RESIDUAL HEAT TO POWER GENERATION IN A COMPRESSION STATION OF ENAGAS (SPAIN)

Luis C. Gutirrez, Juan M. Lpez. Enags, S.A., Spain

Keywords: Waste heat recovery, Organic Rankine cycle (ORC) Abstract Enags currently has 13 compression stations in operation to raise gas pressure to 72/80 bar, in order to maximize gas pipelines transport capacity, with a total installed mechanical capacity of 328 MW, and this number will increase in the next coming years. An analysis of the energy balance of the compression station shows that almost 70% of the total energy involved in a gas turbine employed is emitted to the atmosphere as heat carried by combustion gases. The heat, one residual product of the compression process, can be used for other purposes than the task of the compression station. This situation has led to Enags to consider this residual heat energy recovery to produce electrical energy, optimising the overall energy efficiency of the compression station and improving the quality and the environmental performance of its installations. In initial studies, Enags considered two technologies based on a Rankine cycle, which are distinguished by the type of working fluid used in the turbine cycle: one of them uses water (steam) and the other uses an organic fluid, usually a hydrocarbon (ORC). Finally, the latter was considered more appropriated due to lower cooling requirements, lower operating and maintenance costs and better adaptation to changes in the compression process. As a result of this work Enags concluded that it was economically sound to utilize the residual (waste) heat for generating electrical power and decided to construct a power generation plant of about 5.1 MW at the compression station of Almendralejo, in south-west of Spain. This plant will use the exhaust gases from 5 gas turbines SOLAR Centaur 50 of 4.57 MW of mechanical capacity each one (one of them always in a reserve) as a primary energy for electricity generation. It is estimated a flow rate and temperature of 18.82 kg/s and 515 C respectively for the exhaust gases from each turbine at full load. Enagas has installed an ORMAT Energy Converter (OEC) power generation system, that utilizes n-pentane as working fluid for the close loop Rankine cycle in the generation turbine, to produce electricity that is estimated at 23,000 MWh/year. The generation plant will start up at the third quarter of 2009, it will represent an improvement in the energy efficiency and environmental impact of Enagas activities, serving also as a basis (pilot project) for improving the design of future compression stations. Introduction The compression station (CS) of Almendralejo (Badajoz, Spain) operates on Crdoba-Badajoz pipeline to transport natural gas to the centre of the Iberian Peninsula, Ruta de la Plata pipeline, and to Portugal, Almendralejo-Badajoz (border with Portugal) pipeline. This CS has five centrifugal compressors driven by gas turbines, model SOLAR CENTAUR 50, of 5 MW ISO each one. Four turbocharger or compressor sets were installed in 1996, model CENTAUR50-5800S, and the fifth compressor set, model 6100SCENTAUR50, was installed in 2005. The exhaust gases from the turbine are currently discharged into the atmosphere at temperature of 515C. The number of compressor in operation and the loading rate of each turbine depends on the specific requirements of the gas transportation network. Instantaneous operation data from each turbocharger are collected daily, mainly and more interesting data collected are the ambient temperature and the instantaneous power in axis of each turbocharger for calculation of the available energy. Although the data are instantaneous, they can be considered to be representative of daily operations. From these operation data and the turbocharger performance specifications (power, specific consumption, flow and temperature of gas at full load and at partial load) provided by the manufacturer, SOLAR TURBINES, the energy (flow and temperature) of the exhaust gases discharged by each turbocharger has been estimated for each day. The energy of these gases could be used for power generation.
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Objectives of the paper The objective of this paper is to show the comparative study conducted by Enags on two technologies used for power generation, one of them commonly used in high-power electricity generation plants, based on the thermodynamic cycle with steam,and other, less used and more suitable to smaller power plants, based on a similar thermodynamic cycle but with an organic fluid instead of steam. This study was performed to determine the type of technology most suitable for generating electricity to recover the waste heat from the exhaust of gas turbines at the compression station of Almendralejo (Badajoz-Spain). Development A. Starting point The operation of the compressors is not continuous, and the number of units in operation depends upon the individual needs of the gas transmission network. Each compressor can start and stop several times a week. Analysing the daily operation data collected during one year (year 2005) and with the performance of turbochargers supplied by the manufacturer, it can be estimated the average flow rate and temperature of the exhaust gases in each turbocharger.
Time [%] 12.5 31.8 42.7 13.0 Turbines [No] 1 2 3 4 Working conditions Axis Power Charge [kW] [%] 1,740 45 2,450 63 2,779 70 2,635 68 Flow [kg/h] 53,947 110,696 173,014 227,052 Exhaust gas Temperature [C] 489 493 494 494 Energy [KW]* 7,696 15,928 24,991 32,776

