Optimal connection of gas pipelines from Tema to all regional capitals of Ghana (an application of prim’s algorithm)

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Date
2012
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Abstract
In 2007, Ghana found oil in commercial quantities and a major by-product of it’s exploration is natural gas. The WAGP Company has also laid pipelines from Nigeria through Togo and Benin to Tema and Takoradi in Ghana to meet the country’s natural gas needs. There is therefore the need to establish an elaborate and extensive transportation system to efficiently and effectively move natural gas from producing regions to consumption regions. Natural gas transportation requires a continuous pipeline network from well-head to burner- tip. Until Ghana builds a national gas pipeline network, introduction of natural gas into the economy will not necessarily displace all fuel-oil demand. On the basis of its mandate in the natural gas sector as the developer and operator of the natural gas transmission system in Ghana, the Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation Company Limited intends to develop a nationwide network of natural gas transmission pipelines and regulatory metering stations in accordance with the proposed Natural Gas transmission master plan. This research therefore analyses Network Analysis Techniques to the pipeline design problem. The main objective of study is to determine an optimal natural gas pipeline connection route to distribute natural gas throughout the entire nation by extending pipeline lines from the receiving point at Tema and using the regional capitals as nodes. Data on National Grid Co-ordinates was collected and analysed. Euclidean distance formula was used to compute the distances between all pairs of node. Concept of minimal Spanning tree using Prim’s algorithm is used in an analytical algorithm for generating near-optimal pipeline networks. An optimal pipeline length of 382.73km was obtained.
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A Thesis submitted to the School of Graduate Studies, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Industrial Mathematics
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