Heat Removal for Adsorbed Natural Gas Storage: Lab to Industrial Scale

The objective of this paper is to present different possible scenarios of heat removal for adsorbed natural gas storage (ANG) technology applied to diurnal peak shaving in connection with the gas pipeline system. Efficient removal of heat generated by adsorption is essential for fully utilizing the designed storage capacity of an adsorber vessel in such technology. To address this issue, adsorption isotherm data is collected using a lab-scale adsorber, with a volume of 120 cm³. Then, an adsorption isothermal model was developed based on the adsorption potential theory. Isosteric heat of adsorption and integral heat of adsorption were calculated as the base of the internal heat generation rate during the adsorption process. The temperature profile of the adsorber bed at the end of the charging process was simulated using a cylindrical coordinate system to mimic an ANG adsorber vessel having the length of 15 m and the diameter of 1.42 m (pipeline with 56 in. diameter). The results showed that improved thermal conductivity of adsorbents combined with a cooling jacket (e.g., central tube or cooling coil) can achieve 95% or more of the designed storage capacity. Our results demonstrated that ANG is an industrially applicable technology for diurnal peak shaving.