Feasibility of ORC application in natural gas compressor stations

Natural gas compressor stations represent a huge potential in terms of waste heat recovery. Typical installations consist of multiple gas turbine units, in mechanical drive arrangement, operated most of the time under part-load conditions. The paper investigates the feasibility of Organic Rankine Cy...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Energy (Oxford) 2019-04, Vol.173, p.1-15
Main Authors: Bianchi, M., Branchini, L., De Pascale, A., Melino, F., Peretto, A., Archetti, D., Campana, F., Ferrari, T., Rossetti, N.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Computational fluid dynamics
Computer simulation
Economic analysis
Economic conditions
Electric power generation
Feasibility
Feasibility studies
Gas compressors
Gas turbine
Gas turbines
Heat recovery
Mechanical drives
Natural gas
Natural gas compressor station
Oil&Gas applications
Organic loading
Organic Rankine Cycle
Rankine cycle
Sensitivity analysis
Stations
Techno-economic analysis
Technology
Turbines
Waste heat recovery
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Summary:Natural gas compressor stations represent a huge potential in terms of waste heat recovery. Typical installations consist of multiple gas turbine units, in mechanical drive arrangement, operated most of the time under part-load conditions. The paper investigates the feasibility of Organic Rankine Cycle application as bottomer recovery technology in natural gas compressor facilities. The aim of the performed analysis is to obtain a detailed techno-economic and environmental scenario of the integrated system on yearly base. Different commercial gas turbine models, in the size range from 3 to 30 MW, have been taken into account as representative of mechanical driver units. Bottomer configurations (with & without intermediate loop) are modelled and compared assuming two different organic fluids. A sensitivity analysis of the bottomer cycle is carried out aimed at maximizing ORC shaft power output for each investigated layout. Off-design part-load operation of the integrated cycles have been simulated with reference to one minute data typical GT operation on a yearly base. The goal of this work is: (i) to assess the actual performance of merging gas turbines and ORC units for efficient power generation under variable operating conditions; (ii) to analyze the real potential of state-of-the art technology in the proposed innovative application. •Techno-economic investigation of ORC potential, in a real NG compression stations.•Retrofit with ORC commercial GTs, widely diffused in compression facilities.•Simulate part-load of selected GTs according to different control load strategies.•Investigate different organic fluids and topper-bottomer integrated layouts.•Define, for each GT-ORC layouts, optimal design and estimate off-design behavior.
ISSN:0360-5442
1873-6785
DOI:10.1016/j.energy.2019.01.127