August 2011, Volume 2, No.

4
International Journal of Chemical and Environmental Engineering

Solar Heat Utilization in Birjand Natural Gas

Pressure Reduction, a Thermo-Economic Analysis
Kourosh Akhlaghia,b, Hasan Eftekharia, Mahmood Farzaneh-Gordc, Mohsen khatibc, Masood Hassanid
a

National Iranian Gas Company, South Khorasan Gas Company, Iran

The Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Shahrood University of Technology, Shahrood, Iran
d
Islamic Azad University, Birjand Branch, Iran
a
Corresponding Author
Email: akhlaghi@nigc-skgc.ir
c

Abstract
Natural gas is transported between production points and consuming locations at very high pressure. At consuming locations, the
natural gas pressure has to be reduced to a working level. The pressure reduction takes places at City Gate Station (CGS). The gas
must be preheated before pressure reduction takes places to ensure that it remains above the hydrate-formation zone and dew point, so
that no liquid or solid phase condenses at the station exit. Indirect Water Bath Gas Heaters (known as line heater) are employed in the
CGS to preheat the natural gas. The heaters are assumed to be equipped with automatic control systems. The heaters consume
considerable amount of natural gas flowing though the CGS as fuel to provide the required heat for preheating the natural gas stream.
As the low temperature heat is required for preheating the natural gas, a solar system has been proposed to provide part of heat
demand. The solar system consists of a collector array and a storage tank. The feasibility study of proposed system for a CGS unveils
that the payback ratio is only 6 years.
Keywords: Natural gas, Line Heater, Solar energy, solar thermal storage

1. Introduction
Solar thermal technologies utilise the heat from the sun
to offset the heating demand for many applications. The
main component of any solar thermal technology is the
solar collector. The device absorbs heat form solar
radiation and transfers this heat to a circulating fluid
(usually water). The heat absorbed by collectors then
utilized in many applications. Kalogeria presented a
survey of the various types of solar thermal collectors and
applications. These includes Solar water heating systems,
Solar space heating and cooling, Solar refrigeration,
Industrial process heat, Solar desalination systems, Solar
thermal power systems, Solar furnaces and Solar
chemistry applications .
The utilization of solar energy for providing process
heat in industrial applications is not common especially
for low temperature cases and a few researches have been
carried out in this subject. Norton presented the most
common applications of industrial process heat. The
history of solar industrials and agricultural applications
are presented and practical examples are explained. A
system for solar process heat for decentralised
applications in developing countries is presented by Spate
et al. The system is suitable for community kitchen,
bakeries and post-harvest treatment. Benz et al. presented
the planning of two solar thermal systems producing
process heat for a brewery and a dairy in Germany. In
both industrial processes the solar yields were found to be

comparable to the yields of solar systems for domestic

solar water heating or space heating. In another paper,
Benz et al. presented a study for the application of nonconcentrating collectors for food industry in Germany.[1]
The limitation of researches on industrial solar process
heat may be due to available waste heat at low
temperature in most big industries. But for industrial
sectors or places in which no waste heat is available, the
use of solar energy for heat supply has the potential for a
substantial economization of primary energy resources
[2]. The main advantage may be that process heat is
usually needed at much lower temperatures and pressures
than those necessary for electricity production. Simpler
concentrating collectors can also be used and the cost of
equipment is much smaller.
In Iran (and probably in most countries) natural gas is
transported through transmission pipeline at high
pressures (5 7)MPa from production locations to
consuming points. At consumption points, or when
crossing into a lower pressure pipeline, the pressure of the
gas must be reduced. This pressure reduction takes place
in CGSs. At CGSs, the pressure is reduced from

(5 7)MPa to 1.5 2.0 MPa (typically 1.7 MPa ) in high-

pressure intrastate pipelines. Currently, gas pressure

reduction is accomplished by using throttle-valves in all
of Irans CGSs, where the constant-enthalpy expansion
takes place and a considerable amount of energy is wasted
[3,4]. The gas must be heated before it enters throttle

