NATURAL GAS ENGINEERING

PETROLEUM TREATMENT TRAIN

 FIELD PROCESSING OF NATURAL GAS
Natural gases produced from gas wells are normally complex mixtures of
hundreds of different compounds. A typical gas well stream is a high-
velocity, turbulent, constantly expanding mixture of gases and
hydrocarbon liquids, intimately mixed with water vapour, free water and
sometimes solids. The well stream should be processed after bringing it to
the surface. Field processing consists of four basic processes:
1. Separating the gas from free liquids and solids such as crude oil,
hydrocarbon condensate, water and entrained solids.
2. Processing the gas to remove condensable and recoverable
hydrocarbon vapours.
3. Processing the gas to remove condensable water vapour.
4. Processing the gas to remove other undesirable compounds such as
hydrogen sulphide or carbon dioxide.
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 NATURAL GAS PROCESSING
The composition of the raw gas extracted from producing wells depends
on the type, depth, location of the deposit and the geology of the area.
Contaminants in natural gas can among many others include:
- NGL which refers to C2, C3, C4, C5 and higher HC.
- Acid gases: carbon dioxide (CO2), hydrogen sulfide (H2S) and
mercaptans (thiols ie sulphur taking the place of oxygen in the hydroxyl
group of alcohols) such as methanethiol (CH3SH) and ethanethiol
(C2H5SH).
- Water vapour: this can form hydrate and clog the pipelines
- Mercury: very small amounts of mercury primarily in elemental form,
but chlorides and other species are possibly present.
- Naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM): natural gas may
contain radon, and the produced water may contain dissolved traces of
radium. This can render piping and equipment radioactive over
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time.
 Acid Gas Removal
Natural gas, or any other gas mixture, containing significant
quantities of hydrogen sulfide, carbon dioxide or similar acidic
gases, is called acid gas. Sour gas is only for when the gas contains
H2S.
CO2 is removed from gas by carbon capture which involves: post-
combustion, pre-combustion and oxy-fuel combustion.
In post-combustion, the CO2 is captured after the fossil fuel is
burned and it produces flue gases (CO2, water vapour, sulfur
dioxides, nitrogen oxides).
In pre-combustion, the gas is heated in pure oxygen, resulting a
mix of CO and H. the mix is treated with a catalytic converter with
steam which then produces more H along with CO2.
CO2 can also be removed with amine in CO2 removal unit.
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 Gas Sweetening
This involves the processes used in separating acid gases from
natural gas, thus changing the sour gas to sweet gas. This is done
through either solid bed adsorption or the use of chemical solvents.
SOLID BED ADSORPTION
A fixed bed of solid particles can be used to remove acid gases
either through chemical reactions or ionic bonding. In solid bed
adsorption processes the gas stream flows through a fixed bed of
solid particles that remove the acid gases and hold them in the
bed. When the bed is saturated with acid gases, the vessel is
removed from service and the bed regenerated or replaced. There
are three commonly used solid bed adsorption processes: iron
oxide bed, zinc oxide bed and molecular sieves bed processes.
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 Gas Sweetening

CHEMICAL SOLVENTS
Chemical solvent processes use an aqueous solution of a weak
base to chemically react with and absorb the acid gases in the
natural gas stream. The absorption occurs as a result of the driving
force of the partial pressure from the gas to the liquid. The
reactions involved are reversible by changing the system
temperature or pressure, or both. Therefore, the aqueous base
solution can be regenerated and thus circulated in a continuous
cycle. The majority of chemical solvent processes are either an
amine or carbonate solution.

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 Gas Dehydration
Gas dehydration is the removal of water vapor from the gas using
either the regenerable absorption in liquid triethylene glycol (TEG),
commonly referred to as glycol dehydration, deliquescent chloride
desiccants, and or a Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) unit which is
regenerable adsorption using a solid adsorbent.
The water must be removed:
1. To prevent the formation of hydrates that will restrict or block the
flow of gas in the line.
2. To prevent corrosion in the line to minimize free water condensing in
the pipeline thereby reducing the internal cross section area of the pipe
available for flow and causing partial blockage, and consequently
reducing gas flow through put.
Inhibition is the process of adding some chemical to the condensed
water so hydrates cannot form. 8
 Gas Dehydration
Methods of Dehydration.
1. Absorption Glycol Dehydration
2. Adsorption Molecular Sieve, Silica Gel or Activated Alumina
3. Condensation Refrigeration with Glycol or Methanol Injection.

Glycol Dehydration is the most common to meet sales specifications and field requirements (gas
lift, fuel etc). Adsorption processes are used to obtain very low water contents (0.1 ppm or
less) needed for NGL extraction and LNG plants. Condensation is commonly used when
moderate refrigeration are employed as in pipeline transportation. An inhibitor such as EG or
methanol is used to prevent hydrate formation.

