The Petroleum Institute

Chemical Engineering Program

CHEG481: Gas Processing Engineering
Spring 2012

Dr. Ahmed Abdala

 Chapter 8:
Field Operations and Inlet
Receiving
Wellhead Operation

 A simple on-field gas location

consists of:
 The wellhead
 Gas-liquid separators
 Instrumentation
 Condensate tank
 Compression stations
 In addition the location would
contain any required processing units
 Gas from multiple wells can be
tied to one platform
 Above or underground pipelines

3
Pigging

 Pigging is a process of forcing a solid object

through a pipeline to:
 Provide barrier between liquid products that uses
the same pipeline
 Check the wall thickness
 Remove debris
 Calibration of flow meters
 Coat inner pipe walls with
inhibitors
 Remove condensed HC liquids
and water in two phase pipeline

4
Field Processing Units

 The specific oilfield processing needed for natural gas

is determined by:
 Flow rate
 Composition
 Temperature and pressure of the produced gas
 Impurities
 Delivery specifications and destination
 Type of process schemes (modules)
 Simple Separation plus dehydration
 Separation, dehydration, sweetening, and natural gas
liquids recovery

5
 General Scheme of Field Processing
Comprehensive Processing Scheme Typical Processing Scheme

6
Objective of Field Processing

 Field processing of a gas stream may have one of the

following objectives:
1. Produce transportable gas stream
 Requires minimal processing
 Water reduction or removal maybe necessary
 Acid gas removal to a level where corrosion is no longer a
concern
 Condensate maybe recovered
2. Produce salable gas stream
 Must meets the specifications of the sale gas
3. Maximize condensate production
 To maximize crude oil production
 To produce salable liquids (more profit)
 To recover liquids before reinjecting the gas into the formation

7
1. Production of Transportable Gas: Processing
Scope

 Dehydration
 Water must be removed to the level that will prevent hydrate
formation in the pipeline
 The water dew-point must be reduced to a temperature lower
than the lowest expected temperature (LET) in the pipeline
 If water removal is not required, corrosion inhibitors must be
injected
 Acid gas removal
 If H2S is present in high level, it must be removed (reduced)
 Internal pipeline coating maybe use as an alternative
 Condensate removal
 Condensate must be removed to reduce the hydrocarbon dew-
point below the LET
 If condensate is not removed, a two-phase or dense phase
transportation is required

8
How to Deal with Expected Condensation

 If the natural gas contains significant fraction of

heavy hydrocarbons, condensation is likely to
occur during transportation
 These are three option to deal with the
condensation problem:
1. No condensate removal and 2-phase pipeline flow
2. Condensate removal to produce a hydrocarbon
dew point less than the LET
3. No condensate removal and dense-phase
transportation

9
Condensate Removal and Dense-phase Transportation

Condensate Removal Dense-phase Transportation

Cooling Cooling

Gas
after
P

P, psia

Liquid NGL

P, psia
Removal
Liquid
Liquid- Gas Liquid
Gas
Liquid-Vapor
Liquid- Gas
Vapor
Vapor

T, ° F

T 10
T
2. Production of Salable Gas

 Requires all processes necessary to Characteristic Specification

meet specifications Water content (Max) 4-7 lb/MMscf
 H2S and CO2 must be removed
H2S (Max) ¼ grain/100 scf
 Dehydration is also required (after GHV 950 Btu/scf
compression)
HC dew point (Max) 15°F @800 psia
 Condensate recovery depends on:
RSH (Max) 0.2 grain/100 scf
 The condensate content (GPM)
Total S (Max) 1-5 grain/100 scf
 The HC dew point
 The heating value requirement CO2 (Max) 1-3 mole%

 Condensate recovery is typically O2 (Max) 0-0.4 mole%

done by cooling the gas then Delivery T (Max) 120° F
separating the condensed liquids
Delivery P (Min) 700 Psia

