Gas Process Engineering

CDB4413
By
Olumide Bolarinwa Ayodele, Phd.
ayodele.olumide@utp.edu.my
Tel No: 05 368 7616
Room No: Block 05 – 03 - 24
 Objectives

1. To provide engineering knowledge of natural gas process engineering

2. To train students to analyze the natural gas processing options for future
needs and demands.
3. To train students to design appropriate natural gas processing equipment
4. To recognize the environmental constraints and necessity of sustainable
development in the technology of choice and engineering design.

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Prerequisite
• Physical chemistry
• Separation processes
• Process simulation – Aspen Hysys
• Reaction engineering
• Common sense

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At the end of this course, students should be able to:

CLO1 Advocate the importance of natural gas as the source of energy

and chemicals
And estimate properties of NG mixtures
CLO2 Design phase separation units

CLO3 Design sour gas treatment units

CLO4 Design transport pipelines

CLO5 Select gas to liquid conversion technologies

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Course Contents
1. Introduction
2. Physical separations
3. Transportation pipelines
4. Chemical separations
5. Cryogenic processes
6. Chemical Conversions

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Transferable Skills
• To understand the world, regional and Malaysian scenario in Gas Processing
through Projects
• To develop skills in problem solving through assignments, tutorials and
quizzes
• To use appropriate IT tools
• To highlight environmental concerns and necessity of sustainable
development through presentations.

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Course highlights
• Assignments (10% marks)
• Term paper (2 persons per group)
• Process simulation laboratory for gas processing
• Two Tests (30 marks)
• Quizzes (0% marks)
• Attendance (0% marks)
• Individual projects (10% marks)
• Final Examination (50% marks)

• The passing mark of the course is minimum 40% of the total

course AND minimum 40% of the final exam

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 References
Petroleum and Natural Gas Processing,
H.K. Abdel-Aal, Mohamed Aggour, M.A. Fahim
Main Reference
MARCEL and DEKKER INC. NEW YORK. BASEL, 2003

1). Handbook of Natural Gas

Transmission and Processing
Saeid Mokhatab, William A. Poe, James G. Speight, Gulf Professional
Publishing, 2006 Optional
References
2). Oil and Gas production Handbook: An introduction to oil and
gas production,

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 Chapter One

PETROLEUM FLUIDS COMPOSITION

 Reservoir Fluid Composition
• Reservoir fluid is a complex mixture of several compounds, most of which, are
hydrocarbon compounds. The rest are water, sulphur compounds (eg H2S), carbon
dioxide (CO2), nitrogen, Oxygen (O2), helium and heavy metals such as mercury.
• Reservoir fluids commonly occur in the reservoir as liquid (oil) or gas, or as
combination of gas and liquid, where the gas is dissolved in the liquid. It must be
mentioned however that, petroleum, which is the reservoir fluid, does
occasionally occur in the solid or semi-solid form.
• Apart from the solid state, petroleum would be found in a thick tar-like jelly form
and as a light and clear oil. The state, in which petroleum is found, depends on the
amount of the lighter or heavy hydrocarbons present in it. Petroleum with higher
proportion of methane, will invariably be gas, while that with higher proportion of
heavy high-number carbon atoms will either be liquid, semi-solid or solid.
• Generally, when the petroleum consists of larger molecules of hydrocarbons it is
liquid and it is called “petroleum oil” or “crude oil”.
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Petroleum and natural gas trapped in an anticline rock fold

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Separating the condensate from the raw natural gas

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Various traditional and new technologies used for development and increasing
marketing value which include transmission pipeline , liquefied natural gas

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 Gas and Oil Relationship

• In the production of petroleum fluids, oil is invariably produced with natural

gas and to a large extent vice versa.
A. Gas Oil Ratio (GOR).
• Simply put, this is the ratio of gas to oil. The GOR is a major and important
property of petroleum fluids. This relationship can further be looked upon in
term of the way gas is present in or produced with oil. This line of thought
gives rise to two types of GOR.

Shell Special Intensive Training Program, Ch. 1, pg 33-46 15

1. Solution Gas Oil Ratio
• This is the ratio of the amount of gas dissolved in oil i.e. the total amount
of gas in solution with oil. This mostly referred to petroleum fluid in the
reservoir and it depends on the composition of the fluid, the pressure
and temperature of the reservoir. Solution Gas Oil Ratio is measured in
standard cubic feet/stand barrel (SFC/STB). The higher the reservoir
pressure, the higher the solution GOR and the higher reservoir
temperature the lower solution GOR.

