When you think about heating your home or business with natural gas, you probably don’t think too much about the composition of the gas being used. Natural gas can be composed of many different elements, including oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen sulfides, and carbon dioxide.
The levels of these different elements, combined with natural matter like sand and dirt, can affect the quality of natural gas and impact its usability. Because natural gas straight from the ground can contain a lot of contaminants, filtering systems need to be put in place to ensure that the final product is pure enough for delivery and use.
Midstream solutions to filter out and remove contaminants are often used tao refine natural gas and make it viable, and the resulting product after processing is referred to as pipeline-quality natural gas. Find midstream solutions by visiting this website.
Is All Pipeline-Quality Natural Gas the Same?
While pipeline-quality natural gas is a term used to designate natural gas that is ready to be sent through a pipeline for use, not all pipeline-quality natural gas is the same. Each pipeline has its own tariff that lays out the specifics of the acceptable content of gas flowing through the pipeline.
Some pipeline tariffs stipulate that natural gas must be free from contaminants like sand, crude oil, certain amounts of sulfur, and specific levels of oxygen. In some cases, upstream processes are employed to resolve these concerns, but in others, a combination of upstream and midstream solutions is used.
How is Pipeline Quality Natural Gas Monitored?
The quality of natural gas is monitored via systems installed in pipelines as well as by local distribution companies. If monitoring detects levels of contaminants that fall outside of the thresholds set by the specific pipeline’s tariff, service can be halted so that concerns can be addressed.
Gas that contains a lot of contaminants can pose a challenge to downstream operations as it can lead to bottlenecks and delays. For this reason, pipeline operations managers typically take the processes involved in ensuring pipeline-quality natural gas very seriously.
Read a similar article about oil and gas operations solution here at this page.
