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Natural Gas Infrastructure Field Work Proposal (FWP)

The U.S. has extensive natural gas production, processing, and pipeline infrastructure, much of which is aging and working at high capacity. NETL’s Natural Gas Infrastructure (NGI) FWP aims to strengthen natural gas pipeline reliability and reduce emissions on two fronts: quantifying greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and developing material and sensor technologies that will help to mitigate these emissions. Research in this FWP will also help address the reliability, public safety, operational efficiency, and flexibility of the Nation’s aging natural gas infrastructure.

The NGI FWP’s development of ‘next-generation’ technologies for emissions mitigation will help assess risk and prevent leaks from natural gas infrastructure that pose a risk to safety and efficiency and contribute to GHG emissions. Research at NETL’s Research and Innovation Center (RIC) is focused on sensor technologies, advanced pipeline materials, field testing, and demonstration. Ultimately, the program aims to move toward more intelligent pipeline systems that enable continuous monitoring for improved reliability and early detection of leaks.

Effective mitigation is dependent on accurate emissions estimations from natural gas infrastructure components. Emissions continually change with rates of development, new technologies, and regulatory actions. Therefore, continual updates to measurements are vital to shaping NETL’s approach to quantification. These measurements, and subsequent models, can lead to improved emissions monitoring and mitigation strategies, and better estimates for predicting GHG emissions.

Pipeline Sensor Technologies

This research aims to develop and demonstrate sensor device and enabling technologies to support increased reliability and resiliency of natural gas infrastructure for safe and secure natural gas transport and delivery, while also improving operational efficiency, abating environmental impacts from methane (CH4) emissions, and enabling a more flexible pipeline infrastructure capable of carrying multiple gas streams, for example, carbon dioxide (CO2) or hydrogen (H2) moving into the future.

Three primary thrusts are being pursued in terms of advanced materials and sensor device technologies for natural gas pipeline monitoring applications:

  1. Distributed sensor technologies for multi-parameter monitoring (temperature, strain, CH4) and early corrosion onset.
  2. Passive sensors for low-cost and wirelessly interrogable multi-parameter monitoring of the same.
  3. Advanced electrochemical point sensors for quantification of corrosion rates and environmental monitoring. Within each of these sensor device classes, a combination of sensor material research and device fabrication/optimization are pursued.

Pipeline Material Technologies

Pipeline Material Technologies research focuses on developing reliable liners and coatings capable of protecting the interior of natural gas infrastructure from corrosion, extending the safe operating lifespan. These corrosion control systems are needed on both existing and new transmission pipelines. They need to be affordable, long lasting, quick and easy to apply, and work well during transport of multiple gases, including natural gas and H2 blends, H2, or CO2.

Natural gas leaks caused by corrosion can be prevented by applying protective coatings and/or composite barrier liners to pipelines; this is accomplished by developing:

  • Metallic sacrificial coatings that will protect the steel component from corrosion by forming protective passive films in service environments.
  • Organic polymer-based coatings containing corrosion inhibitors.
  • Composite barrier liners consisting of multiple functional layers

In addition to developing the corrosion protection means for pipeline internal surfaces, the task will expand to identifying an alloy/pipeline material with suitable mechanical and corrosion-resistant properties for transporting natural gas, H2, and CO2.

Field-based Emissions Quantification

CH4 emission inventories are built using emissions factors (EFs) that represent the mass of CH4 emitted per component or process. As natural gas development technologies or operations change with time, there is a continual need to re-evaluate CH4 EFs to capture current industry practices. In addition, emissions from some emission sources, such as abandoned oil and gas (O&G) wells, are not included in emission inventories, or have high uncertainty, since data are scarce or nonexistent. The collection of scientific measurements of emissions at the component level will improve emissions and activity factors, as well as develop statistical representations of variability in CH4 emissions that reflect current practices. With improved emissions estimates, a more accurate CH4 emissions inventory can be built. These inventories provide the assessments on which climate change policy and regulatory actions are based. Initial CH4 emissions measurement efforts have been performed on abandoned O&G wells, natural gas gathering pipelines, metering and regulating stations, and natural gas storage wells (specifically, storage well blowout events). This research is currently estimating emissions from underground natural gas storage sites. Research is working to obtain testing and leak/blowout data to identify trends and build data models to help predict blowouts or other emissions events.

Program Support Analysis

The Program Support Analysis research aims to identify and characterize the GHG emissions (CH4 and CO2) and operational productivity of existing infrastructure and assess strategic federal research initiatives that could increase efficiency from production through delivery to the end customer. The research will quantify GHG emissions and operational efficiency of midstream infrastructure, using a dynamic engineering-based model of the natural gas value chain. Understanding the source of GHG emissions is the first step toward establishing decarbonization strategies for the natural gas sector. Research is focused on identifying and evaluating decarbonization strategies at the regional/basin level to design effective strategies to reduce GHG emissions. Life cycle analysis is the primary method used to assess GHG emissions across the natural gas value chain. Models and reports resulting from this effort can be accessed at www.netl.doe.gov/LCA.

Technology Scale-Up and Demonstration

With the development of the new technologies and advanced materials under the NGI FWP, progression from laboratory-scale demonstration and prototypes to field demonstration and verification is paramount. NETL will develop methods for testing coatings and liners in the field and interrogating sensors via wireless telemetry, test procedures for effectively embedding sensors in coated pipe, and conduct field-based tests of pipeline monitoring systems to verify performance. Field validation and testing of new materials, sensors and data analytic methods, including machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI), will be pursued as the various technologies mature.