NATURAL GAS DEHYDRATION

(PREVENTION OF HYDRATE FORMATION)

 High pressure gas forms hydrates at higher
freezing temperatures than water.
 Temperature drops along flowline due to
heat loss and across chokes due to J-T
cooling.
 When operating pressure and temperature
move inside hydrate phase region, hydrates
will form and may cause blockage.
Natural Gas Dehydration 1
 J-T effect (also known as the Joule–Kelvin
effect, Kelvin–Joule effect, or Joule–Thomson
expansion) describes the temperature change
of a gas or liquid when it is forced through a
valve or porous plug while kept insulated so
that no heat is exchanged with the
environment. This procedure is called a
throttling process or Joule–Thomson process.
At room temperature, all gases except
hydrogen, helium and neon cool upon
expansion by the Joule–Thomson process.
Natural Gas Dehydration 2
  Hydrates can be prevented by:
 Heating flowline (elevate T, low cost,
flowline <1-2 miles).
 Drying natural gas (remove water vapor,
depress dew point temperature).
 Chemical addition (anti-freeze):
 depress temperature and increase
pressure of hydrates formation
 This is done by thermodynamically
altering the chemical potential of
hydrates phase.
Natural Gas Dehydration 3
 Design Consideration
 Which chemical to use:
 Methanol (MeOH)
 Mono-Ethylene Glycol (MEG)
 Di-ethylene Glycol (DEG)
MeOH (any T)
• Low viscosity No T>15 oF Yes DEG, MEG or
•Easy to separate MeOH
from crude

DEG better than

MEG due to lower Yes T>20 oF No MEG
Vaporization losses

Natural Gas Dehydration 4

  MEG and DEG must be sprayed, while
MeOH evaporates into gas.
 MEG and DEG are separated, re-
concentrated and reused, while MeOH is not
recovered due to its low cost and high
vaporization losses.
 MEG and DEG are cheaper when continuous
injection is required and the gas rate is high.

Natural Gas Dehydration 5

  Because of its low capital cost, MeOH is
used for low gas rates, and temporary
installation where problem is not serious.
 MEG and DEG seldom used in pipeline
longer than 1 mile. In this case, MeOH offers
better protection.

Natural Gas Dehydration 6

  Cost:
 MeOH has low CAPEX because is not
regenerated, but high OPEX due to high
consumption.
 MEG or DEG has higher CAPEX, but
relatively lower OPEX due to regeneration.

Natural Gas Dehydration 7

  Rule of thumb:
 Glycol prevents hydrates, but does not
dissolve it.
 MeOH can dissolve blockages.
 Pipeline blockages can be unplugged by
depressurizing

Natural Gas Dehydration 8

 Glycol Injection System

Natural Gas Dehydration 9

  Free water is knocked out first.
 Glycol is injected upstream of HEX to
prevent hydrates due to cooling and water
condensation.
 Cold gas leaves HEX to choke where Glycol
injected upstream of choke to prevent
hydrates.

Natural Gas Dehydration 10

  Liquids and gas are separated by the low
temperature separator.
 Cold gas sent to first HEX to be heated by
incoming gas and further processed.
 Liquids are separated in Glycol-Oil separator.
 Rich Glycol (Glycol+water) preheated in
HEX and sent to Glycol regenerator where
water is boiled off as steam.
 Lean Glycol is cooled across HEX, pumped
and filtered to be re-injected again.
Natural Gas Dehydration 11
 Methanol Injection System
 MeOH is not recovered/re-concentrated, thus
no regeneration system.
 Low-flow rate metering pump is used for
injection only.
 Positive displacement pump can be used as
pump and meter.
 Assurance of protection and system simplicity
accounts for its popularity.
 Methanol is toxic.
Natural Gas Dehydration 12
 Design Procedure
 Hydrates inhibition involve the transfer of
water from gas to liquid inhibitor. Thus, mass
balance applies:
(m g  m w  m inhb )in  (m g  m w  m inhb )out

Natural Gas Dehydration 13

  Minimum liquid-phase inhibitor concentration
(Hammer-Schmidt correlation)
100 d M w
W
d M w  KH

W = wt% of pure inhibitor in liquid water phase

d = desired depression of hydrates formation
o
temperature ( F)
M w = molecular weight of inhibitor
K H = Hammer-Schmidt constant for inhibitor

Natural Gas Dehydration 14

 EG DEG Methanol
KH 4,000 4,000 2,335
Mw 62 106 32
 Glycol freezing T & dilution restriction
 Below 20 F, MEG and DEG freezing
o

must be considered.
 Glycol does not freeze solid, but “mushy”.
 At cold temperature, glycol viscosity is
high; thus, it is difficult to pump
 Common practice requires keeping glycol
concentration 60-70 wt%.
Natural Gas Dehydration 15
Natural Gas Dehydration 16
  Inhibitor required in liquid phase:
 100  Wout   100  Win 
WG  I   
 Wout   Win 
WG = water removed from the gas stream,
lbm/MMSCF
I = pure inhibitor required, lbm/MMSCF
Win = concentration of inhibitor in inlet inhibitor,
wt%
Wout = concentration of inhibitor in outlet inhibitor,
wt%

Natural Gas Dehydration 17

  Another form of the above equation.
 100   100 
WG  I   
 Wout   Win 
 If Wout is fixed by Hammer-Schmidt equation,
combining the two equations yields:
 d M w  K H 100 
WG  I   
 d Mw Win 

Natural Gas Dehydration 18

  Inhibitor dilution should not exceed 10%.
Thus, if Win  75%, Wout should be 65%. At
o
higher temperature (T>20 F), glycol dilution
can be increased to 20%.
 The density of inlet glycol can be determined
by Fig. 6-10.

Natural Gas Dehydration 19

  Vapor phase inhibitor losses.
 Glycols have low vapor pressure; thus,
small losses.
 Methanol is volatile and vapor phase
losses must be included in the calculation.
Fig. 6-3 present this losses.

Natural Gas Dehydration 20

 Fig. 6-10
Natural Gas Dehydration 21
 Fig. 6-3
Natural Gas Dehydration 22