Designing Atmospheric Heat Exchangers Used to Heat Gas Downstream of Regulating (Pressure-Reducing) Stations

摘要

Problems posed by cold due to expansion of the gas are by no means new and repair of the damage caused can be an expensive exercise. Nevertheless, up to now no ideal solution has been found. There are of course in situ means of preventing any ice forming around the buried pipe, such as insulating materials or sufficient aggregate filling. Although these measures do make it possible to cope with special cases, they do not resolve the overall problem. The ideal solution would consist of warming up the gas to 0 exp 0 C, after having expanded it, as soon as its temperature falls below zero. This would necessitate installing costly heaters which would also be expensive to run, both from the energy point of view as well as in manpower. Rejecting this solution, Groupe Gazier Est has for several years now been developing the atmospheric heat exchanger technique. This heat exchanger is an overhead pipe usually over a hundred metres. Results are very satisfactory and this study, in addition to providing a calculation procedure corroborated by experimental checks, demonstrates the economic viability of this answer to the problem. 11 figures, 5 tables. (ERA citation 08:050696)