Optimal Control of Transient Flows in Pipeline Networks with Heterogeneous Mixtures of Hydrogen and Natural Gas

Abstract: We formulate a control system model for the distributed flow of mixtures of highly heterogeneous gases through large-scale pipeline networks with time-varying injections of constituents, withdrawals, and control actions of compressors. This study is motivated by the proposed blending of clean hydrogen into natural gas pipelines as an interim means to reducing end use carbon emissions while utilizing existing infrastructure for its planned lifetime. We reformulate the partial differential equations for gas dynamics on pipelines and balance conditions at junctions using lumped elements to a sparse nonlinear differential algebraic equation system. Our key advance is modeling the mixing of constituents in time throughout the network, which requires doubling the state space needed for a single gas and increases numerical ill-conditioning. The reduced model is shown to be a consistent approximation of the original system, which we use as the dynamic constraints in a model-predictive optimal control problem for minimizing the energy expended by applying time-varying compressor operating profiles to guarantee time-varying delivery profiles subject to system pressure limits. The optimal control problem is implemented after time discretization using a nonlinear program, with validation of the results done using a transient simulation. We demonstrate the methodology for a small test network, and discuss scalability and potential applications.