1grain =64.799 mg

11
Salable Gas: Condensate Recovery

 Condensates can be
separated via cooling and/or
refrigeration
1. Vapor refrigeration cycle
2. Joule-Thompson Expansion
3. Turbine Expander
 Condensate stabilization is
the process of removing
light hydrocarbons from
the liquid condensate
stream via heating

12
3. Maximize Liquid Yield

 Three different situation motivate maximum

condensate recovery
1. Maximizing crude oil
 Condensate is more valuable when injected in
crude oil
2. Processing of retrograde condensate gas
 The gas is reinjected to the formation
3. NGL is more valuable as condensate than as
sale-gas component
 More profits

13
Other Factors that Affect Oil Field Processing

 Gas type
 Associated versus non-associated
 Dry versus wet
 Location and size of field
 Remoteness
 Offshore versus onshore
 Climate (ambient temperature)
 Size
 Small flow rates justify simple operations
 Large flow rates sustain sizeable and complex processing
facility

14
Gas Hydrates

 Ice-like crystalline molecular complexes

 Mixture of water and suitably sized 'guest' gas molecules
 The water (host) molecules, upon hydrogen bonding, form
lattice structures (cage) with several interstitial cavities
 The guest gas molecules can occupy the lattice cavities
 When a minimum number of cavities are filled, the crystalline
structure will become stable
 solid gas hydrates will form, even at temperatures well
above the melting point of water ice
 When gas hydrates dissociate (melt)
 The crystalline lattice breaks down into water
and the gas is released

[Link] 15
 Hydrate Formation: Conditions and Problems

Hydrate Hydrate
Operational
formation formation
problems
conditions acceleration

 Presence of free or  Agitation (turbulence)  Complete or partial

liquid water  Pressure pulsations blocking of flow line
 High pressure  Hydrate crystals (seeds)  Fouling and plugging of
 Low temperature  Suitable sites for crystal heat exchangers
formation  Erosion of expanders

16
Prediction of Hydrate Formation Conditions

 The temperature and pressure for hydrate

formation can be estimated using:
 Katz’ gas-gravity method
 Katz’ equilibrium constant method

 Baillie and Wichert’s charts for sour gas

 Equation-of-states approaches

 Campbell empirical method

17
Katz’ Gas-gravity Method

 The temperature and

pressure of hydrate
formation is red from
one graph using the
specific gravity of natural
gas
 Simple method
 Good for natural gas
with SG of 0.7 or less
 Not accurate for natural
gas with SG 0.9-1.0
 Should be used for first
approximation only

18
Katz’s Equilibrium-
Constant Method
 It utilizes vapor solid
equilibrium constants
y
KVS 
xs
 Not good for pure
components, only for
mixtures
 K-values are red from charts
for different pure
components
 The hydrate formation
conditions are computed in a
manner similar to the dew-
point calculations:
KVS-chart for Propane
y
i si i K 1
x 
VS
19
Baillie and Wichert Method

 A chart generated by
Hysim simulator
 Used for the following
conditions
 Total acid gases: 1-70%
 H2S: 1-50%
 H2S/CO2: 1/3 to 10/1
 Good agreement with
simulation (within ± 2°
F)
 Can also be used for
sweet NG with C3
content up to 10%
Equation-of-State Methods

 The hydrates will form when T, P, and chemical

potential of water in the natural-gas, the liquid-
water and the solid-hydrate phases are the
same
 The chemical potential in the hydrate phase is
computed using Platteeuw and van der Waals
methods
 CSM has a hydrate program based on SRK EOS
 KSV charts similar to Katz charts have been
generated using CSM program

21
Hydrate Prevention

 Hydrates may plug gathering line transporting water-saturated gas

from well-head to central treating station if temperature drops
below hydrate formation temperature
 Temperature drops due to
 J-T effect at the wellhead
 Heat loss from flow lines
 To prevent hydrate formation we may resort to:
 Operate outside hydrate formation temperature
 If practically feasible
 Drying (dehydrating) the natural gas
 Water dew point should be lower than LET
 Ultimate solution
 Addition of chemicals to suppress the hydrate formation
temperature (hydrate inhibition)
 Least attractive option

