Lavenia Alou C.

Magno March 14, 2019

Industrial Gas Processing

Natural-gas processing is a complex industrial process designed to clean raw natural gas by
separating impurities and various non-methane hydrocarbons and fluids to produce what is
known as pipeline quality dry natural gas.
Natural-gas processing begins at the well head. The composition of the raw natural gas extracted
from producing wells depends on the type, depth, and location of the underground deposit and
the geology of the area. Oil and natural gas are often found together in the same reservoir. The
natural gas produced from oil wells is generally classified as associated-dissolved, meaning that
the natural gas is associated with or dissolved in crude oil. Natural gas production absent any
association with crude oil is classified as “non-associated.” In 2009, 89 percent of U.S. wellhead
production of natural gas was non-associated.
Natural-gas processing plants purify raw natural gas by removing common contaminants such as
water, carbon dioxide (CO2) and hydrogen sulfide (H2S). Some of the substances which
contaminate natural gas have economic value and are further processed or sold. A fully
operational plant delivers pipeline-quality dry natural gas that can be used as fuel by residential,
commercial and industrial consumers.

Source
Raw natural gas comes primarily from any one of three types of wells: crude oil wells, gas wells,
and condensate wells.
Natural gas that comes from crude oil wells is typically called associated gas. This gas can have
existed as a gas cap above the crude oil in the underground formation, or could have been
dissolved in the crude oil.
Natural gas from gas wells and from condensate wells, in which there is little or no crude oil, is
called non-associated gas. Gas wells typically produce only raw natural gas, while condensate
wells produce raw natural gas along with other low molecular weight hydrocarbons. Those that
are liquid at ambient conditions are called natural-gas condensate
Natural gas is called sweet gas when relatively free of hydrogen sulfide; gas that does contain
hydrogen sulfide is called sour gas. Natural gas, or any other gas mixture, containing significant
quantities of hydrogen sulfide, carbon dioxide or similar acidic gases, is called acid gas.
Raw natural gas can also come from methane deposits in the pores of coal seams, and especially
in a more concentrated state of adsorption onto the surface of the coal itself. Such gas is referred
to as coalbed gas. Coalbed gas has become an important source of energy in recent decades.
Raw natural gas typically consists primarily of methane (CH4), the shortest and
lightest hydrocarbon molecule.
Description of A Natural-Gas Processing
There are a great many ways in which to configure the various unit processes used in the
processing of raw natural gas. The block flow diagram below is a generalized, typical
configuration for the processing of raw natural gas from non-associated gas wells. It shows how
raw natural gas is processed into sales gas pipelined to the end user markets. It also shows how
processing of the raw natural gas yields these byproducts:
 Natural-gas condensate
 Sulfur
 Ethane
 Natural gas liquids (NGL): propane, butanes and C5+ (which is the commonly used term
for pentanes plus higher molecular weight hydrocarbons)
Raw natural gas is commonly collected from a group of adjacent wells and is first processed at
that collection point for removal of free liquid water and natural gas condensate. The condensate
is usually then transported to an oil refinery and the water is disposed of as wastewater.
The raw gas is then pipelined to a gas processing plant where the initial purification is usually
the removal of acid gases (hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide). There are many processes that
are available for that purpose as shown in the flow diagram, but amine treating is the process that
was historically used. However, due to a range of performance and environmental constraints of
the amine process, a newer technology based on the use of polymeric membranes to separate the
carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide from the natural gas stream has gained increasing
acceptance. Membranes are attractive since no reagents are consumed.
The acid gases, if present, are removed by membrane or amine treating can then be routed into a
sulfur recovery unit which converts the hydrogen sulfide in the acid gas into either elemental
sulfur or sulfuric acid. Of the processes available for these conversions, the Claus process is by
far the most well known for recovering elemental sulfur, whereas the conventional Contact
process and the WSA are the most used technologies for recovering sulfuric acid.
The residual gas from the Claus process is commonly called tail gas and that gas is then
processed in a tail gas treating unit (TGTU) to recover and recycle residual sulfur-containing
compounds back into the Claus unit. Again, as shown in the flow diagram, there are a number of
processes available for treating the Claus unit tail gas and for that purpose a WSA process is also
very suitable since it can work autothermally on tail gases.
The next step in the gas processing plant is to remove 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. Other newer processes
like membranes may also be considered.
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 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. The overhead
product from the depropanizer is propane and the bottoms are fed to the debutanizer. The
overhead product from the debutanizer is a mixture of normal and iso-butane, and the bottoms
product is a C5+ mixture. The recovered streams of propane, butanes and C 5+ may be
"sweetened" in a Merox process unit to convert undesirable mercaptans into disulfides and, along
with the recovered ethane, are the final NGL by-products from the gas processing plant.
Currently, most cryogenic plants do not include fractionation for economic reasons, and the NGL
stream is instead transported as a mixed product to standalone fractionation complexes located
near refineries or chemical plants that use the components for feedstock. In case laying pipeline
is not possible for geographical reason, or the distance between source and consumer exceed
3000 km, natural gas is then transported by ship as LNG (liquefied natural gas) and again
converted into its gaseous state in the vicinity of the consumer.
The residue gas from the NGL recovery section is the final, purified sales gas which is pipelined
to the end-user markets. Rules and agreements are made between buyer and seller regarding the
quality of the gas. These usually specify the maximum allowable concentration of CO 2, H2S and
H2O as well as requiring the gas to be commercially free from objectionable odours and
materials, and dust or other solid or liquid matter, waxes, gums and gum forming constituents,
which might damage or adversely affect operation of the buyers equipment. When an upset
occurs on the treatment plant buyers can usually refuse to accept the gas, lower the flow rate or
re-negotiate the price.
Lavenia Alou C. Magno