InImpact: The Journal of Innovation Impact |
| Publisher |
Future Technology Press |
| Vol. 7 No. 2 |
KES Transactions on SDM I - Sustainable Design and Manufacturing 2014 |
| Volume Editors |
KES International |
| Journal ISSN |
2051-6002 |
| |
| Article Title | The development of a sub-atmospheric two-phase thermosyphon natural gas preheater using a lumped capacitance model |
| Primary Author | Will Newton, Swansea University |
| Other Author(s) |
Hocine Matallah; David James; Ian Cameron; Nicholas Lavery; Stefan Romocki
|
| Pages |
757 - 768
|
| Article ID |
sdm14-110 |
| Publication Date |
01-May-16 |
| Abstract | Natural gas (NG) for domestic and industrial use is distributed around the country at high pressure. To counteract the Joule-Thompson effect, pre-heating of natural gas is required prior to pressure reduction. Most preheaters used on national gas networks are in the form of water bath heaters, where a closed tank houses a burner which delivers energy to the fluid in situ, which in turn heats an exchanger through which the NG flows. These systems usually have a low efficiency, and as a result of thermal inertia have a long time lag to accommodate changes in NG mass flow rates.
A new preheating system has been designed utilising sub-atmospheric two-phase type thermosyphon theory. The main advantage of using a sub-atmospheric thermosyphon to preheat NG is the improved response time, due to the reduction in working fluid volume and the thermosyphon operating at lower temperatures resulting from partial vacuum.
A numerical model of the thermosyphon has been developed using a lumped capacitance method. Simulations of the thermosyphon preheater system over a 24 hour load cycle suggest that the thermosyphon system could reach an efficiency of approximately 84% over the period. |
| | View Paper |