Four glycols are used for dehydration / inhibition: MEG (EG), DEG, TEG and TREG.

TEG is most commonly used in absorption systems while EG is mainly used for glycol injection
system. All glycols are hygroscopic (which means they have an affinity for water), non-
corrosive, non-volatile, easily regenerated, insoluble in hydrocarbons and un-reactive with
hydrocarbons, CO2 and sulfur compounds.
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 Glycol Absorption
Basic Principles:
Wet gas enters the bottom of the absorber and flows upward
counter-current to the lean glycol. The absorbable components are
transferred from the gas to the glycol. The gas leaves the top of the
absorber. Lean glycol enters on the tray of the absorber and flows
downward counter-current to the rich glycol, picking up absorbable
materials. Rich glycol leaves the bottom of the absorber and flows
from there to the top of the stripper. In the stripper the absorber
materials is removed overhead from the stripper and the lean glycol
from the bottom of the stripper is recycled to the top tray of the
absorber. The process than repeats itself again. The absorber-
stripper combination are “twins:. They go together. The absorber
recovers components and than the stripper removes them. 10
 Dry Gas Absorber
Materials
38

StrIpper

Absorber

Rich Gas

RICH GLYCOL
LEAN GLYCOL

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 Dehydration by Adsorption
 Adsorption describes any process wherein molecules from the gas are held
on the surface of a solid by surface forces:
 Surface adsorption and capillary Condensation.
 Solid bed dehydration (desiccant) is Often the superior alternative in

Application such as:

 Dehydration to water dew points less
 Than – 40 to –58oF such as in NGL
 Extraction and LNG plants.
 Well suited for hydrocarbon dew
 Point control on lean, high pressure gas streams.
 Simultaneous dehydration and sweetening of natural gas where glycol
dehydration is not feasible
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 Types of Desiccants
• Bauxite – naturally occurring
Mineral (AI2O3)
• Alumina – a purer bauxite
• Gels – composed largely of SIO2 or
alumina gel.
• Molecular Sieves – a calcium –
Sodium alumino – silicate (zeolite)
• Carbon (charcoal) – a carbon
Product activated to have adsorptive
Capacity.
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 Mercury and Nitrogen Removal
• Mercury is removed by using adsorption processes such as
activated carbon or regenerable molecular sieves.

Although not common, nitrogen is sometimes removed and rejected

using one of the three processes indicated on the flow diagram:
• Cryogenic process (Nitrogen Rejection Unit) using low
temperature distillation. This process can be modified to also
recover helium, if desired (see also industrial gas).
• Absorption process using lean oil or a special solvent as the
absorbent.
• Adsorption process, using activated carbon or molecular sieves as
the adsorbent. This process may have limited applicability because
it is said to incur the loss of butanes and heavier hydrocarbons.
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 NGL Recovery
The next step is to recover the natural gas liquids (NGL) for which
most large, modern gas processing plants use another cryogenic low
temperature distillation process involving expansion of the gas
through a turbo-expander followed by distillation in a demethanizing
fractionating column. Some gas processing plants use lean oil
absorption process rather than the cryogenic turbo-expander
process.
The residue gas from the NGL recovery section is the final, purified
sales gas which is pipelined to the end-user markets.
The recovered NGL stream is sometimes processed through a
fractionation train consisting of three distillation towers in series: a
deethanizer, a depropanizer and a debutanizer. The overhead
product from the deethanizer is ethane and the bottoms are fed to
the depropanizer. 15
 GAS TRANSPORTATION
Natural gas, as a result of the storage difficulties, needs to be
transported immediately to its destination after production from a
reservoir. Efficient and effective movement of natural gas from
producing regions to consumption regions requires an extensive and
elaborate transportation system. Natural gas can be transported:
- By Pipeline
Accounts currently for most of the gas moved internationally
The usual means of distributing gas to local consumers
- As Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG)
- As Compressed Natural Gas
- As Gas to Solid
- As Gas to Power
- As Gas to Liquid
- As Gas to Commodity 16
 Liquefied Natural Gas (Gas Liquefaction)
• Gas processed, and then transformed into LNG by refrigeration down
to -162oC in a liquefaction plant.
• When liquefied, natural gas takes up 1/600th part of its gas volume,
making it possible to store or ship large amounts.
• Typically the fuel requirement of a liquefaction plant is about 10% of
the gas liquefied. After liquefaction, the gas is stored in well insulated
tanks awaiting shipment.
• Ships must maintain the product in a liquid state at -1620C, at
atmospheric pressure. When the ship reaches its destination, the LNG
is pumped through refrigerated unloading lines to insulated storage
tanks
• Finally the LNG is regasified for entry into the local
transmission/distribution grid. Regasification is done by passing the
LNG through warmed heat exchangers or gas fired heaters.
 Compressed Natural Gas (CNG)
• Gas can be transported in containers at high pressures, typically 1800
psig for a rich gas (significant amounts of ethane, propane, etc.) to
roughly 3600 psig for a lean gas (mainly methane).
• Compressed natural gas is used in some countries for vehicular transport
as an alternative to conventional fuels (gasoline or diesel). The filling
stations can be supplied by pipeline gas, but the compressors needed to
get the gas to 3000 psig can be expensive to purchase, maintain, and
operate.
• An alternative approach has dedicated transport ships carrying straight
long, large-diameter pipes in an insulated cold storage cargo package.
• The gas has to be dried, compressed, and chilled for storage onboard by
careful control of temperature, but would be much less expensive than a
natural gas liquefier and would be standard so that costs could be further
minimized.
 Gas to Solid

