Abstract:
Gas transportation through the pipeline network requires high pressure; otherwise, movement will be impossible. Due to friction
with the walls of the pipes, the gas loses both speed and pressure. Therefore, it is necessary to increase the pressure in the main
pipeline, which can extend for thousands of kilometers. For this purpose, compressor stations are located along the main network,
facilitating the gas transport process by raising it to the required pressure. Compressor stations mainly consume the transported
gas, with approximately 5% expended on gas compression. This article presents a study on the fuel cost for compressor stations,
using mathematical models to optimize the operation of gas compressor units. The objective is to minimize gas consumption as a
fuel and provide an optimization method with control over blower revolutions and valve installations to ensure safe
transportation. Mathematical modeling of the described process detected the technically unjustified fuel gas consumption
during the operation of gas compressor units at a specific compressor station under consideration. The paper proposes a
method for minimizing costs, which can serve as the basis for providing recommendations to engineers-dispatchers.
Compressor stations of the type under study lack measuring instruments for mass flow; therefore, the methods such as PID
controllers, MPC, or neural networks are not applicable here.
