Gas sweetening Plant

62
 Prepared By: SYED HAIDER ABBAS DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING COMSATS INSTITUTE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY Email: [email protected] INTERNSHIP REPORT OMV KADANWARI PLANT

Transcript of Gas sweetening Plant

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Prepared By

SYED HAIDER ABBAS

DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING

COMSATS INSTITUTE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

Email haidy_42hotmailcom

INTERNSHIP REPORT OMV KADANWARI PLANT

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

Introduction to OMV 1

Scope of Plant 2

Process description 3

Wellhead and Christmas Tree 6

Types of Christmas Tree 10

Well Head Control Panel 12

Chemical Injection 13

Water Conning 14

Corrosion and Protection 15

Pigs and Pigging operations 17

Compressors 18

Front End Compressor (Reciprocating) 19

Centrifugal Compressors 23

Separators 24

Membranes 29

Working principle of Membranes 31

Advantages of Membrane System 36

Sorption 39

Absorption 39

Adsorption 40

Pre-treatment 41

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Memguard 42

H2S Polisher 46

Recycle Compressor 48

Sales Gas Compressor 49

Cooling Towers 50

Fin Fan Coolers 53

Produced Water 54

Incinerator 54

Control System 55

Safety System 55

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Introduction to OMV

OMV is Austriarsquos lar gest listed industrial company As the leading oil and gas

group in Central Europe OMV is active in Refining and Marketing (RampM) in 13

countries and in Exploration and Production (EampP) OMV is active in 18 countries

on five continents In Pakistan OMV has been active as an operator and partner

since 1990 In the years to date OMV (Pakistan) has established itself as the

largest international gas producer in Pakistan with an operated volume of more

than 110000 barrels of oil equivalent per day from Kadanwari-Miano and Sawan

fields This represents about 16 of the total gas produced in Pakistan The firstsignificant achievement was the discovery of the Miano gas reservoir in the Thar

Desert of Sindh province It came about by the end of 1993 just three years after

OMV came to Pakistan The second major breakthrough came five years later ie

in 1998 from the field named Sawan again in the same area of Sindh Sawan

was and still is one of the largest discoveries of gas reserves in Pakistan In a

record nineteen months from the ground-breaking ceremony in January 2002 of

the Sawan Gas Plant OMV was able to sell its raw gas by July 2003 Parallel to

the Sawan development OMV also took over the operator-ship of the Kadanwari

Gas Processing Plant on 1st January 2003 from Lasmo currently ENI OMV

remained quite aggressive on new developments and Kadanwari plant gas

processing capacity was enhanced to 232 MMscfd while Sawan plant capacity

has been enhanced to 400 MMscfd To further meet raw gas requirements

development drilling was continued successfully for both fields Besides these

activities carried out in OMV Pakistanrsquos core area OMV is pursuing new projects

in other parts of Pakistan Health Safety and Environmental standards are

parallel to the highest international level and second to none in the local

perspective OMV has strong commitment to reduce emissions to the

environment To achieve the same an ldquoEmission Reductionrdquo project has been

initiated for Kadanwari Plant

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Scope of Plant

Carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide which fall into the category of acid gasesare commonly found in natural gas streams at levels as high as 80 In

combination with water they are highly corrosive and can rapidly destroy

pipelines and equipment unless they are partially removed or exotic and

expensive materials of construction are used Hydrogen sulfide is toxic and at

relatively modest levels can be life threatening Carbon dioxide also reduces the

heating value of a natural gas stream and wastes pipeline capacity In LNG

plants CO2 must be removed to prevent freezing in the low-temperature chillers

Therefore the composition of gas is adjusted as per limits prescribed by SNGPL

(Sui Southern Gas Pakistan Limited) and is sold to the government The gas is

injected to the SNGPL main facility at a pressure of 1100 psi

The sales gas specifications are as follows

CO2 Maximum = 3

H2S Maximum = 38 ppm

CV Minimum = 920 BtuscfWater = 7lbMMscf

OMV Kadanwai facility sale gas composition

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OMV Kadanwai facility feed gas composition

Process Description

Gas from Kadanwari High pressure wells is routed to Kadanwari High Pressure

slug catcher Gas from Kadanwari low pressure wells is routed to Kadanwari low

pressure slug catcher and is fed to 2 stage Front End Compressor (FEC) to

increase the pressure up to production pressure Gas from FEC is fed to high

pressure stream flowing into Kadanwari High Pressure slug catcher The gas

from Miano wells is fed to Miano Slug Catcher

Kadanwari and Miano gas streams after separately metered are fed to a common

header which splits into two identical skids A and B Here we will discuss one

skid in common Each skid is routed to fin fan coolers where it is cooled and fed

to Inlet separator where water and heavy hydrocarbons are removed from feed

gas The condensate from all units is sent to produce water system

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The gas then passes through pretreatment skid which consists of following units

Feed Cooler

Feed Gas Scrubber

Filter Coalescer

Feed Gas Heater

Activated Carbon Guard Filter

Particle Filter

Its main function is to remove contaminants from gas such as dust lube oils

heavy hydrocarbons etc which may poison or reduce efficiency of membrane

unit

After pretreatment gas is fed to Molecular Sieve Absorbers (Memguard Units)

which ensures gas supplied to membranes is up to membrane standards of UOP

(vendor of membrane system) It removes all moisture and heavy hydrocarbons

from gas stream

Pretreated gas is now fed to the primary membranes The permeate stream (rich

in CO2) is sent to recycle membranes after passing through recycle compressor

and recycle pretreatment The permeate stream of recycle membranes is used as

regenerative medium for Memguard units and rest is sent to incinerator and

burnt The residual gas (rich in CH4) from primary membrane and recycle

membranes (all skids) is sent to H2S polishers via a common header

H2S polisher unit reduce the hydrogen sulfide level to the sales limit The gas is

now metered after compressing in sales gas compressor and is sent to SNGPL

trunk line after metering

Water is remove from condensate at produced water system by a three phase

separator The condensate is sold to refinery Major quantity is exported to

various industries

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Figure Overall plant Process Flow Diagram

