Journal of Natural Gas Science and Engineering 3 (2011) 547e554

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Journal of Natural Gas Science and Engineering

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jngse

Effect of different parameters on optimum design for high pressure

natural gas trunk-lines
Hesam Najibi*, Naseh Taghavi
Faculty of Petroleum Engineering, Petroleum University of Technology (PUT), Post Box 63431, Ahwaz, Iran

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Natural gas is rapidly growing in global importance both as a primary energy source and a feedstock for
Received 29 November 2010 downstream industry. Therefore, needs for natural gas transportation from production zones to
Received in revised form consuming areas are ever increasing. Natural Gas transmission through pipeline is the oldest and most
11 June 2011
common method for high capacity gas transmission. These transmission systems are very capital
Accepted 28 June 2011
intensive; therefore, the optimum design for this method of transportation seems indispensable.
Available online 28 July 2011
In this work, the optimum design for gas transmission systems has been investigated from technical
and economical points of view. The main optimization criterion has been the minimization of the life
Keywords:
Natural gas trunk line
cycle cost for the gas transmission system. Considering various factors affecting the life cycle cost of these
High pressure systems, a comprehensive mathematical model has been established to nd the optimum design. In view
Rank-optimization method of the characteristics of the model, comprising continuous and discrete variables, a rank-optimization
Life cycle cost methodology has been used. Based on the developed optimization method, an optimization program
has been compiled. The effect of different variables on the life cycle cost for one of the Iranian Gas
Trunk-Lines (IGAT-II) has been investigated.

2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Natural gas is rapidly growing in global importance both as
a primary energy source and as a feedstock for downstream
industry. The worldwide natural gas consumption has been
increased quickly in recent years and its demand as a primary
energy will increase in the future. It is predicted that the natural gas
demand increases at an average rate of 2.4 percent annually until
2030 in the world (International Energy Outlook, June 2006). Fig. 1
shows the trend of worldwide natural gas consumption until 2025
(Chang, 2001). Currently, there are four options for gas trans-
portation to markets; 1) gas transmission by pipelines, (Pipeline
Natural Gas PNG), 2) gas to transitory medium by volume reduction
such as (Liqueed Natural Gas, LNG), (Compressed Natural Gas,
CNG), and (Natural Gas Hydrates, NGH), 3) conversion to other
products (Gas To Liquids, GTL) such as FischereTropsch (FeT)
synthetic fuels and methanol, 4) conversion to other energy forms
such as electricity and transmission by cable to market (Gas To
Wire, GTW). However, only the rst two are known as methods in
which the energy is transported in gas form. Nowadays, PNG and
LNG are the only commercial technologies used widely for gas
* Corresponding author. Tel./fax: 98 611 5551057.
E-mail addresses: hesamnajibi60@gmail.com, najibi@put.ac.ir (H. Najibi).
transportation. While LNG is largely used for gas transmission for
long distances, so far pipeline transportation has largely dominated
the international gas trade (Najibi and Rezaei, 2009). Pipelines are
the most common, safe and economic means to transport gas from
production sites to end users. When use of LNG technology is
challenging or uneconomical, the high pressure natural gas trans-
mission pipelines become increasingly interesting (Graf et al.,
2003). The gas transmission through high pressure trunk-lines is
a very capital intensive project; therefore, optimum design for this
method of transportation is crucial and optimization criteria should
reect the total cost for these systems. The main components of
a high pressure pipeline gas transmission system are mainly
composed of pipe segments and compressor stations. Therefore, in
any optimization method, the cost of these two components plays
a major role.
2. Optimization model
The main components of a trunk line gas transmission system
are pipelines and compressor stations. A fundamental scheme of
a gas mainline considered in this study is shown in Fig. 2. These two
components make the majority of the initial investment and
maintenance cost of the overall project. To reach the optimized
design for these systems, an objective function is required to be

1875-5100/$ e see front matter
2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jngse.2011.06.006
548 H. Najibi, N. Taghavi / Journal of Natural Gas Science and Engineering 3 (2011) 547e554

ulife1 
180 u u  2
1 . (2)
r r r
Gas Consumption (TCF)

