Hydrocarbon Fractionation Train

Natural Gas Liquids (NGLs) fractionation is the process used in gas processing

plants to separate hydrocarbon mixtures from natural gas into individual products such as

ethane, propane, butane, and pentanes as well as natural gasoline found in natural gas.

Separation into components is carried out by relative volatility. The ease of separation is

dependent on the relative volatility of the components within the products and the required

purity of the product streams.

The size and cost of the fractionation column are determined by the degree of

separation required and the component volatility. Products with higher purity will require

more trays, more reflux and larger diameter of the column and/or reduced product. A

fractionation train is made up of several fractionators. The number of separators required

depends on the number of components to be produced from the feed.

The name of a particular fractionator gives an idea as to its purpose, as it is

conventionally named for the hydrocarbon that is the distillate. The entire fractionation process

is broken down into steps, starting with the removal of the lighter NGLs from the stream. The

fractionators are used in the following order:

 Deethanizer – Removes ethane from the rest of the NGL.

 Depropanizer – Removes propane from the remaining NGL.

 Debutanizer – Boils off the butanes from the heavier hydrocarbon in the NGL stream.

 Deisobutanizer or Butane Splitter – Separates isobutane and n-butane from the

debutanized feed.
Figure ? Process flow diagram (PFD) of NGL fractionation