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Wellhead

A wellhead is the component at the surface of an oil or gas well that provides the

structural and pressure-containing interface for the drilling and production

equipment Its function is to maintain surface control of the well It forms a seal to

prevent well fluids from leaking or blowing at the surface They are rated for

working pressure of 2000 psi to 15000 psi (or greater)

When the well has been drilled and it is ready to provide an interface with the

reservoir rock and a tubular channel for the well fluids The surface pressure

control is provided by a Christmas tree which is installed on top of the wellhead

with valves and choke equipment to control the flow of well fluids during

production

Christmas tree

A Christmas tree is an assembly of valves spools and fittings used for an oil

well gas well water injection well gas injection well condensate well and other

types of wells

The primary function of a tree is to control the flow usually oil or gas out of the

well When the well and facilities are ready to produce and receive oil or gas tree

valves are opened and the formation fluids are allowed to go through a flow line

This leads to a processing facility A tree often provides numerous additional

functions including chemical injection points well intervention means pressure

relief means monitoring points (such as pressure temperature corrosion

erosion sand detection flow rate flow composition valve and choke position

feedback) and connection points for devices such as down hole pressure andtemperature transducers (DHPT) On producing wells chemicals or alcohols or

oil distillates may be injected to preclude production problems (such as

blockages)

The control system attached to the tree controls the down-hole safety valve

(SCSSV) while the tree acts as an attachment and means of the control system

to the down-hole safety valve

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Figure 1

Well Head and Christmas Tree

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Master Valves

The two lower valves are called the master valves Master valves are normally in

the fully open position and are never opened or closed when the well is flowing

(except in an emergency) to prevent erosion of the valve sealing surfaces They

are gate type valves

1 Lower Master Valve (LMV)

2 Upper Master Valve (UMV)

The lower master valve will normally be manually operated while the upper

master valve is often hydraulically actuated allowing it to be used as a means of

remotely shutting in the well in the event of emergency

Wing Valve

A wing valve is normally used to shut in the well when flowing thus preserving

the master valves for positive shut off for maintenance purposes The wing

valve can be a gate valve or ball valve Hydraulic operated wing valves are

usually built to be fail safe closed meaning they require active hydraulic pressure

to stay open This feature means that if control fluid fails the well will

automatically shut itself in without operator action

In Kadanwari well sites there is only one manually operated wing valve On the

other hand at Miano well sites there are two wing valves one being operated

manually and other hydraulically

Production Wing Valve

The right hand valve is often called the flow wing valve or the production wing

valve because it provides flow path for hydrocarbons to production facility

Kill wing valve

The left hand valve is often called the kill wing valve It is primarily used for

injection of fluids such as corrosion inhibitors or methanol to prevent hydrate

formation It is typically manually operated It can kill the well temporarily be

injection brine solution which provides a pressure head to well and temporarily

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suspends it for maintenance of well head Also it is used to permanently kill the

well A chemical is injected down the well that seals the piping down the well and

kills the well permanently

Swab valve

The swab valve is used to gain access to the well for wire line operations

intervention and other work over procedure On top of it is a tree adapter

and cap that will mate with various equipment For such operations a

lubricator is assembled up onto the top of the tree and the wire or coil is lowered

through the lubricator through swab valve and into the well This valve is typically

manually operated

Choke

A choke holds back pressure by restricting the flow opening at the well head This

is done to make better use of the gas for natural gas lift and to control the bottom-

hole pressure for recovery reasons

CHECK VALVE

The check is introduced in production flow line to prevent any reverse flow from

the line into the well It has a hinged flap which lifts to permit normal flow but

closes to prevent reverse flow

TOP ADAPTOR

The top adaptor is a fitting on top of the swab valve with a threaded connection

During normal well operations a pressure gauge is fitted to monitor flowing and

shut in wellhead pressures However during well service operations the cap can

be removed to allow installation of lubricators for wire-line operations

SCSSSV (Surface Control Sub Surface Safety Valve)

A subsurface safety valve is essentially a shutdown valve installed at the upper

wellbore for emergency shutdown to protect the production tubing and wellhead

in case of overpressure Subsurface safety valves can offer a barrier against flow

in the event of a wellhead collapse or other disastrous event Purpose of asubsurface safety valve (SSSV) is to avoid the ultimate disaster which can result

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in release of reservoir fluids to the surroundings This makes SSSV a very

important component of a well completion

A subsurface safety valve is typically a uni-directional flapper valve directed in

such a way that the flappers open downwards when pressure is applied from an

upward direction The flapper can only open in the downward direction So even if

high pressure is applied by the well fluids from a

downward direction a safety valve can remain

closed This makes a subsurface safety valve fail-

safe To open the valve hydraulic signal is sent from

the surface well control panel This hydraulic

pressure is responsible for keeping the flappers of

SSSV open and loss of hydraulic pressure result in

closing of the valve Thus wellbore can be isolated in

case of system failure or damage to the surface

facilities

Types of Christmas tree

There are two types of Christmas Tree

1 Solid block

2 Conventional

The solid block Christmas Tree has a central solid unit holding several valves

in a pre-constructed block Their advantage is the reduction in potential leak

paths and their higher pressure rating (Fig 2)

The conventional Christmas Tree is built up from individual valves bolted

together to form an assembly (Fig 3)

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Figure 2

Figure 3

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Wellhead Control Panel

Wellhead control panel is key equipment in oil amp gas industry to protect oilfield

facilities and environment from emergency incidents such as wellhead fire which

is one of main control systems to ensure oilfield oil production and transportation

to be safely operation according to international standards and national

regulation Wellhead control panel is composed of hydraulic power unit tubing amp

fitting and instrument valve and electrical control devices Hydraulic power unit

supply hydraulic resource to open and close safety valves including master

valves wing valves and SCSSSV

Its performs

Local OnOff SSV

Remote control SSV through RTU( remote terminal unit)

