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A Methodology for Calculating the Natural Gas Compressibility

Factor for a Distribution Network

Article  in  Petroleum Science and Technology · November 2014

DOI: 10.1080/10916466.2012.755194

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A Methodology for Calculating the

Natural Gas Compressibility Factor for a
Distribution Network
a b c
J. Cézar de Almeida , J. A. Velásquez & R. Barbieri
a
Parana Natural Gas Company–COMPAGAS, Curitiba, Brazil
b
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Federal University of
Technology–Parana, Brazil
c
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Pontifical Catholic
University of Parana, Brazil
Published online: 05 Sep 2014.

To cite this article: J. Cézar de Almeida, J. A. Velásquez & R. Barbieri (2014) A Methodology for
Calculating the Natural Gas Compressibility Factor for a Distribution Network, Petroleum Science and
Technology, 32:21, 2616-2624

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 Petroleum Science and Technology, 32:2616–2624, 2014
Copyright 
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ISSN: 1091-6466 print / 1532-2459 online
DOI: 10.1080/10916466.2012.755194

A Methodology for Calculating the Natural Gas

Compressibility Factor for a Distribution Network

J. Cézar de Almeida,1 J. A. Velásquez,2 and R. Barbieri3

1
Parana Natural Gas Company–COMPAGAS, Curitiba, Brazil
2
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Federal University of Technology–Parana, Brazil
Downloaded by [JULIO ALMEIDA] at 20:36 08 September 2014

3
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Pontifical Catholic University of Parana, Brazil

This work describes a methodology that allows an accurate correlation for natural gas compressibility
factor to be obtained. This methodology was applied to the Parana State natural gas distribution net-
work in Southern Brazil, whose operating conditions were characterized by more than 14,000 pairs of
pressure–temperature readings, measured along eight months. Compressibility factors calculated fol-
lowing Peng-Robinson, Patel-Teja-Valderrama, Shell Oil Company, Soave-Redlich-Kwong, and Van der
Waals were compared to those given by the American Gas Association equation, which is used by most
natural gas companies. Finally, an alternative correlation was proposed, which is highly accurate within
the network operating range.
Keywords: COMPAGAS natural gas Brazilian network, compressibility factor of natural gas, equation
of state for natural gas, natural gas thermodynamic properties

1. INTRODUCTION

In the analysis and optimization of natural gas distribution networks, it is common to use mathematic
models to simulate the system’s dynamic behavior. In these models, the thermodynamic properties
of natural gas are frequently evaluated using the ideal gas hypothesis. Despite this hypothesis
having the clear advantage of mathematical simplicity, it can be inaccurate, given the operating
conditions of the studied network. In these cases, the use of equations valid for ideal gases becomes
an additional source of divergence between the behavior predicted by the computational model and
what is observed experimentally.
An approach that could be used to counteract this problem consists in using an equation of state
(EOS) for real gases. However, the EOSs for real gases reported in literature are typically of such a
mathematical complexity that they are inadequate for use in the simulation of the network’s dynamic
behavior.

Address correspondence to J. Cézar de Almeida, Parana Natural Gas Company – Brazil, Rua Hasdrubal Bellegard,
1177 – CIC, 81460-120, Curitiba, PR-Brazil. E-mail: j.cezar@compagas.com.br
Color versions of one or more of the figures in the article can be found online at www.tandfonline.com/lpet.

2616
 CALCULATING THE NATURAL GAS COMPRESSIBILITY FACTOR 2617
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FIGURE 1 Compressibility factor for methane.

2. THE IDEAL GAS MODEL

In the ideal gas model, the volume occupied by the molecules is considered to be insignificant
compared with the total volume occupied by the gas, and the collisions between molecules are
perfectly elastic (Borgnakke and Sonntag, 2008). However, real gas can present very different
behavior when both the attraction forces at halfway distances as well as the repulsion forces at short
distances are significant.
From a mathematical point of view, the ideal gas model is represented by the Clapeyron equation
that correlates pressure p, temperature T and specific molar volume, v̄, as follows:

p · v̄ = R̄ · T (1)

where, R̄ is the universal gas constant (8.314 kJ/kmol·K).

