Influence of the heat of combustion on calculations during the transport and consumption of natural gas

Abstract

Ukraine, as an independent state, has a market economy that works according to the requirements of the world natural gas market. Gas has become a commodity, that is, it has its own price depending on its quality and demand for it. Modern gas quality standards provide for the control of about thirty indicators. The efficiency of gas appliances has increased by about 25%. The requirement of accounting for gas in both volume units and energy units is established by law, similar to accounting in EU countries. When accounting for gas, the higher heat of combustion is used, that is, all the energy of the gas. But when conducting hydraulic calculations in the design and reconstruction of gas networks, values of lower heat of combustion are still used. When selecting gas-using equipment based on the data of the manufacturing plants, the performance characteristics of the devices, focused on lower combustion heat, are also indicated. There are differences in the approach to determining the energy component contained in a certain volume of gas in different sections of the gas transportation system. As a result, the amount of energy changes. It is proposed to use a higher heat of combustion not only when accounting for gas, but also when conducting calculations at all stages of gas movement along the gas transportation network, as well as when conducting hydraulic calculations of gas pipelines. Based on the analysis, it can be concluded that at all stages of gas movement in the gas transportation network, both when designing gas networks and when calculating payment for the amount of gas consumed, it is advisable to use the value of the higher heat of combustion of gas. This will lead to a reduction in the volume of construction work and the diameters of gas pipelines during new construction and reconstruction of systems, a reduction in gas consumption due to its more complete use, a decrease in dependence on imported gas, an improvement in air quality due to a decrease in harmful emissions, which will occur when ensuring greater completeness of gas combustion.