Techno-economic study for degraded gas turbine on pipeline application in the oil and gas industry.

Gas compression through pipelines is a capital intensive project. Therefore, it is imperative to investigate the viability of investing in such a project. Thus, the techno- economic and environmental risk assessment (TERA) tool to rapidly evaluate the entire natural gas pipeline project becomes vital. This research has investigated the impacts of gas turbine (GT) degradation in the application of TERA for a natural gas pipeline, taking into account the equipment selection, ambient conditions and periodic engine overhaul. Three scenarios (optimistic, medium and pessimistic) defining different levels of deterioration of the GT in comparison with the clean condition were examined in each season of the years (rainy, dry and hot season) based on the location of Trans-Saharan gas pipeline with 18 compression stations. The developed TERA model considered different modules such as the pipeline/gas compressor, performance, emission, a simplified lifing and economic module. The pipeline/gas compressor module evaluated the performance of the 4180km pipeline and gas compressor power across all compression stations in both isothermal and non- isothermal conditions. Aspen-Hysys/micro-soft excel and MATLAB were used to develop the model. The result showed that for every 1% increase in pipe exit pressure resulted in a 1.8% increase in the volume of the gas flow in the pipeline. Having evaluated the gas compressor (GC) power across the 18 compressor station, the investigation also revealed that for every 1% rise in the gas temperature resulted in a 3.4% rise in the power required by the gas compressor to move the gas. The GT performance was modelled using TURBOAMATCH at fixed power of the engine with respect to the different scenarios under investigation. The performance result was linked with the developed emission, lifing and economic model in MATLAB. The result revealed that for every 1% degradation (reduction in flow capacity and isentropic efficiency) at a constant power of engine operation, between an ambient temperature of 16.2ᴼC and 29ᴼC, CO₂ emission increases between 0.71% and 0.78% when compared with the clean condition. Also, at the same operating condition, the NOx emission increases between 1.66% and 1.8%. However, NOx emission at different compressor station varies from one station to another due to the influence of different ambient conditions, engine power settings and number of engines used. Lifing result showed that as the engine degrades, its creep life reduces at high TET to deliver the same power at a fixed number of engines Net present value (NPV) at different discount rates (DR) (0%, 5%, 10% and 15%) were used to evaluate the economic viability of the project, taking into account engine divestment and leasing for the redundant fleets after overhaul. The study further investigated how Rescheduling of GT Overhaul (ROH) from the baseline condition affects the economic viability of the pipeline project. The result showed that implementing the ROH reduces the number of GT used for the optimistic, medium and pessimistic scenarios by 8%, 2% and 4% respectively, for the same number of the compressor station and at the same operating conditions when compared with the baseline condition. The result also showed that running the engine on degraded mode increases the life cycle cost while the NPV reduces as the degradation increases. For instance, at 10% DR, the baseline NPV for the clean, optimistic, medium, and pessimistic scenarios were $21.5, $19.6, $18.4 and $17.1 billion, respectively showing that the NPV decreases with increase in degradation, unlike other studies that analysed the NPV on clean engine operation only. Remarkably, the NPV for engine divestment was 0.2% to 20.3% lower than the NPV for leasing depending on the different scenarios and DR, indicating that NPV leasing gives better benefits than that of engine divestment. Furthermore, the implementation of on-line compressor washing to investigate the impacts on the pipeline project and emission reduction using TURBOMATCH and MATLAB for the developed model revealed that the CO₂ emission and cost of CO₂ for the optimistic, medium and pessimistic scenarios had a reduction of 5.8%, 6.1% and 6.5% respectively when compared with the baseline condition. Also, at 5% DR, the NPV for the three scenarios after compressor washing increase by 6%, 5.2% and 4.8%, respectively when compared with the baseline case. The proposed methods and result in this research will offer a useful decision-making guide for all pipeline investors to invest in a natural gas pipeline business, taking into account different operating conditions and the impacts of engine degradation.