gas pipeline

A pipeline is a system of pipes for long-distance transportation of a liquid or gas, typically to a market area for consumption. The latest data from 2014 gives a total of slightly less than of pipeline in 120 countries around the world. The United States had 65%, Russia had 8%, and Canada had 3%, thus 76% of all pipeline were in these three countries. The main attribute to pollution from pipelines is caused by corrosion and leakage.

''Pipeline and Gas Journal''s worldwide survey figures indicate that of pipelines are planned and under construction. Of these, represent projects in the planning and design phase; reflect pipelines in various stages of construction. Liquids and gases are transported in pipelines, and any chemically stable substance can be sent through a pipeline.

Pipelines exist for the transport of crude and refined petroleum, fuels—such as oil, natural gas and biofuels—and other fluids including sewage, slurry, water, beer, hot water or steam for shorter distances and even pneumatic systems which allow for the generation of suction pressure for useful work and in transporting solid objects. Pipelines are useful for transporting water for drinking or irrigation over long distances when it needs to move over hills, or where canals or channels are poor choices due to considerations of evaporation, pollution, or environmental impact. Oil pipelines are made from steel or plastic tubes which are usually buried. The oil is moved through the pipelines by pump stations along the pipeline. Natural gas (and similar gaseous fuels) are pressurized into liquids known as natural gas liquids (NGLs). Natural gas pipelines are constructed of carbon steel. Hydrogen pipeline transport is the transportation of hydrogen through a pipe. Pipelines are one of the safest ways of transporting materials as compared to road or rail, and hence in war, pipelines are often the target of military attacks.

Oil and natural gas

The first crude oil pipeline was built by the Oil Transport Association, which constructed a wrought iron pipeline over a track from an oil field in Pennsylvania to a railroad station in Oil Creek, in the 1860s. Some of the first major submarine pipelines were constructed across the English Channel in 1944 during Operation Pluto. These provided an estimated 8 per cent of all petroleum products used by the Allies on the Western Front between the Normandy landings and the end of Second World War.

Pipelines are generally the most economical way to transport large quantities of oil, refined oil products or natural gas over land. For example, in 2014, pipeline transport of crude oil cost about $5 per barrel, while rail transport cost about $10 to $15 per barrel. Trucking has even higher costs due to the additional labor required; employment on completed pipelines represents only "1% of that of the trucking industry.".

In the United States, 70% of crude oil and petroleum products are shipped by pipeline. (23% are by ship, 4% by truck, and 3% by rail) In Canada for natural gas and petroleum products, 97% are shipped by pipeline.

Natural gas (and similar gaseous fuels) are lightly pressurized into liquids known as Natural Gas Liquids (NGLs). Small NGL processing facilities can be located in oil fields so the butane and propane liquid under light pressure of , can be shipped by rail, truck or pipeline. Propane can be used as a fuel in oil fields to heat various facilities used by the oil drillers or equipment and trucks used in the oil patch. EG: Propane will convert from a gas to a liquid under light pressure, 100 psi, give or take depending on temperature, and is pumped into cars and trucks at less than at retail stations. Pipelines and rail cars use about double that pressure to pump at .

The distance to ship propane to markets is much shorter, as thousands of natural-gas processing plants are located in or near oil fields. Many Bakken Basin oil companies in North Dakota, Montana, Manitoba and Saskatchewan gas fields separate the NGLs in the field, allowing the drillers to sell propane directly to small wholesalers, eliminating the large refinery control of product and prices for propane or butane.

The most recent major pipeline to start operating in North America is a TransCanada natural gas line going north across the Niagara region bridges. This gas line carries Marcellus shale gas from Pennsylvania and other tied in methane or natural gas sources into the Canadian province of Ontario. It began operations in the fall of 2012, supplying 16 percent of all the natural gas used in Ontario.

