DESICCANTS

A desiccant can be described as a solid material that has the capacity to absorb water
vapour from its surrounding environment. There are three well-established adsorbents
that can be used to dehydrate gas; Silica Gel, Activated Alumina & Molecular Sieves.
They are all usually particulate or granular in nature. Bauxite (raw, impure alumina) and
calcium chloride (a deliquescent) have also been used as desiccants in the past, but
are now considered defunct and are discussed further here.

Wet gas is passed through a vessel that contains the desiccant. The desiccant adsorbs
water vapour from the gas until it cannot usefully absorb any more. At this point the
desiccant must be regenerated for re-use. This can be achieved by passing a gas
through the bed at elevated temperatures and/or lower pressures to pick up water
adsorbed onto the desiccant.

In order for the process to be truly continuous there must be more than one dehydration
bed, to allow for times when one bed is being regenerated. The most common
regeneration scheme is that with 3 towers, where at any one time one is on-line,
another regenerated and the third cooling subsequent to regeneration. For high
throughputs, more beds are typically used so that there can be a relatively steady heat
load for regeneration. This minimises the peak heat demand and minimises thermal
cycling of the heater.

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 DESICCANTS

The regeneration gas is obtained from the feed, passed through the cooling bed and
then routed to the heater. After heating the gas passes through the bed being
regenerated and is then cooled to ambient temperatures. Condensed water and any
condensate is removed in a KO drum and the gas returned to unit feed.

It is important to return the regeneration gas at a point downstream of where it was

withdrawn. This allows the installation of pressure letdown valve between the two
points, to provide the necessary pressure driving force for the regeneration gas route. If
this criteria is not satisfied a compressor will be required to return the regeneration gas
to feed pressure.

TECHNOLOGY APPLICATIONS

Typical absorbent capacity indicating the relative quantities of desiccant required for a
particular dehydration duty are given in the following table.

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 DESICCANTS

Adsorbent Constituents Minimum Outlet Adsorbent Additional

Type Water Dewpoint Capacity (Useful) Functions
(ºC) kg WATER/kg DESICCANT

Silica Gel Mainly SiO2, some -62 0.07-0.09 Hydrocarbon

Al2O3. dewpointing
Alumina Heat treated Al2O3 -73 0.04-0.07 Hydrocarbon
dewpointing
Molecular Zeolites -100 0.09-0.12 Hydrocarbon
Sieves dewpointing &
sweetening

(Tabulated data from Refs 4 & 5). All the above desiccants can be used for sales gas
dehydration purposes. Selection of the desiccant for this application should take into
account the following three factors:

• Molecular sieves are considerably more expensive than the other desiccants and
should only be chosen if the water dewpoint required is in excess of the capabilities
of silica gel or alumina.
• Alumina costs less per tonne than silica gel but has less capacity to absorb water
vapour and requires a higher regeneration temperature (greater OPEX).
• Silica gels degrade when used with feed gases that contain even moderate
concentrations of acid gas (H2S).

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 DESICCANTS

Only molecular sieves are able to dehydrate a gas to extremely low, or “bone dry” water
dewpoints. Consequently they are exclusively used for the drying of feed gases to LNG
plants (or other cryogenic processes) where dew points as low as 0.1 ppmv are typical.

Desiccants are a fully developed technology that are rarely installed offshore although
there are a few cases where molecular sieves have been installed offshore. Here they
are typically employed in a polishing role downstream of some other dehydration
process that has removed the bulk of the water content. Dessicants were used on
some earlier FPSOs where motion was a concern for glycol contactors. However, this
concern has been overcome by suitable glycol contactor internals to redistribute glycol,
and by additional packing height.

All the desiccants can be readily modified by their vendor to adsorb heavy-end
hydrocarbons, allowing them to be used for hydrocarbon dewpointing as well.
Dehydration and dewpointing can be achieved in the same pressure vessel, although
much more adsorbent is required to adsorb 1kg of hydrocarbon than 1kg of water.
Dessicants are therefore really only economical for hydrocarbon dewpointing when the
gas contains relatively little heavy ends. Molecular sieves also have the capability to
sweeten sour gases.

