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W3V21 Gas Treatment V2016 Handout
W3V21 Gas Treatment V2016 Handout
Olivier Bernaert
The treatments and the process units that need to be installed depend on the final use of
the gas and the type of transportation: by pipelines in gas form or by tankers in liquid form.
Gas Consumers
You have already seen the first two uses of the gas available at the outlet of the stabilization
process. It can be utilized directly on the production field. Remember the gas re-injection in
the well for reservoir pressure management, or activation of the production, by gas lift.
In the following parts, we will detail the treatment units used to eliminate all these
impurities. Of course, the treatment processes to be installed will depend on the types and
quantities of impurities in the gas at the inlet of the plant.
LPG Extraction
Here you can see the normal boiling temperature of light compounds.
Amine Unit
The two main acid gas compounds in Natural gas are Hydrogen Sulfide (called H2S) and
Carbon dioxide (called CO2) To eliminate these 2 acids, the main process used is amine
absorption.
The gas containing H2S and CO2 is put in contact with a chemical liquid absorbent. For H2S
and CO2 removal, the solvent is an amine, such as diethanol amine called DEA.
A chemical reaction occurs between the H2S and the DEA.
The sour gas containing CO2 and H2S enters at the bottom of an absorber column. The DEA
enters at the top of the column. The sweet gas, without H2S and CO2, is recovered at the
top of the absorber. The DEA, with the H2S, flows to a regenerator column.
The DEA and the H2S goes inside the column where the H2S is stripped from the DEA by
steam generated at the bottom of the column by a reboiler.
The H2S is stripped out of the DEA solution at the top of the regenerator. The regenerated
DEA goes to the absorber again.
Because H2S is a poison, H2S and CO2 are treated in an additional unit called a Claus unit.
Because this reaction is not complete, we add 2 or more catalytic stages to the process.
The reactors containing the catalyst are operated at around 250°C at 1 bar. Liquid sulfur is
again recovered at the outlet of each reactor.
Gas Dehydration
The water comes from the gas itself. Water in Natural Gas can create problems during
transportation and processing, like hydrates or ice formation which may block the
instrumentation, equipment or pipe lines. A hydrate is a solid formed from the combination
of water and low-molecular weight molecules, such as CH4.
Liquefaction Unit
To transport the gas in liquid form, it is necessary to add a liquefaction unit. Then, the LNG is
transported by tanker at -160°C and then re-vaporized for the different consumers.
The natural gas is cooled down to -160°C to condensate methane and obtain LNG at the
outlet of the liquefaction unit.
To decrease the temperature, step by step, the gas passes through a series of cooling
systems.
The first one is a cooling system full of propane. In this condition, we obtain a temperature
around -35°C. Then a second loop is full of ethylene to obtain a temperature around -98°C.
The last cooling loop is with Methane to reach the outlet of the unit at a temperature
around -155°C.
The pressure at the inlet of the unit is around 60 bar. At the outlet, the LNG is stored at a
pressure of 1 bar and at a temperature of -160°C.
To conclude, at the outlet of the gas treatment plant, we have two options.
1. the gas is exported in gas form by pipeline after compression to around 150 bar.
2. after the liquefaction unit, the LNG is exported in liquid form by tanker.