This new US-supplied natural gas displaces the natural gas formerly shipped to Ontario from western Canada in Alberta and Manitoba, thus dropping the government regulated pipeline shipping charges because of the significantly shorter distance from gas source to consumer. To avoid delays and US government regulation, many small, medium and large oil producers in North Dakota have decided to run an oil pipeline north to Canada to meet up with a Canadian oil pipeline shipping oil from west to east. This allows the Bakken Basin and Three Forks oil producers to get higher negotiated prices for their oil because they will not be restricted to just one wholesale market in the US. The distance from the biggest oil patch in North Dakota, in Williston, North Dakota, is only about 85 miles or 137 kilometres to the Canada–US border and Manitoba. Mutual funds and joint ventures are the largest investors in new oil and gas pipelines. In the fall of 2012, the US began exporting propane to Europe, known as LPG, as wholesale prices there are much higher than in North America. Additionally, a pipeline is currently being constructed from North Dakota to Illinois, commonly known as the Dakota Access Pipeline.

As more North American pipelines are built, even more exports of LNG, propane, butane, and other natural gas products occur on all three US coasts. To give insight, North Dakota Bakken region's oil production has grown by 600% from 2007 to 2015. North Dakota oil companies are shipping huge amounts of oil by tanker rail car as they can direct the oil to the market that gives the best price, and rail cars can be used to avoid a congested oil pipeline to get the oil to a different pipeline in order to get the oil to market faster or to a different less busy oil refinery. However, pipelines provide a cheaper means to transport by volume.

Enbridge in Canada is applying to reverse an oil pipeline going from east to west (Line 9) and expanding it and using it to ship western Canadian bitumen oil eastward. From a presently rated 250,000 barrels equivalent per day pipeline, it will be expanded to between 1.0 and 1.3 million barrels per day. It will bring western oil to refineries in Ontario, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Quebec and New York by early 2014. New Brunswick will also refine some of this western Canadian crude and export some crude and refined oil to Europe from its deep water oil ULCC loading port.

Although pipelines can be built under the sea, that process is economically and technically demanding, so the majority of oil at sea is transported by tanker ships. Similarly, it is often more economically feasible to transport natural gas in the form of LNG; however, the break-even point between LNG and pipelines would depend on the volume of natural gas and the distance it travels.

Growth of market

The market size for oil and gas pipeline construction experienced tremendous growth prior to the economic downturn in 2008. After faltering in 2009, demand for pipeline expansion and updating increased the following year as energy production grew. By 2012, almost of North American pipeline were being planned or under construction. When pipelines are constrained, additional pipeline product transportation options may include the use of drag reducing agents, or by transporting product via truck or rail.

Construction and operation

Oil pipelines are made from steel or plastic tubes with inner diameter typically from . Most pipelines are typically buried at a depth of about . To protect pipes from impact, abrasion, and corrosion, a variety of methods are used. These can include wood lagging (wood slats), concrete coating, rockshield, high-density polyethylene, imported sand padding, sacrificial cathodes and padding machines.

Crude oil contains varying amounts of paraffin wax and in colder climates wax buildup may occur within a pipeline. Often these pipelines are inspected and cleaned using pigging, the practice of using devices known as "pigs" to perform various maintenance operations on a pipeline. The devices are also known as "scrapers" or "Go-devils". "Smart pigs" (also known as "intelligent" or "intelligence" pigs) are used to detect anomalies in the pipe such as dents, metal loss caused by corrosion, cracking or other mechanical damage. These devices are launched from pig-launcher stations and travel through the pipeline to be received at any other station down-stream, either cleaning wax deposits and material that may have accumulated inside the line or inspecting and recording the condition of the line.

For natural gas, pipelines are constructed of carbon steel and vary in size from in diameter, depending on the type of pipeline. The gas is pressurized by compressor stations and is odorless unless mixed with a mercaptan odorant where required by a regulating authority.

Ammonia

Until damaged during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Russian Ukrainian ''Transammiak'' line was the longest ammonia pipeline in the world, at 2,500km. It connected the TogliattiAzot facility in Russia to the exporting Black Sea-port of Odesa in Ukraine.

Alcohol fuels

Pipelines have been used for transportation of ethanol in Brazil, and there are several ethanol pipeline projects in Brazil and the United States.
The main problems related to the transport of ethanol by pipeline are its corrosive nature and tendency to absorb water and impurities in pipelines, which are not problems with oil and natural gas.
Insufficient volumes and cost-effectiveness are other considerations limiting construction of ethanol pipelines.