Table 1.- Summary of the annual operation of the CS based on the number of working compressors. *The ambient temperature is considered reference for energy estimations.

Considering the number of hours of operation of the CS during the previous years, where it is found at least a compressor in operation, it is considered that the availability of CS is 98%, i.e. CS will be running about 8,585 hours per year. Also from these operation dataset it can be calculated the total heat emitted by CS from the exhaust gases, energy available and required for determining the most suitable technology for a power generation plant and total electricity produced.
Energy available from the exhaust gases
40.000

Thermal Power [kWt]

35.000 30.000 25.000 20.000 15.000 10.000 5.000 0 4 4 4 3 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 1

Number of turbines

Fig. 1.- Thermal energy available from exhaust gases with ambient temperature as reference to calculate enthalpies.

B. Alternatives to consider There are different technologies that can be applied to generate electricity in this case. Both based on the Rankine thermodynamic cycle and explained below. Steam Rankine Cycle. This is the technology most commonly applied in similar applications. o The energy of the exhaust gases for each turbocharger is recovered in a waste heat recovery boiler to generate steam (HRSG) at 30 bar of pressure and 400C of temperature.
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o o o o o

The heat energy absorbed by the steam is converted by a steam turbine into mechanical energy via the Rankine thermodynamic cycle Power generation (the transformation of mechanical energy into electrical energy) is carried out in the alternator coupled with the turbine. The outlet vapour, under vacuum conditions, is then condensed in a air-cooled condenser. The cycle ends with the return of condensed water to the degasser, to feed back the boilers or HRSGs. In this case, with a steam turbine, it must be installed a water treatment plant to achieve the quality required by the turbine manufacturer.

With the energy contained in the exhaust gases of each turbine it is possible to have an approximate nominal output of 8 t/h of steam at the design conditions. This makes a total steam production of 40 t/h. However, as more than 4 turbines never are in simultaneous operation and much of the time the turbines operate at part load, the actual production capacity of steam is lower. Almost 90% of the time the steam production is less than or equal to 24 t/h, equivalent to the production of three steam turbines. Therefore the steam turbine is dimensioned for 24 t/h of steam to generate a maximum electrical power of 5,400 kWe Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) This is an innovative technology for these applications and, at the moment of the feasibility study of the project, there was only plants below 1 MW built in Spain. o The process is based on a similar cycle to that of steam Rankine cycle except that ORC uses an organic fluid (hydrocarbon) instead of water/steam as a working fluid of the turbine. o To transfer the energy from exhaust gases of turbochargers toward the working fluid of the turbine, thermal oil is used in a closed loop. The working fluid of the organic cycle must not reach high temperatures and pressures because most organic fluids suffer chemical decomposition and deterioration (physical properties degradation). o One Waste Heat Oil Heaters (WHOH) will be installed at the exhaust end of each of the five gas turbines, from which one up to four units work simultaneously and the others are in standby. o The hot exhaust gases will be directed from the working turbocharger to the relevant WHOH. In case of malfunctioning of the system, the exhaust gases will be directed to stacks for release to the atmosphere as currently operated. o In the WHOHs, the hot gases heats the thermal oil, which is then pumped to the vaporizer of the energy converter unit through a single oil loop. The cooled down exhaust gases will be released through stacks, specifically designed for the flow and temperature of the gases. o In the energy converter unit, liquid motive fluid is pumped from the air cooled condenser via a recuperator and a preheater into the vaporizer. After it is vaporized by the thermal oil, the motive fluid vapours are expanded through a turbine, desuperheated and then fully condensed in the air cooled condenser. The liquid motive fluid is pumped up to the boiling pressure and returned to the vaporizer, closing the cycle. o The operation conditions of the organic fluid are about 23 bar of pressure and 200C of temperature. o The turbine is directly coupled to a synchronous generator.

