Pipeline Quality Research Articles

Progress in SOEC Development Activities at Haldor Topsøe

Haldor Topsoe considers SOEC as an enabling technology for the electrification of the chemical industry. Here, we present status updates on our two stepping stone projects, CO2 electrolysis for CO production and H2O electrolysis for biogas upgrading, as well as a roadmap for the electrification for production of ammonia. Compared to other electrolysis technologies, SOEC allows for the conversion of CO2 into useful chemicals at very high efficiencies and at a faradaic yield of 100%. Haldor Topsoe has commercialized the CO2 electrolysis technology under the tradename eCOsTM: a platform for on-site, on-demand CO generation from CO2 feedstock. System-level synergies found in integrating the endothermal SOEC process with an exothermal chemical synthesis process can lead to very high conversion efficiencies. At a pilot plant located at Foulum, Denmark, H2 produced from steam by SOEC is used for upgrading CO2 in biogas into pipeline quality synthetic natural gas (SNG). It is Haldor Topsoe’s ambition to become a technology provider for electrified ammonia plants and a roadmap highlighting the key milestones towards SOEC + Haber-Bosch plants in 2030 will be presented.

ENERGY EFFICIENT USAGE OF NATURAL GAS CRITERIAS

The article suggests that Wobbe Index is one of the main criteria when determining quality of natural gas for natural gas Interchangeability from different sources ДСТУ ISO:13686:2016. For effective natural gas combustion the Wobbe Index Ws gas of should not differ form Ws of gas G20 by more than 2 percent. Especially in cases where equipment designed precisely to work with G20 gas. In that case it is necessary to adjust gas pressure or substitute machine design for different gas usage. Methane number that is corrected by Wobbe Index could be another criteria of quality of gas determination. Authors suggest minimal methane number of MN=65 defined by EN 16726:2015 is not sufficient. It is proven that even in case of higher combustion energy output for gas with Wobbe Index significantly lower of G20 gas test values the overall efficiency of using this gas in particular burner system is much lower. Flame flow for natural gas in streams M166 and M208 is closer to wrinkles due to chemical mixture of gas and natural gas in M1204 stream creates yellow tipping due to incomplete combustion, sulfur content similar to G21 test gas. With mediocre combustion energy output same burners consume more natural gas to provide same amount of energy. Natural gas from stream M404 has almost ideal mixture of components. Its Wobbe Index is 50,41 MJ/Nm3 but hydrocarbon dew point of 15.3 °C at P=3.92 MPa. That indicates relative humidity of 100%. Specific humidity of gas in stream is 0.44 grams per cubic meter that is dangerous for creating natural gas hydrates, solid clathrate compounds that may damage machinery or obstruct pipeline flow. Authors suggest to provide certain set of actions to process natural gas into so called clean “pipeline quality dry gas” at wells or gas-processing plants to improve gas parameters to be closer to European Union standards. As for government policies they have to be reworked from using “energy saving” term to “energy efficiency” term and start improving on efficient usage of natural gas by approving and applying newest energy efficient technologies and machinery into gas transport\consumer network.

Technical Note: Design and implementation of a high-throughput pipeline for reconstruction and quantitative analysis of CT image data.

With recent substantial improvements in modern computing, interest in quantitative imaging with CT has seen a dramatic increase. As a result, the need to both create and analyze large, high-quality datasets of clinical studies has increased as well. At present, no efficient, widely available method exists to accomplish this. The purpose of this technical note is to describe an open-source high-throughput computational pipeline framework for the reconstruction and analysis of diagnostic CT imaging data to conduct large-scale quantitative imaging studies and to accelerate and improve quantitative imaging research. The pipeline consists of two, primary "blocks": reconstruction and analysis. Reconstruction is carried out via a graphics processing unit (GPU) queuing framework developed specifically for the pipeline that allows a dataset to be reconstructed using a variety of different parameter configurations such as slice thickness, reconstruction kernel, and simulated acquisition dose. The analysis portion then automatically analyzes the output of the reconstruction using "modules" that can be combined in various ways to conduct different experiments. Acceleration of analysis is achieved using cluster processing. Efficiency and performance of the pipeline are demonstrated using an example 142 subject lung screening cohort reconstructed 36 different ways and analyzed using quantitative emphysema scoring techniques. The pipeline reconstructed and analyzed the 5112 reconstructed datasets in approximately 10days, a roughly 72× speedup over previous efforts using the scanner for reconstructions. Tightly coupled pipeline quality assurance software ensured proper performance of analysis modules with regard to segmentation and emphysema scoring. The pipeline greatly reduced the time from experiment conception to quantitative results. The modular design of the pipeline allows the high-throughput framework to be utilized for other future experiments into different quantitative imaging techniques. Future applications of the pipeline being explored are robustness testing of quantitative imaging metrics, data generation for deep learning, and use as a test platform for image-processing techniques to improve clinical quantitative imaging.

