NEW TECHNOLOGY AIDS IN EFFICIENT, HIGH RECOVERY OF LIQUIDS FROM RICH NATURAL GAS STREAMS. Dacor of Techrlogy Developrt and Prcees Enpnerng Lumsrus Process Technolgy ~ Randal Gas Technologie, a Dvson of ABB Lurmus Gebal Houston, Texas, USA, 13824313 Foetus abe com ABSTRACT Turboexpander technology is the option of choice for the recovery of ids of natural gas specially ethane and heavier. After more than thty years, technology has achieved certain maturity. However, while solutions avaliable through mature technology, technologists continue to innovate and evelop new and more efficient solutions. The investment in units ublzing roprietarylicensed “state of the art” technology pays off In a very short time resulting in a cost etfecve and efiiant unt Venezuela, there are significant quantities of natural gas associated resources. This gas is very rich in heavy componenis, which most often requires the use of additional extemal refigeration to aid in the recovery of liquids. There ara_-many cryogenic turboexpander schemes. thet use refrigeration, but the unique characteristics of the Venezuelan gas require an ‘approach where the right combination of refrigeration and turboexpan natural gas. Using a mature technology as a base case process, the paper discusses a ‘umber of different novel designs showing savings in capital expenses (CAPEX} energy consumption unt ‘and layout requirements. A key element of these efficient technologies Isis use of true refluxed demetnanizers fo recover ethane and heavier components. An ‘economic basis is also presented to compare the different cases. Adcitionally, a simple scheme applicable to revamps is shown as a candidate to upgrade ‘existing plantsIntroduction - Processing Heavy Gas ‘fer more than # turboexpa natural gas field is becoming mature, the leading gas processing experts co solutions that reduce energy usage, mainly co sdemethani nuous improvements and innovatons, ‘choice for the recovery af ids especialy ethana and heavier. Wie the technology in this management contractors to sol phases, where “fe cycle cost important to This paper also demonstrates domain process schemes Influence of Gas Composition Gas compositions vary as a function of the source of the gas. Associated gas, ‘that is, gas produced with crude ell, tends to be rieher in composition than that from the natural gas fel. [Natural gas fs a mixture of hycrocarbon gases and Impurities. There Is no one composition or sper that can be referred to as natural gas. Each gas stteam has is own ive composition. Even two gas wells from the samo reservoir may have different compositions. Examples of some typicel naturally produced natural gas st 5 from natural gas fields. Not only is thera a jons, but each gas stream produced trom positon as the reserve ‘A convenient method of expressing "richness" of a gas is by use of thousand standard cubic feet of gas" (GPM), This method allows c {93s compositions with a single figure, and is obtained by mul percent of each component by the factors shown in Table 2, based on the pressure base of 14.65 psia and 60°F. ‘A casing head “ich” gas may have @ GPM content of 9, whereas, a “lean” gas from offshore U.S.A, Gulf Coast has a typical GPM content of 08‘Table 1 Typical Natural Gas Analysis cpu Wass Mate Gem Nets ew wz 35361 ops 218 3st oe 035 os) ono 085 omens oes 01806 ose On? On oe 027 att ost o¢ ne 70100 3e38 8 Table 2 - GPM Factors Component Factor Etnane o26r Propere 0278 Haine 032? reutane 0315 fpeniane 0.366 penne 0.362 Heptanest 0.481 ‘Typical gas streams in Venezuela are considered rch gases”. Typical compositions and corresponding GPM's are shown in Table 3. Table 3 ~ Typical Gas Analysis in VenezuelaIssues Related to Rich Gas Composition ‘The design ofa gas plant to process rich gas is impacted by: juid condensation during tne cool down, which impacts ing curves and promotes pinch points, ream, which reduces + Alarge amount the shape ofthe + large amount of methane condensed with the liquid the amount of gas available fr the turboexpander. ‘The formation of liquid during the cooling process needs to be carefully ‘evaluated as the densities, flow patterns, pressure drops and, volumes of ‘equipment are significantly affected by these parameters. Table 4 shows the effect of tamperature on the vapor fraction forthe diferent le 3, and tho percent of methane occluded in the liquid Table 4 Etec of temperature on vapor ration and methane condensas aor 40 oe O61 02 062 oer o7s Door osr oat Figure 4 shows an example of the cooling curve and vapor fraction change for Gas No.1(800 psia & 120° F} | Cooling Curve -Gas + ‘enperare Fig. 1- Cooling Curve and Vapor Fraction+ Condensation of promotes pinch shape of the cooling curves and tures re due to the approach to critical process ‘+ Warmer bottom of the demethanizer, reboling wit possible, rea INote: note difference between ‘minute}}. The graph represents a good target to optimize and bi ‘overall energy used in inlet compression, residue compression, and reftigeration Fig, 2 - BHP vs. gallon per minute recovered thane (95%). Representative ‘and it can be noticed recommended Case Study{As an example of the use of mature technology, Fig. 3 shows a typical sub- cooled reflux turboexpander process, shown here with refgeraton in the gas- ‘gas exchanger and side-reballers, This process will be