Provided by UMP Institutional Repository
Provided by UMP Institutional Repository
Provided by UMP Institutional Repository
JANUARY 2012
iv
ABSTRACT
Natural gas from wells contains significant amount of Hydrogen Sulfide and Carbon
Dioxide which known as acid gas. Acid gas should be removed as the sulfur
compound in hydrogen sulfide is extremely harmful and corrosive. The main process
in Acid Gas Removal Unit (AGRU) is absorption, where the selection of the solvent
is based on its capability to absorb or removing acid gas. Benfield Process is a
chemical absorbing process by using Benfield solvent that consist of 30% Potassium
Carbonate (K2CO3), water, DEA as activator and corrosion inhibitor. Solvent
foaming is a contributor factor to the problem in the Benfield process due to
degradation of DEA. The degradation will reduce the tendency of solvent absorption
and also reduce the efficiency of absorption column. This research is carried out to
simplify the AGRU process by reducing the number of equipment. A new simplified
process has successfully constructed by replacing flash drum with a cooler to
liquefied the solvent. Simulation using Aspen Hysys is then performed to study the
modified process by using Peng-Robinson as property package. From the simulation
on simplified PFD , the capital cost of the process is reduced due to the reduction of
equipment used in the process. Moreover, the objective of this research is to increase
the efficiency of absorption process using Piperazine to replace DEA as activator in
the Benfield solvent. As the conclusion, modified PFD with Piperazine in Benfield
Solvent found can reduce the energy consumption, capital cost and give high
efficiency absorption process.
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ABSTRAK
Gas asli daripada telaga mengandungi jumlah ketara Hidrogen Sulfida dan Karbon
Dioksida, yang juga dikenali sebagai asid gas. Acid Gas perlu dibuang kerana
sebatian sulphur dalam hidrogen sulfida yang amat menghakis dan berbahaya.
Proses utama dala Unit Pemindahan Gas Asid (AGRU) adalah penyerapan, Di
mana pemilihan pelarut adalah berdasarkan keupayaan khas pelarut itu menyerap
atau mengeluarkan asid gas. Proses Benfield adalah satu proses kimia dengan
menggunakan pelarut Benfield untuk menyerap, pelarut itu terdiri daripada 30%
Kalium Karbonat (K2CO3), air, dan DEA sebagai perencat kakisan dan penggerak.
Pelarut berbuih adalah factor penyumbang kepada masalah dalam proses
Benfield yang disebabkan degradasi DEA. Kemerosotan akan mengurangkan
kecenderungan penyerapan pelarut dan juga mengurangkan kecekapan ruang
penyerapan. Kajian ini dijalankan untuk memudahkan proses. dengan
mengurangkan bilangan peralatan dalam proses AGRU. Satu proses baru
dipermudahkan telah berjaya dibina untuk mengganti Flash Column dengan
penyejuk untuk cecair pelarut. Simulasi menggunakan Aspen Hysys kemudiannya
dijalankan kajian proses dengan menggunakan Peng Robinson yang diubahsuai. Dari
simulasi adalah PFD yang dipermudah, kos modal dalam proses ini berkurangan.
disebabkan pengurangan peralatan yang digunakan dalam proses. Objektif kajian ini
adalah untuk meningkatkan kecekapan proses penyerapan menggunakan piperazine
menggantikan DEA sebagai penggerak dalam pelarut Benfield. Sebagai kesimpulan
itu, PFD yang diubah suai dengan Piperazine Benfield sebahagai pelarut ditemui
boleh mengurangkan penggunaan tenaga, kos modal dan memberi kecekapan yang
tinggi dalam proses penyerapan acid gas.
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TABLE OF CONTENT
Pages
SUPERVISO’R DECLARATION i
STUDENT’S DECLARATION ii
ACKNOWLEDGMENT iii
ABSTRACT iv
ABSTRAK v
LIST OF TABLES ix
LIST OF FIGURES x
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS xi
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY
5.1 Conclusion 47
5.2 Recommendation for Future Research 48
REFERENCES 49
ix
LIST OF TABLES
LIST OF FIGURES
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
Natural gas generally considered as fossil fuel which has been formed from the
dead sea animals and plants 400 million years ago. The layer of the dead animals and
plants turned into sedimentary rock. Under the sea pressure and heat from the earth, the
organic mixture reacts and changed into petroleum and natural gas. The natural gas is
trapped in the porous rock deep underground.