Pressure GOR Temperature GOR

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2. Produced Gas Oil Ratio
• This is the amount of gas produced from the reservoir fluid per oil produced
at the stock tank. It depends on the reservoir fluid composition, and the
pressure and temperature at the separator. Low separator operating
temperature gives rise to low GOR and high stock tank oil (STO) and vice
versa with high separator operating temperature.
• At any separator operating temperature, the higher the separator operating
pressure, the lower the GOR since more gas will be compressed into the
liquid with less gas being released and vice versa.

Pressure GOR
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• Generally, the more the content of the fluid that is of the lighter end
hydrocarbons, the higher the GOR of the solution or produced GOR.
• GOR is a good indicator of several properties of petroleum fluid, both in
the reservoir and produced condition. The composition of the fluids in
terms of hydrocarbon type is easily indicated by the GOR. A high GOR
indicates a fluid with major lighter ends hydrocarbon, and a low GOR
indicates a fluid with heavier ends hydrocarbon.
• Lighter ends are C1 – C5/C6 and heavier ends are G7+.
• As a matter of fact, very high GOR is an indication of high methane
content and it is also an indication of lighter colour of crude, while low
GOR indicates more C7+ content and dark color crude.

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3. Other terms worth mentioning in the study of GOR are:
• a. Average GOR which is the total gas produced for a particular period divided by
the total produced oil in that period and then divided by the number of days in
that period. This is more or less the average GOR per day.
• b. Cumulative GOR is the total gas produced in a period divided by the oil
produced in that period.
B. Reservoir Gas and Oil Relationship
• This is the relationship between the gas and oil under the reservoir condition. Gas
is present with oil in the reservoir in three ways:

1. Solution-Gas:
• As mentioned earlier, gas is dissolved in the liquid phase and becomes known as
solution gas. Solution gas can be found in under-saturated oil reservoir, where it
assists in the depletion process in what is called Solution Drive Mechanism. The
reservoir fluid is produced by liquid expansion above bubble point pressure, and
by gas expansion below bubble point pressure by gas already out of solution.
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2. Gas Cap
• A gas cap is a portion of the reservoir above oil (liquid) occupied by gas
alone and it is formed as a result of the liquid having been saturated with
gas.
• Gas cap assists in reservoir recovery by expanding to push down the oil to
the well bore as the reservoir pressure drops due to production. Its
expansion also prevents solution gas from coming out of the liquid, thus
retarding pressure decline.
3. Liquid in Gas
• Gas is also present in gas reservoir with a lot of liquid droplet in it. The liquid
condenses with reduction in pressure and temperature either in the
reservoir as in the Retrograde condensate or on the surface as in wet gas.

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4. Solubility of Gas in Oil
• The solubility of natural gas in oil depends on the reservoir pressure,
temperature and the fluid composition.
• When pressure and composition are constant, the higher the temperature
the lower the solubility and vice versa.
• With constant composition and temperature, the higher the pressure the
• higher the solubility.
• When pressure and temperature are constant, fluid with composition of both
gas and liquid nearing each other will have higher solubility. That means,
solubility will be higher for a combination of higher specific gravity gases and
higher API crude.
• Generally, solubility is defined as the degree to which gas will dissolve in oil
and it is limitless because it is only limited by pressure, temperature and
composition of lighter molecules present in the fluid.
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5. Saturation
• Crude oil is said to be saturated with gas, if upon little reduction of pressure,
gas will come out, and it is said to be undersaturated with gas, if no gas
comes out upon little pressure reduction. Undersaturation means the oil is
gas deficient and it can still take more gas.
6. Bubble Point Pressure
• The pressure at which the first bubble of gas comes out of the crude oil at
the crude temperature.
7. Formation Volume Factor
• The volume in barrels, that one stock tank barrel of oil occupies in the
reservoir at the reservoir pressure and temperature with all the solution gas
that can be held in the oil at that pressure and temperature.

