Optimization of fuel consumption in natural gas city gate station based on gas hydrate temperature (Case study: Abbas Abad station)

A new approach has been presented for optimization of fuel consumption in the natural gas city gate station. In the city gate station, the temperature drops because of pressure drop has been occurred. In this case, the gas temperature may be reached to natural gas hydrates' temperature and therefore natural gas pipelines are blocked. To avoid this condition, natural gas is preheated. Heating of natural gas should be in the range to avoid the gas hydrated temperature as well as, if possible, lower fuel consumption. For this purpose, the minimum possible temperature regulator output has been defined. The minimum temperature is based on gas hydrate temperature and has been calculated by applying fundamental thermodynamic equations and the equation of state. For validation of proposed method, the results have been compared to the measured temperature of Abbas Abad CGS. The validation shows that the proposed method has reduced fuel consumption by about 35%. The results show the price of reduced fuel consumption and carbon tax has been dropped in a year, also producing carbon dioxide because of incomplete combustion is significantly reduced.