Influence analysis on the storage capacity of hydrogen-blended natural gas pipeline

Abstract

Blending a certain proportion of hydrogen into existing natural gas pipelines is an efficient way to achieve large-scale hydrogen delivery. The line pack is crucial for balancing the gas supply-demand and determining the gas loss of natural gas transmission or distribution system. It is essential to investigate the influence of hydrogen blending on line pack when the natural gas pipeline is used for transporting hydrogen-blended natural gas. In this paper, a calculation model of hydrogen-blended natural gas line pack is established, and the line pack and its influencing factors are analyzed under the hydrogen blending ratio of 0–90%, inlet pressure of 4.0–6.0 MPa, inlet temperature of 253.15–323.15 K, and pipeline throughput of 1.4×10⁹–3.5×10⁹ Nm³/a. Results indicate that increasing the hydrogen blending ratio usually reduces the line pack, but the effect depends on a complex interaction of inlet pressure and pipeline throughput. Under low inlet pressure and high pipeline throughput conditions, the line pack may increase with the raise of hydrogen blending ratio due to the low viscosity of hydrogen. In addition, an increase in inlet pressure has a significant positive effect on the line pack, and the storage capacity of pipeline is proportional to the pressure. However, the increase of pipeline throughput induces a larger pressure drop, resulting in a decrease in the average pressure and hence reduces the storage capacity. The influence of inlet temperature is more limited because the physical properties of hydrogen-blended natural gas change slightly over the operating temperature range of the pipeline, leading to a slight decrease in the line pack. For the regulation of hydrogenblended natural gas pipeline storage capacity, the inlet pressure is the key influencing factor and it is effective to regulate the storage capacity by change the inlet pressure, increasing the hydrogen blending ratio, pipeline throughput and inlet temperature are unfavorable to increase the pipeline storage capacity.

Cited as: Huang, H., Li, J., Sun, X., Yu, B., Zhang, W., Ma, L. Influence analysis on the storage capacity of hydrogen-blended natural gas pipeline. Computational Energy Science, 2024, 1(1): 3-16. https://doi.org/10.46690/compes.2024.01.02

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