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Steps to set up a simulation in HYSYS v10 to model a simple dew point control system consisting of:
• Gas chiller
• Flash separator
• Liquid stabilizer with gas recycle & compression
• Product gas compression
• Simple propane refrigeration loop
When the simulation is set up the overall PFD should look like the following figure.
Basis
A gas plant is processing 100 MMscfd (dry basis) to produce a spec pipeline gas as well as a pipeline
raw mix liquid product (Y Grade). The following are known conditions for the feedstock and
specifications for the products:
• The composition of the feed gas is shown in the following Component Mol%
table. N2 0.357
• The gas enters the plant at 400 psia & 120°F. CO2 0.194
• The gas is nearly saturated with water at the inlet C1 80.980
conditions, 48 lb water per MMscf dry gas. C2 13.238
• The produced pipeline gas should have a gross heating C3 3.438
value between 905 to 1150 Btu/scf1 & a hydrocarbon dew i-C4 0.431
point no higher than 15°F. n-C4 0.742
• The produced pipeline gas should be delivered to the i-C5 0.199
pipeline at 1000 psia and no higher than 120°F. n-C5 0.156
• The produced liquids shall be exported via pipeline & n-C6 0.163
stabilized to have a TVP (true vapor pressure) @ 100°F no n-C7 0.065
greater than 103 psia. n-C8 0.026
n-C9 0.010
1If the gross heating value spec cannot be achieved set the chilled separator to the lowest reasonable
temperature when using a simple propane chilling loop, -30°F.
The first step is to add a set of pure chemical species to represent the gas & water phases. With
Component Lists highlighted click on the Add button. From the list of pure components pick: H2O,
Nitrogen, CO2, Methane, Ethane, Propane, i-Butane, n-Butane, i-Pentane, n-Pentane, n-Hexane,
n-Heptane, n-Octane, & n-Nonane.
It would be a good idea to save this file. Click the File tab & select Save As. Choose an appropriate
name & location.
Now we need to specify the composition. Select Composition under Worksheet in the left-hand
column. Click the Edit… button to bring up a form to enter the composition of this stream. Enter the
values from the table in the Basis section as Mole Fractions. Note that these add up to approximately
100, not 1. Select the Normalize button. Click OK. Now you should see that the form associated with
the stream is in green, meaning that all values for the stream have been calculated.
For most of the unit operations we’ll define connections and create new streams using the
operations’ Design forms.
1A Mixer is an isenthalpic operation, so the enthalpy for Feed Water (and hence its temperature & quality)
became specified once we fully specified Total Feed.
In the pop-up form choose Cold Vapor as the Object & click
OK.
The results in the Design tab show that the Cricondentherm is 20°F, warmer than the temperature
needed to meet the 15°F pipeline dew point spec. At what pressure does this occur? We can view
the PT diagram by selecting the Performance tab & the Plots option; now we can see that the
maximum temperature for the phase envelope is at 600 psig, very much in the possible range of
pipeline operating pressures. Since the gas in the pipeline will experience pressures lower than the
inlet’s 1000 psia, it is more appropriate to use the cricondentherm as the controlling value for this
spec. And since the temperature is 20°F, this gas does not make this spec.
Under the Home tab there is a section for Units that show the current set
being used & a button to change options within a unit set. For this
problem the default is a set called Refining-US1 (for new files the starting
set is dependent on what was previously used on the particular computer
being used). To control the actual set being used let’s create a new one which we will call Gas
In the lower section let’s start with the Field unit set. Select Field & press Copy. A new unit set will
be created (here called NewUser). Double click on this name & enter Gas Processing-US.
In the upper section we can set the units used for various properties in the simulation. We can see
that most units used are very reasonable. For example, temperature is in °F, actual liquid volume
flow as USGPM, & pressure is in psia. (Great! We don’t have to do anything for this.).
Liquid Stabilization
Before change conditions to lean out the gas let’s determine if the produced liquid will make the
TVP spec of 103 psia. Double-click on Cold Liquid & select Properties under the Worksheet heading
in the left-hand column. At the bottom of the list there is an item for True VP at 37.8 C [psia]. The
value is 654.9 psia, much higher than our spec. We can look at the composition to see the problem –
it has 16% methane. This is much too high to try to have in a raw NGL mix.
