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Computational Analysis of Natural Gas Supply Chains

A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "C: Energy Economics and Policy".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 February 2020) | Viewed by 11621

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Thermal and Flow Engineering Laboratory, Abo Akademi University, 20500 Turku, Finland
Interests: process systems engineering; modeling; optimization; energy systems; iron- and steelmaking
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Co-Guest Editor
encoord GmbH, 45127 Essen, Germany
Interests: energy systems integration; sector coupling; gas and power system modeling; optimization; software development

E-Mail Website
Co-Guest Editor
Thermal and Flow Engineering Laboratory, Abo Akademi University, 20500 Turku, Finland
Interests: modeling and optimization; process integration; energy systems; MILP/MINLP

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The emissions of greenhouse gases around the world must be considerably reduced to combat global warming, and the energy and transportation sectors are presently the largest emitters. In the long run, all energy sources have to become renewable, but during the transition period, solutions with lower CO2 emissions will play a key role. An increased use of variable and intermittent renewable energy sources also brings about challenges concerning operational flexibility, reliability, and sustainability of the power systems.

Natural gas (NG) is today the fastest growing energy source, and it is obvious that NG will play an important role during the energy transition phase: Its CO2 emissions are lower than for other fossil fuels, and NG is a necessary complement to intermittent renewable energy sources in power production. However, because of its lower energy density and the globally distributed locations of the gas sources, it has become increasingly important to design efficient gas distribution chains. The supply chain of liquefied natural gas (LNG) calls for special transportation and storage solutions due to the low temperature (about  -160 °C) and the associated problem of boil-off gas handling.

The present Special Issue of Energies focuses on computational tools for the design and operation of efficient natural gas supply chains, including transportation of gas in pipelines, in compressed (CNG) or liquefied form by ships or by trucks. Studies of interest include but are not limited to optimal design and operation of gas pipeline networks, LNG or CNG supply chains, considering economic, reliability, and sustainability issues. Furthermore, papers addressing the interplay between gas supply and distribution of other energy forms (e.g., power), as well as planning, scheduling, and dynamic aspects of gas delivery are also welcome.

We would like to invite authors to submit papers related to computational analysis of natural gas supply chains. We also encourage experts to submit review papers that systematically summarize the progress and propose lines of future development in the field.

Prof. Henrik Saxén
Dr. Kwabena Addo Pambour
Dr. Frank Pettersson
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Energies is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Modeling and simulation of gas pipelines
  • LNG/CNG supply chain optimization
  • Models of global or regional gas supply chains
  • Design of robust supply chains, design under uncertainty
  • Retrofit of existing supply chains
  • Fleet size/vehicle routing problems for LNG/CNG supply
  • Gas to power (G2P)/power to gas (P2G)
  • Integration of synthetic natural gas (SNG)
  • Gas quality and composition tracking
  • Gas storage
  • Sector coupling, gas electricity interaction

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

23 pages, 9901 KiB  
Article
At What Cost Can Renewable Hydrogen Offset Fossil Fuel Use in Ireland’s Gas Network?
by Tubagus Aryandi Gunawan, Alessandro Singlitico, Paul Blount, James Burchill, James G. Carton and Rory F. D. Monaghan
Energies 2020, 13(7), 1798; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/en13071798 - 8 Apr 2020
Cited by 15 | Viewed by 5728
Abstract
The results of a techno-economic model of distributed wind-hydrogen systems (WHS) located at each existing wind farm on the island of Ireland are presented in this paper. Hydrogen is produced by water electrolysis from wind energy and backed up by grid electricity, compressed [...] Read more.
The results of a techno-economic model of distributed wind-hydrogen systems (WHS) located at each existing wind farm on the island of Ireland are presented in this paper. Hydrogen is produced by water electrolysis from wind energy and backed up by grid electricity, compressed before temporarily stored, then transported to the nearest injection location on the natural gas network. The model employs a novel correlation-based approach to select an optimum electrolyser capacity that generates a minimum levelised cost of hydrogen production (LCOH) for each WHS. Three scenarios of electrolyser operation are studied: (1) curtailed wind, (2) available wind, and (3) full capacity operations. Additionally, two sets of input parameters are used: (1) current and (2) future techno-economic parameters. Additionally, two electricity prices are considered: (1) low and (2) high prices. A closest facility algorithm in a geographic information system (GIS) package identifies the shortest routes from each WHS to its nearest injection point. By using current parameters, results show that small wind farms are not suitable to run electrolysers under available wind operation. They must be run at full capacity to achieve sufficiently low LCOH. At full capacity, the future average LCOH is 6–8 €/kg with total hydrogen production capacity of 49 kilotonnes per year, or equivalent to nearly 3% of Irish natural gas consumption. This potential will increase significantly due to the projected expansion of installed wind capacity in Ireland from 5 GW in 2020 to 10 GW in 2030. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Computational Analysis of Natural Gas Supply Chains)
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24 pages, 700 KiB  
Article
Planning Annual LNG Deliveries with Transshipment
by Mingyu Li and Peter Schütz
Energies 2020, 13(6), 1490; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/en13061490 - 21 Mar 2020
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2731
Abstract
The introduction of transshipment ports in the liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply chain in recent years offers additional flexibility, but also challenges to the planning of the annual delivery program. We present a new variant of the LNG-annual delivery program (ADP) planning problem [...] Read more.
The introduction of transshipment ports in the liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply chain in recent years offers additional flexibility, but also challenges to the planning of the annual delivery program. We present a new variant of the LNG-annual delivery program (ADP) planning problem by considering transshipment as well as time-dependent sailing times. We present a continuous time formulation for the LNG-ADP problem and propose a rolling horizon heuristic to solve the problem. Both the model and heuristic were used to solve a case inspired by the Yamal LNG project. The computational results show that the heuristic provides good solutions within a relatively short amount of time, especially compared to the exact solution methods. However, there is a trade-off between computational time and solution quality when designing the rolling horizon heuristic. The results also show the impact storage capacity at the transshipment port has on the total cost. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Computational Analysis of Natural Gas Supply Chains)
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12 pages, 5932 KiB  
Article
Effect of Valve Opening Manner and Sealing Method on the Steady Injection Characteristic of Gas Fuel Injector
by Tianbo Wang, Lanchun Zhang and Qian Chen
Energies 2020, 13(6), 1479; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/en13061479 - 20 Mar 2020
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2491
Abstract
The steady-state injection characteristic of gas fuel injector is one of the key factors that affects the performance of gas fuel engine. The influences of different injection strategies, such as different injection angles and different injection positions, on the mixing performance in gas-fueled [...] Read more.
The steady-state injection characteristic of gas fuel injector is one of the key factors that affects the performance of gas fuel engine. The influences of different injection strategies, such as different injection angles and different injection positions, on the mixing performance in gas-fueled engine have been emphasized in previous literatures. However, the research on the injection characteristics of the gas fuel injector itself are insufficient. The three-dimensional steady-state computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models of two kinds of injectors, in different opening manners, and the other two kinds of injectors, in different sealing methods, were established in this paper. The core region speed, stagnation pressure loss and mass flow rate were compared. Additionally, the effective injection pressure (EIP) concept was also used to evaluate the injection efficiency of gas fuel injector. The simulation results show that the jet speed of the pull-open injector is higher than the push-open injector under the same operating conditions. The injection efficiency of the pull-open valve is about 56.0%, while the push-open valve is 50.3%. In general, the steady-flow characteristic of the pull-open injector is better than that of the push-open one. The injection efficiency of the flat sealing injector is 55.2%, slightly lower than the conical sealing method. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Computational Analysis of Natural Gas Supply Chains)
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