Systems-Level Analysis of Waste Heat Recovery Opportunities from Natural Gas Compressor Stations in the United States

Abstract

The Unites States natural gas (NG) pipeline system is a complex network that relies on about 1800 compressor stations (CS) to maintain the pressure in the network. Concurrently, about two-thirds of the fuel energy to CS is lost as waste heat mainly in the form of hot flue gases. However, to date, there has been little emphasis on quantifying available waste heat at NG CS. We determine the quantity, quality, and spatial distribution of waste heat available at existing NG CS using thermodynamic analysis, installed capacity of NG CS reported by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), and load factors. The uncertainty in operating hours of CS is addressed by the concept of load factor and statistical Monte Carlo simulations. The analysis indicates that an average of 610 TJ/day is available in the U.S. at temperatures above 645 K. Recovering available waste heat from NG CS has the potential to avoid emissions of 47 000 metric tonnes of CO2-equiv/day at the national level. The large quantity of availa...