The worldwide energy demand has rapidly increased during the recent years and
the available resources are becoming insufficient. Referring to the U.S. Energy
Information Administration (EIA), natural gas consumption could increase from 104
trillion cubic feet in 2005 to 158 trillion cubic feet in 2030.As show in Figure 1.1.2,
electric power sector and the industrial sector are the major demand of natural gas with
24% and 32% respectively. Natural gas use in residential is about 22% and commercial
with 14% followed by 8% in others sector. According to EIA, electric power sector
consumption expected will increase about 2.8% and 1.5% for industrial sector by year.
With the advantage clean burning process of natural gas, the demand of natural gas in
transportation also expected to be increased.
others
8%
Electricity
residential 24%
22%
commercial industrial
14% 32%
Engineering standard for process design of gas treating unit defined acid gas
present in most natural gas streams mainly hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide.
Natural gas from the wells contains significant amounts of hydrogen sulfide and carbon
dioxide an also known as sour gas (Speight, 2007). Because of the extremely corrosive
and toxicity of sulfur compound, the acid gas should be removed and the process
removal also known as sweetening and treating process.
Figure 1.3 shows the several processes involved in gas processing plant. The
processes in the gas processing plant are acid gas removal, dehydration, mercury
removal and product recovery unit which are hydrocarbons separation based on their
group. Raw gas from the offshore is transported by pipeline to the separation process to
separate between the oil, gas and water at pre-treatment unit. In the pre-treatment unit,
contaminant is removed and the clean gas is transferred to the AGRU.
4
In the AGRU, acid gas is removed and the treated gas will proceed with the
dehydration process. Dehydration is the removal of the water. It is necessary to ensure
smooth operation of gas transmission lines. Dehydration prevents the formation of gas
hydrates and reduces corrosion. The next step is mercury removal by using adsorption
processes before the gas fed into distillation in a demethanizer fractionating column.
After methane was separated, the gas is continuously processed in the product recovery
unit which consist of three distillation tower is series called a deethanizer, a
depropanizer and a debutanizer. The product from the gas processing plant enters a
compressor station where it is pressurized for transmission (Chakma, 1997). Methane is
usually transported by pipeline as commercial gases. Other group of hydrocarbon
(ethane, propane, butane) will be distributed to industry, consumers and domestic use.
As show in figure 1.3, acid gas removal unit is the process after pre-treatment
unit. In the pre-treatment unit, slugs, waters and others contaminants is remove before
the gas transferred to the acid gas removal unit. Contaminants in the acid gas will
disturb the process in acid gas removal. In the acid gas removal unit, the acid gas will be
remove to meet the specification. Acid gas removal unit is the earlier process in the gas
processing plant can avoided corrosion and hydration problem when the gases undergo
others process. In the acid gas removal unit, there many process to remove acid gas.
There two general processes in removal acid gases, by absorption and adsorption
(McCain et al, 1997).
5
Acid gases, mainly hydrogen sulphide and carbon dioxide need to be removed at
specific level due to transportation and safety requirement.
Natural gas main transportation is by using pipeline. Others than that, it is also
can be transported by using liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), compress natural gas (CNG),
gas to solid (GTL), gas to solid (GTS), gas to power (GTP), and gas to commodity
(GTC) (Mokhatab, S. et al., 2006).
H2S is a very toxic gas and affects to human at low level of exposure. The H2S
should be remove due to safety aspect to the persons in their working area that involve
in H2S and also as a safety requirement to the consumers. Table 1.5.2 below is the level
exposure of H2S and its effect to human body
Table 1.5.2: Level exposure of H2S and its affect to the human.
Acid gas can be treated in many processes, Mokhatab S. et al., (2006). There are
several factor must be considered in selected the process in removal acid gas. The
factors are the types and concentration of contaminants in the feed gas, degree of
contaminant desired, the specification of acid gas, temperature, pressure, volume and
the composition of the feed gas.
