Classifications

• • F—MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; LIGHTING; HEATING; WEAPONS; BLASTING
  • F02—COMBUSTION ENGINES; HOT-GAS OR COMBUSTION-PRODUCT ENGINE PLANTS
  • F02C—GAS-TURBINE PLANTS; AIR INTAKES FOR JET-PROPULSION PLANTS; CONTROLLING FUEL SUPPLY IN AIR-BREATHING JET-PROPULSION PLANTS
  • F02C1/00—Gas-turbine plants characterised by the use of hot gases or unheated pressurised gases, as the working fluid
  • F02C1/02—Gas-turbine plants characterised by the use of hot gases or unheated pressurised gases, as the working fluid the working fluid being an unheated pressurised gas
• • Y—GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
  • Y02—TECHNOLOGIES OR APPLICATIONS FOR MITIGATION OR ADAPTATION AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE
  • Y02E—REDUCTION OF GREENHOUSE GAS [GHG] EMISSIONS, RELATED TO ENERGY GENERATION, TRANSMISSION OR DISTRIBUTION
  • Y02E20/00—Combustion technologies with mitigation potential
  • Y02E20/14—Combined heat and power generation [CHP]

Definitions

• the invention is generally in the field of power generation and more specifically of electric power generation from natural gas.
• Natural gas is the most common type of hydrocarbon that is in a gaseous state at common environmental temperatures. Natural gas is well recognized as a low cost, easily-handled and clean burning fuel, as it is often priced below liquid oil, it can be distributed to households and businesses by pipeline, and it creates little emissions other than carbon dioxide.
• One transportation method is to build a pipeline feeding the gas directly to a desired location.
• a typical storage method is to build large pressure vessels or storage tanks to store the gas at ambient conditions or at a slightly pressurized condition.
• pipeline loops have also been constructed to store a quantity of gas at pipeline conditions.
• using pipes for the transportation of gas is expensive and at times impossible due to geographical and/or political constrains.
• LNG Liquid Natural Gas
• Another method for storing the natural gas included condensing the gas to a Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) thereby substantially reducing its volume for ease of transport and storage.
• LNG involves liquefaction of the natural gas and normally includes transportation and storage of the natural gas in the liquid phase.
• Some drawbacks of using LNG are known: in order to liquefy natural gas, it must be cooled to approximately -26O 0 F., at atmospheric pressure; LNG tends to warm during long term storage and transport and therefore will not stay at that low temperature so as to remain in the liquefied state. Cryogenic methods must be used in order to keep the LNG at the proper temperature during transport. In addition, the LNG must be re-gasified at its destination before it can be used.
• CNG Compressed Natural Gas
• the present invention provides methods and systems for generating power from natural gas in small-to-medium size power-generating stations in remote areas, thereby avoiding the high costs of transportation and storage of known methods.
• small to medium size natural gas-operated power stations are provided and fed with compressed natural gas (CNG) by a fleet of suitable transport vehicles.
• CNG compressed natural gas
• the present invention provides, according to one of its aspects, a method for generating electric power from natural gas.
• the method comprises: providing one or more small-to-medium size power-generating stations, each of which comprises one or more natural gas-operated electric power-generating unit, optionally, a natural gas storage sub-system and at least one natural gas feeding port; providing a fleet of one or more CNG transport vehicles for collecting compressed natural gas at a natural gas dispensing station and for transporting it to the power generating stations; the fleet transporting the natural gas to said power-generating stations and feeding the natural gas into the at least one feeding port; and feeding said gas to said electric power- generating unit and operating the unit to generate electric power.
• the present invention provides, according to another of its aspects, a system for electric power generation, comprising: one or more small-to-medium size power- generating stations, each of which comprises one or more natural gas-operated electric power-generating unit, optionally a natural gas storage arrangement and at least one natural gas feeding port; and a fleet of one or more compressed gas transport vehicles for collecting natural gas at a natural gas dispensing station, transporting the natural gas to said power-generating stations and for feeding the natural gas into said feeding port.
• the transport vehicles comprise one or more composite reinforced transport modules. Examples of such modules are those disclosed in US patent 6,779,565, the content of which is incorporated herein by reference. However, the invention is not limited to this embodiment and any other transport module that is suitable for the transport of compressed natural gas (CNG).
• the power-generating station comprises two or more gas feeding ports for connecting to corresponding two or more CNG transport modules.
