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How do you manage to freeze natural gas pipelines? It isn't even liquid at the near-surface air low-temperature record (-89.2 C/-128.6 F).
by namibj 6y ago
How do you manage to freeze natural gas pipelines? It isn't even liquid at the near-surface air low-temperature record (-89.2 C/-128.6 F).
- fuzzfactor 6y agoCrude natural gas is usually saturated with water downhole at warm temperatures and high pressures, some of which condenses as it is produced at the surface. At many points in a pipeline further water removal can be essential too. Even when not liquefied like LPG, when passing through a restriction valve or orifice, there is still additional cooling due to the product acting a bit like a refigerant. The water content may be small but the quantity of cold gas passing through a narrow point which is well below 0C eventually can build up kilos of ice and block the flow until the ambient temperature rises enough to open it back up.
- pfdietz 6y agoAnd you get can get clathrates (combinations of methane/ethane/propane and water).
- dmurray 6y agoMethane can't realistically freeze in the pipes, but unrefined natural gas has plenty of impurities which can. Note they're talking about "pipelines and wells" freezing in a gas production context, not residential gas mains.
- namibj 6y agoUnderstandable. As long as it remains available, the price hike seems to incentivize operators to expend energy on manually thawing them. I'm assuming they could rig up makeshift natural gas burners/heat lamps to keep critical sections above freezing.
- sneak 6y agoI feel like this reads like the first 60 seconds of intro to one of those youtube disaster-recounting videos.
- genewitch 6y agohttps://www.youtube.com/user/USCSB https://www.youtube.com/user/USCSB being one of said channels. I don't want to say in enjoy their videos due to the content, but for being so simple they convey a great deal of information in a way that few other media have done in decades.
- DavidPeiffer 6y agoI've definitely watched over 20 hours of their content. It's very well produced, very approachable and easy to understand. I'm pleasantly surprised at how good of a resource their videos are. I had lower expectations with them being part of the federal government.
- sneak 6y agoThe one I was thinking of is https://youtube.com/c/FascinatingHorror https://youtube.com/c/FascinatingHorror - they aren't quite as in depth but cover a lot of different events.
- namibj 6y agoThanks for the link. And yes, my wording seemed weird, even to me.