ChE 4763

Natural gas and Petroleum Engineering

Md. Jahirul Islam

Lecturer
Department of Chemical Engineering
Dhaka University ofEngineering and Technology, Gazipur
Dehydration

© Md. Jahirul Islam , Lecturer

 Methods of dehydration

Two types of dehydration:

i. Absorption dehydration (liquid desiccant used)
ii. Adsorption dehydration (Solid desiccant used)

© Md. Jahirul Islam

 Absorption dehydration

• It involves the use of a liquid desiccant to remove water vapor from the gas
• Examples of liquid solution: Glycols- DEG(diethylene glycol), TEG
(triethylene glycol)
Why glycol
• High affinity to water,
• Non-toxic,
• non-corrosive,
• Easy and efficient regeneration,
• Cost efficient.

© Md. Jahirul Islam

 Absorption dehydration

• Glycol solution is poured from top of

dehydrating chamber and wet NG from
bottom.
• Glycol absorbs water and NG becomes dry.
• Water rich glycol solution is regenerated by
passing the solution through a boiler where
water is boiled to separate from glycol
solution.
• Its possible due to boiling point difference
between water and glycol (water 100° C
glycol 200°C)

© Md. Jahirul Islam

 Advantage of Absorption dehydration

Absorption dehydration has the following advantages:

 High absorption efficiency
 Easy and economic regeneration
 Non corrosive and non toxic
 No operational problems when used in high concentration
 No interaction with HC portion of gas
 No contamination by acid gas.

© Md. Jahirul Islam

 Absorption dehydration

There are four glycols that are used in removing water vapor from natural
gas or in depressing the hydrate formation temperature namely:
a. Ethylene glycol
b. Diethylene glycol
c. Triethylene glycol
d. Tetraethylene glycol

Triethylene glycol (TEG) is the most commonly used glycol for dehydration
of natural gas because of the advantages relative to diethylene glycol (DEG)

© Md. Jahirul Islam

 Relative advantages of TEG

1. TEG is more easily regenerated to a higher degree of purity;

2. Vapor losses are lower;
3. Operating costs are lower.
But Tetraethylene glycol would have to be regenerated at higher
temperatures than TEG to reach the required purity for application in a
glycol dehydration unit.

© Md. Jahirul Islam

 Adsorption dehydration

It is the process where a solid desiccant is used for the removal of water vapor from
the gas stream.
The solid desiccants commonly used for gas dehydration are those that can be
regenerated and consequently used over several adsorption-desorption cycles.
Solid desiccants that can dehydrate gas down to 1ppm or less are widely used for
cryogenic processing.

Adsorption dehydration are two types:

1. Physical adsorption- hold the adsorbate on their surface by surface forces
2. Chemical adsorption- involves chemical reaction.

© Md. Jahirul Islam

 Properties of the solid adsorbents

1. Large surface area

2. Good activity for the components to be removed
3. High mass transfer rate
4. Easy and economic regeneration
5. Small resistance to flow
6. High mechanical strength to resist crushing and dust formation
7. Cheap and noncorrosive, non toxic, chemically inert, high bulk density and
small volume changes upon adsorption and desorption of water.

© Md. Jahirul Islam

 Types of adsorbents

Alumina
Silica gel and alumina silica gel
Molecular sieves

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Comparative Analysis

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 Process Description: Adsorption

The water molecules are adsorbed first in the top layers of the desiccant bed.
Dry HC gases are adsorbed throughout the bed.
As the upper layer of the desiccant become saturated with water, the water in the wet
gas stream begins displacing the previously adsorbed HC in the lower desiccant layers.
Liquid HC will also be adsorbed.
As the flow of gas continues, the mass transfer zones move downward through the bed
and water displaces the previously adsorbed gases until finally the entire bed is
saturated with water vapor.
If the entire bed becomes completely saturated with water vapor, the outlet gas is just
as wet as the inlet gas.

© Md. Jahirul Islam

© Md. Jahirul Islam
 Process Description: Regeneration

When a tower is switched to the regeneration cycle some wet

gas (that is, the inlet gas downstream of the inlet gas
separator) is heated to temperatures of 230°C to 315°C in the
high-temperature heater and routed to the tower to remove
the previously adsorbed water molecules
As the temperature within the tower is increased, the water
captured within the pores of the desiccant turns to steam and
is absorbed by the natural gas.
This gas leaves the top of the tower and is cooled by the
regeneration gas cooler.
When the gas is cooled the saturation level of water vapor is
lowered significantly and water is condensed.
The water is separated in the regeneration gas separator and
the cool, saturated regeneration gas is recycled to be
dehydrated
© Md. Jahirul Islam
 Regeneration to Adsorption

Once the bed has been "dried" in this manner, it is necessary to flow cool gas
through the tower to return it to normal operating temperatures (about 100°F to
120°F) before placing it back in service to dehydrate gas.
The cooling gas could either be wet gas or gas that has already been dehydrated.
If wet gas is used, it must be dehydrated after being used as cooling gas.

© Md. Jahirul Islam