Abstract
Blending a fraction of hydrogen into the natural gas pipeline or urban pipe network is an efficient approach for hydrogen delivery. In this paper, the mathematical model of Hydrogen-Blended Natural Gas (HBNG) transportation is established, and the influences of hydrogen blending on hydraulic and thermal characteristics of natural gas pipeline and pipe network are numerically investigated. The impact of hydrogen blending ratio on the performance of centrifugal compressor and the operating point for joint operation of pipeline and compressor is discussed. Results illustrate that compared with natural gas without hydrogen, the hydrogen blending can reduce the pipeline friction resistance and increase the volume flow rate. However, due to the lower volumetric calorific value of HBNG, the energy flow rate actually decreases under the same transportation condition. Meanwhile, the temperature drop along the pipeline slows down due to the blended hydrogen. The performance degradation of centrifugal compressor occurs with the increasing hydrogen blending ratio, and the operating point for joint operation of pipeline and centrifugal compressor moves to the direction of higher volume flow rate and lower pressure. This study is expected to shed a light on the hydrogen delivery by natural gas pipelines and pipe networks.
Highlights
Air pollution and global warming are two major environmental threats to human beings nowadays, which are tightly related to the overuse of fossil fuels
It is found if pressures at the start and the end of pipeline 2–3 are fixed, the gas volume flow rate gradually increases with the increasing hydrogen blending ratio whether in winter or in summer
When the hydrogen blending ratio reaches 30%, the volume flow rate of the Hydrogen-Blended Natural Gas (HBNG) pipeline is increased by 11.13% on average compared with the pipeline without hydrogen, indicating the hydrogen blending has certain influences on gas transmission capacity
Summary
Air pollution and global warming are two major environmental threats to human beings nowadays, which are tightly related to the overuse of fossil fuels. In this study the influences of hydrogen blending on hydraulic and thermal characteristics of a long-distance natural gas pipeline with the centrifugal compressor and a ringed multi-loop pipe network are systematically investigated.
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