existing pipeline network system showed that the model enabled to determine the operational variables with less than ten iterations. The performances of the compressor working in the pipeline network system xvhich includes energy consumption, compression ratio and discharge pressure were evaluated to meet pressure requirements ranging from 4000-5000 kPa at various speed. Results of the analyses from the simulation indicated that the model could be used for performance analysis to assist decisions regarding the design and optimal operations of transmission PNS.

Natural Gas Pressure Reduction Station Self-powered by Fire Thermoelectric Generator

Pressure reduction station(PRS)is an essential facility in natural gas transmission,which owns the function of pressure reduction,demand-supply management and flow metering.However,a large number of PRSs are located in off-grid areas and powered by battery equipment resulting in high maintenance costs.So,how to realize the energy independence of these PRSs is an urgent issue to be solved.Therefore,the natural gas fired thermoelectric generation(FTEG)module,including gas flue,cover,TEGs and heat radiators,is designed for PRS in off-grid areas.Phase change material is introduced into the FTEG module to change the operation mode from continuous mode into a periodic mode,and the prototype of the FTEG module is built to discuss the generation performance in different modes.The results show that the generation efficiency of the FTEG module is improved by 63%in periodic mode compared with the continuous mode.Then,the numerical model is established to investigate the impacts of air coefficient,cold-side heat radiator and number of TEGs on the module performance.It found that the impacts of cold-side heat radiator and the number of TEGs are more significant than those of the air coefficient.After adjusting these key parameters,an optimized FTEG module with 32 TEGs is proposed,which has an average power generation of 16.4 W and a heat collection efficiency of 84.6%.Eventually,3 to 6 modules can be connected in series to meet the power requirement of 50 W to 100 W for PRS.This high-performance FTEG module can accelerate the process of achieving the energy independence of PRS and promote its application in mesoscale equipment.

A Novel Technology for Generation of Electricity and Cold by Using Energy Potential of Transmission Line＇s High Pressure Gas

The main objective of this paper is to develop a novel technology for combined generation of electricity and cold by using energy potential of transmission line＇s high pressure gas. For this purpose, the reduction of high pressure of the gas in gas distribution station instead of useless expansion throttling process is suggested to realize by adiabatic expansion, which is executed in a gas expanding turbine. Herewith, the gas distribution station is turned into energy and cold generating plant. Simultaneous operation of energy and cold generating plant is described. A method and appropriate formulas for determination of design characteristics of considered plant are suggested. A new method for reveres order of calculation and design of the cold store based on the use of expanded cold gas as cooling agent is developed. Calculations and analysis prove high energy efficiency of suggested technology, the wide use of which will provide significant production of cheap electricity and cold and as well as reduction of fossil fuel consumption.