Fig. 2.- Schematic representation of the ORC using the heat contained in the gas turbines exhaust.

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C. Energy analysis The generation plant will be operational whenever there is at least one turbocharger running. According to historical data that will be 8,585 hours per year (compressor station availability 98%). Steam Cycle From the heat available from exhaust gases (see fig.1) it has been estimated the total steam production, at 30 bar of pressure and 400C of temperature, that can be obtained from the recovery boilers (water-tube boiler) associated with turbochargers. Steam production for 90% of time is less than 24 t/h, this one is achieved with three turbochargers running at 100% load. Preliminary calculations determined maximum power production for steam turbines with a capacity between 22 and 24 t/h. The electric power generated by the steam turbine, at any given time, depends on the available steam flow and the vacuum conditions in the exhaust (depending on ambient temperature and steam flow in air-cooled condenser). For the nominal conditions of 24 t/h of steam it is achieved a vacuum of 0.1 bar for the ambient temperature of 25C and 0.08 bar for ambient temperature below 20C. As the ambient temperature increases, the vacuum conditions are unfavourable and the electric power generated by the turbine is decreases.

Fig. 3.- Flow-sheet corresponding to a Cycle of Rankine with vapour using three groups turbochargers to full load (design point).

From the curve of steam production and average daily temperature it has been calculated that the vacuum will be taken at the exhaust of the turbine. With these vacuum conditions and steam flow available, it has been obtained the electric power generated by the steam turbine and electric energy generated annually, assuming the 97% plant availability, guaranteed by the manufacturer.
Steam Turbine Power generation 5,450 Steam flow 24,000 Steam pressure 30 Steam temperature 400 Uptime 8,327 Steam energy 174,921 Gross energy generated 29,891 Auxiliary consumption 2,092 Net energy generated 27,799 Electricity support(*) 43 CS consumption(**) 828 Exported energy 26,994 Ratio of self-consumption 9.8 Gross performance 17.1 Net performance 15.9 kWe kg/h bar C h MWh MWh MWh MWh MWh MWh MWh % % %

Table 2.- Summary of the energy results obtained for the generating plant with steam Rankine cycle. *Electricity to support the 5% of the time that the generation plant does not work. **Annual consumption of the compression station. 4/11

Organic Cycle All results are based on information provided by ORMAT, a company that since 1965 has been actively involved in the development of alternative energy, thermal power systems and has pioneered the use of organic fluid as the power systems motive fluid. ORMAT has experience in the construction of similar plants to the requested. Due to the changing working conditions the recovered energy generation (REG) system has been sized according to two main design points: a) Energy converter unit The design point of the energy converter unit, now called ORMAT Energy Converter (EC), which contains all the critical elements of the ORC, is based on four turbochargers working at partial loads. The design point has been set up such that it will maximize power generation at any of the working conditions. In this way, the OEC will be able to generate power from a single working turbocharger at partial load up to four turbochargers at full load. b) Heat recovery system The heat recovery system consist of five Waste Heat Oil Heaters (WHOH) and single thermal oil loop. Each WHOH is sized to recover energy from a compressor set working at full load, thus covering any possible working condition.

Fig. 4.- Flow-sheet corresponding to a Organic Rankine Cycle .

According to the supplier, for different operating points of the compression station and assuming an ambient temperature of 16.6C, the performance of the system proposed is:
Working conditions
Exhaust gas flow [Kg/h] Exhaust gas temperature [C] Working Compressor Gross [kW]

Power generation
Net [kW] Auxiliary consumption [kW]

*47,250 58,200 115,230 171,500 193,100 **255,410

493 488 500 509 511 516

1 1 2 3 4 4

870 1100 2360 3620 4120 5100

655 885 2010 3100 3485 4295

215 215 350 520 635 805

Table 3.- Summary of the system features for different operating points of the compression station. The temperature of the gases at stack outlet is 125C. *Lowest working conditions as recorded by Enagas in Almendralejo. **Highest working condition with four compressors at full load.