Solar Heat Utilization in Birjand Natural Gas Pressure Reduction, a Thermo-Economic Analysis

valves to ensure that it remains above the hydrateformation zone and dew point, so that no liquid or solid
phase condenses at the station exit. Indirect Water Bath
Gas Heaters (known as line heater) are employed in the
CGS to preheat the natural gas. The heaters are
consuming a considerable amount of natural gas flowing
though the CGS as fuel to provide the required heat for
preheating the natural gas stream. As the low temperature
heat is required for preheating the natural gas in a CGS,
this makes a CGS as a perfect place to utilize solar energy
and to meet low temperature heat demand.
In this study, the objective is to reduce amount of the
heater fuel consumption in the CGS by utilizing solar
energy. A solar collector array is proposed to be utilized
in order to displace heating duty of the line heater. The
proposition includes a modified design of an in-use CGS
to take advantage of freely available solar heat. The
modification has been done in line to minimize the CGS
design alteration and availability of the CGS to continue
its tasks with or without additional solar system. The
proposed system is also included an automatic control
system to control heating duty of the heater.

provides heat to water which acts as intermarry fluid. The

water, then, transfers heat safely to natural gas flowing
through a coil immersed in the water bath. As the water
bath is heated, the bath expands and the expanded heat
media flows into the expansion section. As shown, the
fire tube is located in the bottom of the water bath and
transfer heat indirectly to the natural gas as flows through
the coil.
Exhaust

T NG-1

TW

Hot Water

Hot Water
T NG-2
Hot Water
Hot Gas

Hot Gas

Hot Water
Burner

2. The Natural Gas Pressure Drop Stations (City

Gate Stations)
When a natural gas pipeline approaches a city, the
high-pressure gas has to be reduced to a distribution level.
A city gate station (CGS) is a pressure reducing point.
Control and throttling valves are employed to reduce the
gas pressure. A schematic diagram of a typical CGS is
shown in Fig. 1. Inlet Gas has a high pressure
(P NG-1 ) and temperature (TNG-1 ) which is typically
related to the ambient temperature ( Tam ). The gas must be
heated before it passes through throttle valves to ensure
that it remains above the hydrate-formation zone and dew
point, so that no liquid or solid phase condenses at the
output temperature (T NG-3 ) . The standard preheated gas
o

temperature (T NG-2 ) is in range of 30-55 C but its

value highly depended on inlet pressure and temperature.

HEATER

NG-1

NG-2

NG-3

Figure 2 A schematic diagram of an Indirect Water Bath Gas

Heater (Line heater) employed in a CGS for preheating the gas

The heating duty of the heater and the water bath

temperature could be estimated by knowing the station
inlet and outlet gas temperature and pressure as discussed
as follow.
Based on the standard outlet station gas pressure
(250 psigor 17 barg) and the natural gas compositions, the
hydrate gas temperature (Thyd ) could be calculated from
thermodynamics models. The outlet station gas stream
temperature (TNG-3 ) is then selected 5 o C above the
hydrate temperature. By knowing the outlet station gas
stream temperature, the gas temperature at the heater exit
could be calculated as below
TNG3

TNG 2 Thyd 5 Ttv

In which, Ttv ( TNG 2 TNG 3 ) is temperature drop due
to pressure drop though the throttling valves. The amount
of temperature drop is affected by the station inlet
pressure and the natural gas compositions. Once, the gas
temperature (and pressure) at the heater exit is known, the
heater heating duty could be calculated as below:

Throttle Valve

Q gh m NG (hNG 2 hNG 1 )

V-1

Figure 1. A schematic diagram of a natural gas pressure drop

station

Heat exchangers used in natural gas pressure drop

station are Indirect Water Bath Gas Heaters (known as
line heater). A schematic diagram of a line heater is
shown in fig.2. The fire tube (which burns natural gas)

It should be pointed out the gas pressure at station

(heater) inlet are measured and here assumed to be
known. As the gas travels a long distance before reaching
to the station trough a buried pipeline at depth of 1.2 m,