Towards a design of a pressure swing adsorption unit for small scale biogas upgrading at

Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) is a well-known commercial technique for upgrading biogas. There are many PSA units installed around the world with capacities for biogas upgrading between 400 – 15000 m3/day. These units consist in four columns and operate with a pressure between 3-10 bar and a regeneration pressure up to 0.1 bar. A large majority of these PSA units is packed with carbon molecular sieve (CMS) as adsorbent. We intend to demonstrate that process developments are also necessary to downscale PSA units to treat smaller scales (< 100 m3/day). In this work we report experimental and theoretical analysis of a PSA unit packed with CMS as selective material with variable configurations using different cycles and column arrangements. Configurations with two, three, four and six columns are evaluated using a synthetic gas mixture (40% CO2 balanced by CH4) and keeping the target of producing pipeline quality bio-methane.

Evaluating the Impact Of Sustainability and Pipeline Quality on Global Crude Oil Supply Chain - Part 3

Evaluating the Impact Of Sustainability and Pipeline Quality on Global Crude Oil Supply Chain - Part 3

Evaluating the Impact Of Sustainability and Pipeline Quality on Global Crude Oil Supply Chain - Part 1

United states is one of the largest crude oil producer in the world but the consumption rate is higher than production hence united states imports oil from varies part of world depend on different criteria. The objective of this dissertation is to evaluate the impact of pipeline quality and facility sustainability on crude oil supply chain cost for Russia and Colombia that gave idea about when and where we have to invest to satisfy United states oil requirement.

Evaluating the Impact Of Sustainability and Pipeline Quality on Global Crude Oil Supply Chain - Part 2

Evaluating the Impact Of Sustainability and Pipeline Quality on Global Crude Oil Supply Chain - Part 2

Determination of erosion-based maximum velocity limits in natural gas facilities

Erosion of pipe fittings is one of the top potential limiting factor for gas velocities in natural gas transmission systems. Objectionable materials such as black powder or any abrasive particulates, can be intermittently admitted to the natural gas transmission systems at receipt points, or formed in-situ along the pipeline. These solid particles impinge on pipe wall and fittings causing potential erosion integrity concerns especially at high velocities. The API RP-14E describes an approach to determine the maximum velocity limit to avoid erosion in offshore production facilities. While the application of this API RP is intended for offshore multiphase flows, it has been extended to natural gas transmission applications despite the gas is generally single phase with stringent pipeline quality gas specifications. In order to quantify the rate of erosion due to solid contaminants in gas streams, an experimental test program was undertaken. A test rig was constructed on a typical pipeline quality gas at pressure ranges between 4900 and 5400kPag, using DN200 (NPS 8) pipe. The gas flow passes through a converging nozzle of exit diameter = 38.1 mm intended to accelerate the gas to a much higher velocity of the order of 200 m/s. The reason for such high gas velocity is to accelerate the rate of erosion and shorten the test duration. The high velocity jet stream impinges on a flat steel plate mounted at a 30° angle close to the nozzle exit. Tests were conducted on two different sand particle sizes injected into the gas stream via a side port. The test results allowed tuning of parameters in semi-empirical erosion models, such as the velocity index and material constants, in an attempt to better quantify the erosion rates for a given concentration of solids in the gas stream. The paper describes the experimental setup, test procedure, results and analysis of erosion rates on ASTM A420 coupon material typically used in low temperature fittings in natural gas facilities.

