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Selecting the Right Components for CNG and RNG Technologies
Global and regional clean air policies are becoming ever more stringent. A global review by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) shows that over the past five years, more countries have adopted policies on all major polluting sectors, including transportation, power generation, industrial emissions, solid waste management, household air pollution, and agriculture. However, significant gaps in implementation, financing, capacity, and monitoring mean that air pollution levels remain high.
CNG, as well as renewable natural gas (RNG), has seen wide acceptance, leading to rapid development of CNG equipment and refueling infrastructure, straining existing infrastructure, leading to inefficiencies and potential breakdowns. To ensure CNG fuel systems are reliable and safe, the components need to be of the highest quality.
A variety of fittings, valves, and other fluid system components move CNG or RNG from storage to dispenser. Using CNG or RNG as alternative fuel involves:
- Higher pressures, so it’s critical all components handle elevated pressure with no leaks
- Thermodynamic challenges, making it imperative that all parts of the system can withstand temperature changes that result from natural gas compression
- Elastomeric component compatibility with hydrocarbons and cold temperatures
- Vibration resistance, important for transportation of CNG and RNG
- Corrosion resistance, requiring higher quality stainless steel for all CNG and RNG components
Reliable, Safe, Leak-Tight Performance
We can help you meet challenges related to sourcing proven components and prefabricated systems for CNG or RNG applications. Take advantage of our team’s knowledge of metallurgy and alloy formation, component design, and fluid system engineering when building CNG or RNG fuel systems and infrastructure. We help you achieve:
- Safety. Find solutions for CNG or RNG compression, transfer, and refueling systems designed for peak performance at storage pressures in excess of 250 bar (~3600 psi).
- Leak-tight operation. Any leak can result in significant hazards, such as explosions, fire, and environmental impact. Work with a team who understands your requirements and has the local inventory to solve problems quickly.
- System longevity. Swagelok fittings can be remade up to 25 times, giving you the flexibility to keep systems operating optimally long term.
- Corrosion resistance. Our components are designed with materials such as high-quality 316 stainless steel which is formulated for enhanced strength and corrosion resistance.
- Elastomeric compatibility. We can help you find materials that provide the chemical, pressure, and temperature compatibility to keep your CNG or RNG systems operating.
- Compliance. We understand global certification standards, our products meet them, and we can help you meet them, too.
No matter what CNG or RNG application you are focusing on, know that we are ready to apply our long-standing experience in transportation markets and comprehensive product and service offerings to help you overcome system-related operational challenges.
Equipping CNG Refueling Stations
We provide a comprehensive portfolio of products and services to support your CNG refueling station requirements.
Mother and Daughter Stations:
Mother stations are used to fill large volumes of compressed gas into mobile daughter stations. These stations are typically located near a gas pipeline or supplied by tanker trucks and are comprised of large compressors, priority panels, cascade systems, and dual-fill dispensers.
Challenges Include:
- Capacity and Supply: Ensuring the mother station has sufficient capacity to cater to the station load, and fill mobile cascades, is crucial. Under-capacity can lead to increased filling time, longer waiting periods, and dry periods at the daughter station.
- Continuous Supply: Maintaining a continuous supply of gas to the daughter station using mobile cascades is challenging due to factors like high distance between stations, bad road conditions, road accidents, route closures, traffic jams, and vehicle unavailability due to maintenance.
- Mobile Cascade Utilization: Efficient utilization of mobile cascades requires continuous monitoring to avoid unwanted stoppages and delays.
- Safety: Ensuring the safe operation of mobile cascades involves compliance with standards, leak detection, emergency shut-down systems, over-pressure relief valves.
Critical Products:
- Products up to 1 ½ in. (20mm) tube fitting, tubing, hoses, and more.
Fast-Fill Stations
Fast-Fill stations are designed to quickly refuel vehicle.
Challenges Include:
- High-Pressure Storage: Unlike liquid fuels, natural gas is delivered via pipeline or compressed on demand. This requires high-pressure storage systems, which are expensive and need to be carefully managed to ensure safety and efficiency.
- Redundancy and Reliability: To ensure continuous operation, fast-food stations often need multiple compressors. This redundancy is crucial because if one compressor fails, the station can still operate. However, this increases the complexity and cost of the infrastructure.
- Temperature Management: The rapid compression of natural gas can cause significant temperature changes, which can affect the density of the gas and the efficiency of the refueling process. Proper temperature management systems are essential to maintain performance.
- Maintenance and Safety: Regular maintenance is critical to ensure the safety and dependability of fast fill stations. This includes checking for leaks, ensuring compliance with safety standards, and maintaining high-pressure components.
Critical Products:
- Metered CNG/RNG dispensers for tracking the amount of fuel being purchased.
- Hose assemblies, hose kits, and products inside the dispensers such as: manual and actuated ball valve assemblies, check valves, bleed valves, gauges, and regulators.
Cascade Fill Stations:
Cascade fill stations primarily fill from storage tanks and are typically used for retail applications or vehicles that require refueling at varying times.
Time Fill, Slow Fill, or Fleet Filling Stations:
Time fill stations are typically used for fleets of vehicles that return to central locations for extended periods, such as refuse trucks, school buses, and other similar fleets.
Combination Fill:
Combination fill stations, which combine elements of cascade fast-fill, buffer fast-fill, and time-fill configurations.
Bulk Loading and Off-Loading or Decanting:
Bulk loading is a process used to transfer CNG from one container to another. It involves using larger diameters, up to 1 in. on the tube trailers and 2 to 4 inches in decanting systems, where pipes become more common.
Maintaining Fluid System Integrity with CNG Services
To keep your CNG or RNG systems operating reliably, we offer fluid system evaluation and advisory service to address concerns about loss of system integrity and leakage. Our field engineering team can audit your existing systems and deliver a report highlighting identified issues, prioritizing fixes based on ROI, and outlining steps to maintain system reliability long-term.
Put our team alongside yours to help:
- Reduce operating costs and unexpected downtime
- Increase asset integrity
- Find answers to technical questions
- Access inventory for product replacement
Swagelok CNG and RNG Products:
- Tube Fittings
- Ball Valves
- Needle Valves
- Check Valves
- Purging Technology
- Measurement Devices
- Tubing
- Hose
- Manifolds