This paper provides an overview of the recently released Gas Quality Management Manual [1] that was developed by the American Gas Association Transmission Measurement Committee over a period of roughly seven years. The manual pulls together a wide range of information and provides context that allows both the expert and the novice to understand the “why, how and what” needed to develop a plan for managing gas quality.

BACKGROUND

In the early 2000’s changing sources for natural gas supply that initially were anticipated to involve a substantial increase in the use of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and other concerns, including hydrocarbon liquid dropout, caused a renewed interest in gas quality. In 2005, the Natural Gas Council Plus (NGC+) working groups published white papers on gas interchangeability [2] and liquid drop out [3] which established interim guidelines for gas interchangeability and identified many of the topics that were subsequently expanded upon in the gas quality management manual. The gas quality management manual grew from its original form as an engineering technical note on gas quality into a comprehensive guide to the management of gas quality. Projections in the growing supply of natural gas and changes in the sources shown in Figure 1 [4] suggest the importance of managing gas quality.