Blue-NG’s aim

Blue-NG’s team share a simple goal of becoming the best in the world at optimising and configuring technology to harness the sustainable energy available at gas pressure reduction stations (PRSs).

Why PRSs? In essence, because they offer significant potential for generating sustainable energy without burning fossil fuels. The major function of a PRS is to lower the pressure of the gas so that it is at a safe level for delivery to the different types of consumer (industrial, commercial or domestic) who all take gas at varying pressure levels. The challenge at a PRS is to reduce the pressure without reducing its mass flow rate and without allowing the temperature of the gas to go below a minimum safe temperature. This is currently achieved by using a gas boiler to heat the gas before the reduction process which expands its volume.

What Blue-NG has done is to think laterally about this process and recognise the sustainable energy creating potential offered by this expansion. During this expansion process the gas will do work on the turbine, to spin it and, by connecting this to a generator, generate electricity - without actually burning the gas. This work is equal to the reduction in the internal energy of the gas. In addition, by replacing the gas boilers (which pre-heat the gas) with highly efficient two stroke engines running initially on vegetable oil (and on 2nd generation alternatives, as soon as they become available) we are able to generate both heat and additional electricity and remove the carbon emissions otherwise produced when that gas is burnt in a boiler. For more on the proposed actual operation of CHiP see the CHiP page.