Upstream Downstream Operability Schematic Costs

 DESICCANTS

UPSTREAM ISSUES

The wet feed gas is usually cooled and de-watered in a separator prior to being fed to
the desiccant bed. This represents the cheapest form of water removal available and
should reduce the demand on the unit considerably.

All desiccants should be protected from large scale exposure to heavy oils, especially
lubrication oils. These can coat the surface of the desiccant particles, physically
blocking intake of water into the desiccant ‘s pores and reduce efficiency.

Free water and/or even moderate concentrations of acid gases in the feed can cause
silica gel desiccants to disintegrate, creating a fine powder that increases pressure drop
and reduces performance. Other components of the gas feed that may be detrimental
to the unit are amines, glycols and corrosion inhibitors (which degrade all desiccants)
and methanol (which can be irreversibly adsorbed onto molecular sieves).

Prevention of these situations is usually assured by installing an efficient scrubber just

upstream of the unit. It is common for the desiccant tower to be designed such that the
top section of the bed (initial exposure to contaminants) can be replaced more
frequently than the rest of the bed.

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 DESICCANTS

Operating pressure has little effect on the adsorption capabilities of solid desiccants and
so is usually fixed by the economics of adsorber vessel design and any compression
requirements. However, the throughput is a function of operating pressure - the column
capacity declines with reducing pressure. Consequently, this pressure should be
maintained throughout the life of the unit and if the process is installed on a production
facility, upstream booster compression may be required later in field life to ensure
sufficient feed pressure.
 DESICCANTS

DOWNSTREAM ISSUES

There are three common sources of regeneration gas:

1) Feed gas
2) Recycled dry outlet gas
3) A separate closed cycle.

The most common source is feed gas. The feed gas needs heating for effective
regeneration and this is normally achieved in a fuel-gas fired furnace, although any
available heat source is acceptable, e.g. electric heating and exchange with a heating
medium, steam or a hot process stream.

H2S and other sulphur bearing compounds (such as mercaptans) can be adsorbed
whilst on-line and then released swiftly during the regeneration cycle. Because
regeneration outlet gas is recycled to dehydration unit feed, this may cause product to
fail sulphur content spec.

Maloperation of the dehydration process (during the dehydration or regeneration

phases) may result in degradation of the desiccant. In severe cases the degradation
products (desiccant dust, flakes or granules) may be carried-over with the process gas
and foul internals of downstream equipment.
 DESICCANTS

OPERABILITY

Feed temperature should be below 50ºC (66ºC for molecular sieves) - to take
advantage of the desiccants greater adsorption capacity at low temperatures - and
above the gas’s hydrate point. There seems to be no upper or lower limit to operating
pressure, leaving this variable to be set by the compression regime and/or the
economics of adsorption vessel design. However the adsorption capacity of the
desiccants declines slowly with increased pressure.

Each adsorbent will have its own maximum allowable regeneration temperature. For
alumina and silica gels this is in the range of 180 – 205 ºC and for molecular sieves
275-300ºC. Should the regeneration gas exceed the specified upper limit for prolonged
duration the structural integrity of the desiccant will be compromised and it will break
down to form a powder (Ref 4 & 5).

The cyclic nature of desiccant bed operation can introduce higher manning
requirements, extra complexity for control and instrumentation and higher levels of
maintenance and consequently they are not well suited to normally unmanned
installations. There are, however, some large silica gel plants associated with
underground gas storage schemes which operate essentially unmanned.
 DESICCANTS
COST

Typical cost and weight for a molecular sieve unit is shown below. The cost is for an
onshore regenerable molecular sieve unit that is designed to the following parameters:

• Design Pressure = 61 barg

• Design Temperature = 320ºC
• Inlet Water Content = 30 lb/MMscf
• Outlet Water Content = 2 lb/MMscf

The figures include desiccant, vessels, regeneration skid, instruments, structural steel
and piping.

Equipment Dry Weights (Te) and Total Cost GBPx103

Gas Flowrate Configuration Dry Weight Total Information Source

(MMSm3/d) (Te) Costs
kGBP
3.1 2 x 100% 92 1047 Burnett & Lewis Ltd

A silica gel unit would cost approximately 10% less than a molecular sieve unit. The
cost reduction is attributable to the medium cost and smaller regeneration unit
required:

• Silica Gel: approximately £2.5/kg

• Molecular Sieve: approximately £4/kg