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Solar Heat Utilization in Birjand Natural Gas Pressure Reduction, a Thermo-Economic Analysis

the gas temperature assumed to be equal to the

surrounding soil temperature [5]. The soil temperature
varies with environment temperature and locations.
Najafi-mod et al. proposed an empirical correlation for a
simple and rational relationship between ambient
temperature and soil temperature at different depths. The
soil temperature for depth higher than 1 m for Iran could
be simplified as follow [6].
TNG 1(o C ) Tsoil 0.0084Tam2 0.3182Tam 11.403
The heating duty of the heater is provided by burning
natural gas as fuel. Considering a value for thermal
f
efficiency, h of the heater, the fuel mass flow rate, m
could be calculated as below:

m f Qgh / (h LHV )
In which, LHV is lowering heating value of the fuel
(here Natural gas). It should be pointed out that the heater
heat lost to ambient is considered through the heater
thermal efficiency. The current thermal efficiency of
conventional heaters are low and in range of 0.35 to 0.5.
In this research, thermal efficiency of the heater is
assumed to be 0.45.
The immersed gas coil in water bath could be simulated
as pipe flow in constant temperature environment. For an
isothermal environment pipe flow, Incropera and DeWitt
derive a relation as below:

Tw TNG 2
eY ,
Tw TNG 1

Y=

heating system. The other main types are evacuated tube

collectors and batch solar heaters. Flat-plate collectors are
the most common solar collectors for use in solar waterheating systems in homes and in solar space heating. Flatplate collectors heat the circulating fluid to a temperature
considerably less than that of the boiling point of water
and are best suited to applications where the demand
temperature is 30-80C and/or for applications that
require heat during the winter months.
As the water bath temperature wouldnt need to be
higher than 80C and the line heater are most needed
during winter, in this study an array of flat plate solar
collector are proposed to be installed parallel to the heater
as shown in fig.3.
When day starts valve 1 and 2 will be close and valve
3 will be only open valve. Since sunshine until sunset,
water will circulate between solar collectors and the
storage tanks, thus with this work solar energy will save
in the storage tank water. During these hours all of loaded
energy by cold gas provided by the line heater.
When weather is colder than other day hours (i.e. from
sunset until around two hours after sunshine). In this case
valve 3 will be close and valves 1 and 2 will be open. The
saved energy in the storage tank during about ten hours of
day divided adequately to sixteen rest hours of day. Thus
the solar system can helps the line heater for just cold
hours.

Doc LcU c
mNG c pNG

Where Doc , Lc , Uc are external diameter, length and

overall heat transfer coefficient of the coil. Rearranging
the above equation and solving for Tw , the following
equation could be derived:

Tw

TNG 2 TNG 1eY

1 eY

the previous study suggested that the line heaters are

designed

to

have

U c 100 Btu/hr- ft 2 F (568W/m2 - K).

3. The proposed system to utilise solar energy

Low temperature solar thermal technologies,
especially those that do not generate electricity, are
widely been used in the world for providing heat for
many domestic or industrial applications. Solar Water
Heating is an effective method of utilizing solar energy to
perform many useful tasks. The energy from the sun can
provide hot water for many applications, displacing the
need to burn fossil fuels.
A flat-plate solar collector is one of three main types
of solar collectors, which are key components of a solar

Figure 3 A schematic diagram of the proposed system to utilize solar

energy in the pressure drop stations

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Solar Heat Utilization in Birjand Natural Gas Pressure Reduction, a Thermo-Economic Analysis

scenarios at this point as a) a heater with automatic

4. The energy balance for the heater

With considering of fig.3, and for analyses of it, there
are two control volumes.
The first one is storage tank. If it assumed lump,
thermal balance energy about it could be written as
follow:

mst C pw

dTst
Qsolar Q load
dt

pw
Where st is storage water temperature, st and
are respectively water storage mass and thermal capacity.
Second control volume is around the line heater.
General equation for the discussed heater could be written
as:

controllable Q
heater b) a heater with fixed Qheater .
Currently, all line heaters (within Iran) are not equipped
with automatic control unit, but it would be an easy task
to do. So it is assumed here that the heaters are equipped
with control system.
Assuming one hour time period (i.e. 3600 seconds),