High-Low pressure sense shut-down automatically

Fusible Plug Anti-fire Shut-down automatically

Function of showing system pressure

Relief Valve shall be installed on each hydraulic circuit to prevent high

pressure

Function of showing hydraulic level and level switch for alarm

Function of defending pressure impact of system

Function of system pressure monitoring (by pressure transmitter of control

panel)

Function of remote emergency shut-down (by magnetic valve of control

panel)

Function of OnOff SSV monitoring (by pressure switch of control loop of

control panel)

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Chemical Injection

Chemical injection systems are commonly used in production facilities to prevent

or eliminate a wide range of problems that might negatively affect the production

flow It is done for flow assurance protection of process equipment such as

pipelines or to optimize processes in production facilities

Typical flow assurance chemicals are

Wax inhibitors

Pour point depressants

Asphaltene inhibitors

Corrosion inhibitors

A corrosion inhibitor is a chemical compound that is added to liquid or gas to

decreases the corrosion rate of a material typically a metal or an alloy The

effectiveness of a corrosion inhibitor depends on fluid composition quantity of

water and flow regime Its common mechanism involves formation of a coating

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which prevents access of the corrosive substance to the metal The corrosive

agents are generally oxygen hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide

At our production site the major risk is corrosion of piping and equipment The

maximum allowable corrosion rate is approximately 02 mm per year and

corrosion rate without inhibitor could be approximately 11 mm per year so the

corrosion protection program is designed to achieve a target corrosion rate of

less than 01 mm per year which is achieved by an inhibitor system efficiency of

99 Inhibitor is injected into the well stream flow through an atomizing nozzle

located downstream of the respective wellhead coolers at the duplexcarbon steel

interface In normal operation as per NALCO standards chemical (brand name

EC1144B) at rate of frac12 Liter per MMSCFD of gas is being injected into the flow

line of miano15 flow lines made of carbon steel Moreover the composition can

vary depending upon the composition of well fluids and material of pipeline This

method of injection ensures even distribution of the chemical on the interior

surface of the pipeline The individual well sites are equipped with Chemical

Injection Packages comprising of a stainless steel storage tank and two

pneumatic motor driven pumps in parallel Instrument gas is used to drive the

pumps Normally one pump is running with the other standby

Water Conning

Water coning is a term used to describe the mechanism underlying the upward

movement of water into the perforations of a producing well Coning can seriously

impact the well productivity and influence the degree of depletion and the overall

recovery efficiency of the reservoir The specific problems of water coning are

listed below

Costly added water handling

Gas production from the original or secondary gas cap reduces pressure

Reduced efficiency of the depletion mechanism

The water is often corrosive and its disposal costly

The affected well may be abandoned early

Loss of the total field overall recovery

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Therefore conning has an important influence on operations recovery and

economics The phenomena is shown in picture below

Corrosion

Corrosion is referred as chemical deterioration of a metal Commonly this

means loss of electrons of metals reacting with water and oxygen

Weakening of iron due to oxidation of the iron atoms is a well-known

example of electrochemical corrosion This is commonly known as

rust Most structural alloys corrode merely from exposure to moisture

in the air but the process can be strongly affected by exposure to

certain substances Corrosion can be concentrated locally to form a pit

or crack or it can extend across a wide area to produce general

deterioration (uniform corrosion)

The following reaction takes place at the active sites

2Fe =gt 2Fe++ + 4e-

The free electrons travel through the metal path to the less active sites where

the following reaction takes place

O2 + 4e- + 2H20 =gt 4 OH-

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Recombination of these ions at the active surface produce the following

reaction which yields the iron-corrosion product ferrous hydroxide

2Fe + O2 + 2H2O =gt 2Fe (OH) 2

CORROSION PROTECTION SYSTEM

Coatings and painting

Painting and the application of enamel bitumen and PVC

coating are the most common anti-corrosion treatments They

work by providing a barrier of corrosion-resistant material

between the damaging environment and the structural material

Corrosion Inhibitors

Corrosion inhibitor is injected into the flow lines as mentioned in

detail on page 8

Cathodic Protection

Cathodic Protection (CP) is a technique used to control the corrosion of a

metal surface by making it the cathode of an electrochemical cell It

converts all of the anodic (active) sites on the metal surface to cathodic

(passive) sites by supplying electrical current (or free electrons) from an

alternate source It is accomplished in two ways

a) A simple method of protection connects protected metal to a more easily

corroded sacrificial metal to act as the anode The sacrificial metal then

corrodes instead of the protected metal The process is similar to a simple

DC cell in which the more active metal becomes the anode and corrodes

whereas the less active metal becomes the cathode and is protected

b) For larger structures galvanic anodes cannot economically deliver enough

current to provide protection Therefore impressed current cathodic

protection (ICCP) systems are used These consist of anodes connected

to a DC power source In remote areas power sources such as solar

panels may be used The output DC negative terminal is connected to the

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frequently to limit liquid holdup and minimize the slug volumes of liquid which can

be generated by the system

Coating

Pigs may be used to apply internal pipe coatings such as epoxy coating

materials in operating pipelines Pigs may also be used with corrosion inhibitors

to distribute and coat the entire internal wetted perimeter

Inspection

Pigs are being used more frequently as inspection tools Gauging or sizing pigs

are typically run following the completion of new construction or line repair to

determine if there are any internal obstacles bends or buckles in the pipe Pigs

can also be equipped with cameras to allow viewing of the pipe internals

Electronic intelligent or smart ldquopigsrdquo that use magnetic and ultrasonic systems

have been developed and refined that locate and measure internal and external

corrosion pitting dents buckles and any other anomalies in the pipe wall

Intelligent pigs

The accuracy of location and measurement of anomalies by the intelligent pigs

has continued to improve Initially the electronics and power systems were so

large that intelligent pigs could be used only in lines 30 in and greater in size