To model the behavior of a gas with Eq. (1) is equivalent to assigning a unit value to the
compressibility factor Z = pv̄/R̄T . However, the real value of Z depends on the temperature and
the pressure of the gas, and the greater the difference between this value and the unit value, the
further its behavior will be from that of an ideal gas. Therefore, the ideal gas model may only be
used to adequately represent the behavior of a gas if the state of this gas corresponds to values of Z
that are close to the unit value and within a tolerance range. For example, assuming that this range
includes values between 0.97 and 1.03, the states in which the ideal gas model could be used to
represent the behavior of methane are those that are highlighted in Figure 1. It can be seen in this
figure that at a temperature of 290 K the methane can only be treated as an ideal gas if its pressure
is below 15 bar. On the other hand, at 290 K and 25 bar, the corresponding compressibility factor
falls out of the tolerance range and, consequently, the ideal gas model becomes inadequate.
 2618 J. CEZAR DE ALMEIDA ET AL.

3. EVALUATION OF THE COMPRESSIBILITY FACTOR IN A NATURAL

GAS NETWORK

Knowing the temperature, the pressure, and the specific volume of a gas, the Z value can be found
by the equation that defines it. Usually, the temperature and pressure values at the points of interest
in a natural gas distribution network are known, since the measurement of these parameters is done
routinely (Coelho and Pinho, 2007). However, the measurement of specific volume is not a standard
procedure and more effort and cost is required for its execution. Due to this, the specific volume
value is commonly calculated by means of empirical equations of state (EOSs), using the values
measured for temperature and pressure as input data.
Often the EOSs are formulated from the principle of corresponding states proposed by van der
Waals, where the relation between pressure, temperature and specific volume has a universal form
Downloaded by [JULIO ALMEIDA] at 20:36 08 September 2014

for all gases when written in terms of reduced variables, defined as follows:
pR = p/pc TR = T /Tc vR = v/vc (2)
In these equations, the subscripts R and c indicate reduced properties and critical point properties,
respectively. An important consequence of the principle of corresponding states lies in the fact that
different gases that are at states with the same reduced properties will present the same deviation
from ideal gas behavior.
Although it was initially proposed for pure gases, the principle of corresponding states was ex-
tended in 1936 to gas mixtures by Kay (1936), introducing the concept of pseudo-critical properties,
defined as follows:

 

Tc = yi · Tc,i pc = yi · pc,i (3)

where, yi . represents the molar fraction of the component i. The reduced properties defined on the
basis of the pseudo-critical values are frequently denominated as pseudo-reduced properties.
A number of models used to calculate the compressibility factor of natural gas can be found in
technical literature (Bahadori et al., 2007; Azizi et al., 2010; Heidaryan et al., 2010; Bian et al.,
2012; Sanjari and Lay, 2012). These models are generally classified according to the mathematical
complexity of the expression that represents them and they can be fairly precise depending on the
pressure and temperature ranges considered. In this work, the ideal gas model is considered together
with the models of Peng-Robinson, Patel-Teja-Valderama, Shell Oil Company, Soave-Redlich-
Kwong, and Van-der-Waals, which are presented in Table 1 as functions of reduced pressure and
reduced temperature. It is important to stress that the models of Peng-Robinson and Soave-Redlich-
Kwong use the acentric factor of gas ω, while the Patel-Teja-Valderrama model requires the critical
compressibility factor, Zc .. In the case of a gaseous mixture, these parameters are defined by the
following expressions:
 
ω= yi · ωi Zc = yi · Zc,i (4)

4. OPERATIONAL CONDITIONS OF THE COMPAGAS NETWORK

COMPAGAS is the state run company responsible for supplying natural gas via pipeline to industrial,
automotive, commercial and residential users in the state of Paraná, Brazil. The COMPAGAS
distribution network currently has close to 570 km of pipeline with branches where the gas is
transported at nominal gauge pressures of 4, 7, 17, and 35 bar. The distributed gas comes from a low
number of different sources in Bolivia and which have such stability in the chemical composition
 CALCULATING THE NATURAL GAS COMPRESSIBILITY FACTOR 2619

TABLE 1
Models for Calculating the Compressibility Factor
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of the gas, that it is specified in the commercial contract within very narrow variation ranges. The
average values of this specified composition are given in Table 2.
To supply gas to clients in the industrial segment, COMPAGAS installs pressure reduction stations
that are composed of a set of valves and accessories set up on a base. Besides reducing the gas pressure
 2620 J. CEZAR DE ALMEIDA ET AL.