Therefore, comparing the data recorded of the energy available in the exhaust with the data shown in the table above for the operation of the ORC plant, the gross and net electrical power generated is estimated at the reference temperature of 16.6C. These values are corrected for the monthly average temperature from the correction curves supplied by ORC manufacturer. The availability guaranteed by the manufacturer of the ORC plant is of 94%.
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Organic Turbine Power generation(***) 5,100 Exhaust flow 225,400 Motive fluid pressure 23 Motive fluid temperature 200 Uptime 8,070 Exhaust gases energy(**) 169,512 Gross energy generated 22,956 Auxiliary consumption 3,520 Net energy generated 19,436 Electricity support(*) 65 CS consumption 828 Exported energy 18,673 Ratio of self-consumption 18.9 Gross performance 13,5 Net performance 11,5

kWe kg/h bar C h MWh MWh MWh MWh MWh MWh MWh % % %

Table 4.- Summary of the energy results obtained for the generating plant with steam Rankine cycle. *Electricity to support the almost 8% of the time that the generation plant does not work. **No losses are deducted in the heat recovery system. ***At design point conditions, the Net system output at 15 kV interconnection point is 3,825 kWe.

D. Economic analysis Since the offers requested for purchase of principal equipments, carry out the work and provide the necessary services for the engineering, procurement and construction of the plant, it is estimated the total investment of the power generation plant, both for the steam cycle and for the ORC. The investment considered a new electric line to export the excess electricity generated, initially estimated in more than 250,000 . The Spanish regulatory framework in force at the time of the study, RD 436/2004, allowed the sale of excess electricity at market prices supplemented by a bonus for energy efficient generator. Both alternatives, steam and ORC, have the same classification within the RD 436/2004, and therefore have the same bonus. According with this regulations (bonus) and market prices, the final sales price of electricity for the year 2006 turned out to be 69.50 /MWh. Operating and maintenance costs have a significant impact on the economic results of the plant. After confirming with the manufacturer, maintenance costs for the steam cycle has been estimated at 25,000 /year for the steam turbine and a 2% of investment for the rest of the installation. For the ORC has been estimated at 1 /MWh for the OEC and also at 2% of investment for the rest of the installation. Operating costs only take into account staff costs and insurance costs (equipment failure) because the thermal oil as the motive fluid work in a close loop. Reference prices considered in the study were based on year 2006 from which was planned a energy price increase of 1.7% per year and a CPI of 2.5% for the evolution of maintenance, personnel and Insurance costs. The income obtained as a consequence of the implementation of the generation plant will be the result of adding those obtained from sale of the excess to the electric grid and savings on the electric annual invoice of the CS. The expenses will be referred to the purchase of energy from the electric company to support the maintenance of the facility, any staff costs and insurance. The economic feasibility study shows the following results:
Investment Capacity cost IRR (10 y) IRR (20 y) PB time Steam 11,150,000 375 8.9 11.6 7.1 Organic 7,600,000 330 9.3 12.7 6.9 /MWh % % years

Table 5.- Summary of the economic indicators for the two analysed technologies.

