RU2154231C1 - Atomic submersible gas-transfer station - Google Patents

Abstract

FIELD: transportation of gaseous hydrocarbon fuel through extensive pipe lines laid on sea bottom. SUBSTANCE: atomic submersible gas-transfer station includes non-pressure and pressure hulls divided into pressuretight compartments by means of pressure bulkheads. Arranged in center compartment is water-cooled nuclear reactor connected with gas turbosuperchargers by means of vapor pipe lines which are located on modular frames in compartments adjacent to reactor compartment; intake and delivery branches of gas lines of turbosuperchargers run in inter-tube space; they are connected with recesses of coupling units which are used for connection of station to main gas line. EFFECT: possibility of operating gas-transfer station in submersible position. 7 dwg

Description

 The present invention relates to the transportation of gaseous hydrocarbon fuels (natural gas) through long pipelines laid along the seabed.

 There are known constructions of ground gas pumping stations (compressor stations) that are part of long-distance trunk pipelines, which are installed 150 to 200 kilometers along the length of the gas pipeline.

 Stations provide the necessary degree of compression of the gas pumped through the pipeline, which maintains its flow rate in the pipeline (Encyclopedia of the gas industry / Ed. By Dr. KS Basniev, translated from French. M.: Joint-Stock Company Tvant, 1994 or A.S. Smirnov and A.I. Shirokovsky, Gas Production and Transportation (Moscow: Gostoptekhizdat, 1957, p. 341-397).

 Gas pumping compressors, which are part of these stations as blowers, are driven by either electric motors that receive electricity from an external source (power plants), or gas turbines that receive energy by burning natural gas pumped through the main pipeline.

 However, such gas-pumping (compressor) stations cannot be used to create and maintain the degree of compression necessary to ensure the high consumption of natural gas transported through long-distance gas pipelines laid along the seabed from the place of sea gas production to the continent due to the impossibility of their operation and underwater service in conditions of complete isolation from atmospheric air and high environmental pressure - sea water.

The proposed invention solves the problem of creating an autonomous nuclear submarine gas pumping station for gas pipelines laid along the seabed from the places of marine natural gas production on the continent, which has the ability to:
- transportation of the station to the place of its installation and work in the surface position;
- immersion of the station to the depth of the gas pipeline;
- inclusion of the gas pumping station into the main gas pipeline through the support and landing platform of the gas pipeline, having mating parts of the docking stations of the station with the platform and the main pipeline;
- long-term and reliable operation (in automatic control mode) as part of the main gas pipeline, creating and maintaining the compression ratio of the pumped gas, providing the necessary gas pipeline productivity;
- removing the station from the main gas pipeline and replacing it with a similar station in an emergency or after running out of its resource;
- periodic visits to the station, using an underwater vehicle with maintenance personnel to inspect its mechanisms and replace consumables (oil).

This is achieved by the fact that:
- in the design of the main gas pipeline, at the installation site of the nuclear submarine gas pumping station, a support and landing platform with mating parts of the docking nodes for connecting to the nuclear submarine gas pumping station for installing on it and attaching to it the gas pumping station and its docking (connection) with the main gas pipeline is included;
- all power energy equipment and mechanisms of the nuclear submarine gas pumping station are located inside the hermetically sealed durable station case, and the equipment and mechanisms of the gas pumping complex (gas dehumidifiers, valves, etc.), designed for high internal and external pressure, are placed outside the durable case in the double-sided space and protected by lightweight body structures;
- as an autonomous, independent of atmospheric air and hydrocarbon fuel, energy source, a water-water atomic reactor is used, and a steam turbine operating on the steam generated by this reactor is used as the drive of the gas compressor (supercharger);
- for the possibility of visiting the premises of the underwater gas pumping station by maintenance personnel during their installation with the help of coordinate-centering devices on the landing platform and connecting with the help of docking nodes to the main gas pipeline, as well as during removal of the station from the gas pipeline and its maintenance during operation - the station is equipped with docking nodes with an existing underwater transport vehicle.

The design of the proposed nuclear subsea gas pumping station is illustrated by the drawings in FIG. 1-7:
FIG. 1 is a longitudinal view of the station,
FIG. 2 - plan
FIG. 3 - section through the turbocharger compartment,
FIG. 4 - section through a steam turbine installation,
FIG. 5 is a section along the reactor compartment,
FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of the main systems APGPS,
FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of a docking station with a gas pipeline, landing platform.