Q heater could be estimated by:

Qheater mw .C pw (Tw(i 1) Tw(i ) ) / 3600 (Qgh Qsolar )(i )

The above equation could be employed to find altered
value of the heater fuel mass flow rate as below:

m f m wh C pw (Twh(i 1) Twh(i) ) / 3600 (Qgh Qload )(i) / LHVh

dT
mwh C pw wh Q heater Q load Q gh
dt

5. The analysis of the collector

In which, mwh C pw is the heater thermal capacity, Twh is

is rate of load energy from the

bath temperature and Q
load

In the steady state condition, the useful energy

absorbed by a solar collector and transferred to working
fluid could be calculated by employing the following
equation:

wh C pw (Tst Twh )
Q load m

Where Ac , FR , U l , T fi , Ta are respectively, absorber

In above equations around both of control volumes,

since all measurements such as solar radiation and
ambient temperature are in hourly form, then relevant
equations should be solve in hourly form.
With combination of above equations and integration
on them a set of two equations, two unknown will be
established as below:

i 1 m C dT (m C T )dt Q
st pw st
wh pw st
solar m whC pwTwh i t
i

i 1
i mwh C pwdTwh (m whC pwTwh )dt Q heater m whC pwTst Q gh t
i

In

above

equations

Qu Ac FR S U l (T fi Ta )

storage tank to the heater. However, it could be given by

below:

subscripts

(i ) and

number
of
periods
and
(i 1) explanatory
st declares all of component relevant to the storage
tank.
This is necessary to consider, storage tank capacity
should be in size that water storage temperature dont
arrive to boiling point at the end of sunny hours(i.e.
Tst <boiling point).in order to this target storage tank
capacity should be at least 34 cube meter.

Q gh is all of require energy in the system for heating of

natural gas. Q
is the rate of thermal energy provided
heater

by burning fuel. It should be noted that heat lost from the

heater is considered in this term by introducing heater
thermal efficiency. There are possibilities of two

plate area, removal factor, totality loss coefficient of

collector, inlet water temperature and ambient
temperature? Also S is absorbed solar flux by flat plate
collector and it could be calculated by follow:

S ( ) av .IT

Where ( ) av , I T are respectively, average absorptiontransmission coefficient of collector and radiated solar
flux on slopped collector.

6. Applications
In this section, the results which could be obtained
from the proposed system for a CGS are given. It is not
intended to study a specific system but rather to show the
capabilities of the proposed system to reduce fuel cost in
a CGS.

6.1. The case study (Birjand City Gate Station)

The proposed model has been applied to study the
thermal behaviour of Birjand City Gate Station. The
Birjand station is located in suburb of Birjand city.
Birjand is capital of South Korasan province (Iran) and
selected as case study mainly due to financial support
from South Korasan Gas Company.
Climate conditions such as ambient temperature, wind
speed and solar irradiation are directly related to the
useful energy gained by the collector array. The climatic

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Solar Heat Utilization in Birjand Natural Gas Pressure Reduction, a Thermo-Economic Analysis

data for Birjand city (3252N, 5912E) has been

extracted from the Iran Weather Institute data centre.
The other information related to the Birjand CGS is
provided by South Korasan Gas Company. This includes
natural gas pressure at the station inlet. Table 1 details the
properties of the heater that employed in the Birjand
CGS.
Table 1: Properties of the Birjand CGS heater
Surface Area Of Fire Tube

88.1 m2

Water Capacity

38000 lit

Diameter Of Coil

.1015 m

Number Of Coil
NG Flow rate

7
15.56 kg/s

NG pressure in coil

58.5 bar

Wall THK Of Coil

8.56 mm

Max Working Temp

Heat Duty Max
Shell Length
Shell Diameter

Figure 4 average temperature of ambient for every month of 2009

88oC
1750 kW
10 m
2.85 m

6.2. The solar collector array

The detail of a collector module used for calculation in
this study is listed in table 2. The collector module is a
commercial one which is available for sale in Iran. The
collector modules could be interconnected in an array:
parallel; series or some combination of both. Here as low
pressure drop and low temperature water are intended, a
parallel arrangement is assumed. As noted in the table 2,
each collector module has a surface area of 1.9 square
meters. One remaining question, which would be
answered later in this paper, is the number of collector
modules?
Table 2: Properties of a commercial solar collector module available
in Iran
Collector Length

