Environmental impact and damage assessment of the natural gas pipeline: Case study of Iran

Abstract

Today, oil and gas trunklines from production to consumption have become one of the challenges for governments. Due to the need to install energy-intensive equipment such as compressors, turbines and pumps along the trunkline route, a systematic study of the environmental impact of this trunkline has received less attention from researchers. However, from a social and environmental point of view, the benefits of this transfer in the face of its environmental effects have always been criticized by indigenous groups and environmentalists in the region. The purpose of this study is to evaluate and systematically analyze the environmental effects of the natural gas trunkline process in part of the sixth national gas trunkline of Iran, which is done for export to neighboring countries. The research method is life cycle assessment. After defining the goal and scope, in the second step, the flow data of the inlet and outlet gas, the amount of gas rivet, the amount of turbine emissions, the amount of electricity consumption, the amount of gas consumed and the amount of black powder entering the collection station and energy consumption calculations were performed. In the third step, the environmental effects of the system were examined from two perspectives: (1) the effects that can lead to environmental problems and (2) the damage that can be done to human health, ecosystem, and resource. These analyses were reviewed at two general levels of the system and each station and equipment. The results showed that the total annual carbon dioxide emissions of this pipeline in Ahvaz station emit 70,149 kg CO2 eq per day, which is the highest amount of emissions among all stations. This is equivalent to 30,499 liters of car fuel per year. On the other hand, Bidboland station emits 7443 kg CO2 eq per day of carbon dioxide, which is the lowest emission among all stations. Due to the environmental effect of water consumption, Ahvaz station with 39 m3 per day has the highest amount among stations and Bidboland station with 6 m3 per day has the lowest consumption.