22
Hydrate Inhibition

 Hydrate inhibition is the least attractive method to deal

with hydrates
 Cost of chemicals
 Reliability of inhibitor injection
 Inhibitor interactions with other additives
 Proper dosage need to be used to avoid hydrate formation
and maintain cost of chemicals minimum
 Type of chemical inhibitors
 Antiaggolmerates (AA)
 Kinetics (KHI)
 Thermodynamics
 Ammonia and brine are the eldest used chemicals
 Glycols and methanol are the current chemicals of choice

23
Chemical Inhibition

 Chemical addition may depress the hydrate

or ice formation temperature
 Ammonia and brine are the eldest used
chemicals
 Glycols and methanol are the current chemicals
of choice
 Ethylene Glycol (EG) and diethylene glycol (DEG)
are the most popular glycols
 Tri and tetraethylene glycols are too soluble in liquid
hydrocarbon and too viscous

24
Glycols versus Methanol

 Methanol can be used at any temperature

 Glycols are used at temperatures above 15° F
 Glycols have high viscosity and high solubility in liquid HC at low T
 At T > 20° F, DEG is preferred over EG because of its lower
vaporization losses
 Depression of Hydrate formation temperature:
DEG EG Methanol

 Glycols requires spraying into the wet gas

 Dilute glycols are separated from the gas, reconcentrated and
reused
 Methanol recovery is not crucial as it can be easily recovered in
a subsequent glycol dehydration unit

25
Glycols versus Methanol

 Glycol is usually cheaper when continuous injection is

required or high gas volumes being inhibited
 Methanol is used for low gas volumes, temporary
installation, or when hydrate problem is mild
 Methanol is always used for long lines (over a mile) as it
offers better protection than glycols
 Using methanol injection prior to dehydration unit may
cause:
 Co-absorption of methanol and water by the glycol
 Corrosion of steel glycol absorption and regeneration
column
 Reduction in the capacity of solid desiccant due to its co-
adsoprion

26
Methods Comparison

 Cost:
 Methanol has low investment cost but high operating cost
 Glycols have higher initial investment cost but lower operating cost
 Line heaters have intermediate investment cost
 Operating cost depends on the value of the fuel consumed
 Typically glycols are used when methanol required injection rate
exceeds 30 gal/hr
 Glycol cannot attack or dissolve existing hydrates but methanol
can
 If pipeline is plugged by hydrates, it can be unplugged by reducing
the pressure on BOTH SIDES of the plug
 It is very danger to reduce the pressure on one side as hydrate my
accelerates towards the low pressure causing pipe breakage or
unearthing

27
Design Procedure

 The minimum required mass flow rate of hydrate inhibition

chemical can be calculated as follow
1. Fraction of inhibitor in the aqueous phase Inhibitor EG DEG MeOH
a) Hammerschmidt correlation: KH 4000 4000 2335

MW 62 106 32

 xi  weight fraction of pure inhibitor in the aqueous phase

 T  desired depression of hydrate formation, °F
 Mw  molecular weight of inhibitor
 KH hammerschmidt constant for inhibitor
a) Nelson and Bucklin (for methanol solution temperature as low as
-160° F)

 xi  mole fraction of water in the aqueous phase

28
Design Procedure

 The amount of water to be

condensed form the gas phase,
WG=[Winlet conditions-Wrequired hydrate conditions]
 Water content of the gas stream
can be estimated using
 McKetta Wehe or other methods

 Amount of inhibitor solution to

be added, S
xi
S  Q sW G
x 0  x i 
 Qs is the gas flow rate, MMscfd
 x0 is the inhibitor initial
concentration, mass fraction

