TECHNO-ECONOMIC EVALUATION OF PIPELINE COMPRESSION SYSTEM: GAS COMPRESSOR OPERATION EVALUATION ON NATURAL GAS PIPELINE NETWORK-PART 2

This paper presents the evaluation of the proposed 4,180km Trans-Saharan Gas Pipeline (TSGP), which is part 2 of this paper. The main aim of this paper was to evaluate the pipeline outlet pressure since a fixed inlet pressure was given and to authenticate the correlation between the performance parameters of gas compressor and pipeline. The investigation further looked into the effect of varying gas temperature with their corresponding pipeline exit pressure on the rate of throughput delivery at constant pipe diameter and how these parameters relate together on the overall performance of the pipeline network and gas compressor (centrifugal compressor). The paper also investigated the effect of different gas temperatures on the polytropic head and gas compressor power. The model was developed in MATLAB, and the result shows that an increase in pipe exit pressure at a particular time of day results to a corresponding increase in the amount of gas flow. The result further revealed that for every 1% increase in pipe exit pressure resulted in a 1.8% increase in the volume of the gas flow in the pipeline. Again, the further result shows that increase in gas temperature results to a corresponding decrease in both pipe exit pressure and the volume of gas to be transported which significantly shows that gas temperature has much effects on the gas flow in the pipeline system. Again, the result on the isothermal and non-isothermal performance of the pipe shows that one can predict an economic pipe diameter suitable for a corresponding flow at any desired pipe exit pressure and gas temperature. Finally, the newly developed gas compressor map to monitor the performance of the gas compressor on the pipeline compression system is presented with three operating scenarios. The proposed approach and result in this paper will help pipeline investors to evaluate the real operational condition of a natural gas pipeline from a given data taking into account the potential impact of pipe exit pressure and time-based gas temperature in pipeline network and gas compressor operation.