Open Access

ARTICLE

Numerical Study and Economy Analysis of Two Heated Crude Oil Pipelines Laid in One Ditch

Wenpeng Guo^1,2, Yongtu Liang^1,*

1 National Engineering Laboratory for Pipeline Safety, Beijing Key Laboratory of Urban Oil and Gas Distribution  Technology, China University of Petroleum (Beijing), Beijing, 102249, China
2 Shanxi Natural Gas Co., Ltd., Taiyuan, 030031, China

* Corresponding Author: Yongtu Liang. Email:

Energy Engineering 2022, 119(5), 2049-2064. https://doi.org/10.32604/ee.2022.019526

Received 18 September 2021; Accepted 23 December 2021; Issue published 21 July 2022

Abstract

In this paper, the transportation economy of two heated crude oil pipelines laid in one ditch is analyzed by taking into account the influence of operating temperature, interval between two pipelines, and distance between two heating stations on the heating energy consumption. To analyze the transportation economy, the two heated crude oil pipelines laid in one ditch are simulated under four operating conditions based on an unstructured finite volume method. Compared with laying two crude oil pipelines separately in two ditches, the results attest notably higher soil temperature, meaning reduced heat dissipation of each pipeline by laying two pipelines in one ditch. It is inferred that for the same desired oil temperature at the inlet of the next heating station, laying two pipelines in one ditch requires lower oil temperature at the outlet of heating station, indicating decreased energy cost at the heating station and improved transportation economy. Then economy analysis of four configurations of laying two pipelines in one ditch is performed. By comparing the results of four conditions, the interval between two pipelines of 1.2 m is found to save the energy most efficiently, which is as large as 26.6% compared with that of laying two pipelines in two separate ditches. In addition, narrowing the pipeline interval and extending the distance between heating stations is beneficial to save heating energy. This study is expected to provide valuable guidance for operation optimization of heated crude oil pipelines.

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Keywords

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