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 Wet Gas:
• The term wet referred to the fact that the gas contains enough heavy
hydrocarbons that readily form liquid upon pressure temperature reduction.
• Wet Gas is also gas under reservoir condition but contains some heavy
hydrocarbons which under standard conditions form liquid.
• Reduction does not give rise to liquid formation any time of the reservoir
production life.
• The gas contains more of the moderate-size hydrocarbons than regular dry
gas.
• Gas oil ratio (GOR) is up to 100,000 SCF/STB and the stock tank oil (STO) is
normally of 0API higher than 50.
• Colour is normally water white. Butane and propane from wet gas is
sometimes liquefied.
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Difference between wet gas and condensate
• The major difference between wet gas and condensate is that the wet gas
exists in the reservoir as gas through the reservoir production life, but each
wet gas getting to the surface gives rise to some liquid (condensate).

• Whereas in the case of retrograde condensate, as the reduction of pressure

and temperature which accompany the depletion continue, liquid is formed
in the reservoir by retrograde condensation.

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 Dry Gas
• This is natural gas which contains primarily methane with small amount of
ethane and possibly propane or higher hydrocarbons.
• Natural dry gas is both gas in the reservoir and at separator. The term dry
here, refers to the fact that the gas does not contain enough heavier
hydrocarbons to form liquid at the surface.
• Nevertheless in practice, dry gas does contain some liquid hydrocarbon.
• Generally, any gas with GOR greater than 100,000 SCF/STB is considered dry
gas.
• Methane content is greater than 97% and C7+ content is between 0 and
0.42%.

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Properties of Wet and Dry Gas Reservoir Fluids

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Natural Gas
• Natural gas is a subcategory of petroleum that is a naturally occurring,
complex mixture of hydrocarbons, with a minor amount of inorganic
compounds.
• Geologists and chemists agree that petroleum originates from plants and
animal remains that accumulate on the sea/lake floor along with the
sediments that form sedimentary rocks.
• The processes by which the parent organic material is converted into
petroleum are not understood.
• The contributing factors are thought to be bacterial action; shearing
pressure during compaction, heat, and natural distillation at depth;
possible addition of hydrogen from deep-seated sources; presence of
catalysts; and time (Allison and Palmer 1980).

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 Field Processing of Natural Gas
• Natural gas associated with oil production (associated gas) or produced from
gas fields generally contains undesirable components such as H2S, CO2, N2, and
water vapor.
• Field processing of natural gas implies the removal of such undesirable
components before the gas can be sold in the market. Specifically, the gas
contents of H2S, CO2, and water vapor must be removed or reduced to
acceptable concentrations. N2, on the other hand, may be removed if it is
justifiable.
• Gas compression is usually needed after these treatment processes. In
addition, the gas undergoes separation and fractionation for the recovery of
some hydrocarbon components that are utilized as a feedstock for the
petrochemical industry.

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Why process Natural Gas?
• Fluids produced from oil and gas wells generally constitute mixtures of
crude oil, natural gas, and salt water. These mixtures are very difficult to
handle, meter, or transport.
• In addition to the difficulty, it is also unsafe and uneconomical to ship or
to transport these mixtures to refineries and gas plants for processing.
• Further, hydrocarbon shipping tankers, oil refineries, and gas plants
require certain specifications for the fluids that each receive.
• Also, environmental constraints exist for the safe and acceptable handling
of hydrocarbon fluids and disposal of produced salt water.
• It is therefore necessary to process the produced fluids in the field to yield
products that meet the specifications set by the customer and are safe to
handle.
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Schematic flow diagram of a typical natural gas processing plant

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Physical Properties of Natural Gas
- It is a fossil fuel formed from plant and animal remains millions of years ago.
- It is hydrocarbon component with methane as a major component.
- It is colorless and odorless. For security during transportation or processing, a
commercial odorant is added to allow users to detect the gas for safety.
- It is lighter than air with a specific gravity of about 0.6-0.8. If leaks, it disperses
upward and dissipates into the air quickly.
- It is inflamed during a range of 5-15% by volume of gas in air. The self-ignition
temperature of natural gas is 537-540 Celsius degrees.
- As it is a clean fuel with cleaner burning nature, natural gas has lower
environmental impact when compared with other types of fuel.

