METHOD OF AND DEVICE FOR PROVISION OF REGULATED NONHEATED REDUCTION OF PRESSURE OF MAIN-LINE NATURAL GAS Russian patent published in 2001 - IPC

FIELD: transportation of natural gas. SUBSTANCE: main-line gas is divided into two flows one of which is passed through gas flow rate stepless control unit 1 and is directed to energy separator - heat exchanger in form of pipe with separate inlets for subsonic and supersonic flows. Gas from intake chamber 10 gets to pressure reducing element of energy separator being essentially a bank of supersonic channels 4 with supersonic nozzles 3 in which gas is accelerated to Mach number M=2.5 and diffusers 6. Pressure of gas in channels is reduced and then gas is fed to consumer. Other part of gas, taken before stepless control unit, gets into tube space 5 and then into cold utilization device after which it is also fed to consumer. Heat exchanger-pipe has relative length of . Gas in tube space is cooled to temperature of Tso