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www.elsevier.com/locate/cryogenics
a,b
, J. Wegrzyn
c,*
,
V. Prasad
a
Institute of Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences 15 Bei Si Huan Xi Road, Beijing 100080, China
Department of Mechanical Engineering, State University of New York at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, NY 11794-2300, USA
c
Energy Science and Technology Department, Brookhaven National Lab, Upton, NY 11973-5000, USA
Received 1 April 2002; received in revised form 12 January 2004; accepted 16 March 2004
Abstract
Liqueed natural gas (LNG) is being developed as a transportation fuel for heavy vehicles such as trucks and transit buses, to
lessen the dependency on oil and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The LNG stations are properly designed to prevent the venting
of natural gas (NG) from LNG tanks, which can cause evaporative greenhouse gas emissions and result in uctuations of fuel ow
and changes of fuel composition. Boil-o is caused by the heat added into the LNG fuel during the storage and fueling. Heat can
leak into the LNG fuel through the shell of tank during the storage and through hoses and dispensers during the fueling. Gas from
tanks onboard vehicles, when returned to LNG tanks, can add additional heat into the LNG fuel. A thermodynamic and heat
transfer model has been developed to analyze dierent mechanisms of heat leak into the LNG fuel. The evolving of properties and
compositions of LNG fuel inside LNG tanks is simulated. The eect of a number of buses fueled each day on the possible total fuel
loss rate has been analyzed. It is found that by increasing the number of buses, fueled each day, the total fuel loss rate can be reduced
signicantly. It is proposed that an electric generator be used to consume the boil-o gas or a liqueer be used to re-liquefy the boilo gas to reduce the tank pressure and eliminate fuel losses. These approaches can prevent boil-o of natural gas emissions, and
reduce the costs of LNG as transportation fuel.
2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Liqueed natural gas; Transportation fuel; Cryogenics; Thermodynamics; Heat transfer
1. Introduction
The transportation sector accounted for 66% of the
total US petroleum consumption and 26% of total US
greenhouse gas emissions in 1997 [1]. To address issues
related to reliance on foreign oil, greenhouse gas emissions, and pollutant emissions, alternative transportation fuels such as compressed natural gas (CNG) and
liqueed natural gas (LNG) have been proposed. There
will be immense economic and environmental benets if
even 10% of the transportation energy from petroleum
can come from LNG. Natural gas consumption in the
United States is expected to exceed 33 tcf/year by 2020,
increasing from 22 tcf/year in 1997 [2,3].
702
Nomenclature
C
cp
D
h
Dh
DH
k
M
p
q
R
r
S
t
T
v
V
Greek Symbols
a
ratio of the junction area and total area, Ss =S
b
area density (1/m), S=V
e
emissivity
q
density (kg/m3 )
r
StefanBoltzmann constant 5.670 108 (W/
m2 K4 )
Subscripts
g
gas
i
inner
l
liquid
m
multilayer superinsulation
o
outer
s
steel
v
vacuum
1
ambient
LNG recirculation
LNG recirculation
valve
Inline filter
LNG fill line
Return pressure
regulator
Suppy fuel
connector
(MOOG)
Vent fuel
connector
(MOOG)
Hose
cooldown
check
valve
Dispensing
pressure
Hose cooldown
check valve
Vehicle
vent
Safety
relief valve
LNG
return line
Suppy fuel
connector
(PARK)
Vent fuel
connector
(PARK)
Fig. 1. LNG dispenser module with MOOG and PARK fuel connectors.
m1 q=hg hl ;
Dh
Dh
r m1 =V q DT km ks ab=qDhhg hl ;
1.5
0.01%
1
0.005%
0.002%
0.5
4
0.01%
3
0.005%
2
0.002%
1
=0.001%
0
(a)
C km ks abV =Dh:
703
0.5
1.5
2.5
0
0
3
(b)
=0.001%
0.5
1.5
2.5
Fig. 2. (a) Boil-o rate and (b) thermal conductance as a function of thickness of multilayer superinsulation for a tank with an area density of b 2,
which is lled with LNG at )162 C.
704
6
v
T
v2
v3
v
c
c
c
3 2 1 2 exp 2 ;
6
vT
v
v
where v is the specic volume. Since natural gas is
mainly composed of methane, we use properties of
methane as that of natural gas. For methane, the constants are converted from [12] as, R 8:314, a 5:01
m3 cps T1 T ms =hg hl :
Rv
Dh
The boil-o rate due to heat leak through the fuel
hose is
m4 q=hg hl :
11
12
Table 1
Methane pressure and density at liquid [13] and gaseous states [Eq. (6)]
Pressure (psi)
Temperature (C)
0
50
100
150
)162.2
)140.0
)128.8
)120.5
424.2
390.6
370.3
357.1
0
5.43
10.60
15.77
()260
()220
()200
()185
F)
F)
F)
F)
(3.54
(3.26
(3.09
(2.98
lb/gal)
lb/gal)
lb/gal)
lb/gal)
705
To get a picture of how the properties and composition of LNG in an LNG tank change we need to use a
dynamic model to simulate the storage and fueling
process. A heat transfer model can be used to describe
the thermal history while a thermodynamic model can
be used to obtain the properties and composition of
LNG. During storage and fueling, the properties of
LNG, such as enthalpy, mass, vapor pressure, temperature and density, also change with time. The changes in
enthalpy, H , and mass, M, of cryogenic LNG can be
described using the following equations
dH
V_fill ql0 hl T0 CT1 T nVbus ql cpl T
dt
n hfueling m_ over cpl T m_ vent cpg T ;
15
hg T hl T m hl T hl T DT
m1 m
13
14
dM
V_fill ql0 m_ over m_ vent nVbus ql ;
16
dt
where T0 is the temperature of LNG to be lled into the
storage vessel, T1 is the ambient temperature, C is the
thermal conductance of the shell of cryogenic tank, V_fill
is the rate of lling the storage tank, m_ over is the overow
rate when the volume of LNG is larger than the capacity
of tank, m_ vent is the venting rate, Vbus is onboard tank
capacity, and hfueling is the enthalpy added to the LNG
fuel when fueling a bus. By knowing the total enthalpy
and mass, temperature of the cryogenic natural gas can
be obtained by solving the following equations
H Ml hl T Mg hg T ;
17
M Ml Mg ;
18
V Ml =ql Mg =qg :
19
160
150
706
140
130
120
110
Simulation
Experiment
100
90
80
Table 2
Measured pressure build-up in a 15,000 gal cryogenic tank at an LNG
station in Beijing
Date
Content (gallon)
2571
2404
140.2
153.3
day
Fig. 5. Predicted saturated pressure for a 15,000 gal tank with an
initial ll of 2571 gal LNG at saturated pressure of 140.2 psi and C 1
W/K. Solid symbols are experimental data taken from an LNG station
in Beijing.
