ALBERT

Description: This paper considers the issue of associated petroleum gas utilization during hydrocarbon production in remote petroleum fields. Due to the depletion of conventional oil and gas deposits around the globe, production shifts to hard-to-recover resources, such as heavy and high-viscosity oil that requires a greater amount of energy to be recovered. At the same time, large quantities of associated petroleum gas are extracted along with the oil. The gas can be utilized as a fuel for power generation. However, even the application of combined power modes (combined heat and power and combined cooling heat and power) cannot guarantee full utilization of the associated petroleum gas. Analysis of the electrical and heat loads’ graphs of several oil fields revealed that the generated thermal energy could not always be fully used. To improve the efficiency of the fuel’s energy potential conversion, an energy system with a binary power generation cycle was developed, consisting of two power installations—a main gas microturbine and an auxiliary steam turbine unit designed to power the technological objects in accordance with the enterprise’s power load charts. To provide for the most complete utilization of associated petroleum gas, a gas-to-liquid system is introduced, which converts the rest of the gas into synthetic liquid hydrocarbons that are used at the field. Processing of gas into various products also lowers the carbon footprint of the petroleum production. Application of an energy system with a binary power generation cycle makes it possible to achieve an electrical efficiency up to 55%, at the same time maintaining high efficiency of consumers’ energy supply during the year. The utilization of the associated petroleum gas in the developed system can reach 100%.

Description: Consideration of the possibility of transporting compressed hydrogen through existing gas pipelines leads to the need to study the regularities of the effect of hydrogen on the mechanical properties of steels in relation to the conditions of their operation in pipelines (operating pressure range, stress state of the pipe metal, etc.). This article provides an overview of the types of influence of hydrogen on the mechanical properties of steels, including those used for the manufacture of pipelines. The effect of elastic and plastic deformations on the intensity of hydrogen saturation of steels and changes in their strength and plastic deformations is analyzed. An assessment of the potential losses of transported hydrogen through the pipeline wall as a result of diffusion has been made. The main issues that need to be solved for the development of a scientifically grounded conclusion on the possibility of using existing gas pipelines for the transportation of compressed hydrogen are outlined.