Optimizing Natural Gas Pipeline Design to Prevent Hydrate Formation During Gas Transportation

In this work, Natural Gas pipeline design was optimized to curb the anomalies with maintenance cost and enhancing successful delivery of gas to a plant. Secondary data on the Natural gas compositional streams and field data on the pipeline were obtained and four basic design protocols namely Hydraulic, Mechanical, Geo-technical and Operational Design concepts were applied. Design equations and applicable codes from ASME B31.8, B16.10 and API 5L specifications were used to estimate the Pipe sizing, Maximum Allowable Operating Pressures, Burst Pressure, Collapse Pressure, Hydrotest Pressure. The parameters were validated with ASME codes and PIPEFLEX. The Natural Gas compositional streams were inputted to ASPEN HYSYS and simulation of the natural gas flow was done along the optimized design pipeline. Results shows that the temperature at entry was 680 F and 860 F at the exit point with an average temperature of 94.030 F along the pipeline and a pressure drop of zero as pressure at entry (NG1) was 1072psi and at exit (NG11) became 1072psi.The compression horse power required to transport the Natural Gas in the pipeline was predicted as 60HP. Flow were assured as there were no hydrate formation along the streams and pipe segments with a constant flow regime