200 Cm

Collector Wide

95 Cm

Collector Thickness

9.5 Cm

Cover Matter

Glass

Cover Thickness

4 mm

Absorber Plate Thickness

0.5 mm

Tubes Inner Diameter

10 mm

Tubes outer Diameter

12 mm

Tubes space

150 mm

Plate Area

1.51 m2

Plate Matter

Copper

Figure 5 average sunny hours a day for every month of 2009

Fig. 6 and 7 show average hourly water temperature in

the storage tank during a day for first and second six
months of 2009 respectively.

7. The Results and Discussion

Fig.4, 5 show average temperature of ambient for every
months and average sunny hours a day in every month of
2009 respectively.

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Solar Heat Utilization in Birjand Natural Gas Pressure Reduction, a Thermo-Economic Analysis

Figure 9 average hourly water temperature of the heater during a

day in first sixth months of 2009

Figure 6 average hourly water storage tank temperature during a

day in first sixth months of 2009

Figures 10 shows hourly averaged solar absorbed

energy gained by one collector (monthly averaged too)
during sunshine till sunset of each day for all months of
2009. As expected the absorbed flux is highest during
noon.
For Birjand station, best values for amount of natural
T
gas temperature at station exit, NG 3 , and heater
TNG3 10
TNG 2
exit,
, are
and at least of TNG 2 should
be 25oC, and as the heater is equipped with a automatic
control system, this could be easily obtained.

Figure 7 average hourly water temperature of storage tank during a

day in second sixth months of 2009

Fig. 8 and 9 show the hourly water temperature of the

heater (monthly averaged too) for first and second six
months of 2009 respectively.

Figure 10 average hourly and monthly absorbed solar flux and

gained solar energy by one collector during sun shine till sunset in
2009(W)

Figure 11 shows average hourly (monthly too) collector

efficiency during sunshine till sunset in all months of
2009. The collector efficiency is higher when the stored
water temperature is lower.
Figure 8 average hourly water temperature of the heater during a
day in first sixth months of 2009

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Solar Heat Utilization in Birjand Natural Gas Pressure Reduction, a Thermo-Economic Analysis

Figure 13 mass flow rate of water between storage tank and heater
in second sixth months of 2009

Figure 11 average hourly (monthly too) collector efficiency during

sunshine till sunset in all months of 2009

Figure 12 and 13 show the hourly water mass flow

between storage tank and the heater for first and second
six months of 2009 respectively. The mass flow rate is
lowest at 17:30 and rises as the temperature within the
storage tank drops. This is due to managing a steady flow
of heat from the storage tank to the heater. The mass flow
rate is null during other time of day (6:30 17:30).

Fig.14 shows a comparison between fuel energy when

the solar system applied and when it doesnt apply during
2009. The difference between fuel energy shows saving in
fuel. The maximum saving occurs when temperature
difference between unlike sunny hours and sunny hours is
up and the maximum energy is required to preheat the
natural gas stream. The distinction between heating duties
shows fuel saving.

Figure 14 The heater fuel energy required for preheating in 2009

Figure 12 mass flow rate of water between storage tank and heater
in first sixth months of 2009

It could be realized that the less saving occurred in

summer where more solar energy available during days.
The reason for this behavior is that, during summer days,
the natural gas stream temperature is high enough in
which no preheating is required. So for this time, the
heater is off.

6.4 The economical analysis

As discussed, a parallel array of collectors is proposed
to be utilized. The main question would be how many
collector modules should be used and what would be the
storage tank capacity?

