GAS DEHYDRATION

Lecture Online
 INTRODUCTION
 PHYSICAL ABSORPTION (TEG UNIT)
 Overview of physical absorption
 Natural gas dehydration is the process of removing
water vapor from the gas stream to lower the dew
point of that gas.
 The dew point is defined as the temperature at
which water vapor condenses from the gas
stream. The sale contracts of natural gas specify
either its dew point or the maximum amount of
water vapor present.
WHY TO DEHYDRATE A NATURAL GAS?
 Prevent formation of HYDRATES
 Prevent corrosion.
 Water vapor increases the volume and decreases
the heating value of the gas.

WHAT ARE THE MAIN DEHYDRATION TECHNIQUES?

 • Physical absorption (using LIQUID desiccants)
 • Physical adsorption (using SOLID desiccants)
WHERE IN THE GAS PROCESSING CHAIN ?
Four Glycols are used for dehydration:

1.Monoethylene Glycol ( MEG).

2.Diethylene Glycol ( DEG).
3.Triethylene Glycol (TEG).
4.Tetraethylene Glycol ( TREG).
1- Absorption (Glycol Dehydration Process)
The basic principles of relevance to the absorption
process are as follows:
 In this process, a hygroscopic liquid is used to
contact the wet gas to remove water vapor from it.
Triethylene glycol (TEG) is the most common
solvent used.
 Absorption, which is defined as the transfer of a
component from the gas phase to the liquid phase,
is more favorable at a lower temperature and
higher pressure.
 The absorption process is shown schematically in
Figure 4. Lean glycol is fed to the top of an
absorber (also known as a "glycol contactor")
where it is contacted with the wet natural gas
stream.
 The glycol removes water from the natural gas by
physical absorption and is carried out the bottom
of the column "rich glycol". The dry natural gas
leaves the top of the absorption column and is fed
either to a pipeline system or to a gas plant.
 After leaving the absorber, the rich glycol is fed to a
flash vessel where hydrocarbon vapors are
removed and any liquid hydrocarbons are
skimmed from the glycol.
 After leaving the flash vessel, the rich glycol is heated
in a cross-exchanger and fed to the stripper (also
known as a regenerator). The glycol stripper consists of
a column, an overhead condenser, and a reboiler. The
glycol is thermally regenerated to remove excess water
and regain the high glycol purity.
 The hot, lean glycol is cooled by cross-exchange
with rich glycol entering the stripper. It is then fed
to a lean pump where its pressure is elevated to
that of the glycol absorber.
 The lean solvent is cooled again with a trim cooler
before being fed back into the absorber. This trim
cooler can either be a cross-exchanger with the dry
gas leaving the absorber or an air-cooled
exchanger.
PRINCIPLE OF TEG UNIT
TEG PROCESS – CONTACTOR
PHYSICAL ABSORPTION (TEG UNIT)
 Glycols are widely used for natural gas dehydration (TEG)
 TEG systems are used onshore and offshore for both sweet
gas and sour gas applications
 Gas can be treated economically with TEG between 10°C-
100°C and between 10-200 bar.g
 Water Dew Point depression typically 30°C - 100°C
 Special TEG processes available for difficult applications
Glycol process

 Tens of thousands of glycol units dehydrate gas over

the world
 Simple operating principle
− Direct contact at pressure between gas and glycol
− Glycol circulating in a closed loop
Triethylene Glycol (TEG) is the preferred choice of
desiccant because of:

 High thermal stability

 Efficient regeneration at high reboiler temperatures
(up to 204°C)
Concentrations higher than 99.9+ wt% are obtainable
 Low vaporization losses
 Capital and operating costs are lower.
Key design factors: Low dew point application

 Number of trays in contactor tower

 Glycol flow rate.
 Glycol concentration.
2- Adsorption Soil-Bed Dehydration
 When very low dew points are required, solid-bed
dehydration becomes the logical choice. It is based on
fixed-bed adsorption of water vapor by a selected
desiccant. A number of solid desiccants could be used
such as silica gel, activated alumina, or molecular
sieves.
 The selection of these solids depends on economics.
The most important property is the capacity of the
desiccant, which determines the loading design
expressed as the percentage of water to be adsorbed by
the bed. The capacity decreases as temperature
increases.
 Operation of Solid-Bed Dehydrator
 The system may consist of two-bed (as shown in Figure 1),
three-bed, or Multi-bed operation. In the three-bed
operation, if two beds are loading at different stages, the
third one would be regenerated.

 The feed gas entering the bed from the top and the upper
zone becomes saturated first. The second zone is the mass
transfer zone (MTZ) and is being loaded. The third zone
is still not used and active. The different saturation
progress and representation of different zones is shown in
Figure (2).
Figure (1): Solid-bed dehydration process
Figure (2): Mode operation