• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.72-79
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• 2015

Electricity can be generated when the natural gas passes through a turbo-expander pressure reduction system at natural gas pressure reduction stations. Efficiency of the turbo-expander depends on the ratio of the natural gas flow rates to the design flow rate of the turbo-expander. Therefore, the optimal conditions for the operation of the pressure reduction system can be determined by controlling the natural gas flow rates. In this study, we have calculated the electric energy generation depending on the natural gas flow rates at the two low-pressure reduction stations when the pressure of the natural gas is reduced from 17.5 bar to 8.5 bar and have found the optimal conditions for the turbo-expander pressure reduction system through the comparison with the calculation results. The turbo-expander generates the electric power efficiently for the high natural gas flow rates which variations are slight. The determined design flow rate of the turbo-expander has the highest coverage of the natural gas flow rates. The electricity generation is calculated as much as 9 MW(B station) and 12 MW(D station) at each pressure reduction station.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.28-34
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• 2014

In the natural gas pressure regulation station, high pressure natural gas is decompressing using pressure regulation valves. Waste pressure occurred in the pressure regulation process can be recovered through adopting turbo expanders. However, in the waste pressure recovery process, Joule Thompson effect causes below $0^{\circ}C$ and this low temperature freezes outside land of pipeline or generates methane hydrate in the pipeline which can block the pipeline. Therefore, turbo expander systems are accompanying with a boiler for preheating natural gas. Molten carbonate fuel cell (MCFC), one of the high temperature fuel cell, can use natural gas as a direct fuel and is also exhausting low emission gas and generating electricity. In this paper, a thermodynamic analysis on the hybrid MCFC-turbo expander system is conducted. The fuel cell system is analyzed for the base load of the hybrid system.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.1-7
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• 2012

Natural gas through pipeline is supplied to consumers after its pressure gets down compulsorily. The waste pressure energy of this process can be restored by use of turbo expander which can produce electricity. So, turbo expander conducts two functions - pressure reduction and power generation. The power amount is the enthalpy difference between the inlet and outlet states. The five main factors which affect economic profit are facility price, produced power amount, pre-heating amount, electricity cost, and fuel gas cost. Power generation depends mainly on flow amount because inlet and outlet states are fixed. A methodology to estimate economy in irregular flow pattern is proposed and using this way, a case study was carried out.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.74-81
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• 2019

Expansion turbine system to recover the electricity energy from natural gas transmission stations is a well-known technique. The turbo-expander efficiency depends on the ratio of the natural gas flow rates to the design flow rate of the turbo-expander. However, if there is a big difference of the natural gas flow rate through the pressure letdown station because of seasonal supply pattern, that is, high flow rate in winter while low flow rate in summer, single turbo-expander system is not so efficient as to recover the pressurized energy from the low flow-rate natural gas. Therefore, we have proposed a new concept of double turbo-expander system: one is a big capacity and the other a small capacity. Here we have theoretically computed the electric powers at the pressure reduction from 18.5 bar to 7.5 bar depending on the inlet conditions of temperature and flow rate. The calculated electricity generation has been increased by 30% from 12.4 MW in a single turbo expander to 16.1 MW in the proposed double turbo-expander system when a minimal design efficiency of 0.72 is applied.

• KEPCO Journal on Electric Power and Energy
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.299-305
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• 2016

The High Temperature Superconducting power cables (HTS power cables) become increasingly longer to commercialize the HTS power cable system. Accordingly, demands on refrigerators of large cooling capacity per a unit system have been increased. In Korea, it is currently imported from abroad with the high price due to insufficient domestic technologies. In order to commercialize the HTS power cables, it is necessary to develop the refrigerators with large cooling capacity. The Brayton refrigerators are composed of recuperative heat exchangers, compressors and cryogenic turbo expanders. The most directly considering the efficiency of the Brayton refrigerator, it depends on performance of the cryogenic turbo expander. Rotating at high speed in cryogenic temperature, the cryogenic turbo expanders lower temperature by expanding high pressure of a helium or neon gas. In this paper, the reverse Brayton cycle is designed and the cryogenic turbo expander is designed in accordance with the thermodynamic cycle.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.130-139
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• 1994

