Improvement of Overall Efficiency in the Gas Transmission Networks: Employing Energy Recovery Systems

This study mainly focuses on enhancing the overall efficiency of gas transmission networks. The authors developed a model with detailed characteristics of compressor and pressure reduction stations. Following this, they suggested three different systems with gas turbine including: organic rankine cycle (ORC), air bottoming cycle (ABC), and ABC along with steam injection (SIA-BC). In addition, use of turbo-expander as a good alternative to the expansion valves was also studied. Performance of proposed cycles was investigated on a real case study for natural gas transmission network. Results showed that the highest efficiency would be obtained with ORC system where n-pentane was used as the working fluid and turbo-expander was considered in pressure reduction stations Moreover, the efficiency improvement was estimated to be 22% averagely in comparison with the existing network where the flow was in the span of 50 up to 90 MMSCMD.