• Gas can be transported as a solid, with the solid being gas hydrate.
• Natural gas hydrate transport, which is still in the experimental stage,
is believed to be a viable alternative to liquefied natural gas or
pipelines for the transportation of natural gas from source to demand.
• For gas transport, natural gas hydrates can be formed deliberately by
mixing natural gas and water at 80 to 100 bar and 2 to 10◦C.
• If the slurry is refrigerated to around −15◦C, it decomposes very
slowly at atmospheric pressure so that the hydrate can be transported
by ship to market in simple containers insulated to near-adiabatic
conditions.
• At the market, the slurry is melted back to gas and water by
controlled warming for use after appropriate drying in electricity
power generation stations or other requirements.
 Gas to Power
• Currently, much of the transported gas destination is fuel for electricity
generation. Electricity generation at or near the reservoir source and
transportation by cable to the destination(s) (GTP) is possible.
• Thus, for instance, offshore or isolated gas could be used to fuel an
offshore power plant (may be sited in less hostile waters), which would
generate electricity for sale onshore or to other offshore customers.
• Installing high-power lines to reach the shoreline appears to be almost as
expensive as pipelines, that gas to power could be viewed as defeating the
purpose of an alternative less expensive solution for transporting gas.
• There is significant energy loss from the cables along the long-distance
transmission lines, more so if the power is AC rather than DC; additionally,
losses also occur when the power is converted to DC from AC and
when it is converted from the high voltages used in transmission to the
lower values needed by the consumers.
• In GTL transport processes, the natural gas is converted to a liquid,
Gas to Liquid

such as syncrude, methanol and ammonia, and is transported as such.