160
Where, u is one plus the ination rate and r is one plus the interest
rate.
140
2.1.1. Pipeline initial investment
120 Pipeline initial investment includes the costs of design, purchase
of materials and installation for pipeline and all other auxiliary
100 equipment. These expenditures are usually expressed as a function
of length, diameter, thickness and the pipe material grade. To
80 develop a correlation to estimate the pipeline initial investment,
a large number of data have been collected from NIGC (National
60 Iranian Gas Company). These data include the cost of different
1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025 pipelines with different lengths and diameters but the same pipe
material grade (API-5LX-X60). Based on these data, the following
Year correlation is developed to estimate the pipeline initial investment
Fig. 1. Worldwide natural gas consumption (Chang, 2001). for API-5LX-X60 pipe material. For higher grades 2e3% increase has
been considered (Mohitpoor et al., 2003). Fig. 3 shows schemati-
cally this trend.
dened. Since this objective function has a great impact on the
results, it should be dened in such a way that all of the important FLini 556:4LDo 1102:1Wsteel (3)
parameters be included. In the subject of gas pipeline design, there
are many technical limitations which should be satised in any Where, L, D0, and Wsteel are pipe length, pipe outside diameter and
design scheme. As mentioned before, these transmission projects steel weight respectively. The cost of valving system is being
are very capital intensive, therefore; a cost function seems to be considered under pipeline cost.
a good choice as the objective function in this optimization method.
The most comprehensive cost function is the life cycle cost for all 2.1.2. Pipeline maintenance cost
the components of the whole project (Ruan et al., 2009). The life Five percent of the pipeline initial investment is considered as
cycle cost (LCC) of any piece of equipment is the total lifetime cost the pipeline maintenance cost per year (Ruan et al., 2009). For
to purchase, install, operate, and maintain that piece of equipment. lifetime of the pipeline, this expenditure is expressed as below:
The dimension used for LCC in this work is dollar per million
ulife1 
u  u 2
standard cubic meter per kilometer of pipeline. FLmaint 0:05FLini 1 . (4)
r r r
2.1. Objective function
2.1.3. Compressor station initial investment
It is assumed that only centrifugal compressors are used in this
The total life cycle cost for the whole gas transmission system
study, therefore, the following correlation is used for the
considered in this study, consists of all the initial investments and
compressor station initial investment (Valiei, 2007):
the operating costs for the pipe segments and compressor stations.
It is dened as follows:


$ $
FNini 2800000 988 N (5)
F FL FN FLini FLmaint FNini FNmaint FNfuel (1) station kw
In order to reect the effect of ination and bank interest rates, N is the power consumed by the compressor to increase the
all of the maintenance and operating cost functions are multiplied pressure from suction pressure to discharge pressure and is
by the following equation (Eisenberger et al., 1977): calculated as follows:

C1 C1

C2 C2

Pipe Segment
Gas Plant C3
Delivery
C3

C4 C4

C5 C5

Compressor Station Compressor Station

Fig. 2. Schematic diagram of compressor stations and pipe segments.
 H. Najibi, N. Taghavi / Journal of Natural Gas Science and Engineering 3 (2011) 547e554 549

Never In further
manufactured research
Base commercially phase
3% 3% 3% 3% 6%
X60 X70 X80 X90 X100 X120

2%

X65

Fig. 3. Schematic diagram of calculation procedure of pipe initial investment for pipe grades higher than X60.

  2.2. Technical constraints

1 k k1
N Zavg RTs e k  1 n_ (6)
ha k  1 There are some technical constraints which should be taken into
account in design stage. The major constraints considered in this
Where, e is the compression ratio. The cost of gas cooling system is study are as follows:
included in the compressor station costs.
2.2.1. Flow regime constraint
2.1.4. Compressor station maintenance cost The ow regime in high pressure natural gas pipelines is
Five percent of the compressor station initial investment is considered fully rough in this study. This regime is encountered at
considered as the compressor station maintenance cost per year very high Reynolds numbers, where the pipe surface roughness
(Ruan et al., 2009). For lifetime, this expenditure is expressed as extends beyond the laminar boundary layer. The Reynolds number
below: in this regime should be higher than the critical Reynolds number

ulife1  (Coelho and Pinho, 2007). This constraint is written as follows:
u u2
FNmaint 0:05FNini 1 . (7)
r r r Re>Recr (9)
Where
2.1.5. Compressor station energy consumption cost
1:1039
In gas transmission systems the compressors are usually driven
Recr 35:235 (10)
by the gas turbines and their required fuel is approximately 0.5% of Di
the total gas transmitted (Tabkhi, 2007). The lifetime cost for the
fuel consumption for each compressor station is expressed as
2.2.2. Hydraulic constraint
follows:
Each pipeline segment between two compressor stations must
Power  days  3600  24  PNG satisfy a ow equation. In this study modied ColebrookeWhite
FNfuel equation has been used. This is an equation most suggested and is
hd hm

ulife1  (8) more common in the natural gas industry (Coelho and Pinho,
u u2 2007). The general form of this equation is as follows:
 1 .
r r r

Commercial grades X52 X56 X60 . X100 X120

Commercial diameters D1 D2 D3 . Dr-1 Dr

Commercial thicknesses
.