The continued sophistication and miniaturization of the electronic systems used

in the intelligent pigs has allowed the development of smaller pigs that can be

used in small-diameter pipelines Newly enacted DOT pipeline-integrity

regulations and rules acknowledge the effectiveness of the intelligent pigs and

incorporate their use in the pipeline-integrity testing process

Compressors

A gas compressor is a mechanical device that increases the pressure of a gas by

reducing its volume Gas pressure is increased by forcing gas molecules together

to reduce gas volume When volume is reduced gas pressure increases

All gases have large spaces among their molecules These spaces could be

enhanced further and decreased by doing some work Work done which is used

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for the enhancement of these spaces is called expansion and work done to

minimize these spaces is called compression All gases while expansion

produces cooling effect and while compression of gases raises there

temperature Compression is a term used to force gases to occupy smaller

volumes by increasing their pressure Volume of gases is interlinked with

temperature and pressure of the gas which is cleared by 2 laws govern gas

compressions

Boyles Law

Charles Law

The main types of compressor are listed below

Front End Compressor

The plant currently processes gas from a number of wells The flow and pressure

from some of these wells (currently K-10 K-11 amp K-12) has declined and they

cannot be fed directly into the Central Processing Facility To recover the

maximum gas reserves from these wells a Front End Compressor is employed

The compressor is a two stage double acting gas engine driven reciprocating

(PT) compressor Double acting means that gas is compressed on each end of

the piston It normal operates with a speed range of 600 to 900 RPM and isequipped with four compressor cylinders two for each stage Each cylinder is

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also equipped with a variable volume head end pocket

In case of compressor emergency shutdown the production chokes and the

Upper Master Valves on the on line wells will close and operator will be notified in

central control room Sweet gas from gas distribution network is used to operate the

gas engine driver of the compressor package The detailed scheme of working is

shown in figure (page 22 )

PT Reciprocating Compressor

The mechanical cycle of piston tube reciprocating compressor comprises four

strokes the expansion stroke the intake stroke the compression stroke and the

discharge stroke

Expansion Stroke

As the piston moves back on the expansion stroke the chamber volume

increases and the pressure drop As the pressure drops the discharge valve

closes since there is greater pressure in the discharge line than in the chamber

Intake Stroke

As the piston moves back during the intake stroke the pressure decreases until it

is less than the pressure in the inlet line This higher intake pressure opens the

inlet valve and gas rushes into the cylinder equalizing the pressure there with

the intake pressure The compression chamber is now at or near the intake

pressure

Compression Stroke

The piston now starts the compression stroke by moving forward decreasing the

chamber volume and increasing the pressure The increased pressure is now

higher than the intake pressure causing the intake valve to close

Discharge Stroke

The piston continues to move to the left during the discharge stroke This creates

an increase in chamber pressure until it is greater than the discharge pressure

When this happens the Discharge valve opens and the compressed air from the

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cylinder goes into the discharge line The compression cycle is then repeated

from the stage

Compressor Capacity

The capacity of the compressor depends upon cylinder displacement That

displacement is simply the volume that the piston displaces (moves) as it travels

from one end of the cylinder to the other Capacity and displacement is equal to

the cross-sectional area of the cylinder times the length of the stroke

Lubrication and Cooling

Lubricating oil is circulated through the system by a gear pump which is chain

driven from the engine crank shaft The oil pump is mounted on the engine front

housing

The pump operates between 30 - 40 psig

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A circulating pump deliver cooling water to the water jackets in the cylinder block

flowing around the cylinder liners and is directed into the cylinder heads Each

cylinder head has water cooled exhaust elbows which outlet the water into the

water cooled exhausts From the end of engine the water flows to compressor

1st and 2nd stage cylinders and compressor lube oil cooler (LOwater heat

exchanger) The water from the compressor cylinder and lube oil cooler returns

to engine water cooled exhaust

Figure Flow diagram of Front End Compressor

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Centrifugal Compressor

Centrifugal compressors are machines in which velocity and pressure given to air

or gas in a radial direction by one or more impellers diffuser combination In a

centrifugal compressor the mechanical energy is increased by centrifugal action

The gas enters the suction eye of a high speed rotary element called the impeller

which carries radial vanes integrally cast in it As the impeller rotates the blades

of the impeller force the gas outward from the center the impeller to the outer rim

of impeller the increase in velocity of the gas creates a flow pressure area at the

eye of the impeller The gas at the outer rim of the impeller is forced in to a

passage way called a diffuser where the velocity decreases in the pressure of the

gas

Inlet

The inlet to a centrifugal compressor is typically a simple pipe It may include

features such as a valve and both pressure and temperature instrumentation

Centrifugal impeller

The key component that makes a compressor centrifugal is the centrifugal

impeller shown above It is the impellers rotating set of vanes (or blades) that

gradually raises the energy of the working gas This is identical to an axial

compressor with the exception that the gases can reach higher velocities and

energy levels through the impellers increasing radius

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Diffuser

The next key component to the simple centrifugal compressor is the diffuser

Downstream of the impeller in the flow path it is the diffusers responsibility to

convert the kinetic energy (high velocity) of the gas into pressure by gradually

slowing (diffusing) the gas velocity

SEPERATORS

A well-stream is a mixture of gases hydrocarbon liquids water solids and

contaminants Due to variations in pressure and temperature gases evolve from

the liquids water vapor condenses and some of the well-stream changes to liquid

and free gas The separation of well-stream fluids takes place in a separator This

pressure vessel is manufactured in three forms

1 horizontal

2 vertical

3 spherical

To help separation the vessel is normally designed with a series of internal

fittings These fittings are built into the separator to ensure total phase separation

of the well-stream

In gas plants separators are given alternative names due to the function they

perform in the process system A scrubber does a similar job to a knockout drum

However the scrubber usually separates a stream containing high gas-to-liquid

ratios The knockout drum is used where a high degree of liquids are entrained in

the gas

Fluid flow from a well can include gas condensable liquid vapors water water

vapor crude oil and solids As well-stream fluids reach ground level where

pressure is lower than in the reservoir the capacity of the liquid to hold gas in

solution decreases and gas separates out of the oil

Separation depends upon the effect of gravity to separate liquids For adequate

separation one fluid must be lighter than the other fluid For example distillates