Hydrocarbons pipeline transportation risk assessment

The pipeline transportation applying risks assessment issue in the arctic conditions is addressed in the paper. Pipeline quality characteristics in the given environment has been assessed. To achieve the stated objective, the pipelines mathematical model was designed and visualized by using the software product SOLIDWORKS. When developing the mathematical model the obtained results made possible to define the pipeline optimal characteristics for designing on the Arctic sea bottom. In the course of conducting the research the pipe avalanche collapse risks were examined, internal longitudinal and circular loads acting on the pipeline were analyzed, as well as the water impact hydrodynamic force was taken into consideration. The conducted calculation can contribute to the pipeline transport further development under the harsh climate conditions of the Russian Federation Arctic shelf territory.

The research of qualitative indicators of gas pipelines during the operation

The operation of gas pipelines is a complex of technical measures, aimed at preservation of the main stock of gas pipeline transportation facilities. The purpose of these measures is to maintain and to restore the initial operational capabilities of gas pipelines, in general and in particular areas. The line section of gas pipelines has the largest size and cost. Naturally determined process of changing the quality of gas pipelines during the operation is accompanied by the accumulation and development of damages, failures; this determines the objective need to restore the quality of operation. The practical running of the line section of gas pipelines is characterized by a certain flow of failures; therefore it is necessary to ensure the required level of reliability of the gas pipeline during the entire period of operation. The quality control study of the inter-settlement gas pipeline section was conducted, and graphs of dependence of gas pipeline quality parameters on time were presented in the work. Keywords : line section of the gas pipeline, technological state, failures in operation, gas pipeline operation, control and quality parameters of the gas pipeline.

Consensus coding sequence (CCDS) database: a standardized set of human and mouse protein-coding regions supported by expert curation.

The Consensus Coding Sequence (CCDS) project provides a dataset of protein-coding regions that are identically annotated on the human and mouse reference genome assembly in genome annotations produced independently by NCBI and the Ensembl group at EMBL-EBI. This dataset is the product of an international collaboration that includes NCBI, Ensembl, HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee, Mouse Genome Informatics and University of California, Santa Cruz. Identically annotated coding regions, which are generated using an automated pipeline and pass multiple quality assurance checks, are assigned a stable and tracked identifier (CCDS ID). Additionally, coordinated manual review by expert curators from the CCDS collaboration helps in maintaining the integrity and high quality of the dataset. The CCDS data are available through an interactive web page (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/CCDS/CcdsBrowse.cgi) and an FTP site (ftp://ftp.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pub/CCDS/). In this paper, we outline the ongoing work, growth and stability of the CCDS dataset and provide updates on new collaboration members and new features added to the CCDS user interface. We also present expert curation scenarios, with specific examples highlighting the importance of an accurate reference genome assembly and the crucial role played by input from the research community.

Carbon Dioxide (CO2) Reduction of Tofu Industrial Waste Water-Based Biogas by an Integrated Process of Activated Carbon and Zeolite Adsorption to Enhance Pipeline Quality Gas

Carbon Dioxide (CO₂) Reduction of Tofu Industrial Waste Water-Based Biogas by an Integrated Process of Activated Carbon and Zeolite Adsorption to Enhance Pipeline Quality Gas

Biogas Upgrading in a 50 Kilowatt Solid Oxide Cells Based Demonstration Plant - Design and Operational Experiences Including Strategies to Counteract Degradation

There are considerable incentives to use intermittent electricity generation for production of stporable energy carriers. Upgrading biogas to pipeline quality gas by methanation of the CO2 content in the biogas with hydrogen from electrolysis is one option. Solid Oxide electrolysis (SOEC) offer strong synergy with the methanation plant, as the steam produced by the exothermal methanation reaction can be used directly as feedstock for the SOEC thus eliminating water evaporation by electricity. A pilot plant to demonstrate the concept has been constructed and was operational mid 2016. The design capacity is 10 Nm3/h of upgraded biogas. This capacity requires approx. 50 kW SOEC, which is provided by two Fuel Cores, each consisting of 4 SOEC stacks. Haldor Topsøe A/S has also designed the biogas cleaning unit and the methantion plant which is located at the Agricultural Research Centre of Aarhus University at Foulum, Jutland. The paper will outline the design of the pilot as well as full scale plants including exergy analyses. Experimental data from the SOEC unit(s) as well as the biogas cleanup and methanation pilot will be presented. Figure 1