Number of Compressor Stations 1 2 3 . n-1 n

Fig. 4. Schematic diagram for the optimum combination choice among available choices.
550 H. Najibi, N. Taghavi / Journal of Natural Gas Science and Engineering 3 (2011) 547e554

" #0:5 s Where Df :Lf :Jf :Tf are different factors used for safety, based on
Tsc p21  p22  E 1 2:5
Qb 13:2986 D (11) ASME standards.
Psc LGTavg Zavg fm i
2.2.4. Stability constraint
Where
The stability requirements for pipelines cause the diameter to
s !
thickness ratio to be less than some specied value. The stability
1 =Di 2:825
2log p (12) constraint used in this study is as follows (Ruan et al., 2009):
fm 3:7 Re fm
Do
 110 (15)
2.2.3. Intensity constraint d
The maximum allowable pressure in a pipeline for a given wall
thickness is determined by Barlow Equation (Mohitpoor et al., 2.2.5. Compression ratio constraint
2003). The working pressure is considered to be equal to 90% of According to the industrial experiences to ensure that the
this design pressure as shown in the following equations (Ruan compressors operate at the logical and economic power range, the
et al., 2009): compression ratio should be in the following range (Ruan et al.,
2009):
2:SMYS:d 1:2  e  1:6 (16)
MAOP :Df :Lf :Jf :Tf (13)
Do
The compression ratio has a strong effect on the economy of the
PWorking 0:9:MAOP (14) whole project.

Fig. 5. Flow chart for the compiled optimization program.

 H. Najibi, N. Taghavi / Journal of Natural Gas Science and Engineering 3 (2011) 547e554 551

2.2.6. Velocity constraint 15

It is always necessary to control the gas velocity to protect the D=121.92 cm., X60, G=0.633 8.685 MPa
14
pipe from erosion corrosion. The following empirical equation is
used for this limit in this study (Mohitpoor et al., 2003): 13

12 12.4 MPa
us < ue (17)

LCC [$/(km. M SCM)]

11
14.475 MPa
C PM 10
ue ; r ; us Q =A (18)
r0:5 ZRT 9

This empirical equation can be used for clean (non-corrosive 8

conditions and sand free) and non-clean pipelines, based on the
value used for the empirical constant C (Salama, 2000). In this
study, it is assumed that the pipeline is working in a clean condition
and a value of 100 is used for constant C (Mohitpoor et al., 2003).
2.2.7. Dimensions and grades constraint
The nominal pipe sizes, thicknesses and pipe material grades
produced by different pipeline manufacturers, has discreet speci-
ed values. These series are described and used as follows
(Europipe):
Pipe Material GradesfX60; X65; .; X120g
NPSi fNPS1 ; NPS2 ; .g
dfd1 ; d2 ; d3 ; .g
2.2.8. Discharge temperature constraint
The temperature of the gas discharged from gas compressors
has a limitation. This temperature shouldnt be too high due to
some metallurgical and operational limitations (Mohitpoor et al.,
2003). The constraint in this regard used in this study is as follows:
k1
Td k on the life cycle cost of a gas transmission system are included. In
Td  422 K; e (22)
Ts
7
6
5
10 30 50 70 90 110 130 150 170 190
Flow rate (MSCMD)
Fig. 7. Effect of working pressure on LCC for a pipeline gas transmission system.
3. Methodology
(19)
There are many different mathematical techniques used for
optimization of the gas mainline designs (Wong and Larson, 1968;
(20)
Peretti and Toth, 1982; Carter, 1998; Li, 2001; Kang, 2001). In
general, the most common methods used in such optimization
(21) problems are gradient-based procedures, dynamic programming or
genetic algorithm. Dynamic programming is limited to the simple
network topologies and gradient-based procedures are difcult to
nd a global optimum and depend strongly on the initial values. In
most cases genetic algorithm can nd the global optimum solution
with a high probability but, nding global optimum is not guar-
anteed for all cases (Rao, 2009). In this work, a comprehensive
mathematical model has been established to nd the optimum
design. In this model various factors such as diameter, thickness,
pressure, length, compression ratio, etc. which have strong effect
view of the characteristics of the model, comprising continuous and
discrete variables, a rank-optimization methodology has been used.
In this methodology, available combinations will be veried from
technical and economical points of view. If any combination does