Mcketta-Wehe 29
Aqueous Glycol Freezing Behavior

 The outlet glycol concentration

as calculated by
Hummerschmidt or Nelson and
Bucklin correlation may not be
of practical use due to the freeze
of the aqueous glycol solution
 With glycols concentration 60-
80° F, freezing is not possible at
any temperature
 Therefore, it is recommended to
maintain the inlet and outlet
glycol concentration at this range
 In such case, Wout will be
determined selected from the
no-freeze range

30
Vapor-Phase inhibitor Losses

 Glycols have very low vapor pressures and accordingly

vapor-phase losses are minor
 Methanol, however, is very volatile and vapor-phase
loses are significant
 Methanol vapor phase
loses can be estimated in
terms of lowest
temperature in the
hydrate inhibition system
(the new hydrate
formation temperature)
and the corresponding
pressure

31
Glycol Unit Operation:

 Glycol Injection:
 Glycol must be injected ahead of cooling vessels
(HXER, choke, expander, or chiller)
 For heat exchanger, glycol maybe sprayed directly onto
the tube bundle instead of ahead of the exchanger
 Glycol-water-oil separation:
 Allow residence time of about 30 min (for T 30-40° F)
 If no foaming or emulsion problems exist, 20 mins may
be sufficient
 Separation at higher temperature (80-100° F) is
recommended to lower the viscosity and promote
settling

32
Glycol Unit Operation

 Glycol losses:
 Solution in liquid hydrocarbon
 Vaporization and entrainment in the exit gas
 Decomposition and carry over from the regenerator
 Glycol solubility in hydrocarbon liquids increase with
 An increase in glycol molecular weight
 An increase in temperature
 An increase in concentration of the glycol in the aqueous mixture
 Corrosion inhibition
 Solid particles must be removed by installing a full-flow filter
 Corrosion inhibitors may affect the emulsion stability and thus the
glycol-water-oil separation
 Since the degradation products are acidic, maintaining the pH at 7.2
minimizes corrosion

33
Hydrate Inhibition Example

 15 MMscfd of a sweet water-saturated

natural gas with SG of 0.8 is to be cooled
from 100° F and 700 psia to 30° F.
i. At what temperature will hydrate form?
ii. How much water will be removed from the
gas?
iii. How much EG solution (gal/hr) must be
added to prevent hydrate formation. Assume
that the EG is injected as a 75 wt.% ?
iv. How much methanol is required?

34
Inlet receiving
Inlet Receiving

 As the gas enters the plant it

passes through emergency
shutdown valves then it goes
into inlet receiving
 Gas-liquid separation in slug
catcher
 Liquid will drop out due to
gravity
 A slug catcher is a gas−liquid
separator sized to hold the
biggest slug a plant will
experience
 Can be combined with liquid
storage

44
Separator Principles
 Phase separators protect down stream equipment designed to process single
phase
 Scrubbers, knockout pots, inlet receivers, and just separators
 A vessel with internal components to enhance separation
 Gas-liquid Separation Areas
 Primary separation
 Gravity settling
 Coalescing
 Liquid collecting

Orientation
Vertical Horizontal
 Low liquid/gas ratio
 Preferred for high liquid/oil ratio
 Occupy less space
 Larger and more costly than  Large surface area
horizontal vessels  Better degassing
 Inlet suction scrubber
Separation Vessel Orientation
Horizontal Vertical

46
Primary separation

 Driven by the difference

in momentum between
the gas and liquid
 Liquid droplets fail to
make sharp turns
 Large liquid droplets
drop out
 Smaller (finer) droplets
coalesce to form larger
droplets

47
Gravity Settling
Drag force
 Liquid droplets will settle out of a gas phase if the gravitational force
acting on the droplet is greater than the drag force of the gas flowing
around the droplet
 Settling increase with increasing the droplet size and decreasing the gas velocity
DP