Developing an advanced biofuels industry in California: The alternative and renewable fuel and vehicle technology program

Developing an advanced biofuels industry in California: The alternative and renewable fuel and vehicle technology program

Parametric Investigation of De-Sulfurization Process for Sour Gas; Introduction of Novel System

Many different processes are used to treat raw natural gas to pipeline quality. The sulfur is commonly present as an impurity in fossil fuels. Magnetic field is applied in a fluidized bed which contains nano activated carbon to investigate hydrogen sulfide elimination, in this paper. Sulfur removal in this way is presented experimentally and theoretically. The rate of mass transfer is introduced as function of gas temperature, amount of balls covered by nano carbon tubes, initial concentration of hydrogen sulfide, gas flow rate and also, magnetic field. The experimental data are presented and compared with the model results. The effect of hydrogen sulfide in the inlet sour gas on the mass flow rate in investigated in this paper. In addition, the effect of porosity percentage of catalytic bed on the hydrogen sulfide content of outlet gas is evaluated in this paper. The outlet concentration below 4 ppm is acceptable result due to commercial rules. The experimental data are in higher values of hydrogen sulfide comparing with the ones from modeling data.

Relationship between roughness height in use with Colebrook roughness function and the internal wall surface roughness parameters for stainless steel pipes

Flow tests were conducted on a total of 7 commercial stainless steel (SS) pipes of two sizes: 114.3 mm and168.3 mm O.D., and lengths of approximately 5 m, sourced from different manufacturers. The working fluid is a pipeline quality natural gas at a pressure range of 4700–5100 kPa(g), and flow rates resulting in Reynolds number (based on respective pipe I.D.) ranging between 8 × 106-23 × 106. The experimentally determined friction factor (λ) allowed calculation of the roughness function (RF), and determination of the effective roughness height (ks) in use with the Colebrook RF correlation. It was found that the commercial (SS) pipes exhibit different surface roughness characteristics that produce higher λ and higher ks than that of commercial carbon steel (CS) pipes having the same roughness parameter represented by the root mean square of the surface roughness element (Rq). It was found that the main contributor for the increase in λ or ks for the SS pipes over the CS pipes is the generally relatively low values of the roughness parameter RSm, which characterizes the frequency of the surface modulation along the length of the pipe surface. The lower the RSm, the higher the modulation frequency, and the higher λ or ks. A correlation between ks in use with the Colebrook RF or λ, and Rq was developed for commercial SS pipes in the form; ks = 2.2907Rq + 0.1029Rq2(both ks and Rq in μm).

Engine Capability Prediction for Spark Ignited Engine Fueled With Syngas

Abstract There are increasing interests in converting solid waste or lignocellulosic biomass into gaseous fuels and using reciprocating internal combustion engine to generate electricity. A widely used technique is gasification. Gasification is a process where the solid fuel and air are introduced to a partial oxidation environment, and generate combustible gaseous called synthesis gas or syngas. Converting solid waste into gaseous fuel can reduce landfill and create income for process owners. However, it can be very challenging to use syngas on a gaseous fueled spark ignited (SI) engine, such as a natural gas (NG) engine. NG engines are typically developed with pipeline quality natural gas (PQNG). NG engines can operate at lean burn spark ignited (LBSI), or stoichiometric with exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) spark ignited (SESI) conditions. This work discusses the LBSI engine condition. NG engines can perform very differently when fueled with nonstandard gaseous fuels such as syngas without appropriate tuning. It is necessary to evaluate engine performance in terms of combustion duration, relative knock propensity, and NOx emissions for such applications. Due to constraints in time and resources it is often not feasible to test such fuel blends in the laboratory. An analytical method is needed to predict engine performance in a timely manner. This study investigated the possibility of using syngas on an SI engine developed with PQNG. Engine performance was predicted using in house developed models and PQNG as the reference fuel. Laminar flame speed (LFS), adiabatic flame temperature (AFT), and auto-ignition interval (AI) are used to predict combustion duration, engine out NOx and engine knock propensity relative to NG at the target lambda values. Single cylinder research engine data obtained under lean burn conditions fueled with PQNG was selected as the baseline. LFS, AFT, and AI of syngas were computed at reference conditions. Lambda of operation was predicted for syngas to provide the same burn rate as NG at the reference lambda value for NG. Analysis shows that, using syngas at the selected lambda, the engine can have less engine out NOx emissions and less knock propensity relative to NG at the same speed and load. Modifications to fuel system components may be required to avoid engine derate.

