NATURAL GAS LIQUIDS

Pipeline quality natural gas specifications include limits on sulfur and water content,
along with higher heating value, which must be about 950 to 1,150 Btu/scf (35,400 to
42,800 kJ/Sm3) . Higher hydrocarbons cause the heating value to increase beyond the
acceptable value.

Unless the treated gas contains high concentrations of inerts (N2, CO2), the heating
value may be too high because of the C2+ fraction present. hydrocarbon recovery
methods are followed to both lower the heating value and create, simultaneously,
valuable NGL liquid hydrocarbon products.

Problems with Liquids

Dew point control (or “dew pointing”) is necessary when raw gas lines are constrained in
liquid content as the liquid reduces gas throughput, causes slugging,and interferes with
gas metering. Dew point control is also necessary if a potential for condensation is
present in a process because of temperature or pressure drops.

The latter happens when the gas is in the retrograde condensation region. However,
effective dew point control is much less demanding than C2+ recovery, as it can be
accomplished without removal of a large portion of the C3+ fraction.

Application of Higher hydrocarbons

These heavier hydrocarbon liquids, commonly referred to as natural gas liquids (NGLs),
include ethane, propane, butanes, and natural gasoline (condensate). Recovery of
NGLcomponents in gas not only may be required for hydrocarbon dew point control in a
natural gas stream (to avoid the unsafe formation of a liquid phase during transport), but
also yields a source of revenue, as NGLs normally have significantly greater value as
separate marketable products than as part of the natural gas stream.

Lighter NGL fractions, such as ethane, propane, and butanes, can be sold as fuel or
feedstock to refineries and petrochemical plants, while the heavier portion can be used
as gasoline-blending stock.

Two steps involved in the NGL recovery process

1. Separation of higher hydrocarbons from methane (De Methanizer )
(For Dew point control)
2. NGL Fractionation ( De Ethanizer, De Propanizer and De Butanizer)
(For recovery of value added gases )
SELECTION OF NGL RECOVERY PROCESSES

The main variables that affect the choice of the most cost-effective process for a given
application include inlet conditions (gas pressure, richness, and contaminants),
downstream conditions (residue gas pressure, liquid products desired, and liquid
fractionation infrastructure), and overall conditions (utility costs and fuel value, plant
location, existing location infrastructure, and market stability). In addition to the feed gas
composition and operation mode, the most decisive technical characteristics of any
process are the feed gas pressure and permissible unit pressure drop.

Guidelines

1. In case of sufficiently high pressure, the self-refrigeration process requires the

lowest capital investment. However, if the pressure differential between feed gas
and treated gas is insufficient, additional compression is required.

2. When the feed gas pressure is close to the treated gas pressure, over a large
pressure drop range, it may be more economical to employ a cryogenic
refrigeration process.

3. When the feed gas pressure is clearly below the required pipeline pressure, it is
usually most economical to apply mechanical refrigeration with additional
compression to remove heavy hydrocarbons instead of compression followed by the
self-refrigeration process. This is due to the fact that compressors are capital
intensive equipments.

4. When the feed gas pressure is equal to or lower than the required pipeline pressure,
solid bed adsorption seems a good option, as it is quick to start up and is robust
against changes in the feed gas composition and flow rate. Generally the solid bed
process is only practical for gas that has small amounts of heavy hydrocarbons.
Richer gases require refrigeration

SEPARATION OF HIGHER HC’S FROM THE GAS

1. Mechanical Refrigeration:
Mechanical or external refrigeration, as shown in Figure 10-2, is supplied by a
vapor-compression refrigeration cycle that usually uses propane as the
refrigerant. As shown in Figure 10-2, the gas-to-gas heat exchanger recovers
additional refrigeration by passing the gas, leaving the cold separator
countercurrent to the warm inlet gas. The temperature of the cold gas stream
leaving this exchanger “approaches” that of the warm inlet gas. Economically,
this approach can be as close as 5◦F. The chiller in Figure 10-2 is typically a shell
and tube, kettle-type unit. The process gas flows inside the tubes and gives up its
energy to the liquid refrigerant surrounding the tubes.
When water is present in a natural gas processed by refrigeration, hydrate formation is
prevented either by dehydration of the gas or by injection of a hydrate inhibitor. In this
case, ethylene glycol is injected at the inlet of the gas-to-gas exchanger and/or chiller to
prevent hydrate formation, or freeze up, in these exchangers with the latter being more
common