Table 3
Predicted changes of vapor pressure for a cryogenic tank of 15,000 gal, which has a thermal conductance of 1 W/K
Day
p (psi)
T (K)
V (gal)
H (J)
Vent (kg)
Overow (kg)
Liquid (kg)
Gas (kg)
0
1
2
3
4
5
140.20
143.33
146.46
148.98
152.12
155.27
150.87
151.39
151.91
152.33
152.85
153.38
2571.00
2565.67
2560.33
2556.07
2550.74
2545.41
0.246E+10
0.247E+10
0.248E+10
0.250E+10
0.251E+10
0.252E+10
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
3500.6
3485.3
3470.0
3457.8
3442.6
3427.4
695.5
710.8
726.0
738.2
753.5
768.7
707
Table 4
Pressure build-up in a 13,000 gal cryogenic tank with 10,000 gal initial ll at 50 psi and C 1 W/K
Day
p (psi)
T (K)
V (gal)
H (J)
Vent (kg)
Overow (kg)
Liquid (kg)
Gas (kg)
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
50.00
50.96
51.89
53.30
54.23
55.63
56.56
57.49
58.88
59.80
61.19
62.11
63.03
64.41
65.32
66.69
133.00
133.21
133.42
133.74
133.95
134.26
134.47
134.68
134.99
135.20
135.51
135.71
135.92
136.23
136.43
136.74
10000.00
10009.29
10018.41
10032.14
10041.30
10055.06
10064.23
10073.42
10087.24
10096.46
10110.28
10119.52
10128.77
10142.66
10151.92
10165.84
0.675E+10
0.677E+10
0.678E+10
0.680E+10
0.681E+10
0.682E+10
0.684E+10
0.685E+10
0.687E+10
0.688E+10
0.690E+10
0.691E+10
0.692E+10
0.694E+10
0.695E+10
0.697E+10
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
14785.8
14784.9
14783.9
14782.5
14781.6
14780.3
14779.4
14778.5
14777.2
14776.3
14775.1
14774.2
14773.4
14772.2
14771.4
14770.2
61.7
62.6
63.6
65.0
65.9
67.2
68.1
69.0
70.3
71.2
72.4
73.3
74.1
75.3
76.1
77.3
100
20
18
16
14
12
10
C=5 W/K
8
6
C=2 W/K
75
C=5 W/K
50
25
C=2 W/K
4
2
C=1 W/K
C=
1 W/K
0
0
(a)
10
Number of buses
15
(b)
10
15
Number of buses
Fig. 6. (a) Total fuel loss and (b) fuel loss per day with number of buses.
when fueling two buses everyday. The fuel loss is reduced 0.4% when fueling four buses every day. The
vented gas as a function of number of buses is shown in
Fig. 6(b). For thermal conductance of 2 W/K, the
average fuel loss rate is 19.5 kg each day when fueling
two buses everyday. The fuel loss rate decreases to 3.4
kg each day when fueling four buses every day. It is
evident that increasing number of buses fueled each day
can reduce the fuel loss, as a percentage of total fuel
delivered. The venting can be avoided when fueling
more than ve buses each day using an LNG cryogenic
tank with C 2 W/K or fueling more than three buses
each day using a tank with C 1 W/K. It is important
to reduce the thermal conductance of the shell of tank
and the thermal conductance is related to the steel strut
support between shells of tank.
20
708
5. Conclusions
We analyzed the mechanisms that may contribute to
the boil-o of LNG in LNG station storage tanks. Heat
leak through the shell of storage tank is the main factor
for the boil-o of LNG. Special design of the strut can
be used to reduce the heat leak rate of an LNG tank.
Thermal conductance can be used to characterize the
potential heat leak of an LNG tank. Using dynamic
analysis of heat transfer in the LNG system without
fueling buses, one can estimate the thermal conductance
of an LNG tank. We calculated the pressure changes in
a 15,000 gal tank at an LNG station in Beijing, and the
predicted pressure changes compare well with the measured pressure changes.
We further considered an LNG station with a 13,000
gal tank. The number of bus fueled each day has a large
eect on the total loss of fuel. By increasing number of
buses fueled each day in an LNG station the total fuel
loss can be greatly reduced. The total fuel loss for four
buses each fueled with 150 gal amounts to 0.4% kg/kg
when an LNG tank of C 2 W/K is used. The fuel loss
can be eliminated when more than ve buses are fueled
each day in a station with a tank of C 2 W/K thermal
Secondary PRV
LNG recirculation
Primary PRV
Vent
Refueling
LNG tank
Fuel from
Liquefier
Gauge
CNG
recirculation
709