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(gasoline kerosene etc) and crude oil will not separate in a vessel because they

tend to dissolve in each other Because a separator basically depends upon

gravity to separate the fluids the ease with which separation takes place

depends upon the difference in density of the fluids

Droplets of liquid will separate from gas provided

a) The gas remains in the separator long enough

b) The gas flow remains constant to provoke separation

The difference in density between a gas and liquid will therefore determine the

maximum flow rate of liquid in the vessel

Figure Two phase horizontal separator

Gas bubbles in the liquid will break out in some oil field applications in 30 to 60

seconds Consequently the separator is designed so that the liquid remains in

the vessel for 30 to 60 seconds The length of time that a liquid remains in the

vessel is called its residence time Residence time differs widely from field to field

depending upon viscosity and API Gravity

Another important factor which must be considered is temperature Generally a

decrease in operating temperature will increase the liquid recovery in a separator

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as the gas condenses By reducing the pressure on the fluid flash separation

occurs resulting in a flow through the separator which is controlled by external

instrumentation

COALESCENCE

Another important principle in fluid separation is that of coalescence This means

the coming together of liquid droplets created by the force of gravity

A common example of coalescing occurs when drops of water form on the

windshield of a car as it is driven in fog As the tiny drops or water which make up

the fog strike the windshield they combine and eventually form a drop large

enough to run down the glass

Several of the internal devices of a separator such as deflector plates

straightening vanes and even the vessel walls are forms of coalescers In each

vessel drops of liquid adhere to the surface of the device and combine with other

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drops until the drop is large enough to fall out The effectiveness of separation

will also depend upon the total amount of coalescing surface area that is present

There are many different types of separators used in the Oil amp Gas industry

Consequently separators are manufactured with one two or several internal

fittings depending on their use and quick removal of these fluids from the vessel

DEFLECTOR PLATES

These are fitted in front of the inlet to the separator and can be net or

dish-shaped Their purpose is to absorb the impact of the incoming fluids and to

encourage the separation of gas and liquids They also slow the flow rate of the

liquids through the vessel

WEIRS

A weir is a metal wall which is fitted across the inside of the vessel normally to a

height of 50 of the overall height of the separator Its purpose is to assist the

process of three phase separation The inlet fluids (oil plus water) are given time

to separate in the liquid accumulation section The water level (interface) is

normally controlled at 50 of the height of the weir Oil floating on the wateroverflows the weir and accumulates in the small oil compartment where it is

drawn off under level control

CENTRIFUGAL DEVICES

These are used in both vertical and horizontal separators for gas-liquid

separation The device imparts a swirling motion to the fluids entering the vessel

Centrifugal force causes the heavier liquids to travel outwards towards the walls

of the vessel and the lighter gases to flow up the centre Centrifugal devices are

also known as cyclones

VORTEX BREAKERS

When liquid flows through a drain outlet a vortex (whirlpool) will form This can

be seen when we pull the plug from a sink or bath tub The same would happen

as water and oil flow from the separator This condition a vortex could allow gas

to flow down the centre of the whirlpool and enter the liquid phase causing

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pressurizing of tanks etc To stop this happening vortex breakers are fitted to all

liquid outlets Although they come in a number of different designs vortex

breakers all serve the same purpose - to prevent a whirlpool from forming

MIST OR DEMISTER PADS

The gas which is released from the fluids in the separator still contains droplets of

oil and water which coalesce and fall when the drops get large enough The

demister pad assists in this process Made from knitted wire and contained within

a sturdy frame it causes the gas to continually change its direction of flow

Because gas changes direction far easier than liquid the gas will flow around

each strand of wire whilst the liquid entrained in the gas stream will continue and

stick to the wire

COALESCING PLATES

There are several different forms of coalescing devices the most common of

which are coalescing plates These plates are mounted in the flow stream of the

fluids and assist in breaking down oil-water emulsions The fluid is forced to

follow a path that constantly changes direction This causes the water droplets to

gather together or coalesce and fall to the bottom of the separator The same

principle is used to separate gas and oil mixtures when the oil droplets are

induced to coalesce Simply stated every surface within the separator including

the separator walls assists with the coalescing process

STRAIGHTENlNG VANES

These are often fitted to horizontal separators to remove turbulence in the gas

stream after initial separation at the inlet deflector

FLOAT SHEILD

Internal floats are used as level controllers Any agitation of the liquid surface or

the effect of coalesced liquids falling on the float may cause control problems

Therefore a float shield is fitted to enclose the float creating an area of still liquid

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MEMBRANES

The gas contains 12 carbon dioxide and 22 ppm of hydrogen sulphide at 115oF

and 1100 psig This needs to be removed before the gas can be exported The

majority of carbon dioxide hydrogen sulphide and water is removed by means of

membranes

Membranes are thin semipermeable barriers that selectively separate some

compounds from others Currently the only commercially workable membranes

used for CO2 removal are polymer based for example cellulose acetate

polyimides polyamides polysulfone polycarbonates and polyetherimide The

membrane does not operate as a filter where small molecules are separated

from larger ones through a medium with pores rather it separates based on how

well different compounds dissolve into the membrane and diffuse through it The

membranes are manufactured in flat sheets consisting of an extremely thin

nonporous layer mounted on a much-thicker and highly porous layer of the same

material providing mechanical strength The flat sheets are combined into a

spiral-wound element (Figure below) Feed gas enters along the side of the

membrane and passes through the feed spacers As the gas travels between

membrane sheets CO2 H2S and H2O permeate through the membrane and are

collected in the permeate tube The driving force for transport is the high-feed

pressure and low-permeate pressures The gas on the feed side that does not

permeate leaves through the side of the element opposite the feed position Once

the membranes have been manufactured into elements six to 12 elements are

joined together and inserted into a tube Multiple tubes are mounted on skids in a

horizontal orientation

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Figure Membrane general Working

In high H2S applications most polymers have been shown to have very little

resistance to H2S plasticization (ldquosofteningrdquo of the membrane) and as a

consequence can only be used at very low H2S partial pressure limits Cellulose

acetate membranes in contrast have been shown to be applicable at extreme

H2S partial pressure conditions It is these membranes that have been utilized in

the testing to determine the limits of membrane performance in high H 2S

applications

The primary membranes used in Kadanwari facility are Cellulose acetate

Cellulose acetic acid and acetic anhydride are mixed together and reacted to

form cellulose acetate polymers This process is aided by the addition of a small

amount of sulfuric acid which is subsequently neutralized during processing

However the membranes are bought from UOP (vendor) and installed for use

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How membrane work

The basic principle of separation is selectivity of certain components of a mixture

for the membrane For example the cellulose acetate membrane has very high

selectivity for CO2 and H2S as compared to CH4 Therefore such type of

membrane can be used in gas sweetening process

The selectivity is directly related to the Permeability of gas which accounts that

which gas can pass across the membrane more easily In simple words

membranes being polymer materials are made of long chains of molecules The

different structure of polymer materials only allow selective molecules to pass

through them depending upon chemical and physical compatibility Thus

permeability depends upon choice of polymer

The permeability is determined by permeability coefficient (P) and is product of

solubility (S) and diffusivity (D)

P = S D

Solubility

The solubility is mainly determined by ease of condensation Heavy molecules

are more readily condensed Therefore higher molecular weighted molecules will

more easily condensed and therefore have greater solubility

Molecule Molecular weight

CH4 16

H2S 34

CO2 44

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Diffusivity

Diffusivity is ease of molecule to penetrate into some material It depends on size

of gas molecule Here size of molecule is not to be confused by molecular weight

it is the size of the structure Eg the size of O2 molecule is smaller than N2

Molecule Molecular Diameter (Ao)

CO2 33

H2S 36

Ch4 40

For cellulose acetate

DCO2DCH4 S CO2S CH4 P CO2P CH4

45 73 308

Chemical degradation

Cellulose acetate polymer is chemically degraded by a process called hydrolysis

which means breaking apart by the addition of water This is a chemical reaction

in which water is added to the cellulose acetate polymer causing the release of

acetic acid molecules This process proceeds stepwise until all the acetate

groups are released resulting in the reformation of cellulose Moreover alcohols

aromatic hydrocarbons or solvents with chlorine nitro benzene or similar

aromatic solvents will harm the membrane It will expand and lose plastification in

contact with them

Effect of Temperature

The permeation rates of all gases increases with increasing temperature

however membrane selectivity for CO2 over hydrocarbon decreases at higher

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temperature Consequently CO2 removal will improve as operating temperature

increases but hydro carbon recovery will decrease

Primary Membrane

The primary membranes comprise of two trains Each train consists of two

sections AB and CD each section consists of a 30 tube membrane skid (A and

C) followed by a 25 tube skid (B and D) The conditioned gas (after pre-

treatment) enters the primary membrane via the particulate filter adjacent to the

skid The gas is fed to the membranes through a common inlet manifold which

supplies primary membranes skids A and C A pressure control loop located

upstream of the manual inlet isolation valve is provided to maintain a constant

supply pressure to the membrane skid and to allow for preheating at the inlet

prior to skid start-up This pressure control loop can also be used during start-up

to control the pressurization of the pretreatment skid and associated pipes to the

primary membranes

The gas passes through membrane skid A the residual gas exiting the membrane

skid is sent to skid B and the permeate to common permeate discharge header An

identical arrangement is provide on the inlet to skid C as provided on skid A Theresidual gas from skid B combines with the residual gas from skid D in a common

discharge header and is then sent to the H2S polishing towers via the feed coolers

on the pre-treatment skid The permeate from skid B is sent to the common

permeate discharge header The permeate discharge header sends the gas to

either the recycle compressor or the vent header via a pressure control loop

Overpressure protection for the membranes is provided by a pressure safety valve

on the supply header to the membrane banks

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Secondary (Recycle) Membrane

The recycle membranes comprise of a single train with two skids each with four

banks of membrane tubes The conditioned gas from the discharge of the recycle

pre-treatment skid is routed to the first recycle membrane skid The gas passes

through the membranes the residual gas is fed to primary membrane (skid A) inlet

via feed gas cooler and permeate to the common permeate discharge header An

identical arrangement is provide on the inlet to skid B Permeate from the recycle

membrane skids A and B is routed to the vent header Some portion of permeate is

heated and sent for regeneration in Mem-Guard units Nitrogen purge can be

connected downstream of the inlet isolation valve on each skid to enable the

membrane tubes to be purged and left pressurized during prolonged shutdown

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Figure Flow Diagram of Recycle membrane unit

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ADVANTAGES OF MEMBRANE SYSTEMS

Membrane systems have major advantages over more-traditional methods of

acid gas removal

Lower capital cost Membrane systems are skid mounted and so the

scope cost and time taken for site preparation are minimal Installation

costs are significantly lower than alternative technologies especially for

remote areas Furthermore no additional facilities for solvent storage and

water treatment needed by other processes are required

Lower operating costs The only major operating cost for single-stage

membrane systems is membrane replacement This cost is significantly

lower than the solvent replacement and energy costs associated with

traditional technologies The improvements in membrane and

pretreatment design allow a longer useful membrane life which further

reduces operating costs The energy costs of multistage systems with

large recycle compressors are usually comparable to those for traditionaltechnologies

Deferred capital investment Often contracted sales-gas flow rates

increase over time as more wells are brought on-line With traditional

technologies the system design needs to take this later production into

account immediately and so the majority of the equipment is installed

before it is even needed The modular nature of membrane systems

means that only the membranes that are needed at start-up need be

installed The rest can be added either into existing tubes or in new skids

only when they are required

Operational simplicity and high reliability Because single-stage

membrane systems have no moving parts they have almost no

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unscheduled downtime and are extremely simple to operate They can

operate unattended for long periods of time The addition of a recycle

compressor adds some complexity to the system but still much less than

with a solvent- or adsorbent-based technology Multistage systems can be

operated at full capacity as single-stage systems when the recycle

compressor is down

Good weight and space efficiency Skid construction can be optimized

to the space available This space efficiency is especially important for

offshore environments where deck area is at a premium and is the

reason why so many new offshore developments have chosen to use

membranes for acid gas removal Figure 6 illustrates the space efficiency

of membrane systems The membrane unit in the lower left corner

replaced all the amine and glycol plant equipment shown in the rest of the

picture

Adaptability Because membrane area is dictated by the percentage of

acid gas removal rather than absolute acid gas removal small variations

in feed acid gas content hardly change the sales-gas acid gas

specification For example a system designed for 10 down to 3 acid

gas removal produces a 35 product from a 12 feed gas and a 5

product from a 15 feed gas

Design efficiency The membrane and pretreatment systems integrate a

number of operations such as dehydration CO2 and H2S removal dew-

point control and mercury removal Traditional acid gas removal

technologies require all of these operations as separate processes and

may also require additional dehydration because some technologies

saturate the product stream with water

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Power generation The permeate gas from membrane systems can be

used to provide fuel gas for power generation either for a recycle

compressor or other equipment

Ideal for debottlenecking Because expanding solvent- or adsorbent-

based acid gas removal plants without adding additional trains is difficult

an ideal solution is to use membranes for bulk acid gas removal and leave

the existing plant for final cleanup An additional advantage is that the

permeate gas from the membrane system can often be used as fuel for

the existing plant thus avoiding significant increase in hydrocarbon

losses

Environmentally friendly Membrane systems do not involve the

periodic removal and handling of spent solvents or adsorbents Permeate

gases can be flared used as fuel or re-injected into the well Items thatdo need disposal such as spent membrane elements can be incinerated

Ideal for remote locations Many of the factors mentioned above make

membrane systems a highly desirable technology for remote locations

where spare parts are rare and labor unskilled Furthermore solvents

storage and trucking water supply power generation or extensive

infrastructure are not required

Re-injection optimizations Since the permeate stream from the

membrane system can be operated at elevated pressures it is possible to

further pressurize by re-injection compression train

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Sorption

Sorption is a physical and chemical process by which one substance becomes

attached to another

It is of two main types

1 Absorption

2 Adsorption

Absorption

Absorption is a physical or chemical phenomenon or process in which atoms

molecules or ions enter some bulk phase ndash gas liquid or solid material This is a

different process from adsorption since molecules undergoing absorption are

taken up by the volume not by the surface (as in the case for adsorption)

Absorption process may be chemical (reactive) or physical (non-reactive)

Physical absorption

Physical absorption or non-reactive absorption is made between two phases ofmatter a liquid absorbs a gas or a solid absorbs a liquid

When a liquid solvent absorbs a gas mixture or part of it a mass of gas moves

into the liquid For example water may absorb oxygen from the air This mass

transfer takes place at the interface between the liquid and the gas at a rate

depending on both the gas and the liquid This type of absorption depends on the

solubility of gases the pressure and the temperature The rate and amount of

absorption also depend on the surface area of the interface and its duration in

time

When a solid absorbs a liquid mixture or part of it a mass of liquid moves into the

solid For example a clay pot used to store water may absorb some of the water

This mass transfer takes place at the interface between the solid and the liquid

at a rate depending on both the solid and the liquid

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Chemical absorption

Chemical absorption or reactive absorption is a chemical reaction between the

absorbed and the absorbing substances Sometimes it combines with physical

absorption This type of absorption depends upon the stoichiometry of the

reaction and the concentration of its reactants

Adsorption

Adsorption is the adhesion of atoms ions or molecules from a gas liquid or

dissolved solid to a surface This process creates a film of the adsorbate on the

surface of the adsorbent The binding to the surface is usually weak and

reversible Compounds with color and those that have taste or odor tend to bind

strongly Compounds that vibrate at frequencies in the visible spectrum are very

often are strongly adsorbed on activated carbon

The most common industrial adsorbents are activated carbon silica gel and

alumina because they present enormous surface areas per unit weight

Depending on the nature of attractive forces existing between the adsorbate and

adsorbent adsorption can be classified as

i) Physical adsorption

ii) Chemical adsorption

i) Physical adsorption (Physisorption)

In physical adsorption the forces of attraction between the molecules of the

adsorbate and the adsorbent are of the weak van der Waals type Since the

forces of attraction are weak the process of physisorption can be easily reversed

by heating or decreasing the pressure of the adsorbate (as in the case of gases)

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ii) Chemical adsorption (Chemisorption)