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Chemical Properties and Uses of Paraffin

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• Chemically, Alkanes or paraffins are generally non-reactive because of the
strong single bond which can only be attacked by very strong reactants at
ordinary temperatures.
• At elevated temperatures, paraffin are attacked by oxygen and burn to CO2
and water, hence their use as fuel.
• Below are chemical properties and uses of paraffins of natural gas. The main
hydrocarbon components of natural gas are relatively small number of the
lower paraffin group, such as methane, ethane, propane, butane and
pentane.

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Homologous Series
In the study of hydrocarbons, they are usually classified into families or
series. This family is known as a homologous series. Each series is made up
of compounds or members with similar chemical structures and have
graded physical/chemical properties that form a predictable pattern.
These graded physical properties differ from one member to another
according to the number of carbon atoms in the structure. If the
homologous series to which a compound belongs is known, its chemical
and physical properties can be inferred from the corresponding properties
of the other compound in the homologous series.
We shall therefore study the physical and chemical characteristics of
hydrocarbons in accordance to the various hydrocarbon families (series)
present in reservoir fluids.
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Different Forms of Natural Gas
• - Pipe Natural Gas or natural gas that transport via
pipeline, it is known in commercial term as Sale
Gas. Sale Gas is mainly composed of methane. It is
transmitted to customers to be used as fuel at the
power generation and industrial plants.

• - Natural Gas for Vehicles (NGV) is the form of

natural gas used as fuel for vehicles. NGV is
primarily composed of methane and transported
through the pipeline to the gas stations. At the gas
stations, low pressure gas will be compressed and
stored at high pressure of 3000-3600 pound per
square inch (psi) and can be then filled up the gas
tanks. 37
• - Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) conventionally, the gas is transmitted through
the pipeline from production fields to users. If the distance is over 2,000
kilometers, it requires a considerable amount of money to lay a pipeline.
Therefore, LNG solves this limitation. The gas is liquefied by lower
temperature to minus 160 degrees Celsius and becomes 600 times smaller in
volume, then stored at atmospheric pressure in designed vessels and transport
to users. The cost of waterway transport is less than transportation through
pipeline

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Benefits of Using Natural Gas as Fuel
- Natural gas is a fossil fuel with high efficiency and cleaning burning.
- Natural gas reduces greenhouse effect which is a main cause of global
warming.
- Natural gas has high safety as it is lighter than air and disperses upward
when leaked.
- Natural gas is cheaper than other types of fuel e.g. fuel oil and LPG.
- Natural gas can add value and drive economy.
- As most of the gas is procured domestically, it thus helps reduce energy
import and save foreign currency.

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The Wobbe Index and Natural Gas Interchangeability
Why is the Wobbe Index important to natural gas systems?
• Natural gas interchangeability is a key subject in the industry today, and a work
group in the American Gas Association has been addressing it. This is a customer-
focused effort. The industry is making sure that the quality of the natural gas that
arrives at appliances, boilers, burners, power plants, turbines—anything that uses
natural gas—meets users’ needs. Emissions and equipment maintenance are
major issues but the ultimate measure continues to be the BTU content.

• What Is The Wobbe Index?

• The Wobbe Index is actually the correct representation of the heating value of natural gas
arriving, from the gas line, at the orifice where a burner is located.

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An explanation of the Wobbe Index from AGA Bulletin No. 36 is
as follows:
• “The Wobbe number, or Wobbe index, of a fuel gas is found by dividing the
high heating value of the gas in Btu per standard cubic foot by the square
root of its specific gravity with respect to air. The higher a gases’ Wobbe
number, the greater the heating value of the quantity of gas that will flow
though a hole of a given size in a given amount of time. It is customary to
give a Wobbe number without units–even though it has the dimensions Btu
per scf–because to do so would lead to confusion with the volumetric
heating value of the gas.

• The Wobbe Index is used to compare the combustion energy output of

different composition fuel gases in an appliance (fire, cooker etc.). If two
fuels have identical Wobbe Indices then for given pressure and valve settings
the energy output will also be identical. Typically variations of up to 5-10%
are allowed as these would not be noticeable to the consumer.
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The Wobbe Index
• It is not simply the BTU per cubic foot but rather the BTU per cubic foot divided by
the square root of the specific gravity:

HHV
• Wobbe Index, 𝐼𝑤 =
√𝑆𝐺

• where HHV is the fuel gas high heating value in Btu per standard cubic
foot and SG is its specific gravity with respect to air.