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E. Solution proposed After analysing the energy and economic results, Enags consider that: a) The project is highly attractive from an energy and environmental point of view, because: i. It produces electricity from a residual energy (exhaust gases of the turbochargers) that was previously discharged to the atmosphere, thereby taking advantage energies that previously were rejected, ii. By means of the bottom cycle a saving of 7,954 ton/year of CO2 takes place, favouring the reduction of emission of greenhouse gases as set by the Kioto Protocol. iii. The primary energy savings is a factor that makes very attractive the present project, since it promotes the independence from external energy supply (fossil fuel), which follows the precepts of the European directive CHP 2004/CE/8. b) According to the different alternatives considered is recommended the introduction of the organic Rankine cycle (ORC). This alternative presents, mainly, the following advantages: i. High reliability. ii. Little attention is required. iii. Good performance to partial loads of the turbochargers, very important feature within the CS of Almendralejo, where turbochargers continuously modulate such load as has been found in the historical data (ORC has lower sensitivity to partial loads). c) Economically, the organic cycle is the option that meets the requirements of Enags. It is the economic factor that makes specially attractive the alternative posed by the use of ORC. The option of this alternative could be even better, as demonstrated by the sensitivity analysis carried out, looking at the different analysis performed where organic cycle remains as the best option.. d) The absence of an adequate supply of water for the needs of the steam cycle (steam production, condensation) makes the organic cycle the better option. Moreover, if we consider air-cooled condensation system, the associated to the organic cycle is much smaller and less expensive than that of the steam cycle, a direct consequence of differences in amount between hydrocarbons (working fluid of ORC) and steam volumes required. e) Enags understands that should not have staff dedicated specifically to the installation proposed, since there are precedents where the monitoring of the boilers is done remotely (via telemetry). They favour the use of generators of thermal oil, since it is in this type of generators which it is controlled by remote monitoring. In the case of using steam generators (HRSG), the control of the these ones could only be performed every 2 hours, done without its supervision via telemetry. Therefore it is proposed to install a power generation plant in a bottom thermodynamic cycle based on an organic Rankine cycle (ORC) recovering waste heat from exhaust gases of the gas turbines driven compressors which is discharged to the atmosphere. F. Solution adopted In July of 2006, Enags signed a contract with ORMAT Systems Ltd. and Abantia Energa & Medio Ambiente (former SGT-Servicios de Gestin Tecnolgica, S.A.) for the design, engineering, manufacture, transportation, installation, comissioning and testing of a power generation system at the Almendralejo compression station. The Recovered Energy Generation (REG) plant, consist of an organic fluid ORMAT Energy Converter (OEC), Waste Heat Oil Heaters (WHOH), switchyard and various balance of plant subsystems. The OEC is a pre-engineering, pre-packaged power unit designed for diverse temperature heat sources, and consist mainly of a vaporizer/preheater, recuperator, turbine-generator set, air-cooled condenser and feed pump. This OEC is a field proven, mature commercial product operating worldwide, designed for outdoor installation (no buildings required), remotely controlled and unattended operation. Next it is described the major equipment and subsystems contained in the REG system: Waste Heat Oil Heaters (WHOH) Are designed with a once-through forced flow for operation with thermal oil based on convective bundles executed as heating surface, in seamless finned tube construction installed in cassettes in metal housing including supports and spacers. Finned tubes are commonly used in gas turbines heat recovery applications where the exhaust gases, which are the by products of natural gas combustion in air, are considered clean.
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Fins promote a better heat transfer, make the heat exchangers more compact, lighter and reduce the costs, reducing gas side pressure drop.

Fig. 5.- One of the five Waste Heat Oil Heaters (WHOH).

Thermal oil loop Piping is installed to connect each WHOH to OEC main loop, equipped by pipe supports, valves and pumps, expansion and storage tanks and thermal insulation in all pipes.

Fig. 6.- Expansion and storage tanks of the thermal oil loop.

ORMAT Energy Converter (OEC) The OEC incorporates a mechanical and an electrical subsystems. The mechanical subsystem consist of the thermal-mechanical energy transfer equipment and includes a preheater/vaporizer, recuperator, air cooled condenser, turbine, lubrication system and feed pump as well as motive fluid piping, automatic control and safety relief valves, level, pressure and temperature control and pneumatic piping. The preheater and vaporizer are a horizontal shell and tube heat exchangers where the thermal oil flows trough the tubes against the motive fluid flowing in the shell, resulting in complete motive fluid vaporization. The recuperator is a horizontal shell and tube heat exchanger also. Hot motive fluid vapour, exiting from the turbine, is used to head cold motive fluid liquid on its way from the condenser to the preheater.
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Air-cooled condenser is an induced draft, air cooled-heat exchanger. The tubes are arranged in a one-pass configuration where motive fluid vapour is fed from the inlet box to the tubes. The motive fluid is cooled and condensed inside the tubes by forced air, generated with electric motor-driven fans, flowing outside of the finned tubes in a crossflow pattern. The Turbine consist of a single casing, multi-stage axial unit, directly coupled to the ends of the generator shaft by means of a crowned tooth gear coupling. The turbine is specifically designed to operate with the organic vapours and it's flow path and rotational speed both optimised for design conditions. No speed-reducting gearbox is required because the properties of the organic fluids produce favourable aerodynamic matching at relatively low blade and rotational speeds. A double mechanical shaft seal is used to prevent leakage of the working fluid.