In the US minimal amounts of ethanol are transported by pipeline. Most ethanol is shipped by rail, the main alternatives being truck and barge. Delivering ethanol by pipeline is the most desirable option, but ethanol's affinity for water and solvent properties require the use of a dedicated pipeline, or significant cleanup of existing pipelines.

Coal and ore

Slurry pipelines are sometimes used to transport coal or ore from mines. The material to be transported is closely mixed with water before being introduced to the pipeline; at the far end, the material must be dried. One example is a slurry pipeline which is planned to transport iron ore from the Minas-Rio mine (producing 26.5 million tonnes per year) to the Port of Açu in Brazil. An existing example is the Savage River Slurry pipeline in Tasmania, Australia, possibly the world's first when it was built in 1967. It includes a bridge span at above the Savage River.

Hydrogen

Hydrogen pipeline transport is a transportation of hydrogen through a pipe as part of the hydrogen infrastructure. Hydrogen pipeline transport is used to connect the point of hydrogen production or delivery of hydrogen with the point of demand, with transport costs similar to CNG, the technology is proven. Most hydrogen is produced at the place of demand with every an industrial production facility. The 1938 Rhine-Ruhr hydrogen pipeline is still in operation. , there are of low-pressure hydrogen pipelines in the US and in Europe.

Water

Two millennia ago, the ancient Romans made use of large aqueducts to transport water from higher elevations by building the aqueducts in graduated segments that allowed gravity to push the water along until it reached its destination. Hundreds of these were built throughout Europe and elsewhere, and along with flour mills were considered the lifeline of the Roman Empire. The ancient Chinese also made use of channels and pipe systems for public works. The famous Han dynasty court eunuch Zhang Rang (d. 189 AD) once ordered the engineer Bi Lan to construct a series of square-pallet chain pumps outside the capital city of Luoyang.Needham, Joseph (1986). Science and Civilization in China: Volume 4, Part 2. Taipei: Caves Books Ltd. p. 33. These chain pumps serviced the imperial palaces and living quarters of the capital city as the water lifted by the chain pumps was brought in by a stoneware pipe system.Needham, Volume 4, Part 2, 345–46.

Pipelines are useful for transporting water for drinking or irrigation over long distances when it needs to move over hills, or where canals or channels are poor choices due to considerations of evaporation, pollution, or environmental impact.

The Goldfields Water Supply Scheme in Western Australia using pipe and completed in 1903 was the largest water supply scheme of its time.

Examples of significant water pipelines in South Australia are the Morgan-Whyalla pipeline (completed 1944) and Mannum-Adelaide pipeline (completed 1955) pipelines, both part of the larger Snowy Mountains scheme.

Two Los Angeles, California aqueducts, the Owens Valley aqueduct (completed 1913) and the Second Los Angeles Aqueduct (completed 1970), include extensive use of pipelines.

The Great Manmade River of Libya supplies of water each day to Tripoli, Benghazi, Sirte, and several other cities in Libya. The pipeline is over long, and is connected to wells tapping an aquifer over underground.

Other systems

District heating

District heating or ''teleheating'' systems consist of a network of insulated feed and return pipes which transport heated water, pressurized hot water, or sometimes steam to the customer. While steam is hottest and may be used in industrial processes due to its higher temperature, it is less efficient to produce and transport due to greater heat losses. Heat transfer oils are generally not used for economic and ecological reasons. The typical annual loss of thermal energy through distribution is around 10%, as seen in Norway's district heating network.

District heating pipelines are normally installed underground, with some exceptions. Within the system, heat storage may be installed to even out peak load demands. Heat is transferred into the central heating of the dwellings through heat exchangers at heat substations, without mixing of the fluids in either system.

Beer

Bars in the Veltins-Arena, a major football ground in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, are interconnected by a beer pipeline. In Randers

HOME


Content is Copyleft
Website design, code, and AI is Copyrighted (c) 2014-2017 by Stephen Payne


Consider donating to Wikimedia



As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases