Course Syllabus

1. Definitions of Natural Gas, Gas Reservoir, Gas Drilling and

Gas production (Pengertian gas alam, gas reservoir, gas
drilling, dan produksi gas)
2. Overview of Gas Plant Processing (Overview Sistem
Pemrosesan Gas) and Gas Field Operations and Inlet
Receiving (Operasi Lapangan Gas dan Penerimaan Inlet)
3. Gas Treating: Chemical Treatments (Pengolahan Gas: secara
kimia) and Sour Gas Treating (Pengolahan Gas Asam)
4. Gas Treating: Physical Treatments (Pengolahan Gas: secara
fisika)
5. Gas Dehydration (Dehidrasi Gas)
6. Gas Dehydration (Dehidrasi Gas)
7. Hydrocarbons Recovery (Pengambilan Hidrokarbon)
 Hydrocarbons Recovery
(Pengambilan Hidrokarbon)
 Retrogade Condensation
● Phenomenon associated with the behavior of a
hydrocarbon mixture in the critical region wherein, at
constant temperature, the vapor phase in contact with the
liquid may be condensed by a decrease in pressure; or at
constant pressure, the vapor is condensed by an
increase in temperature
● Dew point control is also necessary if a potential for
condensation is present in a process because of
temperature or pressure drops
● The latter happens when the gas is in the retrograde
condensation region
 Retrogade Condensation in P-‐T Diagram