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Solar Heat Utilization in Birjand Natural Gas Pressure Reduction, a Thermo-Economic Analysis

The capital cost of the proposed solar system or the

array of collector could be actually calculated by
consulting the dealers. As number of collector modules in
the array increases, the capital cost increases but the
heater fuel cost decreases. The variation of annual fuel
cost of the heater and solar energy system capital cost
against number of collectors modules for various storage
capacities per collector module are displayed in fig. 17.
The size of storage tank per collector module has been
selected based on its maximum allowable temperature
T
which is water boiling temperature. (i.e. st <boiling
point) and pay back ratio. It should be also noted that as
storage tank temperature rise, the collector efficiency will
drop and consequently the absorbed solar heat by
collectors will be decreased. To evaluate the desirability
and to investigate the cost effectiveness of the proposed
method, the payback ratio has been calculated. The
annual fuel saving and capital cost is calculated for each
case and then, the payback ratio could be calculated as
below:

Payback Ratio (Capital cos t ) /( Benefit )

Figure 16 Pay back ratio for various combination of storage tank

capacity per solar collector module

Fig.17 shows the monthly total fuel saving for

preheating gas in 2009 in case of utilizing solar system.

Considering the figure 15 and 16, one could select 430

and 34.4 cubic meter as an optimum value for the number
of collector modules and storage tank capacity
respectively. It should be noted that the fuel cost
calculation is based on current natural gas price which is
0.270 USD for each cubic meter.
For the optimum case, the annual fuel saving is about
41765 USD and as the capital cost is about 119126 USD,
the payback ratio could be calculated as below:
Payback Ratio (Capital cos t ) /(Benefit ) 6.06 years

Figure 17 Total monthly fuel cost saving for proposed system in

2009 (USD)

8. Conclusion

Figure 15 Variation of solar system capital cost and fuel cost against
number of collector modules for different storage tank capacity

Natural gas is a major source of global energy, and its

use is growing rapidly. Almost all natural gas reaches its
end users through transmission and distribution pipelines.
Transmission pipelines operate at high pressures. The
natural gas pressure must be reduced to distribution
pressure when reaches its end users. The gas must be
heated before it enters throttle valves to ensure that it
remains above the hydrate-formation zone and dew point,
so that no liquid or solid phase condenses at the station
exit when pressure and temperature reduced.

274

Solar Heat Utilization in Birjand Natural Gas Pressure Reduction, a Thermo-Economic Analysis

Currently in all Iran's CGSs, the gas is preheated

through a bath type heat exchangers (known as line
heater) which burns a portion of the gas for providing
heating duty to warm up the natural gas. As the low
temperature heat is required for preheating the natural gas
in a CGS, A solar collector array is proposed to be
utilized in the CGS in order to displace heating duty of
the heater and to reduce amount of fuel consumption. The
proposition includes a modified design of an in-use CGS
to take advantage of freely available solar heat.
The proposed system has been applied to study the
thermal behaviour of a CGS within Iran (Birjand City
Gate Station). The results show that the cost effectiveness
of the proposed method with an array of 430 collector
modules and a storage tank is resulted the annual fuel
saving about 41765 USD and as the capital cost is about
119125 USD; the payback ratio is calculated to be around
6 years. The number of collector modules has been
determined based on cost analysis.

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Benz N, Gut M, Rub W. Solar process heat in breweries and

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Baldini, G. Manfrida1, D. Tempesti, Model of a Solar

Collector/Storage System for Industrial Thermal Applications, Int.
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[3]

Farzaneh-Gord, M., Hashemi, S., Sadi, M., Energy destruction in

Irans Natural Gas Pipe Line Network, Energy Exploration and
Exploitation, 2009; 25 1-11.

[4]

Farzaneh-Gord, M., Magrebi J., Exergy of Natural Gas Flow in

Irans Natural Gas Fields, International Journal of Exergy, 2009; 6:
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[5]

Mohsen Edalata; G. Ali Mansoori, Buried Gas Transmission

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MH, Najafi-mod, Amin Alizadeh, Azadeh Mohamadian, Javad

Mousavi, Investigation of relationship between air and soil
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work was supported by South Korasan Gas
Company.

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