Fig. 7.- Preheater, vaporizer, recuperator and air-cooled condenser.

Fig. 8.- Turbine-generator set.

The electrical subsystem consist of the mechanical-electrical energy transfer equipment and includes a generator, control cabinet and power cabinet. The generator is a synchronous typ, air-cooled, three phase machine. It is rated at 5,100 kW, 6 kV, 50 Hz and 0.8 power factor. The OEC power control includes generator control board (electronic control system, single phase synchroniser, cosf regulator) and auxiliary supply board (480 V and 24 VDC). The control system is based on a programmable logic controller (PLC) and a protection relay unit (under/over voltage, reverse power, phase over current, ground fault, phase balance,). Pressures, temperatures, voltages speed, kilowatts, currents, are checked an monitored during each scan of
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the PLC and compared with preset values in the memory to detect a warning or failure condition. In the event of a failure within the system, the unit is disconnected from the bus and shut down in a preprogrammed sequence. The control system provides access to all the analog and digital signals at the PLC through a communication link. Using the communication link, Enags can monitor any parameter inside the PLC or integrate it inside the own control system of the CS.

At the time of writing this paper the construction of the power generation plant has been completed. Although with a delay of more than 6 months waiting for the local authority permits, the construction of the power line for discharging to the grid has been also completed. The project of the electric aerial line had to be redrafted in 2008 after 2 years of paperwork becoming a buried line. This change has caused the delay in the procurement of the plant and an increase in the necessary investment to carry out the project. It is expected to perform the tests in August 2009.

Fig. 9.- General view of Almendralejo CS with the power generation plant in foreground.

Conclusions According to the Environmental Policy of Enags, its actions are shaped by its commitment to protecting the environment. This commitment is present in all business decisions and aims to strike a balance between industrial and economic progress and care for the environment. One of its environmental commitments is to make a continual effort to identify, characterise and improve the environmental impact resulting from its activities and facilities; and procure to ensure the efficient use of these tools from their inception to the end of their useful life with special attention paid to those used in particularly sensitive areas. As a result of this effort Enags has reached the following achievements: For the first time in gas industry in Europe using ORC technology, use of the combustion gases originated in a compression stations which until now have been released to the atmosphere at high temperature. Contribution to environmental improvement and compliance with the measures advocated by the Kyoto Protocol, based on two lines: o The decrease of emissions of polluting gases at high temperature, responsible for the greenhouse effect o Contribution to national energy system through the transformation of a residual energy into useful energy, reducing the need to use other fossil energies in nature and, therefore, limited. Development of a process of improving the energy efficiency of its compression process, so the compression station can be self-sufficient in electricity consumption Contribution to energy intake, so needed in energy-deficit countries, such as Spain.

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Furthermore, as a result of this new activity, Enags can count with extra income from the sale of electricity, in addition to those from their core business, or reduce their overall energy invoice.

References Bronicki, L.Y.; Utilization of Waste Heat from Gas Turbines using Ormat Energy Converter. ORMAT. 2001 Liebowitz, H.M.; Generating Electric Power from Waste Heat using ORC Technology; Power Point Presentation prepared for PTAC 2002 Climate Change and GHG Technology. H.M. Liebowitz H.M. and Schochet D.N.; Generating electric power from compressor station residual heat; Pipeline and Gas Journal, November 2001. UTE Almendralejo. Concurso:Planta de Generacin basada en un Ciclo Rankine Orgnico. Proyecto llave en mano. Ref. CIP-IG.3145.5005.001.00. Vol.1.Documentacin Administrativa y Propuesta Econmica. Documentacin interna del proyecto PN006. Enags . Noviembre, 2005. UTE Almendralejo. Concurso:Planta de Generacin basada en un Ciclo Rankine Orgnico. Proyecto llave en mano. Ref. CIP-IG.3145.5005.001.00. Vol.2.Documentacin Tcnica. Documentacin interna del proyecto PN006. Enags . Noviembre, 2005. IBERESE. Ingenieria Bsica y Estudio de Viabilidad de una Instalacin de Generacin. Documentacin interna del proyecto PN006. Enags . Enero, 2006.

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