PE414-NATURAL GAS PROCESSING

TECHNOLOGY
Ms. Mbuva Nchula
mbuvanchula@gmail.com

College of Earth Sciences and Engineering, UDOM

January, 2024
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3.1 Introduction
• Natural gases produced from gas wells are normally complex mixtures 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 vapor, free water, and sometimes solids.
• The well stream should be processed as soon as possible after bringing it to the surface.
• Field processing consists of four basic processes:
1. Separating the gas from free liquids such as crude oil, hydrocarbon condensate, water, and entrained
solids;
2. Processing the gas to remove condensable and recoverable hydrocarbon vapors;
3. Processing the gas to remove condensable water vapor; and
4. Processing the gas to remove other undesirable compounds, such as hydrogen sulfide or carbon dioxide.
This chapter focuses on the principles of separation and selection of required separators.
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3.2 Separation of Gas and Liquids

• Separation of well stream gas from free liquids is the first and most critical stage of field-processing
operations.
• Composition of the fluid mixture determines what type and size of separator is required.
• However, pressure is another key factor affecting selection of separators.
• Separators are also used in other locations such as upstream and downstream of compressors, dehydration
units, and gas sweetening units.
• At these locations, separators are referred to as scrubbers, knockouts, and free liquid knockouts. All these
vessels are used for the same purpose: to separate free liquids from the gas stream
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Separators should be designed to perform the following basic functions:

• Cause a primary-phase separation of the mostly liquid hydrocarbons from the gas stream
• Refine the primary separation by further removing most of the entrained liquid mist from the gas
• Refine the separation by further removing the entrained gas from the liquid stream
• Discharge the separated gas and liquid from the vessel and ensure that no re entrainment of one into the
other occurs
3.2.1 Principle of Separation
Most separators work based on the principles of gravity segregation and/or centrifugal segregation. A separator is
normally constructed in such a way that it has the following features
• It has a centrifugal inlet device where the primary separation of the liquid and gas is made
• It provides a large settling section of sufficient height or length to allow liquid droplets to settle out of
the gas stream with adequate surge room for slugs of liquid
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• It is equipped with a mist extractor or eliminator near the gas outlet to coalesce small particles of liquid
that do not settle out by gravity
• It allows adequate controls consisting of level control, liquid dump valve, gas backpressure valve,
safety relief valve, pressure gauge, gauge glass, instrument gas regulator, and piping

The centrifugal inlet device makes the incoming stream spin around. Depending upon the mixture flow rate,
the reaction force from the separator wall can be up to 500 G of centripetal acceleration. This action forces the
liquid droplets together where they fall to the bottom of the separator into the settling section.
The settling section allows the turbulence of the fluid stream to subside and the liquid droplets to fall to the
bottom of the vessel due to gravity segregation. A large open space in the vessel is required for this purpose.
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• Use of internal baffling or plates may produce more liquid to be discharged from the separator.
• Sufficient surge room is essential in the settling section to handle slugs of liquid without carryover to the gas
outlet.
• This can be achieved by placing the liquid level control in the separator, which in turn determines the liquid
level. The amount of surge room required depends on the surge level of the production steam and the
separator size used for a particular application.
• Small liquid droplets that do not settle out of the gas stream due to little gravity difference between them and
the gas phase tend to be entrained and pass out of the separator with the gas.
• A mist eliminator or extractor near the gas outlet allows this to be almost eliminated.
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• The small liquid droplets will hit the eliminator or extractor surfaces, coalesce, and collect to form larger
droplets that will then drain back to the liquid section in the bottom of the separator.
• A stainless steel woven-wire mesh mist eliminator can remove up to 99.9% of the entrained liquids from the
gas stream.
• Cane mist eliminators can be used in areas where there is entrained solid material in the gas phase that may
collect and plug a wire mesh mist eliminator.
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3.2.2 Types of Separators

Three types of separators are generally available from manufacturers: vertical, horizontal, and spherical
separators. Horizontal separators are further classified into two categories: single tube and double tube. Each
type of separator has specific advantages and limitations. Selection of separator type is based on several factors
including characteristics of production steam to be treated, floor space availability at the facility site,
transportation, and cost.