Refrigerant: Propane or Mixed refrigerant . Single refrigerant (Propane) can lead a

temp of -40 C.
Mixed refrigerants are a mixture of two or more components. The light components
lower the evaporation temperature, and the heavier components allow condensation at
ambient temperature. The evaporation process takes place over a temperature range
rather than at a constant temperature as with pure component refrigerants. The
mixed refrigerant is blended so that its evaporation curve matches the
cooling curve for the process fluid

2. SELF-REFRIGERATION

the inlet gas is precooled against the treated gas (through the gas to gas exchanger)
and subsequently cooled further by isoenthalpic expansion (i.e., Joule–Thomson
expansion) through a valve, resulting in heavy hydrocarbons and water to condense. In
this process, the nonideal behavior of the inlet gas causes the gas temperature to fall
with the pressure reduction. The gas from the low temperature separator
(LTS), now satisfying the sales gas specification, is reheated against the incoming feed.
3. CRYOGENIC REFRIGERATION

When insufficient pressure is available to attain the required dew point with the self-
refrigeration process, cryogenic refrigeration can be considered. Cryogenic refrigeration
processes traditionally have been used for NGL recovery. These plants have a higher capital
cost but a lower operational cost.

In the cryogenic or turboexpander plant, the chiller or Joule–Thomson (JT) valve used in two
previous processes is replaced by an expansion turbine. As the entering gas expands, it
supplies work to the turbine shaft, thus reducing the gas enthalpy. This decrease in enthalpy
causes a much larger temperature drop than that found in the simple JT (constant enthalpy)
process.
The turbine can be connected to a compressor, which recompresses the gas with only a small
loss in overall pressure. This results in a higher treated gas pressure, which can be increased
to the pipeline specification by a second compression step.

Description :

The inlet gas is first cooled in the high-temperature, gas-to-gas heat exchanger and
then in the propane chiller. The partially condensed feed gas is sent to a separator.
The liquid from the separator is fed to the demethanizer, and the gas is cooled
further in the low-temperature gasto- gas exchanger and fed into a second cold
separator. Gas from the cold separator expands through the expansion turbine to
the demethanizer pressure, which varies from 100 to 450 psia. The turbo expander
simultaneously produces cooling/condensing of the gas and useful work, which may
 be used to recompress the sales gas. Typically 10 to 15% of the feed gas is
condensed in the cold separator, which is usually at −30 to −60◦F. The expander lowers
the pressure from the inlet gas value (600 to 900 psia) to the demethanizer pressure
of 100 to 450 psia. Typical inlet gas temperatures to the demethanizer are −130 to
−150◦F, sufficiently low that a great deal of the ethane is liquefied.
The demethanizer is a lowtemperature distillation column that makes a separation
between methane and ethane.
Methane and components lighter than methane, such as nitrogen, are the principal
products in the vapor near the top of the column, whereas ethane and heavier
components, such as propane, butanes, and heavier hydrocarbons, comprise the
principal components in the bottom product of the column. The molar ratio of methane
to ethane in the bottom product is typically 0.01 to 0.03. Because the outlet of the
expander is usually two-phase flow, the liquid produced in the expander serves as
reflux for the demethanizer. The bottom product from the demethanizer can be
fractionated further to produce pure product streams of ethane, propane, butanes, and
natural gasoline

Cryogenic processes can only be applied if the gas pressure after expansion
is sufficiently high for condensation of the heavier components to take place. However,
if the gas arrives at low pressure (say less than 725 psi), external mechanical
refrigeration must be used to cool it to the specified temperature.

There are many changes to the above scheme to have better recovery of ethane. All
are not discussed here.

Other Methods :
Lean oil absorption of higher HCs (like Amine absorption)
Solid bed Adsorption