aur Base Case The basis ec G D Fig, 3 Base Case Process Scheme he cryogenic sectiontechnique that uses same composition diferent toenbance separation talpy in a section of a column In the the pressure is lowered to 280 psig, and the gas temperature descends to ~118° F by virtue of the Isoantropic expansion, extracting work from the process ‘The demethanizer column operates at 275 psig and ~182"F in the top, and 280 psig and 41°F inthe bottom rected to the reflux exchanger, the second gas process. ae F booster compressor driven by the turboexpander, and then to the residue gas Compressor where pressure is raised 10 795 psig. Residue gas is sent to sales Pipeline at 785 psig and 100° F. ‘obained in the intermediate separator, instead, there predominantly methane is ramoved by gas is compressed and sent to the front- end of the cry demethanized liquid is sent as feed to fractionation, together wih the ‘demethanizer bottoms. “The process is supported with external propane refrigeration, in the fst chiller, at ‘wo diferent levels, one at O° F, and the other at -35° F. ‘A summary ofthe performance of this process follows: (Gas processed: 600 Mgt Reirigeration (off 75%) “Tolal compression: 59,090 BHP [NGL tecoveres: 2.174 — BHP 21.3 hp/gpm Ethane recovered: 95% By examining the fowsheet one could question the presence of the front-end sdemethanizer, since it does nat contribute tothe overall efficiency of the process, stream, requiring 1,880 BHP for the overhead compressor.4 shows the heating-cooling composite curves for the base case process. ful tool to analyze opportunities in heat network and design st ‘Observation Impact Rofigeration oad sistrbution Higher energy consumption Hot end too open [Opportunity to save refigeraion Composite Curve - Base Case | 0 | 100 | 5 | 5 z° — 2 Opportunity to Re | E50 Retigeraton ant £ terse 1 400 finan Lond Ditton ——— [Het Gource “ [se CeeSouce 200 Heat Flow Btuihr Fig. 4 Composite Curve - Base Caso We develop an Altemate Case and introduce the following changes to optimize the performance of the Base Case: \We obtain the foiowing osu! Gas processed: 500 MMscta Retrigeration (ef 75%): Sub-total 27,440 BHP ‘Compression (off: 82% ad) Residue gas 21,500HP. Total compression: 48.940 BHP27H gpm, 17644 hplgpm 95% total $4,415,250) (189,280) $4,245,970 ‘Siyt 1,963,221 luced we are able to: strbute refrigeration, and save energy Fig. 5~ Alternate Case ~ Process Schemedemethanizer to save compression, but to keep the recovery at the same level, ‘we will have to cool more and refux more which wll ead to loss expander work, Composite Curve - Alternate Case 150 100 50 Temperature 100 180 | 200 Fig 6 ~ Composite Cur To achieve 95% recovery, true processes are needed insioad of a “pseudo” refx process like the sub-cooled reflux, in which we are limited by eg Now Technology Randall Gas Technologies, a dvision of ABB Lummus Global Inc., wth a charter to focus on the development of gas processing technology and to capitalize on FoF cryogenic performance of processes:refuxes._In March of 2000 we introduced the fist of these processes, the NGL- PRO™ Process . This is @ process charactetized for an inlet gas feed without We applied the conditions of Gas No.1 to the NGL-PRO™ Process and the faliowing are the resuts ‘Gas processed: 500 Misofd Rettigeration (of 75%). 6. SOF ‘Compression (eff: 82% ad): Residue gas 34,010BHP. Total compression: "39,900 BHP NGL recovered: 2.774 gpm. (BHPgom index: 4.38 bhplgpm Ethane recovered: 195% total (Compression savings! $ 8,347,650, Exchanger savings: “Tolal CAPEX savings! __§ 7,085,595 ‘OPEX savings: Siy 3,711,748 ‘The NGL-PRO™ Process adapted for these conditions is shown in Figure & Heat curves are shown in figure 9. Fig, 7 - NGL-PRO™ Process = ES 2 SSS LTemperature in ice Fig. 8 -NGL-PRO™ Process adapted for Rich Gas | Composite Curve - NGL-PRO™ | | ‘ol ot * “0 TENS, Heat Flow Baume cil Fig, 9- NGL-PRO™ Process Heat CurvesAlthough he NGL-PRO™ process: consumption, new suite of refluxes. The new processes are: + NGL-FLEX* Process + NGL-RGP Process *NGL-MAX" Process Table 5 ~ Performan eters NGLPRO™ | NGL-FLEX™ | NGL-RGP™” | NGL-MAX" “Toial BAP 39,900 37.450 35,675 37,170 NGL, gom [2,774 2174 274 ‘HP/gom 1438 135 134 flux helps in reducing the acyl therefore minimizing the horsepower compressionFig. 10 - NGL-RGP™ Process Economie Comparison Table 6 - Economic Comparison (Base recovery is 95% Ethane} ‘RC Base WR aR RA Bese [15398 The CAPEX row has been adjusted for the diference in BHP of each process, the difference in exchanger area, and main equipment of each scheme, reese ss perform all on the same lavel study, indicates that the NGL-RGP™ processtechnology. Conclusion Cryogenic extraction of been a continuaus flow of innov ody of intellectual property ain ex Rew and compeltive solutions. We have induced a new generation of iy life cycle cost. That isthe ‘experts. Technology has the mission of enabling business and to lue. Market conciions, business envelope and value differantiation to the business will dicate whether a certain technology has applicability and chances to succeed, References: 1. Gas Processing with Cryogenic Turboexpander Technology ~ Randall Gas Technologies-Revision 2003, 2, US Patent 5,890,377 Hydrocarion Gas Separation Process 3. New Recycle Process Scheme for High Ethane Recovery- GPA 2000,