1
  2g 3
Region Re=DpVTg/ µg VT, m /s DP  K CR  
 g g  g  l 
Gravitational
force

1000D p2  l   g 
Stokes Law Re < 2 VT 
18 g
DP= (3-100) µm

Gas flow
 l   g 
0.71
3.49 g 0.71D 1.14
Intermediate 2 < Re <500 VT  p

 0.29  g0.43
DP= (0.1-1.0) mm
g

gD P  l   g 
Newton’s Law 500< Re <200000 V T  1.74
g
DP= (1-70) mm
48
vT
 Stokes Region, Re < 2  1488v t  g D p
Re 
g
 Units
 Intermediate, 2 < Re < 500  Vt  ft/s
 Dp  ft
 g and L  lb /ft3
 g  cP
 Newton Region, Re > 500  g  32.2 ft/s2
Coalescing

 In coalescing section, the path

of the gas is increased to bring
small mist particles together as Mesh pad
they collect on the insert(mist
eliminator)
 Types of mist eliminators
 Mesh pads (wired or knitted)
vane Cyclonic device
 More efficient
 Can be plugged by solids
 Vane packs
 Ideal for dirty service
 Cyclonic devices
 Extremely efficient at high gas
velocity
 Narrow operating range

51
Performance of Mist Eliminator

 Separation performance is based on:

 Droplet removal efficiency
 Function of droplet size and gas velocity
 Handling capacity, QA
 QA = Mist area x Vt
Vt  C
 l  g 
 g

 C is the gas capacity factor:

 C =100 - 4.12 P0.42

 For droplet size below 3 mm, filter separators

and coalescing filters are used

52
Liquid Collection

 The liquid collection section

acts as a holder for the removed
liquids
 Provides for degassing the liquid
 Allow water and solids
separation from the HC liquids
 A boot is required if large
amount of water is present
 Retention time of 3-4 minutes
for water hydrocarbon
separation
 Iron sulfide is the most common
solid

53
Liquid-Liquid Separation

 Two or three phase

separators maybe used
 Coalescing and gravity
separation
 Separation is described
by the same equations
for gas liquid separation
 Longer residence time is
required
 Small difference in
density, low Vt
 Emulsion formation

54
Residence Time
Gas-Liquid Separators Liquid-Liquid Separators
Type of separation Retention Type of separation Retention
time, min time, min
NG-condensate 2-4 Light hydrocarbon – water 3-5
Fractionator feed tank 10-15 Heavy (T>100° F) 5-10
Reflux Accumulator 5-10 hydrocarbon- (T = 80° F) 10-20
Water
Fractionation Column 2 (T =60° F)
Sump EG-Hydrocarbon 20-60
Amine flash tank 5-10 Amine-Hydrocarbon 20-30
Refrigeration surge tank 5 Caustic-Propane 30-45
Refrigeration economizer 3 Caustic-heavy gasoline 30-90
Heat medium oil surge tank 5-10

55
Slug Catcher Configuration

 In addition to inlet
vessels (gas-liquid
separators), manifolded
piping is used as slug
catcher
 manifolded piping
 Requires thinner wall
thickness
 Can operate at higher
pressure
 Number of pipes vary
according to capacity
 Primary and gravity
separation take place

56
Design of Separators

A gravity separator (without mist extractor) is

required to handle 60 MMscfd of 0.75 specific
gravity gas at a pressure of 500 psiag and a
temperature of 100° F. Compressibility is 0.9,
viscosity is 0.01 cp, and liquid specific gravity is
0.5. It is desired to remove entrainment
greater than 150 µm in diameter.
a) What are the dimensions of a horizontal
separation vessel?
b) What is the dimensions of a vertical separation
vessel?
Calculation of Terminal Velocity

 Method 1:
 Assume 2 < Re < 500 ( Intermediate regime)

PM  500  14.7  0.75x 28.9 

g    1.73 lb / ft 3
RT 10.73  460  100 
3.49x 32.20.71 x 150x 106 x 3.28   0.5x 62.4 1.73
1.14 0.71

vT   0.46 ft / s
1.730.29 x 0.010.43
1488V T D p  g 1488x 0.46x 150x 106 x 3.28 x 1.73
Re    58.3
g 0.01
 Assumption is correct
Calculation of Terminal Velocity

