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Oil and Gas Engineering Department: Prepared By: Huda Basim Shakir

Natural gas liquids (NGLs) such as ethane, propane, butane, and pentane can be extracted from natural gas. NGLs are separated from natural gas through processing plants using various separation techniques like absorption, cryogenic expansion, and fractionation. Separated NGLs have various applications depending on their chemical composition, including use in plastics production, propane fuel, and petrochemical feedstocks.

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54 views

Oil and Gas Engineering Department: Prepared By: Huda Basim Shakir

Natural gas liquids (NGLs) such as ethane, propane, butane, and pentane can be extracted from natural gas. NGLs are separated from natural gas through processing plants using various separation techniques like absorption, cryogenic expansion, and fractionation. Separated NGLs have various applications depending on their chemical composition, including use in plastics production, propane fuel, and petrochemical feedstocks.

Uploaded by

Huda Basim
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Oil and Gas Engineering Department

NGL (NATURAL GAS LIQUID)

PREPARED BY:
HUDA BASIM SHAKIR






Natural gas is a mixture of hydrocarbon gases and the ratio of these different
components (gases) varies. The vast majority of natural gas, 70-90 percent, is
methane. The remaining 10-30 percent is various NGLs, including ethane, propane,
butane and pentane.7 While NGLs are gaseous at underground pressure, the
molecules condense at atmospheric pressure and turn into liquids. The composition
of natural gas can vary by geographic region, the geological age of the deposit, the
depth of the gas and many other factors. There are many uses for NGLs, spanning
nearly all sectors of the economy. NGLs are used as inputs for petrochemical plants,
burned for space heat and cooking, and the heaviest gases can also be used for
gasoline blending. Higher crude oil prices have contributed to increased NGL prices
and, in turn, provided incentives to drill in liquids-rich resources with significant
NGL content.
The following figure explain the NGL Production Chain:



Natural gas that contains a lot of NGLs and condensates is referred to as wet gas,
while gas that is primarily methane, with little to no liquids in it when extracted, is
referred to as dry gas.

When natural gas is extracted during production, it must be processed to separate the
pure natural gas (methane) from the various other hydrocarbons and fluids to
produce what is known as pipeline-quality dry natural gas. Once natural gas comes
out of the wellhead, any oil and water present in the gas is removed either at the
wellhead or at a nearby processing facility. Once the gas is transported to a nearby
natural gas processing facility, other non-NGL liquids, such as sulfur, helium and
carbon dioxide, are removed and then the NGLs are removed. The process of
separating the NGLs from the natural gas stream is a complicated process involving
multiple steps. Once NGLs are separated from the natural gas stream, they must then
themselves be separated.
In general, natural gas processing includes the following steps:
• Condensate and Water Removal
• Acid Gas Removal
• Dehydration – moisture removal
• Mercury Removal
• Nitrogen Rejection
• NGL Recovery, Separation, Fractionation, and Treatment of Natural Gas
Liquids


Figure1 Natural gas processing steps.



Separation and Fractionation of Natural Gas Liquids
Natural gas liquids (NGLs) have a higher value as separate products.

Two basic steps: 1) Extraction, 2) Fractionation

1. NGLs Extraction
• Absorption method: Similar to using absorption for dehydration, using a
different absorbing oil for hydrocarbons.
• Cryogenic Expansion Process: Dropping the temperature of the gas stream to
around -120°F by expansion and external refrigeration

2. Natural Gas Liquid Fractionation:

This is done by passing them through a series of distillation towers to boil off
hydrocarbons starting with the lightest to heaviest.

• Deethanizer - separates ethane from the NGL stream


• Depropanizer - separates propane.
• Debutanizer - boils off the butanes
• Butane Splitter or Deisobutanizer - separates iso and n-butanes.

Figure2 Fractionation Processing






Types of NGLs and Their Applications

Natural gas liquids are classified based on their vapor pressure:

• Low = condensate
• Intermediate = natural gas
• High = liquefied petroleum gas

Additionally, chemical compositions of NGLs are similar, but their applications vary
widely. Specifically, the many uses of natural gas liquids include cooking, space
heating, and blending NGLs into fuels for vehicles.

Ethane
Applications of ethane include plastics production and petrochemical feedstock—
raw materials fed into an industrial production process to yield a different end
product. End-use products include plastics, plastic bags, antifreeze, and detergent.

Propane
Applications and uses of propane include residential and commercial heating,
cooking fuel, small stoves, and petrochemical feedstock. Some vehicles also use
propane as fuel.

Butanes
Butanes can be blended with gasoline and propane. Products include synthetic
rubber for tires and lighter fuel. In its purest form, butane is useful as a refrigerant.
Combined with propane, butane becomes liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).

Isobutane
Industrial use of isobutane can include refinery feedstock and petrochemical
feedstock. End-use products include aerosols and refrigerants.

Pentanes
Pentanes are used in natural gasoline and as a blowing agent for polystyrene foam.
Pentanes plus, a special category (also known as natural gasoline), is blended with
vehicle fuel and exported for bitumen production in oil sands.







Table1 Applications and primary sectors of NGL



Advantages and Disadvantage of NGLs

The advantages of it including the use as home heating, fuel and as aplastic
production, it’s widely available in drilling techniques, offer oil and gas companies
an additional revenue streams and it can be used in petrochemical feedstock. The
disadvantages of it that it can be expensive to store, handle and requiring special
trucks, storage and equipment. It requires a high P or low T to maintain their liquid
state for shipment. Due to the highly increment in the use of NGLs, led to increasing
the demand for processing plants that separate NGLs from NG. NGLs volatility
limits the number of natural markets available for their use.

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