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The U.S. recently passed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022 which “doubles down” on environmental justice and renewable energy [1]. The newly created Clean Electricity Investment Tax Credit (CEITC) is available for any investment in qualified electric generators and storage facilities that are placed in service after December 31, 2024, that have a life cycle greenhouse gas emissions rate of zero or less. Renewables, wind and solar generators, do not have a net-zero greenhouse gas emission level if one considers their cradle to grave life cycle; from the sourcing of the raw materials to transportation to the site, construction and maintenance activities required. In addition, there are many physical realities with wind and solar generation that have negative environmental and social impacts that are often overlooked or disregarded as a necessary evil in the quest for net-zero. The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) reported in their 2022 State of Reliability Report, that “Electricity and natural gas interdependencies are no longer emerging risks but require immediate attention, including implementation of mitigating approaches”. Natural-gas-fired generators are now necessary balancing resources for reliable integration of the growing fleet of variable (intermittent) renewable energy resources and can be expected to remain so until new storage technologies are fully developed and deployed at scale to provide balancing. Given the trend on electrifying the gas gathering, processing and transmission facilities, reliable electric power supply is critical to ensure uninterrupted delivery of natural gas to these back-up generators. This is particularly important in areas where renewable generation resources have high penetration rates [2]. The current technology for baseload battery storage is cost prohibitive at the capacities required to maintain grid viability. The recent trend is to provide some nominal amount of battery backup (4 hours) for intermittent generation sources, but that is clearly not sufficient in extreme weather events or outages that last more than 4 hours. Thus, the need for fossil-fueled thermal power generation peak shavers for the foreseeable future. [Keep reading]

Continuing July 2022 tip of the month, this tip demonstrates applications of the models developed based on the experimental VLE and VLLE data measurements presented in the Gas Processors Association (GPA) research report RR-242. The models will be used for estimation of solubilities of a mixture consisted of Benzene, Toluene, and Ethylbenzene in loaded amine solution with CO2 and/or H2S. This is important because all BTEX components, both soluble and absorbed, in the contactor will be removed from the solution in the flash drum and regenerator, the emissions will be essentially equal to the amount absorbed. Correctly estimating the quantity of absorbed BTEX and understanding the factors that affect absorption levels is critical to ensure the proper mitigation methods are provided to meet the required emission limits. [Keep reading]

Introducción En seguimiento de los dos últimos Previos del Mes (TOTM/PDM) sobre el gasoducto Nord Stream de larga distancia, el cual transmite el gas natural desde Rusia hasta Europa, este PDM resume la aplicación de varias correlaciones/ecuaciones disponibles para determinar la capacidad máxima de susodicha línea de larga distancia. Adicionalmente, se pueden realizar cómputos para efectuar cómputos a presión P, lpc/kPa, y temperatura T ºF/ºC ; demostrando que un gasoducto de larga distancia puede ser aplicado también para estimar como estas líneas igualmente pueden ser aplicadas para proporcionar volumen de almacenamiento del gas. [Keep reading]

This tip demonstrates applications of the models developed based on the experimental VLE and VLLE data measurements presented in the Gas Processors Association (GPA) research report RR-242. The models can be used for estimation of solubilities of selected hydrocarbons in pure water, unloaded amine solution, loaded amine solution with CO2 and/or H2S. Because all selected hydrocarbons, both soluble and absorbed, in the contactor will be removed from the solution in the flash drum and regenerator, the emissions will be essentially equal to the amount absorbed. This tip will focus on the following design variables: - Solubility of selected hydrocarbons in pure water. - GPA Midstream RR-242 Proposed Model. - Relative solubility of benzene, toluene, and ethyl benzene using charts. - Solubility of benzene, toluene, and ethyl benzene in 50 wt % MDEA solution, using chart and table. [Keep reading]

Following on the previous two tips of the month (TOTMs) on Nord Stream long distance pipeline for gas transmission from Russia to Europe, this TOTM discusses the application of various long distance gas transmission correlations/equations that are available to determine the maximum gas capacity of a long distance pipeline. In addition, calculations can be done to estimate the line packed gas volume; demonstrating that a long‐distance pipeline can be used as a gas storage facility as well. [Keep reading]

Los Proyectos de la Corriente Nord Stream 1 & 2 son tremendos logros de la ingeniería. En un Previo del Mes anterior, hemos discutido los aspectos técnicos del Diagrama de Fase, y su fase densa correspondiente, la Hidráulica, Selección de Diámetro, Espesor de la chapa del oleoducto, perfil de la gradiente de presión, y capacidad de transmisión de estas múltiples líneas de transmisión en paralelo. Este Previo del MES (PDM/TOTM) presentara el contexto y comparación del orden de magnitud de algunos de estos números. Para informarse sobre este Previo, y los pasados Previo del Mes (PDM/TOTM), visite la dirección JMC Tip of the Month. [Keep reading]