Gas Engineering

week-2
Engr. Waqas Noor
General Gas Properties.
Following gas properties are important to be
considered for the handling of any gas.
1. MASS AND WEIGHT
2. VOLUME
3. DENSITY, SPECIFIC WEIGHT, AND SPECIFIC
VOLUME
4. SPECIFIC GRAVITY
5. VISCOSITY
1. MASS AND WEIGHT
Mass is the quantity of matter in a substance. It is sometimes
used interchangeably with weight.
Mass is a scalar quantity, whereas weight is a force and,
therefore, a vector quantity.
Scalar quantities: time , volume , speed, mass , temperature ,
distance, entropy, energy , work.
Vector quantities: acceleration , velocity , momentum , force ,
increase and decrease in temperature , weight .
Mass is measured in slugs in the U.S. Customary System
(USCS) of units and kilograms (kg) in System International (SI)
units.
e.g we say that a 10-lb mass has a weight of 10 lb.
The pound (lb) is a more convenient unit for mass, and to
distinguish between mass and weight, the terms pound mass
(lbm) and pound force (lbf) are sometimes used.
A slug is equal to approximately 32.2 lb
If some gas is contained in a certain volume and the temperature
and pressure change, the mass will remain constant unless some
gas is taken out or added to the container. This is known as the
principle of conservation of mass.
Weight is measured in pounds (lb) in USCS units and in Newton
(N) in SI units.
Sometimes we talk about mass flow rate through a pipeline
rather than volume flow rate. Mass flow rate is measured in lb/hr
in USCS units or kg/hr in SI units.
2. VOLUME
Volume of a gas is the space a given mass of gas occupies at a
particular temperature and pressure.
Since gas is compressible, it will expand to fill the available
space. Therefore, the gas volume will vary with temperature and
pressure.
Hence, a certain volume of a given mass of gas at some
temperature and pressure will decrease in volume as the pressure
is increased and vice versa.
Suppose a quantity of gas is contained in a volume of 100 ft3 at a
temperature of 80°F and a pressure of 200 psi. If the temperature
is increased to 100°F, keeping the volume constant, the pressure
will also increase.
Similarly, if the temperature is reduced, gas pressure will also
reduce, provided volume remains constant. Charles’s law states
that for constant volume, the pressure of a fixed mass of gas will
vary directly with the temperature.
The value of increase in temperature will be the increase in
pressure also.
If pressure is maintained constant, the volume will increase in
direct proportion with temperature.
Volume of gas is measured in ft3 in USCS units and m3 in SI
units. thousand ft3 (Mft3), million ft3 (MMft3)
SI units thousand m3 (km3), million m3 (Mm3).
When referred to standard conditions (also called base
conditions) of temperature and pressure (60°F and 14.7 psia in
USCS units), the volume is stated as standard volume measured
in standard ft3 (SCF) or million standard ft3 (MMSCF).
In USCS.
 M represents to thousands.
 MM for Millions.
500 MSCFD in USCS units refers to 500 thousand standard cubic
feet per day (500,000 ft3/day).

In SI systems.
 For thousand k (for kilo)
 For a million M (for Mega)
15 Mm3/day means 15 million cubic meters per day in SI units.
M to denote a thousand in USCS units , M for a million in SI
units.
Volumetric flow rate of gas is measured per unit time and can be
expressed as ft3/min, ft3/h, ft3/day, SCFD, MMSCFD in USCS
units.
In SI units, gas flow rate is expressed in m3/h or Mm3/day.
3. DENSITY, SPECIFIC WEIGHT,
AND SPECIFIC VOLUME
Density represents the amount of gas that can be packed in a given
volume. It is measured in terms of mass per unit volume. If 5 lb of a
gas is contained in 100 ft3 of volume at some temperature and
pressure, we say that the gas density is 5/100 = 0.05 lb/ft3.
In USCS units density must be expressed as slug/ft3 since mass is
customarily referred to in slug.
ρ = m /V
where ρ = density of gas m = mass of gas V = volume of gas
Density is expressed in slug/ft3 or lb/ft3 in USCS units and kg/m3 in
SI units.
specific weight is also used when referring to the density of gas.
Specific weight, represented by the symbol γ, is the weight of gas per
unit volume measured in lb/ft3 in USCS units, and is, therefore,
contrasted with density, which is measured in slug/ft3.
In SI units, the specific weight is expressed in Newton per m3
(N/m3), density is also referred to in lb/ft3 in USCS units.
The reciprocal of the specific weight is known as the specific
volume, specific volume represents the volume occupied by a
unit weight of gas.
It is measured in ft3/lb in USCS units and m3/N in SI units.
If the specific weight of a particular gas is 0.06 lb/ft3 at some
temperature and pressure, its specific volume is 1/0.06 or 16.67
ft3/lb.
4. SPECIFIC GRAVITY
Specific gravity of a gas, sometimes called gravity, is a measure
of how heavy the gas is compared to air at a particular
temperature, also be called relative density, expressed as the
ratio of the gas density to the density of air. Because specific
gravity is a ratio, it is a dimensionless quantity.
Both densities should be in same unit and measured at same
temperature in the equation for comparison.
For example, natural gas has a specific gravity of 0.60 (air =
1.00) at 60°F. This means that the gas is 60% as heavy as air.
If we know the molecular weight of a particular gas, we can
calculate its gravity by dividing the molecular weight by the
molecular weight of air, as follows.
Natural gas consists of a mixture of several gases (methane,
ethane, etc.), the molecular weight Mg in equation is referred to
as the apparent molecular weight of the gas mixture.
When the molecular weight and the percentage or mole fractions
of the individual components of a natural gas mixture are known,
we can calculate the molecular weight of the gas mixture by
using a weighted average method. Thus, a natural gas mixture
consisting of 90% methane, 8% ethane, and 2% propane will
have a specific gravity of
5. Viscosity
The viscosity of a fluid represents its resistance to flow. The
higher the viscosity, the more difficult it is to flow. Lower-
viscosity fluids flow easily in pipes and cause less pressure drop.
Liquids have much larger values of viscosity compared to gases.
For example, water has a viscosity of 1.0 centiPoise (cP),
whereas viscosity of natural gas is approximately 0.0008 cP.
The absolute viscosity, also called the dynamic viscosity, is
expressed in lb/ft-s in USCS units and Poise (P) in SI units.
A related term is the kinematic viscosity. This is simply the
absolute viscosity divided by the density. The two viscosities are
related as follows:
Kinematic viscosity is expressed in ft2/s in USCS units and
Stokes (St) in SI units. Other units of viscosity in SI units
include centipoise (cP) for dynamic viscosity and centistokes
(cSt) for kinematic viscosity.
The viscosity of a gas depends on its temperature and pressure.
Unlike liquids, the viscosity of a gas increases with increase in
temperature.
Since natural gas is a mixture of pure gases such as methane and
ethane, the following formula is used to calculate the viscosity
from the viscosities of component gases:
Therefore, a homogeneous mixture that consists of 20% of a gas
A (molecular weight = 18) that has a viscosity 6 × 10−6 Poise
and 80% of a gas B (molecular weight = 17) that has a viscosity
8 × 10−6 Poise will have a resultant viscosity of
It must be noted that all viscosities must be measured at the same
temperature and pressure.
Example 1
A natural gas mixture consists of four components C1, C2, C3,
and nC4. Their mole fractions and viscosities at a particular
temperature and pressure are indicated below, along with their
molecular weights.