How close are we to creating a stabilized liquid with the correct TVP? Let’s create a new spec for
this but don’t make it active; we can then see how close we are. Select the Design tab and then the
Specs item in the left-hand column. Press the Add button for column specifications. On the list select
Column Stream Property Spec near the bottom of the list & press Add Spec(s)… Select the Stabilized
Liquid @COL1. You’ll have to go to another form to actually pick the type of stream property. Click
the Select Property button. On the next form select the tree structure under Standard & choose True
VP @ 37.8 C; press Select. Enter the value 103. Close this form.
Now let’s combine the HP Recycle Gas with the Total Feed & introduce it into the Chiller. Double-
click on Chiller & delete Total Feed as an Inlet Stream. Instead, create a new stream, Process Feed,
as the Inlet Stream.
The produced gas also still has a higher heating value that is too high, 1176 Btu/scf. We can try to
decrease the HHV by reducing the temperature of the Chilled Gas. Let’s lower this temperature to
the lowest limit reasonable for a simple propane chilling loop, -30°F. Reducing this temperature
does shift more of the heavy ends out of the produced gas & the HHV is lower, 1145 Btu/scf. This
does meet the heating value spec on the Product Gas. Even though we could raise the Cold
Separator temperature a bit to exactly make spec (raising it to -25°C) for now we’ll keep the
temperature at -30°F since we’ll be making a few more process changes.
One may ask “What if we are still too high on the HHV? What can we do?” The options are actually
fairly limited. The HHV being too high would be a function of the gas having too many heavy ends.
These could be reduced by making the Cold Separator colder (but we are at the lower limit on
temperature). The best way to control the amount of heavy ends would be to send the gas through a
column to remove the heavy ends, but this leads to a drastically different and more complex
process.
1 Engineering and Operating Guide for DOWTHERM SR-1 and DOWTHERM 4000 Inhibited Ethylene Glycol-based
Heat Transfer Fluids, Dow Chemical technical publication,
http://msdssearch.dow.com/PublishedLiteratureDOWCOM/dh_010e/0901b8038010e413.pdf?filepath=/hea
ttrans/pdfs/noreg/180-01190.pdf&fromPage=GetDoc
To be able to add an EG
solution we must add
ethylene glycol to the
component list. Return to
the Properties section.
Select Component List -1 to
view the active
component list. Highlight
H2O in the selected
components. Use the
search term “egly”. Select
EGlycol from the databank
list & press Add. The
component EGlycol will be
placed right after H2O,
second in the list.
1Note that even though we could try to operate in the region of lower glycol concentrations (60 wt% diluted
to 55 wt%) the normal practice is to operate in the higher concentration range; if excess water comes in with
the gas then the higher concentrations actually get better freeze protection, not worse.
Double-click on C3 Compressor. Select Refrig Vapor as the Inlet & create HP Vapor as the Outlet;
create W-C3 Compressor as the Energy stream. Normally we would want to specify the outlet
pressure, but we’re going to let HYSYS use the condenser’s pressure for this.
Product Compression
The final step in this simple simulation is to add compression for the final product gas. Add to the
flowsheet the unit:
• A Compressor, Product Gas Compressor
Let’s go back & run the column. Double click on EG stripper. We have made a specification on the
condenser but not on the reboiler. Select the Specs item. Click the Add… button for column
specifications. Select Column Component Fraction & click Add Spec(s)… Name this spec Bottoms Mass
Fraction; set the Mass Fraction value to 0.83 for EGlycol for the Liquid coming from the Reboiler.
Close this window.
Notice that the pump outlet is 30.1°F. This is notable for two reasons:
• This is lower than the initial spec that the ethylene glycol would be entering at 60°F. The EG
Cross Exchanger actually allows us to get fairly cold by recovering refrigeration in the Cold
Water stream.
• In fact, this temperature may actually be too low. Typical return temperatures should be 40
to 55°F. This higher temperature cannot be directly specified in EG Cross Exchanger; as
soon as you change the spec from one on the outlet of the hot side to one on the cold side
you set up a recycle loop and this module cannot automatically solve this. But you can
manually reduce the temperature of Hot Rich EG until the temperature of LP Lean EG rises
above 40°F. Reducing the spec from 200°F to 191°F will do this.
