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Upgraded Methodology for Process Intensification in Natural Gas Dehydration
Abdulrahman, Ibrahim ; Jegla, Zdeněk (oponent) ; Ditl,, Pavel (oponent) ; Máša, Vítězslav (vedoucí práce)
Natural gas dehydration (NGD) is essential in the processing of the associated and non-associated natural gas (NG). Its role is crucial in avoiding the hydraulic slugs, hydrate formation prevention, electrochemical corrosion control, beneficial production, and quality requirement fulfillment. From the perspectives of capital and operational expenses (CAPEX and OPEX), energy consumption, pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), the natural gas dehydration (NGD) has all the drivers that support approaching it via the modern process engineering concepts, such as process intensification (PI). The global requests to consider the health and environmental aspects of any development apply further pressure toward this implementation. The literature review reveals a concern with the PI equipment, more than the PI methods and the concepts of the process itself. Furthermore, there is a limited utilization of the computer-aided simulation to serve the PI research. This thesis presents an upgraded methodology for PI in the NGD. The developed method is a systematic simulation-based one that integrates the rated energy consumption (REC) with the dry gas water content specification. The presented method focuses on the mutual relation between the REC as a key driver and evaluation tool of the PI, and the water content specification which is the key input for NGD design. The REC is formulated of two components, process or equipment energy consumption, and enthalpy loss by venting. A combination of two methods is used to formulate the upgraded methodology, • a systematic method that recognizes unit intensification and extended process intensification. • a concise framework for PI implementation in the O&G proposed originally by the author. The established simulation-based method used a powerful process simulator to simulate an absorption-based dehydration unit as a case study for an existing gas plant. The studied dehydration unit uses triethylene glycol (TEG) as a solvent. A sensitivity analysis of the unit independent variables’ impacts on the PI approach is done. The method defines three scenarios to effectively intensify the process in the core unit (TEG), (1) the TEG circulation, (2) stripping gas flow rate, and (3) regeneration reboiler temperature. The defined scenarios can reduce the REC by 11%-18%, BTEX emissions up to 69%, CO2-(process) up to 37%, and TEG loss reduction of about 35%, without compromising the product specification. Due to no CAPEX impacts, these scenarios are valid for both, future design, and current TEG units in operation. Furthermore, the proposed systematic method was also implemented for the upstream and downstream adjacent units. The output indicated the potential PI in terms of REC that could be achieved over the entire process. Moreover, the same method can be used for approaching the PI in any other process by incorporating the specific independent variables of the studied process.
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