• In the first step, methane is mixed with steam and converted to
syngas or synthetic gas (mixtures of carbon monoxide and hydrogen)
by one of a number of routes using suitable new catalyst technology.
• The syngas is then converted into a liquid using a Fischer-Tropsch
process (in the presence of a catalyst) or an oxygenation method
(mixing syngas with oxygen in the presence of a suitable catalyst).
• The produced liquid can be a fuel, usually a clean-burning motor fuel
(syncrude) or lubricant, or ammonia or methanol or some precursor
for plastics manufacture (e.g., urea, dimethyl ether, which is also used
as a transportation fuel, LPG substitute, or power generation fuel, as
well as a chemical feedstock).
 Gas to Commodity
• In the gas-to-commodity concept, the gas is converted to thermal or electrical
power, which is then used in the production of the commodity, and then sold
on the open market.
• Commodities such as aluminum, glass, bricks, cement, and iron bars all
require large quantities of energy in their making. It is the energy from the
gas, heat via electricity or direct combustion, and not the components of the
gas-to-liquids concept that is used.
• The cost of a GTC plant is very high and raw materials for conversion to
commodities, e.g., bauxite, silica sand, and limestone, may be difficult to
import to sites with reliability.
• The gas energy is, in essence, transported via the commodity, but there are
many market risks, which should be fully assessed. Much thought has to be
given before embarking on the project(s) and monetizing the gas by this
route.
 GAS METERING
• Natural gas is transported in pipelines with continuous flow from the gas
reservoir to its ultimate user. Accurate measurement of the total quantity of
gas that has passed through a given section of pipe over a period of time is
paramount importance to both gas sellers and purchasers. The commonly
used method of measuring natural gas is by volume. Volume of natural gas
depends on pressure and temperature as gas is compressible.
• The most common equipment used in the natural gas industry for
measurement of gas flow rate are orifice meters. The first element of the
orifice meter produces differential pressure while the second measures the
pressures. In addition to the orifice meters, natural gas can be measured
using displacement meters, turbine meters, venturi meters, flow nozzles,
critical low provers, elbow meters and rotameters. The advantages of the
orifice meter are accuracy, ruggedness, simplicity, ease of installation and
maintenance, range capacity, low cost, and availability of standard tables of
meter factors.
 NATURAL GAS STORAGE
• Natural gas, like most other commodities, can be stored
for an indefinite period of time. The exploration,
production, and transportation of natural gas takes
time, and the natural gas that reaches its destination is
not always needed right away, so it is injected into
storage facilities.
• Traditionally, natural gas has been a seasonal fuel.
Stored natural gas plays a vital role in ensuring that any
excess supply delivered could be utilized when needed.
 Why do we need storage system?
• To meet load variations.
• Balancing the flow in pipeline systems.
• Maintaining contractual balance.
• Leveling production over periods of fluctuating demand.
• Market speculation.
• Insuring against any unforeseen accidents.
• Meeting regulatory obligations.
• Reducing price volatility.
• Offsetting changes in natural gas demands.
 Storage Measures and Definitions
• Characteristics of underground storage facilities need to be defined and
measured. A number of volumetric measures have been put in place for that
purpose:
 Total gas storage capacity: It is the maximum volume of natural gas that can be
stored at the storage facility. It is determined by several physical factors such as
the reservoir volume, and also on the operating procedures and engineering
methods used.
 Total gas in storage: It is the total volume of gas in storage at the facility at a
particular time.
 Base gas (cushion gas): It is the volume of gas that is intended as permanent
inventory in a storage reservoir to maintain adequate pressure and deliverability
rates throughout the withdrawal season.
 Working gas capacity: It is the total gas storage capacity minus the base gas.
 Working gas: It is the total gas in storage minus the base gas. Working gas is
the volume of gas available to the market place at a particular time.
 Storage Measures and Definitions
 Physically unrecoverable gas: The amount of gas that becomes
permanently embedded in the formation of the storage facility and that
can never be extracted.
 Cycling rate: It is the average number of times a reservoir’s working gas
volume can be turned over during a specific period of time. Typically the
period of time used is one year.
 Deliverability: It is a measure of the amount of gas that can be delivered
(withdrawn) from a storage facility on a daily basis. It is also referred to
as withdrawal rate and is usually expressed in terms of millions of cubic
feet of gas per day (MMcf/day) that can be delivered.
 Injection capacity (or rate): It is the amount of gas that can be injected
into a storage facility on a daily basis. It can be thought of as the
complement of the deliverability. Injection rate is also typically measured
in millions of cubic feet of gas that can be delivered per day (MMcf/day).
 Storage Possibilities for Natural gas

• Natural gas can be stored in/as following;

Natural gas storage in pipelines
Depleted reservoirs
Aquifers
Salt caverns
Liquified natural gas (LNG) storage.
 Depleted Reservoirs
These are the most prominent and common form of underground
storage. They are the reservoir formations of natural gas fields that
have produced all their economically recoverable gas. The depleted
reservoir formation is readily capable of holding injected natural gas.
Using such a facility is economically attractive because it allows the
re-use, with suitable modification, of the extraction and distribution
infrastructure remaining from the productive life of the gas field
which reduces the start-up costs. Depleted reservoirs are also
attractive because their geological and physical characteristics have
already been studied by geologists and petroleum engineers and are
usually well known. Consequently, depleted reservoirs are generally
the cheapest and easiest to develop, operate, and maintain of the
three types of underground storage.
 Aquifers
Aquifers are underground, porous and permeable rock
formations that act as natural water reservoirs. In
some cases they can be used for natural gas storage.
Usually these facilities are operated on a single annual
cycle as with depleted reservoirs. The geological and
physical characteristics of aquifer formation are not
known ahead of time and a significant investment has
to go into investigating these and evaluating the
aquifer’s suitability for natural gas storage.
 Salt Caverns
Salt formations are well suited to natural gas storage. Salt caverns allow
very little of the injected natural gas to escape from storage unless
specifically extracted. The walls of a salt cavern are strong and
impervious to gas over the lifespan of the storage facility. Once a
suitable salt feature is discovered and found to be suitable for the
development of a gas storage facility a cavern is created within the salt
feature. This is done by the process of solution mining. Fresh water is
pumped down a borehole into the salt. Some of the salt is dissolved
leaving a void and the water, now saline, is pumped back to the surface.
The process continues until the cavern is the desired size. Once created,
a salt cavern offers an underground natural gas storage vessel with very
high deliverability. Cushion gas requirements are low, typically about 33
percent of total gas capacity.