Feasibility of employing solar energy in natural

gas pressure drop stations

M. Farzaneh-Gord*1, A. Arabkoohsar2, M. Rezaei3, M. Deymi-Dashtebayaz1 and
H. R. Rahbari4
Natural gas is carried through transit pipelines at high pressure (5–7 MPa) from production sites to
consuming points. In the place of consumption or crossing into a lower pressure pipeline, the pressure
of the gas must be decreased. This pressure reduction occurs in places named city gate stations
(CGS) as the gas passes through throttling valves. The gas must be heated before it enters throttle
valves to ensure that it remains above the hydrate formation zone and dew point so that no liquid or
solid phase condenses at the output temperature. Currently, in all of Iran’s CGSs, the gas is preheated
through bath type heat exchangers (known as line heater), which burn a portion of the gas for providing
heating duty to warm up the natural gas. As a low temperature heat is required for preheating the
natural gas in a CGS, a solar collector array is proposed to be utilised in the CGS in order to displace
the heating duty of the heater and to reduce the amount of fuel consumption. The proposition includes
a modified design of an in use CGS to take advantage of freely available solar heat.
Keywords: Natural gas, Natural gas pressure drop station, Line heater, Solar energy, Solar thermal storage

:
List of symbols Qgh heat transfer rate into natural gas main
: stream, kW
Ac collector area, m2 Qheater heat transfer rate produced by heater, kW
CGS city gate stations, natural gas pressure reduc- :
Qsolar heat transfer rate produced by solar system, kW
tion point
CPNG heat capacity of natural gas on constant Thyd temperature that hydrating occurs on it, uC
pressure, W kg21 K21 TNG-1 natural gas temperature before heater, uC
Cpw water heat capacity in the tank, W kg21 uC21 TNG-2 natural gas temperature after heater, uC
Di external diameter of coil, m or cm TNG-3 natural gas temperature after throttle valve, uC
Do internal diameter of coil, m or cm Tw temperature of water in the tank, uC or K
hi internal heat transfer convection coefficient Uc total heat transfer coefficient, W m22 K21
of coil, W m22 K21 a absorber plate absorbance
hNG-1 enthalpy of natural gas before heater, W kg21 DTtv temperature drop in natural gas through
hNG-2 enthalpy of natural gas after heater, W kg21 throttle valve
ho external heat transfer convection coefficient gh heater efficiency
of coil, W m22 K21 t glass transmission
Kc effective thermal conductivity of coil,
W m21 K21
Lc coil length, m or cm Introduction
LHV lowering heating value of fuel (here natural Solar thermal technologies utilise the heat from the sun
gas), kJ kg21 to offset the heating demand for many applications. The
mw mass of exist water in the tank, kg main component of any solar thermal technology is the
:
m mass flowrate, kg s21 solar collector. The device absorbs heat form solar
:
mf mass flowrate of fuel consumed by the heater, radiation and transfers this heat to a circulating fluid
kg s21 (usually water). The heat absorbed by collectors is then
:
mNG mass flowrate of natural gas, kg s21 utilised in many applications. Kalogirou1 presented a
survey of the various types of solar thermal collectors
1
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Shahrood Branch, Islamic Azad
and applications. These include solar water heating
University, Shahrood, Iran systems, solar space heating and cooling, solar refrigera-
2
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Minoodasht Branch, Islamic tion, industrial process heat, solar desalination systems,
Azad University, Minoodasht, Iran
3
Mazandaran Gas Company, Sari, Iran solar thermal power systems, solar furnaces and solar
4
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Shahrood University of Technology, chemistry applications.1
Shahrood, Iran The utilisation of solar energy for providing process
*Corresponding author, email mahmood.farzaneh@yahoo.co.uk heat in industrial applications is not common,

ß 2011 Energy Institute

Published by Maney on behalf of the Institute
Received 29 August 2010; accepted 31 January 2011
DOI 10.1179/174396711X13050315650877 Journal of the Energy Institute 2011 VOL 84 NO 3 165