Abstract
Before being supplied to the transportation pipeline, natural gas must be cleaned from various impurities, with the specified parameters at the inlet to the transportation system — such as composition, mass or volumetric flow rate, pressure, and temperature — to be ensured. To this effect, a gas preparation system is designed, which includes various heat exchange units, cleaning and separation devices, as well as a turboexpander unit (TEU) consisting of a turbine and a coupled compressor.During the operation of this system, the gas parameters are constantly changing due to variations in external and operating conditions, such as the parameters of the ambient air, the gas pressure and flow rate at the wellhead, the composition and the amount of impurities.The gas preparation system therefore almost never operates in the designed conditions, which means that its proper operation requires the knowledge of its characteristics, i.e., the dependencies of the system parameters on external and operational conditions. Besides, the knowledge of the characteristics enables to control the system by affecting its various parameters.The characteristics of the gas preparation system are determined by the characteristics of all of its elements, including the characteristics of the TEU as one of its most important elements.The characteristics of the TEU enable to assess the impact of external conditions on its operating conditions and thus optimize the system's operation during its design stage. They also allow the determination of the parameters for regulating the TEU conditions.A methodology for calculating the TEU characteristics is proposed, an example of the calculation is provided, and analysis of the obtained results is presented.
Published Version
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