Experimental Investigation Into the Relationship Between the Roughness Height in Use With Nikuradse or Colebrook Roughness Functions and the Internal Wall Roughness Profile for Commercial Steel Pipes

The relationships between the sand grain roughness height (ks) in use with Nikuradse or Colebrook correlations for the roughness function (RF) and the internal pipe wall roughness element described by the root-mean-square (RMS) of the roughness profile (Rq) for turbulent flow in pipes are experimentally examined. Flow tests were conducted on a total of 13 commercial steel pipes of two sizes: 168.3 mm and 114.3 mm outer diameter (OD). The aim was to provide further insight into relationship between ks and Rq, for use with either RF correlations. The tests were conducted on high-pressure pipeline quality natural gas in the range of Reynolds number (based on pipe internal diameter) of 9 × 106–16 × 106. For commercial carbon steel pipes, the relationship between ks and Rq was found in the form ks=1.306 Rq+0.078 Rq2 and ks=2.294 Rq (both ks and Rq in μm), for use with Colebrook and Nikuradse RF correlations, respectively. These correlations cover a wide range of Rq from 2.7 μm to 12.5 μm which is typically found in commercial carbon steel pipes. For stainless steel (SS) pipes, preliminary results indicate that other surface roughness profile parameters need to be employed to better define the values of ks for these types of commercial steel pipes.

Using Make for Reproducible and Parallel Neuroimaging Workflow and Quality-Assurance.

The contribution of this paper is to describe how we can program neuroimaging workflow using Make, a software development tool designed for describing how to build executables from source files. A makefile (or a file of instructions for Make) consists of a set of rules that create or update target files if they have not been modified since their dependencies were last modified. These rules are processed to create a directed acyclic dependency graph that allows multiple entry points from which to execute the workflow. We show that using Make we can achieve many of the features of more sophisticated neuroimaging pipeline systems, including reproducibility, parallelization, fault tolerance, and quality assurance reports. We suggest that Make permits a large step toward these features with only a modest increase in programming demands over shell scripts. This approach reduces the technical skill and time required to write, debug, and maintain neuroimaging workflows in a dynamic environment, where pipelines are often modified to accommodate new best practices or to study the effect of alternative preprocessing steps, and where the underlying packages change frequently. This paper has a comprehensive accompanying manual with lab practicals and examples (see Supplemental Materials) and all data, scripts, and makefiles necessary to run the practicals and examples are available in the “makepipelines” project at NITRC.

Study of the Selectivity of Methane over Carbon Dioxide Using Composite Inorganic Membranes for Natural Gas Processing

Natural gas is an important fuel gas that can be used as a power generation fuel and as a basic raw material in petrochemical industries. Its composition varies extensively from one gas field to another. Despite this variation in the composition from source to source, the major component of natural gas is methane with inert gases and carbon dioxide. Hence, all natural gas must undergo some treatment with about 20% of total reserves requiring extensive treatment before transportation via pipelines. The question is can mesoporous membrane be highly selective for methane and be used for the treatment of natural gas? A methodology based on the use of dip-coated silica and zeolite membrane was developed. A single gas permeation test using a membrane reactor was carried out at a temperature of 293 K and a pressure range of 1 × 10-5 to 1 × 10-4 Pa. The permeance of CH4 was in the range of 1.15 × 10-6 to 2.88 × 10-6 mols-1m-2Pa-1 and a CH4/CO2 selectivity of 1.27 at 293 K and 0.09 MPa was obtained. The pore size of the membrane was evaluated using nitrogen adsorption and was found to be 2.09 nm. The results obtained have shown that it is possible to use a mesoporous membrane to selectively remove carbon dioxide from methane to produce pipeline quality natural gas. There is a need for further study of the transport mechanism of methane through the membrane since this is essential for the separation of other hydrocarbons that could be present as impurities.