3.2.2.1 Vertical Separators

• Vertical separators are often used to treat low to intermediate gas/oil ratio well streams and streams with
relatively large slugs of liquid. They handle greater slugs of liquid without carryover to the gas outlet, and the
action of the liquid level control is not as critical as in Figure 3–1.
• Vertical separators occupy less floor space, which is important for facility sites such as those on offshore
platforms where space is limited.
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• Owing to the large vertical distance
between the liquid level and the gas
outlet, the chance for liquid to
revaporizes into the gas phase is limited.
• However, due to the natural upward
flow of gas in a vertical separator
against the falling droplets of liquid,
adequate separator diameter is required.
• Vertical separators are more costly to
fabricate and ship in skid-mounted
assemblies

Skid mounts are portable

platforms used for mounting
industrial equipment to facilitate
easy and secure transportation
and storage

Figure 3-1 vertical Separator

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3.2.2.2 Horizontal Separators

• Separators (Figure 3–2) are usually the first choice because of their low costs.
• Horizontal separators are widely used for high gas/oil ratio well streams, foaming well streams, or liquid-
from-liquid separation.
• They have much greater gas/liquid interface due to a large, long, baffled gas separation section. Horizontal
separators are easier to skid-mount and service, and require less piping for field connections. Individual
separators can be stacked easily into stage-separation assemblies to minimize space requirements.
• In horizontal separators, gas flows horizontally and, at the same time, liquid droplets fall toward the liquid
surface.
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Figure 3-2 Horizontal Separator

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• The moisture gas flows in the baffle surface and forms a liquid film that is drained away to the liquid section
of the separator.
• The baffles need to be longer than the distance of liquid trajectory travel.
• The liquid-level control placement is more critical in a horizontal separator than in a vertical separator due to
limited surge space.
• A horizontal double-tube separator (Figure 3–3) consists of two tube sections.
• The upper tube section is filled with baffles, and gas flows straight through and at higher velocities, and the
incoming free liquid is immediately drained away from the upper tube section into the lower tube section.
• Horizontal double-tube separators have all the advantages of normal horizontal single-tube separators plus
much higher liquid capacities.
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Figure 3-3 Conventional horizontal double-barrel

separator
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3.2.2.3 Spherical Separators

• Spherical separators offer an inexpensive and compact means of the separation arrangement shown in
Figure 3–4. Owing to their compact configurations, this type of separator has a very limited surge space
and liquid settling section. Also, the placement and action of the liquid-level control in this type of
separator is more critical.
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Figure 3-4 spherical separator

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• Oil/gas/water three-phase separators (Figure 3–5) are commonly used for well testing and in instances where
free water readily separates from the oil or condensate.
• Three-phase separation can be accomplished in any type of separator.
• This can be achieved by installing either special internal baffling to construct a water leg or a water siphon
arrangement.
• It can also be achieved by using an interface liquid-level control.
• The three-phase separation feature is difficult to install in spherical separators because of their limited
available internal space. In three-phase operations, two liquid dump valves are required.
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Figure 3-5 Conventional horizontal three-phase separator

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3.2.3 Factors Affecting Separation

• For a given separator, factors that affect separation of liquid and gas phases include separator operating
pressure, separator operating temperature, and fluid stream composition.
• For a given fluid wellstream in a specified separator, changes in any one of these factors will change the
amount of gas and liquid leaving the separator.
• An increase in operating pressure or a decrease in operating temperature generally increases the liquid
covered in a separator. However, this is often untrue for gas condensate systems.
• There are optimum points in both cases beyond which further changes will not add to liquid recovery
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3.2.4 Separator Design

• Natural gas engineers normally do not perform detailed designing of separators but carry out selection of
separators suitable for their operations from manufacturers’ product catalogs.
• This section addresses how to determine separator specifications based on wellstream conditions. The
specifications are used for separator selections.

