Systems-Level Analysis of Waste Heat Recovery Opportunities from Natural Gas Compressor Stations in the United States

The Unites States natural gas (NG) pipeline system is a complex network that relies on about 1800 compressor stations (CS) to maintain the pressure in the network. Concurrently, about two-thirds of the fuel energy to CS is lost as waste heat mainly in the form of hot flue gases. However, to date, there has been little emphasis on quantifying available waste heat at NG CS. We determine the quantity, quality, and spatial distribution of waste heat available at existing NG CS using thermodynamic analysis, installed capacity of NG CS reported by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), and load factors. The uncertainty in operating hours of CS is addressed by the concept of load factor and statistical Monte Carlo simulations. The analysis indicates that an average of 610 TJ/day is available in the U.S. at temperatures above 645 K. Recovering available waste heat from NG CS has the potential to avoid emissions of 47 000 metric tonnes of CO2-equiv/day at the national level. The large quantity of availa...

[1]  Antonio Valero,et al.  CGAM Problem: Definition and Conventional Solution , 1994 .

[2]  Rainer Kurz,et al.  Series of Parallel Arrangement in a Two-Unit Compressor Station , 2002 .

[3]  Andrew S. Martinez.  Simulation of Dynamic Operation and Coke-Based Degradation for SOFC-GT-Powered Medium and Long Haul Locomotives , 2011 .

[4]  Daniel Sutter,et al.  The thermal spectrum of low-temperature energy use in the United States , 2011 .

[5]  M. Toledo Velázquez,et al.  Evaluation of the Gas Turbine Inlet Temperature with Relation to the Excess Air , 2011 .

[6]  H. Ho,et al.  Modelling of simple hybrid solid oxide fuel cell and gas turbine power plant , 2002 .

[7]  A. E. Jansen,et al.  Development and pilot testing of full-scale membrane distillation modules for deployment of waste heat , 2013 .

[8]  Michael Herty,et al.  Towards a space mapping approach to dynamic compressor optimization of gas networks , 2011 .

[9]  M. Toledo-Velázquez,et al.  Methodology to determine the appropriate amount of excess air for the operation of a gas turbine in a wet environment , 2010 .

[10]  M. Steinbach.  On PDE solution in transient optimization of gas networks , 2007 .

[11]  Masashi Katsuki,et al.  Advanced low NOx combustion using highly preheated air , 2001 .

[12]  Casey Quinn,et al.  Methane Emissions from the Natural Gas Transmission and Storage System in the United States. , 2015, Environmental science & technology.

[13]  Kozo Saito,et al.  Performance of secondary aluminum melting: Thermodynamic analysis and plant-site experiments , 2006 .

[15]  Marc A. Rosen,et al.  Energy- and exergy-based comparison of coal-fired and nuclear steam power plants , 2001 .

[16]  L. Bell.  Cooling, Heating, Generating Power, and Recovering Waste Heat with Thermoelectric Systems , 2008, Science.

[17]  Meagan S Mauter,et al.  Quantity, Quality, and Availability of Waste Heat from United States Thermal Power Generation. , 2015, Environmental science & technology.

[18]  Srinivas Garimella,et al.  Energy harvesting, reuse and upgrade to reduce primary energy usage in the USA , 2011 .

[19]  Francesco Calise,et al.  Simulation and exergy analysis of a hybrid Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC)–Gas Turbine System , 2006 .

[20]  N. Altman.  An Introduction to Kernel and Nearest-Neighbor Nonparametric Regression , 1992 .

[21]  Robert J. Braun,et al.  Evaluation of system configurations for solid oxide fuel cell-based micro-combined heat and power generators in residential applications , 2006 .

[22]  Menachem Elimelech,et al.  A novel ammonia-carbon dioxide forward (direct) osmosis desalination process , 2005 .

[23]  T. Nemecek,et al.  Overview and methodology: Data quality guideline for the ecoinvent database version 3 , 2013 .

[24]  Daniel Zimmerle,et al.  Methane emissions from natural gas compressor stations in the transmission and storage sector: measurements and comparisons with the EPA greenhouse gas reporting program protocol. , 2015, Environmental science & technology.

[25]  Joseph Khedari,et al.  The Potential of Waste Heat Thermoelectric Power Generation From Diesel Cycle and Gas Turbine Cogeneration Plants , 2001 .

[26]  E. Andrew Boyd,et al.  A Reduction Technique for Natural Gas Transmission Network Optimization Problems , 2002, Ann. Oper. Res..

[27]  Terry J. Hendricks,et al.  Engineering Scoping Study of Thermoelectric Generator Systems for Industrial Waste Heat Recovery , 2006 .

[28]  Toshiaki Hasegawa,et al.  Development of Advanced Industrial Furnace Using Highly Preheated Combustion Air , 2002 .

[29]  Robin Smith,et al.  Process integration of low grade heat in process industry with district heating networks , 2012 .

[30]  Elias K. Stefanakos,et al.  A new combined power and desalination system driven by low grade heat for concentrated brine , 2012 .

[31]  R. Larson,et al.  Optimization of natural-gas pipeline systems via dynamic programming , 1968 .

[32]  Yi Jiang,et al.  Industrial waste heat utilization for low temperature district heating , 2013 .

[33]  Daniel Zimmerle,et al.  Measurements of methane emissions from natural gas gathering facilities and processing plants: measurement methods , 2014 .

[34]  Alexander Martin,et al.  Mixed Integer Models for the Stationary Case of Gas Network Optimization , 2006, Math. Program..

[35]  Nesrin Ozalp,et al.  Utilization of Heat, Power, and Recovered Waste Heat for Industrial Processes in the U.S. Chemical Industry , 2009 .

[36]  Ibrahim Dincer,et al.  Exergoeconomic analysis of power plants operating on various fuels , 2003 .

[37]  Robert E. Eppich.  Energy use in selected metal casting facilities - 2003 , 2004 .

[38]  Yong Li,et al.  Experimental study on thermal efficiency and emission characteristics of a lean burn hydrogen enriched natural gas engine , 2007 .

[39]  Menachem Elimelech,et al.  Energy requirements of ammonia-carbon dioxide forward osmosis desalination , 2007 .

[40]  J. F. Schifo,et al.  Theoretical/best practice energy use in metalcasting operations , 2004 .

[41]  Christine W. Chan,et al.  Applications of artificial intelligence for optimization of compressor scheduling , 2006, Eng. Appl. Artif. Intell..

[42]  Meagan S. Mauter,et al.  Water Treatment Capacity of Forward-Osmosis Systems Utilizing Power-Plant Waste Heat , 2015 .

[43]  Xiaolong Gou,et al.  Modeling, experimental study and optimization on low-temperature waste heat thermoelectric generator system , 2010 .

[44]  Suming Wu,et al.  Model relaxations for the fuel cost minimization of steady-state gas pipeline networks , 2000 .

[45]  Maogang He,et al.  A combined thermodynamic cycle used for waste heat recovery of internal combustion engine , 2011 .

[46]  Ron Zevenhoven,et al.  The relative contribution of waste heat from power plants to global warming , 2011 .

[47]  B. Reddy,et al.  Second law analysis of a waste heat recovery based power generation system , 2007 .

[48]  Ernst Worrell,et al.  Energy efficiency and carbon dioxide emissions reduction opportunities in the U.S. cement industry , 1999 .