EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH INSIDE A GAS HEATER WITH DIFFERENT INTERMEDIATE HEAT CARRIER MEDIUM
The gas heater is one of the key equipments in gas industry, which plays the role of heating natural gas to the required processing temperature, and the application of gas heater shows a promising prospect. The cylindertype heating device with an intermediate heat carrier medium is most widely employed. Apparently, the selection of intermediate heat carrier medium and the form of heat transfer process of the intermediate heat carrier medium, i.e. the flow field organization in the large capacity cylinder, is the key elements that greatly affect the thermal efficiency of gas heater. A real gas heater experimental system, which is the only one in China, is built. The present paper characterizes water and ethylene glycol as the intermediate heat carrier medium. Experimental measurements and analysis on the flow condition and temperature distribution between the water and ethylene glycol in the cylinder were carried out. The results shown that using ethylene glycol as the heat carrier media can widen the application range of gas heater. The efficiency of the heater with ethylene glycol as the heat carrier medium is at least 3.8% higher than that with water as the heat carrier medium under the same working conditions. The thermal efficiency of gas heater is usually less than 87%.
Structure and heat transfer analysis on natural gas heater
As a special type of heater,natural gas heater is indispensable equipment in natural gas application system.According to the structure of natural gas heater,its heating surface and cooling surface are all eccentrically-oriented.The mathematic analysis of natural convection in eccentric cylinder was conducted,the medium flow and temperature field were numerically simulated in the bipolar coordinate system.The result indicates that the flow and heat transfer would perform the best when the heating surface is in the lower half of the cylinder.
Prospects of and challenges to natural gas industry development in China
Abstract An unprecedented breakthrough has been made over the past decades in natural gas industry, which helps improve energy mix and promote the low-carbon economy in China. With such abundant hydrocarbon resources, China owns two intensive oil and gas producing blocks in the Ordos Basin and Xinjiang province and two other concentrated gas producing blocks in Sichuan and Western South Sea. In addition, arterial gas lines have been connected as a gas grid all over China and natural gas market has become more and more mature and expanded. Thus, a natural gas industry system has come into being. However, with natural gas unevenly scattering all across China, the remnant resources mainly are distributed in the stratigraphic strata, deep strata in superimposed basins or in mature exploration zones, foreland basin thrust belts, marine gas fields, and so on. In reality, the future gas exploration should focus on such domains as the weathered crust karst reservoirs or carbonate and stratigraphic traps, deep clastic gas layers, and unconventional oil and gas plays. Achievements have been made in marine shale gas exploration, CBM gas steady development, and other unconventional natural gas resources. From the perspective of exploration potential, more giant oil and gas fields will be possibly discovered in deep strata or deep sea water, and stratigraphic hydrocarbon reservoirs and tight oil and gas reservoirs will also be the exploration focus. With the increase of exploration depth and degree, the overall oil and gas exploration cost will be significantly rising in general. New discoveries or reserves increase in natural gas exploration will highly depend upon research theory and technology progress, and such development technologies as 3D seismic survey, horizontal drilling and fracturing treatment will be more highlighted. Through enhancing the cost in natural gas exploration and development and strengthening the research of core technologies, natural gas industry will keep the trend of rapid growth in near future in China.