3.2.4.1 Gas Capacity

• The following empirical equations proposed by Souders-Brown are widely used for calculating gas capacity
of oil/gas separators:

And
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• Table 3–1 presents K-values for various types of separators. Also listed in the table are K-values used for
other designs such as mist eliminators and trayed towers in dehydration or gas sweetening units
Table 3-1
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• Substituting v into Equation q=Av and applying real gas law gives
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7.2.4.2 Liquid Capacity

Retention time of the liquid within the vessel determines liquid capacity of a separator. Adequate separation
requires sufficient time to obtain an equilibrium condition between the liquid and gas phase at the temperature and
pressure of separation. The liquid capacity of a separator relates to the retention time through the settling volume:
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3.3 Stage Separation

• Stage separation is a process in which hydrocarbon mixtures are separated into vapor and liquid phases by
multiple equilibrium flashes at consecutively lower pressures.
• A two-stage separation requires one separator and a storage tank, and a three-stage separation requires two
separators and a storage tank.
• The storage tank is always counted as the final stage of vapor/liquid separation.
• Stage separation reduces the pressure a little at a time, in steps or stages, resulting in a more stable stock-
tank liquid.
• Usually a stable stock-tank liquid can be obtained by a stage separation of not more than four stages.
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• In high-pressure gas-condensate separation systems, a stepwise reduction of the pressure on the liquid
condensate can significantly increase the recovery of stock-tank liquids.
• Prediction of the performance of the various separators in a multistage separation system can be carried out
with compositional computer models using the initial wellstream composition and the operating temperatures
and pressures of the various stages.
• Although three to four stages of separation theoretically increase the liquid recovery over a two-stage
separation, the incremental liquid recovery rarely pays out the cost of the additional separators.
• It has been generally recognized that two stages of separation plus the stock tank are practically optimum.
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• The first-stage separator operating pressure is generally determined by the flow line pressure and operating
characteristics of the well.
• The pressure usually ranges from 600 to 1,200 psi. In situations where the flow line pressure is greater than
600 psi, it is practical to let the first-stage separator ride the line or operate at the flow line pressure.
• Pressures at low stage separations can be determined based on equal pressure ratios between the stages
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• Pressures at the intermediate stages can be then designed with the following formula

3.4 Flash Calculation

• Based on the composition of wellstream fluid, the quality of products from each stage of separation can be
predicted by flash calculations, assuming phase equilibriums are reached in the separators.
• This requires the knowledge of equilibrium ratio defined as:
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3.5 Low-Temperature Separation

• Field experience prove that lowering the operating temperature of a separator increases the liquid recovery.
• The low temperature separation process separates water and hydrocarbon liquids from the inlet wellstream
and recovers more liquids from the gas than can be recovered with normal-temperature separators.
• It is also an efficient means of handling high-pressure gas and condensate at the wellhead.
• A low-temperature separation unit consists of a high-pressure separator, pressure-reducing chokes, and
various pieces of heat exchange equipment. When the pressure is reduced by use of a choke, the fluid
temperature decreases due to the Joule-Thomson or throttling effect.
• This is an irreversible adiabatic process in which the heat content of the gas remains the same across the
choke but the pressure and temperature of the gas stream are reduced.
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• Generally at least 2,500 psi to 3,000 psi pressure drop is required from wellhead flowing pressure to
pipeline pressure for a low-temperature separation unit to pay out in increased liquid recovery.
• The lower the operating temperature of the separator, the lighter the liquid recovery will be. The lowest
operating temperature recommended for low-temperature units is usually around –20 °F.
• This is constrained by carbon steel embitterment, and high-alloy steels for lower temperatures are usually
not economical for field installations.
• Low-temperature separation units are normally operated from 0 to 20 °F. The actual temperature drop per
unit pressure drop is affected by several factors including composition of gas stream, gas and liquid flow
rates, bath temperature, and ambient temperature.
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• Following the special requirement for construction of low-temperature separation units, the pressure-
reducing choke is usually mounted directly on the inlet of the high-pressure separator.
• Hydrates form in the downstream of the choke due to the low gas temperature and fall to the bottom
settling section of the separator. They are heated and melted by liquid heating coils located in the bottom
of the separator.