• a switching arrangement is then provided to selectively connect one or more feeding ports to the power generating unit at one time and one or more others at another time.
• natural gas may be fed directly from one or more transport module to the power generating unit.
• the corresponding feeding ports may be switched off and at the same time one or more other feeding ports that are hooked up to one or more other transport modules are switched on to permit feeding of gas therefrom to the power generating unit.
• one or more of the power generating units have a CNG storage sub-system comprising one or more storage tanks which may composite reinforced tanks or others.
• the CNG storage sub-system is connectible to the one or more feeding ports to permit feeding gas thereinto and is also connectible to the power generating unit for feeding gas to it.
• the gas storage sub-system then serves as a buffer to permit gas feed to the power generating unit also at times when no CNG transport module is hooked to a feeding port.
• a switching arrangement then permits selection between different gas-feeding operational states as discussed below.
• the natural gas is fed directly from the transport module through said port to the power-generating unit.
• gas is fed to the power generating unit by the gas storage sub-system.
• gas is fed from said transport module to said storage sub-system and to said power generating unit.
• a power generating station with a gas storage sub-system has three gas-feeding operational state, in a first of which gas is fed jointly into the storage sub-system and directly to the power generating unit until yielding pressure equilibrium between the transport module and the tanks of storage sub-system, then the switching arrangement seals the tanks to permit gas feed to the power generating unit directly from the CNG transport module, and upon exhaustion of gas from the transport module the switching arrangements switches for gas feed from the tanks of the storage sub-system until attachment of another CNG transport module to a port.
• a small-to- medium power generating station is typically one that generates power for a specific use, location or installation.
• Exemplary, non-limiting power generation stations with small-to medium power generating capacity are power generating stations intended for use in generating electricity for greenhouses, dairy farms or other agricultural installations, airports, plants, factories, hotels, office buildings, transport terminals, schools, universities, recreation centers, domestic use is small remote communities, etc. Examples are power generating stations with a power generating capacity of less than 50 megawatts (MW), at times less than 40 MW or less than 30 MW, often less than 20 MW 5 10 MW and at times even less than 5 MW.
• MW megawatts
• a small-to-medium power generating station is particularly useful for generating power at periods of peak or medium demand for electric power.
• the power generating station may also includes, according to some embodiments, a cooling or heating sub-system for cooling or heating the switching arrangements, cooling or heating the gas flowing from the storage to power generating unit or the gas tubing.
• a cooling or heating sub-system for cooling or heating the switching arrangements, cooling or heating the gas flowing from the storage to power generating unit or the gas tubing.
• the gas tubing may heat up during gas passage therethrough, thereby cooling said gas tubing may be needed.
• the cooling sub-system may at times also be made to cool the port as it may also heat up during feeding of gas thereinto.
• Power generating stations useful in accordance with the invention, are often adapted for co-generation of electricity and heat. This permits to increase the yield of energy utilization.
• the co-generated heat that is collected can then be used directly for a variety of purposes such as heating buildings and installations, use in industry that uses heat in the manufacturing process such as the ceramic or brick industry, generation of steam, operating hot-cold engines, etc.
• the electric power-generating unit is associated with a heat absorption sub-system.
• This sub-system is then associated with a heat transport system for transporting the heat to one or more users.
• a gas-operated power station comprising: a natural gas-operated power-generating unit; a gas feeding port for hooking up to a compressed natural gas (CNG) transport module; a gas storage sub-system; a gas piping system permitting gas flow (i) from the feeding port to the gas storage sub-system, (ii) from the feeding port to the power generating unit and (iii) from the storage sub-system to the power-generating unit; and a switching arrangement to permit different gas flow patterns at different gas feeding operational states.
• CNG compressed natural gas
• a gas-operated power station has typically three gas- feeding operational states, comprising: (i) a first gas-feeding state in which gas is fed from said transport module to said storage sub-system and to said power generating unit, (ii) a second gas-feeding state in which gas is fed from said transport module to said power-generating unit while the storage sub-system is sealed, and (iii) a third gas- feeding state in which gas is fed from the storage sub-system to said power-generating unit.
