Recovering energy by hydro-turbines application in water transmission pipelines: A case study west of Saudi Arabia

Youssef Itani, Mohamed Reda Soliman and Maher Kahil

Energy, 2020, vol. 211, issue C

Abstract: Pressurized water transmission lines reserve amounts of energy that are dissipated by pressure control devices. The dissipated energy may be recovered by installing hydro-turbines at high pressure points and benefit from power production and decreasing CO2 emissions. In this work, an existing transmission water pipe was simulated under several velocity scenarios, and results indicated that an extensive amount of energy can be recovered by installing Pelton turbines. The approach began by identifying the location of the residual pressure in the system and quantifying the amount of power to be harvested. Afterwards, the pipeline was redesigned by changing the allowed velocity from 1 to 2.5 m/s consecutively. Moreover, the best fitting turbine was selected at each of the residual pressure locations and outputted the potential amount of power to be produced. Finally, a financial and environmental evaluation of the presented solution was conducted. Based on this methodology, the total system cost was reduced by 2.74% because of adopting the maximum allowable velocity of 2 m/s. System optimization allowed for the installation of hydro-power plants with total capacity of 5,751 kW and energy payback period of 9.46 years. Moreover, a reduction in carbon footprint was estimated by 35,295t of CO2 per year.

Keywords: Turbines; Hydro-power; Residual pressure; Payback period; Carbon footprint; Water supply (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:211:y:2020:i:c:s0360544220317217

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2020.118613

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