Assessment of the Safety of Transport of the Natural Gas–Ammonia Mixture

Andrzej Rusin () and Katarzyna Stolecka-Antczak
Additional contact information
Andrzej Rusin: Department of Power Engineering and Turbomachinery, Silesian University of Technology, Konarskiego 18, 44-100 Gliwice, Poland
Katarzyna Stolecka-Antczak: Department of Power Engineering and Turbomachinery, Silesian University of Technology, Konarskiego 18, 44-100 Gliwice, Poland

Energies, 2023, vol. 16, issue 5, 1-20

Abstract: The decarbonisation of many sectors of the economy, including primarily the energy sector, results in the gradual elimination of hydrocarbon fuels, especially coal. During the transition period, it will be possible to use natural gas, the combustion of which is associated with lower carbon dioxide emissions. Further reduction in this emission is possible with the use of mixtures of natural gas with other gases, e.g., ammonia. Ammonia, widely used in many industries, has recently been described as the emission-free fuel of the future. However, both of these gases are hazardous substances. Natural gas is a flammable gas and ammonia is a toxic gas. This paper presents an assessment of the transport safety of natural gas (methane) and its mixture with ammonia. The uncontrolled release of these substances from a damaged gas pipeline may cause a fire or a toxic hazard. This work presents hazard zones arising in the event of such a failure and determines the impact of various mixture compositions on the level of the potential hazard. The level of risk related to the uncontrolled release of a mixture of natural gas and ammonia was analysed. It has been estimated that for pipelines with a diameter of 400 mm and a low-pressure mixture of methane and ammonia in the proportion of 50/50 v / v , the danger zone with the risk of loss of life above 1 × 10 −3 is approximately 50 m. In the case of the same pipelines transmitting the mixture of these high-pressure gases, the high-risk zone may extend to approximately 175 m.

Keywords: ammonia–methane mixture; hazard; toxic; fire (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: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/5/2472/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/5/2472/ (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:16:y:2023:i:5:p:2472-:d:1088262

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 ().