HOW LPGS ARE PRODUCED

WHAT IS LPG

• LPG - liquefied petroleum gas or liquid petroleum gas – (LP gas), the constituents of which are
propane and butane, are flammable hydrocarbon fuel gases used for LPG heating, cooking and
vehicles.

Slug Catcher – is the first unit in LPG site. It is used to eliminate the slug flow from the natural gas
coming from the platform.

Dehydration and Fired heater

Dehydration – it is used to eliminate the water content from the natural gas in dehydration towers; by
using solid desiccant which it has a high grade from water absorption.

Fired heater – it is used to perform regeneration to saturated solid desiccant.

Heat exchanger- it used to perform cooling by natural gas by 6 units of heat exchanger, to separate
some of hydrocarbon components from LPG

Fractionation tower – fractionation unit consists of 2 tower (Depropanizer and debutanizer)

Depropanizer: used to separate the more volatile components that remain in natural gas.

Debutanizer: Used to separate the low volatile components from the natural gas, to obtain liquefied
petroleum gas.

Tail gas Compressors – Flashed gas coming from separation process are compressed to seals gas
network by tail compressor.

Spherical Tanks – it is spherical tanks that used to store LPG under pressure 5.5 bar. To transmit it
though the underground pipeline.

LPG TANKS

• LPG tanks are typically made of welded steel, aluminum or composites. Steel is by far the most
common material, as it is the easiest to fabricate and it is a low cost material. Some cylinders are
made of aluminum or composites to save on weight.

• Aluminum is quite common for forklift cylinders, relating to safe lifting.

• The use of aluminum keeps the weight down to allow for more gas whilst still staying within the
safety weight limits.

• The most recent innovation is the composite cylinder.

• These are typically fiberglass with a high impact plastic outer shell.

• Some have an inner lining of HDPE whilst other have a thin steel liner.

• LPG is under pressure, as a liquid, and turns back into gas when you release some pressure. Gas
cylinder pressure is too high and erratic to use, as temperature variation affects pressure. Gas
 cylinders require a gas regulator to reduce gas bottle pressure and provide a consistent working
pressure.

• A gas cylinder works with pressure that is usually far in excess of what is required as the working
pressure. There are specific gas regulators, by gas type, that are used to reduce the cylinder
pressure down to the working pressure needed.

• An LP gas cylinder works by storing gas under pressure. To reduce the high pressure to a usable
level, the gas is passed through a gas regulator to decrease the pressure to the correct level for
the gas appliances. LPG is unique, as it liquefies under moderate pressure vs high pressure
compressed gas cylinders.

• LPG gas cylinder works (propane tank works) with some of the LPG-propane at the top of the
cylinder-tank is in gaseous form whilst it is liquid at the bottom.

• LPG gases, including propane, can be compressed into liquid at relatively low pressures and is
also referred to as natural gas liquids – NGL.

• LPG-propane liquid boils and turns back into gas vapour when you release some of the pressure
in the gas bottle by using gas.

• Almost all of the uses for LPG involve the use of the gas vapour, not the liquefied gas.