PCB decontamination protocols for gas transmission pipelines

PCB contaminate most natural gas transmission systems. Eradicating PCB in these systems with minimal downtime is feasible using solvent injection. A parametric study using a model for tracking PCB migration under a variety of solvent injection scenarios is carried out. The model serves as a tool for evaluating the efficacy and efficiency of injecting solvent, as a means of removing PCB from contaminated natural gas pipelines. Pipeline operational protocols can significantly affect solvent injection time and volume required for decontaminating a particular pipeline system. The important parameters that must be studied are so diverse that the benefits and detriments of plausible scenarios must be compared and contrasted using the tool developed, to evaluate their relative effectiveness. However, certain parameters seem to be consistently beneficial, most notably the higher flow rate with its accompanied pressure increase, the increase in the system liquid holdup. This is an abstract of a paper presented at the AGA 2003 Operations Conference (Orlando, FL 4/27-29/2003).