How is noise created in natural gas pipelines?

Pipelines have been a vital piece of our infrastructure for many years. They are the most economical and simplest way to move high volumes of natural gas over long distances. However, the issue of noise is something that concerns businesses, employees, governments, and environmental bodies. We are going to discuss certain elements of this topic here to give you an idea of what’s going on. Specifically, we’ll look at how noise is created in pipelines. Then, if you need natural gas silencers, we can help.

Increasing the capacity

The primary methods to grow pipeline capacity are to increase pipe diameter or boost gas compression. Since the 1940s, businesses have made use of both strategies. They’ve done so to enhance the efficiency and capacity of the system. It tends to be more cost efficient to increase gas compression. The more gas you can compress, the smaller your pipe diameter can be.

To increase gas compression, more powerful, and more costly, compressor stations will come into play. Although, the costs of these stations will be lower over the long term. This is if you compare to the cost of a bigger pipe diameter for the run’s whole length. The trade-off here is that there is a higher potential for noise generation. Equipment necessary to reach high gas pressure can be a substantial noise source.

Noisy compressors

The main trouble with compressors is that they’re noisy. As a result, you may need to invest in natural gas silencers for pipelines, compressor stations, and other assets.

Control valves, components that regulate gas flow through the pipeline, can also be major noise sources. This happens at the metering stations, distribution hubs, compressor stations, and source station. The conversion of static pressure to kinetic energy in the control valve generates high velocity jets. These can be subsonic, sonic, or supersonic. Sonic shock waves and turbulence produce a noise spectrum. Said spectrum has characteristic peak frequency.

In cross-country pipelines with compressor stations, there are a few possible noise-producing control valve applications. They include blowdown valves and recycle valves. There are also vent to valves that offer emergency pressure protection. In gas storage facilities, control valve applications include odorising, dehydrating, and gas receiving.

Usually, control valves come with a controlling diameter far smaller than that of the outlet/inlet piping. Consequently, you add expanders to transition the flow from the smaller valve to the bigger pipe. The gas expansion via this valve outlet expander can be another noise source. It can be noisier when you achieve the expansion with eccentric reducers instead of using concentric expanders.

Speak to us about natural gas silencers

At Ventx, our industrial silencers work to keep businesses and their visitors safe. At the same time, they enable you to comply with environmental standards for noise emissions. So, they are a really great investment.

If you need natural gas silencers or something similar, come to us. We’re one of the leaders in the UK because we combine acoustic and engineering knowledge effectively to deliver exceptional products.