Generally the process of removal acid gas used is by absorption and adsorption.
Absorption process is divided in two classes, absorption based on chemical solvent and
physical solvent. This process is depends on physical solubility and chemical reaction in
the liquid phase. Most common absorbent used in the removal acid gases process is
water, aqueous amine, caustic, and sodium carbonate. However, the solvent must be
selected by considering several factors to get the best result in the process.
9
Methyl-
MDEA 119.17 1.03 -21 247 127 51
Diethanolamine
Figure 1.6.1 shows the general amine process flow diagram. The feed gas will
enter at the bottom of absorber column and flows up and contacted countercurrent with
the amine solution. Treated gas which also known as sweet gas will exit at the top of
absorber column. At the bottom of absorber column, rich amine solution will exit and
go through the flash tank. In the flash tank, the hydrocarbon that may have dissolved or
condensed will be recovered. The process is continued with rich amine will regenerate
at the regenerator column. The regeneration process operates at low pressure and high
temperature. Reboiler is added at the bottom of column in order to maintain the
temperature inside the regenerator. Acid gas will separate from the amine and the acid
gas leave at the top column and go to the condenser. Lean amine from the bottom
regenerator will pumped through the lean-rich amine heat exchanger and cooler before
enters the absorber column. The process is close loop process where the solvent is
recycled (UOP, 2007).
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Gas permeation is a process already applied in industry to remove the acid gas.
The advantages of this process are low methane loss in permeate, and cost effective due
to its single stage operation (Rojey et al., 1997). In this process, the acid gas separated
by using membrane which is usually polymeric or organic membranes. For a gas to
permeate through a membrane surface, the gas must first dissolve in the high pressure
side of membrane, diffuse across the membrane wall and evaporate from the low
pressure side (Ahmad et al, 2010). Figure 1.6.3 is the mechanism of the gas permeation
process.
Acid gas removal in this research involves stripper column as main equipment.
Besides that, in order to complete this process others equipment such as, reboiler, flash
column, cooler, and pump is added. However, this process is highly energy
consumption to remove the acid gases. The operating cost of this process also increases
in order to supply the energy. For Benfield process, foaming of solvent is a common
problem in the absorption process. Foaming of solvent will reduce the tendency of
solvent to absorb acid gases. Thus, it will decrease the efficiency of the absorption
process overall.
This research contains two main objectives. The first objective is to minimize
the energy consumption in Acid Gas Removal Unit (AGRU) in gas processing plant by
reducing number of equipment that consume energy in the process. The second
objective is to increase the efficiency of the absorption process in acid gas removal unit
by solving the foaming problem in the absorber column.
This research will be focusing on simulation using Aspen Hysys, which is will
be done based on the industrial Acid Gas Removal process flow sheet that use Benfield
Solution. Comparisons between AGRU which used Benfield solution with DEA as
activator and Benfield with Piperazine activator are being compared in terms of
absorption column removal efficiency. The structural modification on AGRU design
will be compared with the existing process in terms of power consumption, process duty
and capital cost.
14
In this research, the new activator will increasing the efficiency of absorption
process with no foaming problem and thus increases the efficiency of absorption
process. Since typical AGRU with DEA as activator has operational problems such as
solvent losses and degradation, foaming and corrosion, the selection of solvent with
suitable activator is therefore very important. Reducing the number of equipments is a
contribution factor to reduce the energy consumption and capital investment in the
AGRU and reduce the operating cost of the process.
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CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
First basic Benfield Process was developed by Benson and Field in 1950s.
Benfield process is then improved with the new technology by adding activator in the
potassium carbonate solvent to increase reaction rate of the process. Benfield Process is
applicable to the removal of H2S and CO2 from natural gas in gas processing plant. This
process also used to remove CO2 in ammonia plant and it is well known around the
world for CO2 removal for many chemical plant industries. Francais S. Manning stated
in his book, Benfied Process have three basic process flowsheet, that is single stage
absorber, split flow absorber, and two stage absorber as shown in Figure 2.1, (a),(b),(c)
respectively.