Industrial Gas Feed Pressure Control With Buffer Storage
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Solution Overview
Problem
The variability of renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar power, poses challenges for industrial gas plants, leading to sub-optimal management of power, inefficient operation rates, and potential shutdowns, which are costly in terms of time, expenditure, and gas production.
Innovation Solution
A method and system for controlling the supply of feedstock gas from an industrial gas facility to a downstream process, involving the use of a control system to regulate the pressure and flow rate of the feedstock gas. This system includes valves and pressure controllers to manage the flow between the production plant and the gas storage resource, ensuring a constant set point pressure and adjusting the flow rate based on operational parameters of the gas storage resource.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Object-affected harmful factors
If renewable energy sources (wind, solar, tidal power) are used to power industrial gas plants, then environmental sustainability is improved, but the variable and intermittent nature of these energy sources causes process instability and operational inefficiency
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by storing gas produced during periods of high renewable energy availability in storage resources (such as underground caverns or pressurized vessels) before the renewable energy becomes unavailable. This advance preparation ensures continuous supply to downstream processes even when wind, solar, or tidal power is intermittent, resolving the contradiction between using renewable energy and maintaining process stability.
2Productivity
If the flow rate of feedstock gas to downstream process is increased to maximize production, then productivity is improved, but the variability of renewable power sources leads to inefficient operation and potential shutdowns
Solution Approach 1:
The control system continuously monitors the availability of renewable power and the state of gas storage resources, using this feedback information to dynamically adjust the flow rate of feedstock gas to downstream processes. When renewable power is abundant, the system increases production and stores excess gas; when power becomes scarce, it maintains downstream supply from storage without shutting down, thus maximizing productivity while ensuring operational efficiency.
3Reliability
If gas is stored in storage resources to compensate for renewable energy variability, then process continuity is improved, but the complexity of the gas management system increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system introduces gas storage resources as intermediary elements between the renewable energy-powered production plant and the downstream process. These storage resources act as buffers that decouple the variability of renewable energy from the continuity requirements of downstream processes, improving process continuity while adding manageable complexity through well-established storage technologies.
Data Source
AI summary
An industrial gas production plant operable to produce a feedstock gas at a variable production rate for supply to the downstream process; and a gas storage resource operable to store produced feedstock gas, the method comprising: determining the pressure of feedstock gas in a supply feed line to the downstream process; selectively controlling, using a control system, a flow of feedstock gas from the supply feed line to the gas storage resource or from the gas storage resource to the supply feed line in response to the determined pressure in order to regulate the pressure of the feedstock gas in the supply feed line to the downstream process at a predetermined set point pressure; and selectively controlling, using a control system, a flow rate of feedstock gas in the supply feed line to the downstream process in dependence upon at least one operational parameter of the gas storage resource.