 The nuclear subsea gas pumping station contains a sealed, durable steel casing 1, divided by solid bulkheads into compartments: reactor 2, two turbogenerator and turbocompressor 3 and two terminal residential and battery 4.

 The autonomous environmentally friendly energy source is located in the reactor compartment, supplying all energy consumers of a nuclear subsea pumping station - a water-to-water nuclear reactor 5, which meets all international requirements and regulations regarding radiation and nuclear safety, including IAEA recommendations.

 In adjacent compartments symmetrically located relative to the reactor compartments, turbocharger assemblies (turbochargers) 6 are mounted with drives from steam turbines 7 mounted on the same aggregate frame with all auxiliary units and systems.

 Two turbogenerators 8, which are the main source of electricity for the entire gas pumping station, are installed on the same aggregate frames.

 A backup source of electricity are two groups of battery 9, located in the holds of the terminal compartments of the station.

 The nuclear subsea pumping station is equipped with all the means of life support for the staff while it is at the station.

 In the lower, keel, part of the gas pumping station, there are two strong baffles 10 of the docking nodes with the main gas pipeline, sealed together with the same baffles of the support and landing platform during planting, installation and connection of the station with the gas pipeline.

 Pipes 11 and 12 with gas shutoff valves 13 are located in these baffles and in the stowage space, which form the suction and discharge branches of the pipelines of the turbochargers (compressors) 6. Ballast, leveling, and other tanks, retractable thrusters 14, necessary for maneuvering, are included in the design of the light body and positioning a nuclear subsea gas pumping station underwater.

 The installation of a nuclear submarine gas pumping station at its place of work and its inclusion in the main gas pipeline is as follows.

 A fully equipped, tested, ready-to-work station is towed in the water position to the place of its installation. In the above-water position, the nuclear reactor 5 is put into operation, the steam pipelines and steam turbines 7 are heated, and the load on the turbogenerators 8 is received. After heating, the test revolutions of the turbocompressors 6 are given, and the station with maintenance personnel is sealed. After the sign (reduction to zero buoyancy), the atomic subsea gas pumping station is submerged under water and maneuvering with the help of folding (sliding) thrusters 14, it is brought to the support and landing platform, which is structurally part of the main gas pipeline and has the mating parts of the docking nodes with the atomic subsea gas pumping station station with gas main.

 Then, an atomic subsea gas pumping station, the lower, keel surface of which exactly repeats the supporting surface of the support landing platform, is installed on the platform using coordinate-centering devices 15 and a positioning system, combining the coaming of the baffles of the docking stations of the station and platform.

 Due to the removal of overboard pressure in the combined baffles of the docking nodes of the station and platform and the forces generated by hydrostatic pressure resulting from this, the station joins (“sticks”) to the platform, the connector of the baffles is sealed and the station is fixed on the landing platform.

 The connected partitions are drained by the means of the station, after which the gas pipelines of the station and the gas main are connected and sealed, as shown in the schematic diagram of the docking of the station with the gas pipeline in FIG. 7.

 After connecting the station to the main gas pipeline, sealing the connectors and necessary switching of the corresponding valves, gas turbochargers (compressors) are launched and the station is put into operation. Then the service personnel leaves the station in an underwater transport vehicle.

 During the operation of the station with the parallel inclusion of gas turbochargers (compressors), its absolute performance is ensured. If one of the gas turbochargers is stopped and turned off, for any reason, the performance of the gas pumping station decreases to seventy percent of the nominal.

 The shutdown, decommissioning and removal of a nuclear subsea pumping station from the main gas pipeline (for example, when the reactor core is depleted) is carried out in the reverse order of the above.

 The present invention can significantly increase the throughput of a long-distance trunk gas pipeline laid at great depths along the sea bottom from offshore gas production sites on the continent and thereby eliminate the need to lay an additional parallel string of the trunk gas pipeline under water.

Claims (1)

 A nuclear subsea gas pumping station containing a light and durable casing, separated by solid bulkheads into sealed compartments, on average of which a water-water atomic reactor is installed, connected by steam pipelines to gas turbochargers located on aggregate frames in adjacent to the reactor compartments, with receiving and pressure branches turbocharger gas pipelines pass through the double-sided space and are connected to the baffles of the docking stations of the station with the main gas pipeline located in the keel hour STI station.

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