LAPSE:2023.26083
Published Article
LAPSE:2023.26083
Thermodynamic and Economic Feasibility of Energy Recovery from Pressure Reduction Stations in Natural Gas Distribution Networks
Piero Danieli, Gianluca Carraro, Andrea Lazzaretto
March 31, 2023
A big amount of the pressure energy content in the natural gas distribution networks is wasted in throttling valves of pressure reduction stations (PRSs). Just a few energy recovery systems are currently installed in PRSs and are mostly composed of radial turboexpanders coupled with cogeneration internal combustion engines or gas-fired heaters providing the necessary preheating. This paper clarifies the reason for the scarce diffusion of energy recovery systems in PRSs and provides guidelines about the most feasible energy recovery technologies. Nine thousand PRSs are monitored and allocated into 12 classes, featuring different expansion ratios and available power. The focus is on PRSs with 1-to-20 expansion ratio and 1-to-500 kW available power. Three kinds of expanders are proposed in combination with different preheating systems based on boilers, heat pumps, or cogeneration engines. The goal is to identify, for each class, the most feasible combination by looking at the minimum payback period and maximum net present value. Results show that small size volumetric expanders with low expansion ratios and coupled with gas-fired heaters have the highest potential for large-scale deployment of energy recovery from PRSs. Moreover, the total recoverable energy using the feasible recovery systems is approximately 15% of the available energy.
Keywords
economic analysis, energy recovery, natural gas distribution network, natural gas engineering, natural gas expander
Suggested Citation
Danieli P, Carraro G, Lazzaretto A. Thermodynamic and Economic Feasibility of Energy Recovery from Pressure Reduction Stations in Natural Gas Distribution Networks. (2023). LAPSE:2023.26083
Author Affiliations
Danieli P: Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Padova, 35122 Padova, PD, Italy [ORCID]
Carraro G: Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Padova, 35122 Padova, PD, Italy
Lazzaretto A: Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Padova, 35122 Padova, PD, Italy [ORCID]
Journal Name
Energies
Volume
13
Issue
17
Article Number
E4453
Year
2020
Publication Date
2020-08-28
ISSN
1996-1073
Version Comments
Original Submission
Other Meta
PII: en13174453, Publication Type: Journal Article
Record Map
Published Article

LAPSE:2023.26083
This Record
External Link

https://doi.org/10.3390/en13174453
Publisher Version
Download
Files
[Download 1v1.pdf] (3.8 MB)
Mar 31, 2023
Main Article
License
CC BY 4.0
Meta
Record Statistics
Record Views
96
Version History
[v1] (Original Submission)
Mar 31, 2023
 
Verified by curator on
Mar 31, 2023
This Version Number
v1
Citations
Most Recent
This Version
URL Here
https://psecommunity.org/LAPSE:2023.26083
 
Record Owner
Auto Uploader for LAPSE
Links to Related Works
Directly Related to This Work
Publisher Version