ChE 4763

Natural gas and Petroleum Engineering

Md. Jahirul Islam

Lecturer
Department of Chemical Engineering
Dhaka University ofEngineering and Technology, Gazipur
Liquefied Natural Gas

© Md. Jahirul Islam , Lecturer

 What is LNG

• Natural Gas (mostly Methane) cooled down to as condensed liquid at -161°C and
atmospheric pressure

• Volume reduction by 600 times thus making it economical for transporting gas
over long distances

• The liquefaction requires removal of non-methane components such as Carbon-

di- oxide, water, butane, pentane and other heavier HC components

• LNG is odorless, colorless, non-corrosive and non-toxic

• When vaporized it burns only in concentrations of 5-15% when mixed with Air

© Md. Jahirul Islam

Composition NG vs LNG

© Md. Jahirul Islam

NGL
Illustration of LNG production plant

© Md. Jahirul Islam

 Feed gas conditioning

• In a typical scheme, field production upon arrival at the processing plant is first
separated in a slug catcher, which removes the liquids and routes the gas to a
high pressure (HP) separator.

• The liquids are flashed to a medium pressure separator, where the hydrocarbon
liquids are further separated and fed to the condensate stabilizer.

• The liquids are fractionated in the stabilizer, producing a bottom condensate

product consisting of the C5 and heavier hydrocarbons.

© Md. Jahirul Islam

 Feed gas conditioning

• Vapors from the medium separator and stabilizer column overhead are
compressed and recycled back to the HP separator.
• The vapors then flow to the Gas Sweetening Unit, GSU (also called Acid Gas
Removal Unit, AGRU), in which H2S and CO2 are removed.
• The acid gas from the regeneration section is sent to the Sulfur Recovery Unit
(SRU), typically consisting of a Claus unit and a Tail Gas Treating Unit (TGTU).
• The off-gas from the TGTU absorber is incinerated

© Md. Jahirul Islam

 Feed gas conditioning

• The sweet gas from GSU is required to be dried in a dehydration unit utilizing
molecular sieves technology to below 0.1 ppmv to avoid hydrate formation in the
NGL recovery unit.
• The sweet gas is saturated with water, and in hot climate operation the water
content can be significant.
• It is more energy efficient and cost effective to chill the sweet gas first,
removing the bulk of water before passing to the molecular sieve units. The
molecular sieve can also be designed to remove mercaptans from the dried gas
to meet the sulfur specification.

© Md. Jahirul Islam

 Feed gas conditioning

• Typically, traces of mercury are present in the feed gas, which must be removed
by mercury removal beds to less than 10 nanograms per cubic meter to avoid
mercury corrosion in the downstream cryogenic exchanger.

© Md. Jahirul Islam

 NGL recovery

• The dried gas is routed to a Natural Gas Liquid (NGL) recovery unit, which is
designed to remove and recover the C2+ or C3+ hydrocarbons and produce a
lean gas for liquefaction.
• The NGL recovery unit can be designed for ethane recovery to produce an
ethane product that can be fed to an ethylene cracker in a petrochemical
complex.
• The NGL components, the C3+ to C5+ liquids, are valuable marketable products.

© Md. Jahirul Islam

 NGL recovery

• The NGL components are fractionated into individual products for sales. Propane
and butane are exported as separate products, or a combined propane-butane
mix product. C5+ and heavier components can be exported for gasoline
blending.
• If mercaptans were present in the feed gas, they would show up in the C5+
liquids, which must be treated to meet the liquid’s sulfur specification.

© Md. Jahirul Islam

 Liquefaction

• The lean gas leaving the NGL recovery unit enters the liquefaction unit that chills
and liquefies the gas in a refrigeration process. Liquefaction technology is based
on the principle of a refrigeration cycle, where a refrigerant by means of
successive expansion and compression removes the heat content of a gas
stream, by rejecting to the ambient air or cooling water.
• After liquefaction of the natural gas, a nitrogen rejection unit is required if the
nitrogen content is above the commercial specification of LNG, typically at 1
mole %.

© Md. Jahirul Islam

 Liquefaction

• Typically, LNG from the liquefaction plant is let down in pressure in a flash drum
to close to the LNG storage pressure, and nitrogen, being the lighter component,
is flashed off and removed.
• The nitrogen-rich vapor is compressed and recovered as fuel gas. The flashed
liquid is pumped into the storage tanks for export.

© Md. Jahirul Islam