18
12
NPS X60, P= 12.4 MPa, G=0.633
P=12.4 MPa, D=121.9 cm., X70, G=0.633
91.44 cm
16
10
Total LCC
NPS
LCC [$/(km.MSCM)]

14
LCC [$/(km.MSCM)]

106.68 cm
8 NPS
12 121.92 cm
NPS
6 142.24 cm
10

4
8
Pipeline LCC
2
6
Compressor stations LCC
0 4
20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120 130 140 150 160 170 10 30 50 70 90 110 130 150 170 190 210 230 250
Flow rate (MSCMD) Flow rate (MSCMD)

Fig. 6. Effect of gas ow rate on LCC of pipeline and compressor station. Fig. 8. Effect of pipe diameter on LCC for a pipeline gas transmission system.
552 H. Najibi, N. Taghavi / Journal of Natural Gas Science and Engineering 3 (2011) 547e554

12.5 22
D=121.92 cm, P=12.4 MPa, G=0.633 P=7.24 MPa, X70, G=0.633 NPS
11.5 20 106.68 cm
NPS
18 121.92 cm NPS
10.5
142.24 cm
LCC[$/ (km/MSCM)]

16

LCC [$/(km.MSCM)]
9.5

14
8.5

12
7.5 X60
X70 10
6.5
X80
X100 8
5.5
X120
6
4.5
20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 4
Flow rate (MSCMD)
Flow rate (MSCMD)
Fig. 9. Effect of pipe material on LCC for a pipeline gas transmission system.
Fig. 10. Effect of pipe diameter on LCC for IGAT-II gas transmission system.

not satisfy any technical constraint will be rejected. Only combi-

nations satisfying all of the constraints will come out as the tech-
LCC will have a minimum value. The general shape for these
nically feasible combinations. For all feasible combinations, the life
diagrams is shown in Fig. 6.
cycle cost will be calculated and the one with the minimum value is
The effect of working pressure on LCC for a pipeline gas trans-
the optimum design. Using this methodology, the developed opti-
mission system is shown in Fig. 7. It shows increasing working
mization model can be described as follows:
pressure will increase the optimum ow rate and will decrease the
X
m X
n  minimum LCC for the gas transmission system. It means that
minF fL Di ; di ; Gradei ; Li fN Nj (23) designing the pipeline gas transmission system for possible higher
i1 j1 pressures is better. The effect of pipe diameter on LCC is shown in
Fig. 8. Again increasing pipe diameter for xed values of working
Taking into account the constraints dened in Equations
pressure and pipe material will result in higher optimum ow rate
(9)e(22). Fig. 4 schematically shows this procedure.
and lower LCC. Fig. 9 shows the effect of pipe material on LCC. This
Based on the above mentioned methodology, an optimization
gure shows that using higher strength materials will decrease LCC
program was compiled. The ow chart for this program is shown in
for xed values of working pressure and pipe diameter. This is due
Fig. 5. Some techniques have been adapted to minimize the
to lower pipe thickness required at higher grades. It should be
required run time.
noticed that the results presented in all the gures in this work
including Fig. 9, have passed all the constraints including the
4. Results and discussion
stability constraint (Equation 15).

The compiled optimization algorithm provides a media for the

investigation of the effect of different parameters on the life cycle
cost for different possible combinations of a pipeline gas trans-
18
mission system. The results obtained from the algorithm shows 7.24 MPa
D=142.24 cm, X70, G=0.633
that for xed values of diameter, working pressure and pipeline
material, by increasing the gas ow rate, LCC for the pipeline will 16
decrease and LCC for the compressor stations will increase and total 8.27 MPa
14
LCC [ $/(km.MSCM)]

Table 1
Gas composition and main characteristics of IGAT-II. 12 11.03 MPa
Components Mole percent Operating conditions 12.4
10 MPa
CH4 87.753 Operating pressure (MPa)
7.2375
C2H6 4.703 Total length (Km)
8
C3H8 1.901 1040 13.79
i-C4H10 0.4 Capacity (MMstdm3/d) MPa
n-C4H10 0.4 90 6
i-C5H12 0.02 Inlet temperature (K)
n-C5H12 0.02 318.15
n-C6H14 0 Pipe material grade 4
n-C7 0 X70
10 30 50 70 90 110 130 150 170 190 210 230 250
N2 3.802 NPS (cm)
CO2 1.001 142.24 Flow rate (MSCMD)
H2S 0 No. of compressor stations
H2O 0 7
Fig. 11. Effect of working pressure on LCC for IGAT-II gas transmission system.
 H. Najibi, N. Taghavi / Journal of Natural Gas Science and Engineering 3 (2011) 547e554 553

