Journal of Petroleum & Environmental Biotechnology

Investigation of optimal sweetening processes for natural gas

5^th World Congress on Petrochemistry and Chemical Engineering

December 05-07, 2016 Phoenix, USA

Aghareed M Tayeb

Minia University, Egypt

Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Pet Environ Biotechnol

Abstract:

Natural gas generally contains a large amount of methane along heavier hydrocarbons such as ethane, propane, normal butane and butane. Also in the raw state it often contains non hydrocarbons, such as nitrogen and acid gases (carbon with dioxide-hydrogen disulphide). The acid gases must be removed from natural gas before use. This paper discussed the design of four units to remove acid gases from natural gas to achieve sales gas specifications. The first method depends on chemical absorption by using DEA solvent. The extraction of hydrocarbon by this method was high. This solvent is very expensive and required high energy to recycle it again. The second method used K2CO3 which is a less expensive chemical solution than DEA solvent. This solution cannot achieve sales gas specifications but reducing the amount of acid gases in natural gas and then DEA is used to achieve sales gas specification. The design calculated the amount of solvent needed for the first and second methods and it was found that it required high amount of solvent, thus another physical method was thought about. The most widely used method is the membrane which is divided to two stages. The first stage recovery of hydrocarbon is 90.2% and the second stage recovery is 97.5%. The membrane technology doesn't achieve sales gas specifications but is useful in reducing acid gases when present in high percentage. Besides, a high energy requirement for gas compression is needed. Thus, it is suggested to reduce amount of acid gases by a chemical solutions of K2CO3 followed by the use of a membrane to achieve sales gas specifications. The choice of the recommended process depends on economic study for the four units. In addition, a simulation study for the design of an industrial gas sweetening plant has been done for the four units. This is followed by an economic study for the four units to reach the best economical method for sweetening natural gas. The study showed that the best economical method is the use of hot potassium carbonate and membrane unit.

Biography :

Email: aghareed1@yahoo.com