Feasibility report on

production of LPG from

natural gas
Introduction

This project is concerned with the study of natural gas processing aimed at Production of LPG using
Cryogenic Processing

Focus on the fundamentals of detailed engineering jobs like Material Balance, Energy balance,
Designing of various equipment, Costing of overall Plant.

This Report provides a general overview of the system and buit an efficient approach of design for
safe and profitable operation.

The objective is to recover hydrocarbons like ethane, propane, butane by condensing them at very
low temperatures and then separating by fractionation. The temperature required to chill the gas
depends on what product needed to be recovered. LPG can be recovered by chilling -40 0C.
 Project Plan

Market Process Process Economic Safety

Selection Calculations Analysis
Survey Analysis
Problem Statement
The objective is to design a natural gas processing facility in order to
produce 2.816 lakh TPA LPG of purity 99.8% from raw material i.e.
Natural gas available at Feed rate = 1, 87,000.
 KEY
PLAYERS
FORECAST

MARKET
DEMAND / ANALYSIS
SUPPLY REGIONAL
ANALYSIS

USAGE
Demand

• LPG witnessed a strong demand in 2021 and is anticipated to achieve an impressive CAGR of 7 %
during the forecast period (2020-2028).

• The sudden onset of the covid-19 pandemic has caused the demand for lpg to decrease in
commercial global markets. However there is an increase in consumption of LPG in household end-
use due to lockdowns.

• In India LPG consumption is up 7.3% despite rise in price.

• Moreover, owing to increased environmental concern the use of lpg in commercial, industrial and
transportation is likely to create a strong demand for lpg from 2021-2030.
Supply
• North America is the leading producer of LPG due to rapid expansion of shale gas.

• USA is the major exporter of LPG to various countries in the world.

• In the import segment, china is the largest importer of LPG in the world, followed by India.

• Residential sector accounted for the highest share by application as LPG is primarily used in

cooking or household activities.

• LPG consumption is reportedly the highest in the united states, followed by china

• The exxon mobil corporation, chevron corporation, Saudi Arabia oil company, conoco philips, agyaz,

sinopec shanghai petrochemical company, gazprom, MGT pertroil company, national iranian gas

company, unigaz, etc., Are some of the players operating in the global LPG market
• India holds 43 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of proven gas reserves as of 2017, ranking 22nd in the world and
accounting for about 1% of the world's total natural gas reserves of 6,923 Tcf. India has proven reserves
equivalent to 22.1 times its annual consumption. This means it has about 22 years of gas left.
 Rural
Heating

Motor
Refrigeration
Fuel

Metal
Sanitary Cutiing
Wares
Uses
Commercial
Food
Processing
Industrial
Use
of Use
Surface
Coating

Metallurgic
LPG
Industries Glass
Blowing

Transport Cooking
Sector
Agricultural
Use
REGIONAL ANALYSIS
• Pradhanmantri ujjwala yojna turned India into the world's second largest LPG
consumer whose demand is projected to rise 34 per cent by 2025.
• 76% of India’s lpg demand is imported making it the second largest importer
of LPG after china
 Re-Contacting LPG Extraction Adsorption
Compression Methods • Raffinate PSA using
activated charcoal or
• used for the recovery
silica gel
crude oil fractionator. • LPG recovery is
•  top product stream is
significantly lower
compressed, combined • pressurization of the bed
with top liquid product,
with feed gas to
cooled, and fed to the Refrigeration Lean Oil Absorption adsorption pressure,
separator. The liquid
adsorption to give
phase from the separator • gas stream is • employs a raffinate product,
is passed through the de-
refrigerated depressurization to the
ethanizer and the vapor hydrocarbon oil
to obtain LPG desorption pressure in a
phase containing some to recover light direction counter-current
LPG fractions is used as fractions. components. to that of the feed gas
fuel gas. The liquid • Recovered • from a natural flow direction and
product of the de- fractions are gas or a refinery counter-current purge
ethanizer is LPG. fractionated fuel gas stream with fraction of raffinate
• The recovery of LPG by to get the • LPG recovery by product at the desorption
this technique is 75%
LPG this process is pressure
components 98%
 Process Selection

Among above LPG manufacturing processes, REFRIGERATION PROCESS is selected because of it has following

advantages compared to other processes,

• easier erection using commonly available construction equipment and techniques owing to low elevation layout and

HP vessels.
• Easier maintenance owing to low elevation layout.