A cycle analysis was performed for 2-stage expansion Claude refrigerators by a numerical method. The refrigerators are under recent development such that the reciprocating expanders of Collins cycle are replaced by new turboexpanders. A computer simulation program was written to predict the coefficient of performance of the refrigerators for several input parameters. It was found out that there exist unique optimum values for the ratio of expanded mass through the turboexpanders to the total mass and for the intermediate pressure of the 2-stage expansion. The maximum coefficient of performance was about $5{\times}10^{-4}$ at the optimal operation.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.13-20
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• 2014

In natural gas distribution system, gas pressure is regulated correspond to requirement using throttle valve which is releasing huge pressure energy as useless form. The waste pressure can be recovered by using turbo machinery devices such as a turbo expander. In this process, excessive temperature drop occurs due to Joule-Thompson effect during the expansion process. Installing natural gas boiler before or after the turbo expander prevents temperature drop. Fuel cell or gas engine hybrid system further improve the efficiency, but 1~2% of total transporting natural gas is used for operating the hybrid system. In this study, a heat pump system is proposed as a preheating device which can be operated without using transporting natural gas. Thermodynamic analysis on evaporating and condensing temperatures and refrigerants is conducted. Results show that R717 is proper refrigerant for the hybrid system with high COP and low turbine work within the defined operating conditions. In domestic usage in Korea, the heat pump system has more economic feasibility owing to natural gas being imported with a high price of LNG form.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.9-17
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• 2015

Almost all of the natural gas consumed in South Korea is compressed into very high pressure for the transportation through the underground pipelines, then reduced in pressure regulation stations before delivery to the consumer. For pressure reduction, expansion valves have been used due to the simple and effective installation, but recover none of the energy in the gas during compression. Hence, turbo-expanders are proposed instead of the valves to accomplish the same pressure letdown function and recover some of the compression energy in the form of shaft work converting into electric powers. Here we have theoretically calculated the electric powers at the pressure reduction from 68.7 bar to 23 bar (which are the average values taken at the inlet and outlet points of the expansion valve in medium-pressure regulation stations) according to the inlet conditions of temperature and flow rate. The natural gas is considered as two cases of a pure methane and the mixture of hydrocarbons with a very small amount of nitrogen, and the Peng-Robinson equation of state is employed for the calculation of required thermodynamic properties. The electric energy is recovered as much as 1596 MW(methane) and 1567 MW(mixture) based on the total supply of natural gas in 2013.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.109-115
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• 2004

A 1-D system design program has been developed for the preliminary design of the turbopump system in liquid rocket engines, which use LOx and kerosene as propellants. Gasgenerator cycle and staged combustion cycle were considered as turbopump type liquid rocket engine systems. In the system analysis, mass flow balance, thrust, specific impulse, mixture ratios, turbopump power, and turbine expansion ratio of engine system were analyzed. Results show that most of the parameters agree well with real engine parameters except gasgenerator. Therefore, the l-D system design program developed in this study can be used to derive the preliminary design parameters of a turbopump with any thrust level liquid rocket engine.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.33-40
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• 2022

In this study, we present rotor dynamic analysis and operation test of a turbo expander for a hydrogen liquefaction plant. The turbo expander consists of a turbine and compressor wheel connected to a shaft supported by two hydrostatic radial and thrust bearings. In rotor dynamic analysis, the shaft is modeled as a rigid body, and the equations of motion for the shaft are solved using the unsteady Reynolds equation. Additionally, the operating test of the turbo expander has been performed in the test rig. Pressurized helium is supplied to the bearings at 8.5 bar. Furthermore, we monitor the shaft vibration and flow rate of the helium supplied to the bearings. The rotor dynamic analysis result shows that there are two critical speeds related with the rigid body mode under 40,000 rpm. At the first critical speed of 36,000 rpm, the vibration at the compressor side is maximum, whereas that of the turbine is maximum at the second critical speed of 40,000 rpm. The predicted maximum shaft vibration is 3 ㎛, whereas sub-synchronous vibration is not presented. The operation test results show that there are two critical speeds under the rated speed, and the measured vibration value agrees well with predicted value. The measured flow rate of the helium supplied to the bearing is 2.0 g/s, which also agrees well with the predicted data.