Project 6: OPTIMIZATION BASED ON THE ADJOINT METHOD FOR NATURAL GAS STORAGE SYSTEMS

(Project concluded on November 30, 2020)

Worldwide, the energy market is going through a phase of intense research and development efforts. In several countries, the energy matrices are undergoing progressive changes, so as to adapt to more stringent environmental laws and to the global economy instabilities. In this scenario, the Natural Gas appears as a source of energy of growing relevance, owing to both its direct uses and to the possibilities it offers regarding the process of gas reform, for hydrogen production and carbon capture. The growth of its share of the energy market prompts the need to optimize the chain of production, processing and storage of Natural Gas. For optimal solutions should allow significant  savings in the implementation and operational costs of the Natural Gas industry.

Amongst the most relevant approaches to optimization, the adjoint method stands out for it allows an exceptional reduction in the computational costs of sensitivity derivatives. It makes for a more efficient analysis of design alternatives, without compromising the results accuracy. The method is also attractive for its high fidelity to the flow physics, and for the great diversity of its applications. This project aims to use the adjoint method to optimize Natural Gas Adsorption Systems for storage. The study focuses on gas flow through porous media that adequately represent those systems. Moreover, it is not limited to the search for optimal geometries for the adsorption beds in reservoirs. As it shall also consider the optimization of the filling and emptying operations of such reservoirs.