• Less energy consumption owing to optimized synthesis conditions and proprietarily designed reactor and stripper.

• A high amount of lpg gets extracted from natural gas.

• This technology yields high quality of lpg

 Process Description Propane
Refrigeration System
High purity Propane (99.1
Compression & Drying mol %) at -40 C to meet the
Pre-Cooling balance cold duty
requirement
gas is sent to molecular
Feed gas pre-cooled to 25°C in sieve dryers where the
Gas two stages in shell and moisture is reduced to less
from tube exchangers with wet than 4 ppm level
GSU feed gas in tube side and Chill Down &
plant outlet SSV and then
propane refrigerant on
Expansion
the shell side. Regeneration
series of 5 feed gas
Lean gas used for
chillers and 2 separators
regeneration of dryers to cool the feed gas to
-37°C
LPG
LPG LEF Column
Column

NGL
 Equipment
Design

Process
Calculation
s
Material Energy
Balance Balance
Material balance
Raw material i.E. Natural gas, FEED RATE = 1, 87,000kg/hr LPG product rate = 33820.82 kg/hr.
Plant capacity = 2.816 lakh TPA
Here we have taken 350 days as working days.
= 2.816x106x103 kg/year = 2.50x103/350x24 = 33820.82 kg/hr.
Raw material i.e. Natural gas about 18% is hydrocarbons (𝐶2 − 𝐶6) = 1, 87,000 kg/hr
Assumptions:-
 complete separation takes place in separators.
 Methane is 64.64% by weight in natural gas.
 Working days of plant is taken to be 350 days.
 Less than 1 ppm moisture remains in the outlet of molecular sieve bed.
 About 20% of water is removed in knock out drum.
 About 35% of water is removed in drier. Water removal rate is taken as in
uran plant
Feed Composition Knock out Drum:
Component (Wt %) Amount (kg/hr)
20% of water gets removed from the feed
= 187,000 x {0.17/100} x0.20 = 63.58 kg/hr
Methane 64.64 1,20904.32 Drier:
35% of water gets removed
Ethane 12.52 23185.51 Water removed = (186936.42 x .136/100) 0.35 = 88.98kg/hr
Propane 12.61 23693.36
Molecular Sieve Bed:
Butane 7.30 13716.25
Complete water removal
Outlet flow rate = 186847.44 – 165.34 =186682.1 kg/hr
Pentane 2.16 4058.49
High Pressure separator:
Hexane 0.047 88.30 30% of C3 and heavy components escapes from top is
the form of vapor and 70% is liquid form from the
Nitrogen 0.54 1014.61
bottom
Hydrogen 0.0013 2.44
Low pressure separator:
Carbon dioxide 0.010 18.78 95% of C1 & C2 are separated in a vapor form from the
top of the column and heavy components are taken
Water 0.17 317.9
from bottom side containing 70% of feed
Total 100 187000
LEF column:
where CO2, N2, H2S and CH4 is totally removed
Total feed at LEF column is = 86509.69+14742.332 = 101252.03 kg/hr
R = L / D = 0.15 D V = L + D; 62368.119 = 0.15 D + D; D = 54233.14kg/hr
The individual material balance as: Vxv = LxL + Dxd
LPG column:
pentane and hexane removed from the bottom as a natural gas liquid (NGL).
Feed to LPG column = 38,883.91 kg/hr.
R = L0/D; 0.15 = L0/D
As required outlet rate of product = 33,825 kg/hr; 0.06611 = l0/33,825 Therefore,
L0 = 2,236.14 kg/hr.
 Doing the individual material balance as: Vxv = LxL + DxD
Product Composition
Components Distillate(kg/hr) Reflux(kg/hr) Bottom(kg/hr)
Methane - 5.368 -
Propane 20,223.965 1,336.99 -
Butane 12,677.61 838.10 -
Pentane 835.47 55.233 2,802.52
Hexane 81.18 - 80.366
Total 33,825 2,236.14 2,882.89