 Method 2:
 Calculate C’Re2

 0.95 10  1.73 150x 10 x 3.28  0.5x 62.4 1.73

8 6 3

C 'Re2   5768
 0.01
2

 C’ = 1.5

4x 32.2x 150x 106 x 3.28  0.5x 62.4  1.73

  0.49 ft / s
3x 1.73x 1.5
Vertical Separator
V  D 2L L
tg   tL 
Qa 4Q a vT

 Let tg=tl
D 2 L L
  D
4Qa
4Q a vT v T
Qa  Qs
T Ps Z
 15
 460  100  14.7 0.9  0.42MMcftd
Ts P Z s  460  60   500  14.7  1
 0.42x 106 
4x  
D  24x 3600 
 1.8 ft Use 2 ft
 x 0.46

 Assume tl=0.5 min

L  t Lv T   0.5x 60 x 0.46  13.8 ft
Horizontal Separator
V  D 2L D
tg   tL 
Qa 4Q a vT

 Assume tl=0.5 min

D  t Lv T   0.5x 60 x 0.46  13.8 ft

 Let tg=tl  0.42x 106 

4 
 D 2L D 4Qa  24x 3600 
  L   1.1ft
4Q a vT  Dv T  x 13.8x 0.46
62
 CO2 vent

Sulfur
Recovery
Solid
Sulfur
Raw Gas Phase Acid Gas
Separation Removal Compression Dehydration
Water
Solids

Oil

Water
Gas to Condensate
Recompression
Pipeline Recovery
Condensate

64
 Gas Hydrates

[Link]
 Gas Hydrates

[Link]
 Introduction
• Drying the natural gas using liquid or solid desiccant is the
ultimate protection against hydrate formation but it usually
takes place at central facility
• Flowline heating is typically used upstream of chokes and
in short gathering lines
– It required modest in initial investment
– Minimum operation complexity
– Fuel availability
• Chemical addition may depress the hydrate or ice
formation temperature
– Ammonia and brine are the eldest used chemicals
– Glycols and methanol are the current chemicals of choice
– Ethylene Glycol (EG) and diethylene glycol (DEG) are the most
popular glycols
– Tri and tetraethylene glycols are too soluble in liquid
hydrocarbon and too viscous

Sunday March 22nd, 09

Lecture 20 76
 Pipeline gas after NGL Removal
P, psia

Liquid, -250,
1000

Gas, 250, 700

Liquid-Vapor

Thursday March 19th, 09 Lecture 18

77
T, ° F
 Condensate Recovery by Refrigeration

Sale gas

Refrigerant

Inlet Gas Separator

Gas-to-Gas
Exchanger Chiller
Liquid to
Stabilization
P, psia

Liquid, -250, B, 120, 1000 A, 183, 1000

C, 70, 1000
1000
Gas, 250, 700
C", C',
50,70,
500500

Liquid-Vapor
Thursday March 19th, 09 Lecture 18
78
T, ° F
 Condensate Recovery by Joule-Thompson Expansion

Sale gas

Inlet Gas
Separator

Gas-to-Gas
Valve
Exchanger
Liquid to
Stabilization
P, psia

Liquid, -250, B, 120, 1000 A, 183, 1000

1000
Gas, 250, 700
C', 70, 500

Liquid-Vapor
Thursday March 19th, 09 Lecture 18
79
T, ° F
 Condensate Recovery by Expansion-Turbine Cooling

Sale gas

Inlet Gas
Separator

Gas-to-Gas
Exchanger
Expansion Liquid to
Turbine Stabilization
P, psia

Liquid, -250, B, 120, 1000 A, 183, 1000

1000
Gas, 250, 700
C", 50, 500

Liquid-Vapor
Thursday March 19th, 09 Lecture 18
80
T, ° F
 Platform of Associated gas

Thursday March 19th, 09 Lecture 18

81