Though there is an Air Cooler module we’ll use an LNG Exchanger because of the flexibility it affords.
Let’s replace the Heater module for C3 Condenser with an LNG Exchanger module. Set HP Vapor as
the Hot Inlet Stream & Condensed Liquid as the Hot Outlet Stream. Set the pressure drop as 0. You
can also delete the heat stream since no heat will leave the overall exchanger. Note that even
though the exchanger does not appear to have been calculated properly it really has done the
calculations for the refrigerant side.
• Let’s define the air stream. Double-click on Air. Set the pressure & temperature as 1 atm &
90 F. Do not set the flowrate. Set the molar composition as 0.79 for Nitrogen & 0.21 for
Oxygen. Close this form.
1 Fig. 3.8, Fundamentals of Natural Gas Processing, 2nd ed., Kidnay, Parrish, & McCartney, 2011
Let’s look at the Worksheet tab. Notice that refrigerant-side streams are fully calculated (HP
Vapor & Condensed Liquid). We also see that the outlet air-side stream, Hot Air, has its
pressure calculated (note that this is a vacuum condition – we need this fan to create the
vacuum & induce the flow of air through the tubes). We do not know the flowrate of air or
the outlet temperature of Hot Air. We’d like a 10°F minimum approach temperature; since
the difference between Condensed Liquid & Air is already known & is 30°F (120 – 90) then
the minimum approach might be on the other end. Since HP Vapor comes in at 179.2°F then
a Hot Air temperature of 169.2°F would give this 10°F approach (we’ll find out that this is
wrong). Set 169.2 F as the Hot Air temperature. Note that we now have an air flow rate
calculated (662 MMscfd) but there is a temperature crossover.
How can we get HYSYS to do the calculations properly? First, go to the Worksheet tab &
delete the temperature we specified for Hot Air. Next, go to the Design tab & select Specs
(SS). Notice that there is already one spec, i.e., the requirement that the overall Heat
Balance be zero (no heat lost from the overall unit); this spec allowed for the determination
of the air flow rate when the temperature of Hot Air was specified. Let’s add an approach
temperature spec. Click Add. Call the spec Approach Spec, select the type as Min Approach,
specify a Pass value as Overall, & set the value to be 10 F. The calculations should quickly
• Now let’s determine the power required by the air fan. Double click on Air Fan & go to the
Design tab Parameters option. Ensure that 75% has been specified as the Adiabatic
Efficiency. Go to the Worksheet tab; set the pressure of Exhaust Air to 1 atm. The outlet
temperature has been calculated (115.3°F, a small increase) and the fan’s work has been
determined (unfortunately it’s shown as Btu/hr, a set of units normally used for heat flow).
We can go to the flowsheet & hover our mouse over W-Fan to see the value as 169.8 hp.
This still does not consider the mechanical losses/efficiency; dividing this number by 0.9
gives a required fan power of 189 hp.
What would the design for a forced draft aerial cooler look like?
The following figure shows the configuration for a forced draft fan. Now the atmospheric air is
drawn in & increased to a pressure sufficient to move through the tube bundle & exhaust back to
the atmosphere at the atmospheric pressure.
A question for optimization – can any of these streams be reduced to reduce the operating expense
for the process? Some thoughts:
• Most of these values are dependent on the operating conditions of DPC Separator. This sets
the amount of gas that needs to be recompressed, the amount of light ends to the Stabilizer
that need to be stripped off, compressed, & recycled back, and the amount of water
absorbed & regenerated in EG Stripper.
• The big operating cost and one that can be addressed with further design is the power
needed for the refrigeration loop. There are two ways that this could be done:
o We could try to recover the refrigeration from the cold streams from the DPC
Separator. By doing so there would be less refrigeration duty needed, reducing the
power requirement for the C3 Compressor. Also, by warming the Cold Liquid
before going to the Stabilizer the amount of reboiler duty will also be reduced.
However, note that by increasing the temperature of the gas before the Product Gas
Compressor the required power in this compressor will increase, negating the
majority of the power savings.
o We could increase the number of refrigeration stages of compression with associate
recycle of the intermediate gases from the intermediate stage economizers. It is
typical that a two-stage system can save about 20% of the power required by the
refrigeration system.