TABLE 2
Average Chemical Composition of COMPAGAS Natural Gas

Component Mole Fraction, % Molar Mass, kg/kmol Tc , K pc , MPa Zc Acentric Factor, ω

CH4 0.8901 16.043 190.6 4.596 0.286 0.011

C2 H6 0.0593 30.069 305.4 4.883 0.285 0.099
C3 H8 0.0185 44.096 369.8 4.250 0.281 0.153
n-C4 H10 0.0042 58.123 425.2 3.796 0.274 0.199
i-C4 H10 0.0031 58.123 408.2 3.648 0.283 0.183
n-C5 H12 0.0011 72.151 469.70 3.370 0.262 0.251
i-C5 H12 0.0008 72.151 460.4 3.380 0.270 0.227
n-C6 H14 0.0008 86.178 507.5 3.010 0.264 0.299
N2 0.0067 28.013 126.3 3.400 0.289 0.039
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CO2 0.0154 44.010 304.2 7.382 0.277 0.239

Natural gas 1.0000 18.374 204.478 4.632 0.286 0.0245

to the level required by the client, the station also includes equipment that allows the measurement
of the quantity of gas consumed by the client. To achieve this, the station has a volumetric flow
meter and an electronic volume corrector, which is a microprocessor device equipped with pressure
and temperature sensors. The function of the electronic volume corrector is to calculate the mass
consumption of natural gas based on the values measured for volumetric consumption, pressure and
temperature. It is programmed to calculate the compressibility factor of the natural gas using the
EOS from the American Gas Association (Starling and Savigde, 2003), which is adopted by the
majority of natural gas distribution companies worldwide.
In order to characterize the operating conditions of the COMPAGAS network, pressure, tem-
perature, and compressibility factor values were used from routine measurements performed at the
reduction stations throughout the network. The measurement points were chosen in order to cover
both the four levels of nominal pressure and the geographical regions where the network is located.
Additionally, the measurements were taken over a period of eight months to include both summer
and winter seasons and, therefore, account for temperature extremes in which the network typically
operates (between 275 and 320 K).
In Figure 2, the values informed by the measurement system are shown, forming a set of approx-
imately 14,000 points. In Figure 2a, the compressibility factor is displayed as a function of reduced
temperature, thus this figure enables the variation in reduced temperature of the natural gas to be
observed. It is important to note that the pipelines with 35 bar nominal gauge pressure are used as
arteries for the system, transporting gas to big consumers or to regions with a significant number of
industrial consumers. At the beginning of these pipelines, temperature control units are invariably
installed, which results in the temperature variation range at the reduction stations on these pipelines
being smaller than for other pressure levels. In Figure 2b, the same compressibility factor data set
appears as a function of reduced pressure. It can be seen that the data supplied by the measurement
system are distributed in the proximity of the four levels of nominal gauge pressure.

5. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

With the objective of identifying an EOS capable of calculating compressibility factor values with
sufficient accuracy in the operational conditions of the COMPAGAS network, a comparative analysis
was done considering the models presented in Table 1 in addition to the ideal gas model. The criterion
used to evaluate the precision of each model was the average error in relation to the compressibility
factor values obtained from the electronic volume corrector that, as previously mentioned, uses the
EOS recommended by the AGA-8 standard. The average error of each EOS was determined for each
 CALCULATING THE NATURAL GAS COMPRESSIBILITY FACTOR 2621
Downloaded by [JULIO ALMEIDA] at 20:36 08 September 2014

