Energy and exergy analysis of natural gas pressure reduction points equipped with solar heat and controllable heaters

In order to prevent gas hydrate forming, Natural gas has to be warmed up at natural gas pressure reduction point (usually called City Gate Station (CGS)) before pressure reduction takes place. The gas is warmed up using the bath type heater which burns the natural gas as fuel. Employing solar heat in CGSs had been previously proposed by the authors; however, there were two shortcomings in the previous articles. Firstly, the employed heater was not equipped with an automatic control system (instantaneous control could not be achieved) and secondly, the exergy destruction rate of the proposed system had not been compared with the conventional configuration of a CGS. This article presents the feasibility of employing solar heat storage system at CGSs equipped with controllable heaters. The proposed system is thoroughly evaluated in terms of fuel providence and exergy destruction rate and the results are compared with the conventional and the previous proposed configurations.