• Fig. 1 is a general, schematic depiction of the system in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.
• Fig. 2A shows a schematic depiction of a power generating station of an embodiment of the invention with a storage sub-system.
• Figs. 2B-2D show the station of Fig. 2 A is three gas-feeding operational states.
• Fig. 3 shows a power generating station of an embodiment of the invention with two gas feeding ports.
• Fig. 4 is a schematic flow-chart of a method in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.
• the system generally designated 100 includes a fleet 102 with a plurality of vehicles 102-1, 102-2, ... , 102-N. Each of these vehicles carries a CNG transport module 104 adapted for holding highly compressed natural gas, typically at a pressure above about 250 Atm.
• the system also comprises a plurality of electricity-generating stations 106-1, 106-2, ... , 106-P.
• the transport modules 104 of vehicles 102-1, 102-2, ... , 102-N can hook to a natural gas-dispensing stations 108 for filling gas thereinto, which may in turn be fed gas by a gas piping system 110.
• the gas piping system may transport gas directly from a natural gas pumping site, from a docking station of gas-transporting ships, from gas storages, etc.
• Each of the power generating stations 106-1, 106-2, ... , 106-P comprises one or more feeding port 112, an optional gas storage sub-system 114 with one or more tanks 116, a power generating unit 118 comprising a turbine 120 and inked to a generator 122, for generating electric power that may then be transported to users.
• the power generating station is of the co-generation type and includes a system to absorb heat 124 that is produced by unit 118 and which can this be transported through an appropriate transport system directly to users.
• a piping system 126 connects the feeding port, the tank and the turbine to permit gas feed in a manner such as that which is described below with reference to Figs. 2B-2D.
• the vehicles 102-1, 102-2, ... , 102-N of fleet 102 then transport the CNG transport modules, filled with highly compressed gas, from the natural gas-dispensing stations 108 to stations 106-1, 106-2, ... , 106-P, where the gas may be fed through feeding ports 112 to the power generating unit 118.
• the compressed gas storage tanks 116 are typically reinforced by a composite material, for example, as described in US patent No. 6,779,565.
• FIG. 2A showing a schematic depiction of a power generating station 106 according to an embodiment of the invention.
• a first 130 controlling flow of gas from the port 112 to tank 116
• a second 132 controlling flow of gas between port 112 to power-generating unit 118
• a third 134 for controlling flow from tank 116 and power-generating unit 118.
• Figs. 2B-2D showing three gas feeding states.
• switches that are at an "OFF" or sealed state, namely blocking flow of gas thereto.
• a first gas feeding state shown in Fig. 2B all switches are in an open state and thus gas can flow from port 112 both to tank 116 and to unit 118.
• AU switches may be kept open until pressure equilibrium between CNG transport module 104 and tank 116 is achieved, whereupon switch 130 and 134 are switched to an OFF state thus sealing tank 116, as shown in Fig. 2C.
• gas flows directly from the CNG transport module 104 power generating unit 118.
• switch 132 may then be sealed and switch 134 opened to yield a state as shown in Fig. 2D 5 in which gas to power generating unit 118 is fed from tank 116.
• FIG. 3 showing a power generating system according to an embodiment of the invention.
• the power generating station has two feeding ports 212A and 212B for hooking up to respective CNG transport modules 104A and 104B.
• a switching arrangement 240 is provided for switching from one port to another upon exhaustion of the gas in the transport module hooked thereto.
• a first step 400 vehicles with a CNG trasport module arrives at a natural gas dispensing station and highly compressed natural gas is then fed into the tanks of the gas transport modules.
• the vehicles transport the natural gas to the power stations and there the transport module is hooked to the feeding port and then at 404 the natural gas is fed to the turbine of the power generating unit.
• the natural gas then operates the turbine to generate at 408 electric power and optionally, at 410 with co-generation of heat.

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• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Chemical & Material Sciences (AREA)
• Combustion & Propulsion (AREA)
• Mechanical Engineering (AREA)
• General Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Filling Or Discharging Of Gas Storage Vessels (AREA)
• Control Of Eletrric Generators (AREA)

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• 2007
  • 2007-11-15 IL IL187398A patent/IL187398A0/en unknown
• 2008
  • 2008-11-13 EP EP08849757A patent/EP2222943A2/de not_active Withdrawn
  • 2008-11-13 WO PCT/IL2008/001500 patent/WO2009063468A2/en not_active Ceased

Non-Patent Citations (1)

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