Discussion of this paper is invited. Three copies of any discussion should be sent to the Society of Petroleum Engineers Office. Such discussions may be presented at the above meeting and, with the paper, may be considered for publication in one of the two SPE magazines.
Over the past 40 years, several investigators have developed methods of calculating for combustion interchangeability of gases for appliance-type burners. However, when these methods are used to calculate interchangeability for more current types of gases such as substitute natural gases (SNG) or revaporize LNG, there is considerable disagreement. Currently, additional research work is being conducted to resolve these differences. Results to date show that the American Gas Association method or indexes are most suited to today's gases on U. S., appliances. In addition, we have fund that today's burner designs allow more flexibility in interchanging gases. Compositions of SNG, for example, which may not burn satisfactorily in a cast iron drilled-port burner, popular 40 years ago, will burn properly in the newer popular 40 years ago, will burn properly in the newer stamped-metal burner. Consequently, further work is being done to extend the A.G.A. indexes to reflect this added stability of newer burners.
The U.S. gas industry is embarking on major programs to import liquified natural gas (LNG) and programs to import liquified natural gas (LNG) and to produce substitute natural gas (SNG) from solid and liquid feeds. The compositions of these gases are expected to vary considerably from the natural gas now being used in the U.S. It is, therefore, important to determine the combustion interchangeability of these new gases with conventional appliances now equipped for natural gas.
In the late 1940's and 1950's, several groups studied the problem of interchangeability as applied to natural gas. From data collected by the A.G.A. Laboratories, indexes were developed by A.G.A. and by Weaver of the National Bureau of Standards. Additional work including theoretical foundations was done by Grumer, Harris, and Rowe, at the U.S. Bureau of Mines. Another significant set of data and indexes were developed by Delbourg and Schneck in France.