18 there are any expansion plans for the capacity in the future, it is
P=7.24 MPa, D=142.24 cm, G=0.633 better to design the pipeline for higher pressures. Fig. 12 shows the
16 effect of pipe material on LCC for this pipeline. As shown, material
has a small effect on the LCC for this gas transmission system. If we
increase the working pressure of the pipeline to 12.4 MPa, the effect
14 of pipe material will be more pronounced as shown in Fig. 13. It
LCC [$/(km.MSCM)]

means that pipelines are more sensitive to material specication at

12 higher pressures.

10 6. Conclusion

8 Optimum design for high pressure gas transmission trunk-lines

X60 was investigated from technical and economical points of view. The
X65
optimization criterion was proposed to be the minimization of the
6 X70
X80
life cycle cost for these systems. A comprehensive mathematical
model has been established to nd the optimum design for a gas
4 transmission system. In this model various factors such as diameter,
10 30 50 70 90 110 130 150 170 thickness, pressure, length, compression ratio, etc. which have
strong effect on the life cycle cost of a gas transmission system are
Flow rate (MSCMD)
included. In view of the characteristics of the model, comprising
Fig. 12. Effect of pipe material on LCC for IGAT-II gas transmission system. continuous and discrete variables, a rank-optimization method-
ology has been used. Based on the developed optimization method,
an optimization program has been compiled. The effect of different
5. Case study operating variables on the life cycle cost for one of the Iranian Gas
Trunk-Lines (IGAT-II) was investigated.
National Iranian Gas Company has designed and constructed
more than 30000 km high pressure gas trunk-lines with their Acknowledgment
required compressor stations. These lines carry the produced gases
mainly from southern elds to all parts across the country. One of The authors wish to thank Dr. Golshan and Mr. Valiei for their
them is known as IGAT-II (Iranian Gas Trunk line II) which trans- helps and supports.
ports the gases produced from Nar and Kangan elds near the
Persian Gulf to the north parts of Iran. The composition of the gas in Nomenclature
this trunk line and the main characteristics of this gas transmission
English letters
system, are shown in Table 1. The written algorithm was used to
A Pipeline cross sectional area, m2
investigate the effect of different parameters on this trunk line.
days Working days per year, days
Fig. 10 shows the effect of pipe diameter on LCC for this pipeline. As
Df Design factor, dimensionless
it is shown, decreasing the pipe diameter from its present value
Di Inside diameter, m
(142.24 cm) will decrease the optimum ow rate and this ow rate
Do Outside diameter, m
will occur at higher LCC. The effect of working pressure on LCC for
E Potential energy term, pa2
this pipeline is shown in Fig. 11. The results show that if the pipeline
fm Moody friction factor, dimensionless
was designed for higher working pressures than its present value,
F Total life cycle cost, $
higher ow rates could be handled with lower LCC. It means that if
FLini Pipeline initial investment, $
FLmaint Pipeline maintenance cost, $
FNini Compressor initial investment, $
11 FNmaint Compressor maintenance cost, $
P=12.4 MPa, D=142.24 cm, G=0.633 FNfuel Fuel consumption cost, $
10 FL Pipeline life cycle cost, $
FN Compressor station life cycle cost, $
Acceleration of gravity, m/s2
LCC[ $/(km.MSCM)]

9 g
gc Proportionality constant, kg m/(N s2)
8 G Gas specic gravity, dimensionless
Jf Joint factor, dimensionless
K Heat capacity ratio, dimensionless
7
X60 L Pipe segment length, m
X65 LCC Life cycle cost ($)
6
X70 Life Lifetime of equipments, years
X80 Lf Location factor, dimensionless
5 X100 MAOP Maximum allowable operating pressure, pa
X120 m Number of pipe segments
4 M Gas molecular weight, kg/kmole
20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200 220 240 MSCM Million standard cubic meter
Flow rate (MSCMD) n_ gas mole ow rate, kmole/s
n Number of compressor stations
Fig. 13. Effect of pipe material on LCC for IGAT-II if pressure doubles. N Compressor station power, kw
554 H. Najibi, N. Taghavi / Journal of Natural Gas Science and Engineering 3 (2011) 547e554

NPS Nominal pipe size, cm e Compression ratio, dimensionless

P Pressure, pa Pipe roughness, m
Pworking Working pressure, pa
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