FIGURE 2 Compressibility factor provided by the electronic volume corrector as a function of reduced temperature
and reduced pressure.

nominal gauge pressure, according to the following expression:

n 
1 
ε̄ = · (Zi − ZAGA )2 (5)
n i=1

The results obtained are shown in Figure 3, where the average error was plotted as a function
of the reduced pressure. The reduced pressure values used to characterize each level of pressure in
 2622 J. CEZAR DE ALMEIDA ET AL.
Downloaded by [JULIO ALMEIDA] at 20:36 08 September 2014

FIGURE 3 Average error as a function of reduced pressure.

the network are the average values of each measured data set. One can see in this figure that for all
the models considered in this study the average error increases with (reduced) pressure, and that the
Soave-Redlich-Kwong EOS gives the smallest errors in relation to the AGA-8 equation.
Although the Soave-Redlich-Kwong model produced errors smaller than the others, it has the
disadvantage of being much more complex than the ideal gas model. Despite the simplicity of the
ideal gas model, it produced errors that were only slightly greater, as shown in Figure 3. Therefore,
the gain in terms of precision is not really worth the burden additional difficulties of using a more
complex model.
To avoid this problem, we propose an alternative model as follows:
Z = f (pR ) (6)
where the function f (pR ) can be obtained by making a curve fitting to the compressibility factor
values provided by the AGA-8 EOS (Starling and Savigde, 2003). Obviously, such a model will be
valid only for those conditions in which the data that gave origin to the curve fitting were collected. As
soon as the data represented in Figure 2 match the typical operating conditions for the COMPAGAS
network, it can be used to build a valid model for this network.
Figure 4 shows the average values for the compressibility factor of each individual data set
represented in Figure 2. Similar to before, the reduced pressure values used to characterize each
pressure level are the average values of each set. Making a linear adjustment to these values the
following equation is obtained:
Z = −0.0523 · pR + 0.9979 (7)
The procedure used to evaluate the accuracy of the other models was applied to the model defined
by Eq. (7). The result can be seen in Figure 5 where the average error obtained by this model is
 CALCULATING THE NATURAL GAS COMPRESSIBILITY FACTOR 2623
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FIGURE 4 The model proposed for the COMPAGAS network.

FIGURE 5 Average error in the proposed model.

 2624 J. CEZAR DE ALMEIDA ET AL.

compared to that produced by the Soave-Redlich-Kwong and by the ideal gas models. It is clear
from this figure that the proposed model achieves high accuracy without overly compromising the
desired mathematical simplicity.

6. CONCLUSION

A methodology that allows an empirical EOS to be obtained for natural gas was presented and
applied to the COMPAGAS natural gas distribution network, which is located in Southern Brazil.
The resulting EOS is valid for pressure and temperature ranging from 3.9 to 35.4 bar and from 275
to 320 K, as is typical for the COMPAGAS network.
Taking the values of the compressibility factor given by the correlation recommended by the
Downloaded by [JULIO ALMEIDA] at 20:36 08 September 2014

American Gas Association (Starling and Savigde, 2003) as a reference, a comparison was made of
the errors produced by the ideal gas equation and by the EOSs as proposed by Peng-Robinson, Patel-
Teja-Valderrama, Shell Oil Company, Soave-Redlich-Kwong, and Van-der-Waals. It was observed
that the errors in the considered domain of pressure and temperature, produced by all these EOSs,
are closely represented by straight lines that rise as the pressure increases. In addition, the Soave-
Redlich-Kwong EOS gave the lowest errors (0.5% at 4 bar, and 3.5% at 35 bar). However, taking
into account the fact that the Soave-Redlich-Kwong EOS is much more complex than the ideal gas
equation, and that these two models produce errors of the same order of magnitude, it was concluded
that the gain obtained from using the Soave-Redlich-Kwong EOS does not justify the additional
effort needed. Therefore, an alternative EOS described by the Eq. (7) was proposed, which is highly
accurate within the operating pressure and temperature range of the network (the maximum error is
0.3%), and the mathematical complexity of the proposed equation remains acceptable for building
computational models able to simulate the dynamic behavior of the network.

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