Remote Power Generation for Applications to Natural Gas Grid: A Comprehensive Market Review of Techno-Energetic, Economic and Environmental Performance

Luca Da Lio and Andrea Lazzaretto
Additional contact information
Luca Da Lio: Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Padova, Via Venezia 1, 35131 Padova, Italy
Andrea Lazzaretto: Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Padova, Via Venezia 1, 35131 Padova, Italy

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 14, 1-27

Abstract: The operation of natural gas grids requires electric-powered devices as data acquisition and control systems, surveillance and communication appliances, etc., often located in remote, unpopulated off-the-grid areas, where there is no personnel for surveillance, and maintenance costs are prohibitive. The literature on the power generating systems for these devices is limited to specific applications without a comparison between competing technologies, making their choice a difficult task for natural gas operators. This work presents a comprehensive up-to-date survey of market available technologies for remote power generation in the range of 20–1000 W for gas grid applications: thermoelectric generators, solid acid, direct methanol and solid oxide fuel cells, Stirling engines and microturbines. The work aims at sorting the technologies by techno-energetic, economic and environmental performance while providing specific technological characteristics and limitations. The results indicate well-defined ranges of power in which only some of the technologies are suitable and have very different efficiencies (3–30%). The capital cost of equal power technologies is similar (EUR 5000–30,000) and roughly linear with power (34.8P el + EUR 6553), whereas operation costs (10–120 cEUR/kWh) and lifetime (0.5–20 yr) significantly depend on the technology. The indications of this review may constitute helpful guidelines to choose properly power generation systems for remote applications.

Keywords: remote power generation; gas grid; techno-economic analysis; thermoelectric generator; fuel cell; Stirling engine; microturbine; performance; operation cost; lifetime (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/14/5065/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/14/5065/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:15:y:2022:i:14:p:5065-:d:860476

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().