Pressure−temperature diagram for a hypothetical raw natural gas that

contains predominately methane (85 mol% methane with 4.8 mol% of
C3+), with trace components up to heptane
● At any temperature and pressure combination outside the
envelope, the mixture is single phase.
● At temperatures and pressures inside the envelope, two
phases exist.
● Three points on the envelope are important:
● The cricondentherm (A), the maximum temperature at
which two phases can exist
● The cricondenbar (C), the maximum pressure at which two
phases can exist
● The critical point (B), the temperature and pressure where
the liquid and vapor phases have the same concentration
● The retrograde condensation effect can be seen by
following the vertical dashed line
● Dropping the pressure causes a liquid phase to form
(retrograde condensation), which will be present until
the pressure is below the envelope
● The dashed curve inside the envelope denotes the
pressure and temperature of the mixture when the
vapor quality is 95 mol%
● the cricondentherm of a mixture strongly depends on
the molecular weight of the heavy components
● The cricondenbar increases with increased
molecular weight
HYDROCARBON RECOVERY PROCESSES
● Inlet gas pressures make a major difference in plant
configuration.
● High pressures permit use of expansion, J-T or
turboexpander, to provide all of the cooling if low
ethane recovery is desired.
● For low inlet pressures, either external refrigeration
or inlet compression followed by expansion is
needed to cool the gas, regardless of extent of
ethane recovery.
● Required outlet pressure helps decide which
approach should be taken.
PROCESS FOR HYDROCARBONS RECOVERY
● 1. Dew point control and fuel conditioning
● 2. Low ethane recovery
● 3. High ethane recovery
DEW POINT CONTROL AND FUEL
CONDITIONING
● Dew point control and fuel conditioning exist to knock
out heavy hydrocarbons from the gas stream
● There are three methods:
● Low Temperature Separators (LTS)
● Twister
● Vortex Tube
LOW TEMPERATURE SEPARATOR(LTS)
LTS ….
● The LTS process consists of cooling and partial
condensation of the gas stream, followed by a low
temperature separator.
● When inlet pressures are high enough to meet discharge-
pressure requirements to make pressure drop acceptable,
cooling is obtained by expansion through a J-T valve or
turboexpander. Otherwise, external cooling is required.
● Water usually is present, and to prevent hydrate formation the
separator downstream of the expander is warmed above the
hydrate-formation temperature to prevent plugging.
● An alternative to heating is injection of either ethylene glycol or
methanol, which is then recovered and dried for reuse
● If inlet pressures are too low for expansion, the
stream is cooled by propane refrigeration.
● The advantage of direct refrigeration is that the
pressure drop is kept at a minimum
● Hydrate formation must be considered with either
feed dehydration upstream of the unit or inhibitor
injection
● Glycol injection is usually the more cost effective,
but if used, it increases the required refrigeration
duty
 TWISTER
● It is used in one offshore facility for dew point control
and dehydration.
● Gas enters and expands through a nozzle at sonic
velocity, which drops both the temperature and
pressure and causes droplet nucleation.
● The two-phase mixture then contacts a wing that
creates a swirl and forces separation of the phases
by centrifugal force.
● The gas and liquid are separated in the diffuser; the
liquid is collected at the walls and dry gas exits in the
center
Two Phase flow across a pressure reduction valve, such
as a choke valve, Joule Thomson (JT) valve or control
valve.
Advantages of the Twister system
● Simplicity. No moving parts and no utilities required.
● Small size and low weight. A 1-inch (24-mm) throat
diameter, 6 feet (2 m) long tube can process 35
MMscfd (1 MMSm3/d) at 1,450 psia (100 bar).
● Driven by pressure ratio, not absolute pressure.
● Relatively low overall pressure drop. System
recovers 65 to 80% of original pressure.
● High isentropic efficiency. Efficiency is around 90%
compared with 75 to 85% for turboexpanders.
Drawbacks of The Twister System
● Requires a clean feed. Solids erode the tubing and
wing, necessitating an inlet filter separator.
● Limited turndown capacity. Flow variability is limited
to ±10% of designed flow. This limitation is mitigated
by use of multiple tubes in parallel.
 VORTEX TUBE
● The vortex tube, also known as the Ranque-Hilsch vortex
tube, is a mechanical device that separates a
compressed gas into hot and cold streams. It has no
moving parts
● Vortex tubes use pressure drop to cool the gas phase but
generate both a cold and warm gas stream.
● If streams are recombined, the overall effect is
comparable to a J-T expansion.
● The principle of operation is the Ranque-Hilsch tube,
developed in the 1940s and commonly marketed as a
means to provide cold air from a compressed air stream.
 VORTEX TUBE PRINCIPLES
● Pressurized gas is injected tangentially into a swirl
chamber and accelerates to a high rate of rotation.
● Due to the conical nozzle at the end of the tube, only
the outer shell of the compressed gas is allowed to
escape at that end.
● The remainder of the gas is forced to return in an
inner vortex of reduced diameter within the outer
vortex.
● For dew point control, and dehydration, the device has the vortex
tube and a liquid receiver connected to the tube.
● Gas enters the tube tangentially through several nozzles at one end
of the tube, expands, and travels spirally at near sonic velocities to
the other end. As it travels down the tube, warm and cool gas
separate.
● The cool gas goes into the center of the tube. Warm gas vents in a
radial direction at the end, but the cool gas is reflected back up the
tube and exits just beyond the inlet nozzles.
● Condensation occurs in the cool gas, and the liquid is moved to the
walls by centrifugal force, where it collects and drains into the
receiver below.
● The working pressure of the tube is 500 to 3,050 psig (36 to 210
barg), and flow rates are 20 to 140 MNm3/h.
● The turndown ratio is 15% for a single tube but can be increased by
use of multiple tubes in parallel; the optimum pressure drop is 25 to
35%
● Turndown ratio: the ratio of the maximum flow to the minimum flow of
a meter
Advantages of Vortex Tubes
● Simplicity and light weight.
● It could be useful where limited turndown is
acceptable.
● It will be of most value when no compression is
required.
 MEMBRANE METHOD FOR FUEL
CONDITIONER