• In 1927, Goffredo Wobbe, a physicist in Bologna, Italy, observed that:

• The heat output of a burner is proportional to the flow volume per time (given
constant pressure and constant orifice size).
• The flow velocity through a given orifice size at constant pressure is
proportional to the specific gravity of the gas.
• The calorific value, or heating value, of a gas is proportional to its specific
gravity.
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Example on Wobbe Index of a gas
• The Wobbe Index of a gas with a specific gravity is 0.6 and a BTU/cubic
foot heating value of 1000 is as follows:
• Wobbe Index = 1000 / √0.6 = 1291
• A gas with a specific gravity of 0.6 and a BTU/cubic foot of 1050 is well
within the typical range mentioned in the AGA bulletin:
• Wobbe Index = 1050 / √0.6 = 1356
• In fact, for pure Methane and the next two, “heavier” hydrocarbons,
Ethane and Propane, properties are as follows:

Wobbe
Gas BTU/Ft3 SG Index
Methane 1012 0.55 1365
Ethane 1773 1.04 1739
Propane 2522 1.52 2046
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Wobbe Index of common fuel gases
Upper index Lower index Upper index Upper index
Fuel gas (Kcal/Nm3) (Kcal/Nm3) (MJ/Nm3) (MJ/Nm3)
Hydrogen 11,528 9,715 48.23 40.65
Methane 12,735 11,452 53.28 47.91
Ethane 16,298 14,931 68.19 62.47
Ethylene 15,253 14,344 63.82 60.01
Natural gas 12,837 11,597 53.71 48.52
Propane 19,376 17,817 81.07 74.54
Propylene 18,413 17,180 77.04 71.88
n-butane 22,066 20,336 92.32 85.08
Iso-butane 21,980 20,247 91.96 84.71
Butylene-1 21,142 19,728 88.46 82.54
LPG 20,755 19,106 86.84 79.94
Acetylene 14,655 14,141 61.32 59.16
Carbon monoxide 3,060 3,060 12.8 12.8
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Specific gravity of common gases
Specific Specific Specific
Gas Gravity -SG Gas Gravity -SG Gas Gravity -SG
Acetylene (ethyne) - Cyclopropane 1.451 Natural Gas (typical) 0.60 - 0.70
C2H2 0.907 Decane 4.915 Neon 0.696
Air 1 Digestive Gas (Sewage or Nitric oxide - NO 1.037
Ammonia - NH3 0.596 Biogas) 0.8 Nitrogen - N2 (pure) 0.9669
Argon - Ar 1.379 Ethane - C2H6 1.0378 Nitrogen - N2 (atmospheric) 0.9723
Arsine 2.69 Ethylene (Ethene) - C2H4 0.9683 Nitrous oxide - N2O 1.53
Benzene - C6H6 2.6961 Fluorine 1.31 Nonane 4.428
Blast Furnace gas 1.02 Helium - He 0.138 Octane 3.944
Butadiene 1.869 Heptanes 3.459 Oxygen - O2 1.1044
Butane - C4H10 2.0061 Hexane 2.973 Ozone 1.66
Carbon dioxide - CO2 1.5189 Hydrogen 0.0696 Pentane 2.487
Carbon monoxide - Hydrogen chloride - HCl 1.268 Phosgene 1.39
CO 0.9667 Hydrogen sulfide - H2S 1.1763 Propane - C3H8 1.5219
Carbureted Water Isobutane 2.01 Propene (Propylene) - C3H6 1.4523
Gas 0.63 Isopentane 2.48 Sasol 0.42
Chlorine - Cl2 2.486 Krypton 2.89 Silane 1.11
Coke Oven Gas 0.44 Methane - CH4 0.5537 Sulfur Dioxide - SO2 2.264
Cyclobutane 1.938 Methyl Chloride 1.74 Toluene-Methylbenzene 3.1082
Cyclopentane 2.422
Water Gas (bituminous) 0.71
Water Vapor 0.6218
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Assignment 1
• Determine the higher and lower heating value of the following type of Natural gas mixtures
using both manual and Aspen Hysys method.
• Determine the Wobbe Index of the following type of Natural gas mixtures
Hint: Calculation of Chemical Heating Value (CHV)

Where,
C is the mass of carbon per kg of fuel
H2 is the mass of hydrogen per kg of fuel
O2 is the mass of oxygen per kg of fuel
S is the mass of sulphur per kg of fuel 46