A New Analytical Model for Predicting Natural Gas Transportation Compressor Power

The compressor power requirement for gas pipelines is critical to the efficient delivery of natural gas over long distances. Existing models for predicting compressor power using pipeline length and gas throughput as input parameters are limited. This study focused on developing a new analytical model using the general energy equation to capture better interrelationships between compressor power and other parameters affecting compressor power requirements of horizontal natural gas pipelines. The developed model was validated using Bryan Research and Engineering (BRE) ProMax 2.0 process simulation software. The results indicated that the developed model was reliably consistent and accurate when compared with ProMax results. In other to improve the efficiency of the developed model, correction factors for both pipe length and gas throughput were developed. The percentage average absolute deviation (% AAD) was 4.37 for the fixed pipe length with variable throughput and 0.68 for the fixed throughput with variable length, scenarios.