● Gas enters the membrane on the discharge side of the

compressor, and the residual gas provides fuel to the
compressor engine or turbine.
● The low pressure permeate is recycled to the suction for
recompression to recover the permeate
 ADVANTAGES OF MEMBRANE
TECHNOLOGY
● the process is simple and requires no moving parts.
● relatively small and light weight.
● this technology is used on several offshore
installations.
● Unlike the Twister and vortex tube, membranes have
the advantage of a turndown ratio down to 50%, with
no performance penalty.
● This property may not be an advantage for fuel gas
conditioning, where flow rates should be stable.
● In fuel conditioning, the selectivity is not a major
issue because of the relatively small fraction of gas
that needs to be recompressed, and the enriched
stream is recycled without requiring additional
compression.
● Membrane permeability is the product of the
solubility and diffusion coefficient.
● For separation of light gases, the primary mode of
selectivity is the diffusion coefficient.
● For dew pointing, solubility drives the selectivity.
● These membranes are silicone rubber compounds
that preferentially absorb the heavy components
 2. LOW ETHANE RECOVERY
● The focus of the previous section was removal of
heavy components (C3+) to avoid condensation or to
lower the heating value
● the objective is to produce a lean gas and recover up
to approximately 60% of the ethane in the feed gas
● Two process schemes are used to obtain this level of
ethane recovery:
● 1. Cooling by expansion or external refrigeration
● 2. Lean-oil absorption
Cooling by Expansion or External
Refrigeration
● At constant pressure and temperature, the ethane
concentration in the liquid decreases with increasing
C3+ fraction, which lowers the ethane concentration
in the vapor and, thus, increases the percent ethane
recovered.
● Inlet gas is initially cooled with cold residue gas and cold liquid
from the cold separator before going to the propane chiller and
to the cold separator.
● Vapor from the separator is the sales gas, and the liquid goes
to a fractionator to strip out light ends and recover liquid
product.
● The column operates at a lower pressure than does the cold
separator.
● Because of system pressure drop and because the
fractionator runs at the lower pressure, the recycle stream
must be recompressed.
● Alternatives to the process include:
● Reduction or elimination of the recycle by adding reflux to the
fractionator
● Running the fractionator at a higher pressure and use of a pump
to feed the column from the cold separator
● With high inlet gas pressures, replacing the propane
system with an expander is an attractive option.
● However, inlet compression may be necessary to obtain
the temperatures required to obtain the desired
recoveries.
● Both J-T and turboexpanders are used. Crum (1981)
points out situations where a J-T system may be
preferable to turboexpanders, although recent advances
in turboexpander technology may temper some of them:
● Low gas rates. J-T is more economically viable at low gas
rates.
● Low ethane recovery. For ethane recoveries of 10 to 30%,
J-T expansion may be sufficient.
● Variable flow rates. J-T is insensitive to widely varying flow
rates, whereas turboexpanders lose efficiency when
operating off of design rates.
 Lean Oil Absorptions
● Early gas processing plants used lean oil absorbers
to strip NGL from natural gas (Cannon, 1993), and
the process is still used in about 70 gas plants today.
● The process involves three steps:
● Absorption. An absorber contacts a lean oil to absorb
C2+ plus from raw natural gas.
● Stabilization. The rich oil demethanizer (ROD) strips
methane and lighter components from the rich oil.
● Separation. The still separates the recovered NGL
components as product from the rich oil, and the lean
oil then returns to the absorber.
 3. HIGH ETHANE RECOVERY
● The above processes provided limited recovery of ethane.
● To obtain 80 to 90% or more ethane recovery requires separation
temperatures well below what is obtainable by use of propane refrigeration
alone.
● In principle, direct-refrigeration processes could be used by cascading
propane cooling with ethane or ethylene refrigeration or by use of a mixed
refrigerant that contains methane, ethane, and propane.
● The primary motivation for use of only direct refrigeration would be low inlet
gas pressures.
● If significant inlet compression is required to produce refrigeration by
expansion, then cascade or mixed-refrigeration cooling, with or without
expansion, may be attractive.
● No matter which option is used, obtaining high ethane recoveries from low
inlet-pressure feed streams requires substantial compression, of either the
feed stream, the refrigerants, or both.
Tugas Kuliah