Minimising the cost of noise control in the coal seam gas industry by selection of noise treatments for gas wells using engineering optimisation

摘要

Reducing costs is an important consideration when designing gas field facilities. The cost of noise mitigation treatments to the power units and pumps at well-heads can be a significant proportion of capital expenditure, and opportunities to reduce these costs are usually welcomed. The assessment and management of environmental noise impact from land-based gas fields is somewhat unique because of the large number of noise sources distributed over a very large area, often with many noise receptors interspersed between the wells and with most receptors receiving noise simultaneously from many wells from different directions. With such complexity, it can be difficult to select and design noise control treatment for the noise sources located at the wells in a cost-effective manner. It would be advantageous to have a calculation tool that could select appropriate noise treatments for each noise source at each well so that the environmental noise targets are achieved at each receptor while simultaneously ensuring that the cost-effectiveness of the noise mitigation program is maximised. This paper demonstrates an example of using three different optimisation techniques to minimise the cost of the overall noise control treatment scheme for the major noise sources located at coal seam gas wells.