In chemisorption the forces of attraction between the adsorbate and the

adsorbent are very strong the molecules of adsorbate form chemical bonds with

the molecules of the adsorbent present in the surface

Adsorption is generally accompanied by release of energy that is most

adsorption processes are exothermic in nature Adsorption is a spontaneous

process therefore its free energy change is negative (∆Glt0) However the

entropy change associated with adsorption is generally negative because the

adsorbate molecules lose their translation freedom when they get attached to the

surface of the adsorbent Therefore in order for ∆G to be negative the enthalpy

change (∆H) must be sufficiently negative such that (∆G=∆H-T∆S) lt 0 This

explanation accounts for exothermic adsorption processes In cases where

endothermic adsorption occurs the entropy change ∆S is sufficiently positive

such that ∆G remains negative

Pre treatment

The main function of pretreatment skid is to provide membrane inlet specification

gas as mentioned by the vendor UOP It removes the contaminants that would

poison the membranes like dust solids (adsorbent particles) lube oil heavy

hydrocarbons etc It consists of

Feed Cooler

Feed Gas Scrubber

Filter Coalescer

Feed Gas Heater

Activated Carbon Guard Filter

Particle Filter

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The regeneration is carried out by heated permeate gas from the recycle

membranes at 450oF The vessel is depressurized to 20 psi and heated gas is

introduced from top The gas carries out the adsorbed contaminants and leaves

the vessel from bottom cleaning the adsorbent This contaminated gas is burnt in

the flare

UOP the vendor of Memguard unit has never disclosed that what substance

MG3 and MG5 exactly are But as mentioned by vendor that both care class of

aluminosilicates Therefore MG3 can be potassium aluminosilicate and MG5 can

be Calcium aluminosilicate These are molecular sieves adsorbents Molecular

sieves are a microporous material which can selectively adsorb gases andliquids They are synthetic zeolites (crystalline metal aluminosilicates) which

upon dehydration can efficiently and selectively remove water or other

solvents The selectivity of a molecular sieve is determined by its pore size

molecules with a critical diameter which is less than the pore size will be

efficiently adsorbed while larger molecules will be excluded

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3A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

The 3A molecular sieve adsorbent has a 3 angstrom (3A) pore size which means

that any molecule that is larger than the 3 angstrom pores will not be adsorbed

The 3A molecular sieve is the potassium type of A crystalline structure and is a

form of alkali Aluminosilicate For a 3A molecular sieve the sequence rate that

adsorption occurs is He Ne N and H2O

Due to the crystalline structure molecular sieves that have a 3 angstrom pore

size have a very high rate of adsorption and properties that promote a longer life

for products treated by the sieve The most common use for the 3A molecular

sieve is to remove water and moisture from materials that are in gas and liquid

form

5A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

These are molecular sieve adsorbents with a pore size of 5 angstrom (5A) 5A

molecular sieves are unable to adsorb any molecules or impurities that are

smaller than 5A It is calcium form of type A crystalline structure and is form of analkali-aluminosilicate that is most commonly used to separate isomerous alkanes

from normal alkanes and to co-adsorb moisture and water along with carbon

dioxide from gases In additional 5A molecular sieves are used for gaseous

pressure swing adsorption (PSA)mdashthat is to separate particular gases from other

gases

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of C3H8 to C22H46

Adsorption of Freon-12 (dichlorodifluoromethane)

Natural gas drying

Normal- and iso-paraffin separation

Separation of aromatic

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Inlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1096

MEHTANE 8593

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008

N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGEN 076

WATER 007

Outlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1098

MEHTANE 8608

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGENT 076

WATER 000

H2S polisher

The H2S polishing unit has been designed to treat 187 MMscfday of natural gas

containing up to 11 CO2 and 21 ppm H2S where the level of the CO2 and H2S

is reduced using a MemGuard Membrane separation unit The unit is situated

down-stream of the membrane unit and will further reduce the level of H2S in the

processed gas to a sales gas specification of 38 ppm

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This process uses three non-regenerable fixed bed absorber vessels using a low

temperature high activity absorbent The absorbent is a mixture of activated

metal oxides (mainly zinc oxide) The three towers can are generally operated in

parallel arrangement but on demand can be used in series (any of alternate

arrangements of A B C vessels) as shown in figure

The higher sales gas flow rate increased the catalyst consumption and

replacement frequency

ZnO + H2S =gt ZnS + H20

Routine samples are taken from the beds to provide a check on each bed

performance and to follow the saturation profile during the absorbent life After

the adsorbent has been fully utilized the adsorption vessels are recharged with

new adsorbent discarding the utilized one in a safe manner

109oF

1215 psig

Before H2S Polishing After H2S Polishing

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Figure

H2S Tower

Inlet pipe

4 Drums of 19mm

ceramic Balls

6 Micron mesh

5 Drums of 50mmceramic

1 Drums of19mm ceramic

01 Drums of6mm ceramic

112 drums of

Catalist ZnO

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Recycle Compressor

The permeate gas of the primary membrane unit carries recoverable amount of

CH4 It is fed to recycle membrane unit for further CH 4 recovery But the

permeate pressure from primary membranes which has been reduced to 12 psi

must be regenerated to 1200 psi for the gas to be fed again to the system For

this purpose we have employed recycle compressor The compressor is a four

stage centrifugal compressor It is driven by gas turbine of 31200 HP It has 25

MW producing capacity

Figure Recycle Compressor Process Flow Diagram

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Sales Gas Compressor

Gas from H2S polishing unit is sent to sales gas compressor where its pressure

is enhanced to 1100 psi so it may be injected to SNGPL high pressure trunk line

Sales gas compressor is single stage gas turbine driven

Figure Process Flow of Sales Gas Compressor

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Cooling Towers

A cooling tower is a heat rejection device which extracts waste heat to theatmosphere through the cooling of a water stream to a lower temperature Hot

water from the system enters the cooling tower and is distributed over the fill

(heat transfer surface) Air is induced or forced through the fill causing a small

portion of the water to evaporate This evaporation removes heat from the

remaining water which is collected in the cold water basin and returned to the

system to absorb more heat Each cooling tower line although operating under

the same basic principle of operation is arranged a little differently

Types

Natural draft mdash Utilizes buoyancy via a tall chimney Warm moist air naturally

rises due to the density differential compared to the dry cooler outside air Warm

moist air is less dense than drier air at the same pressure This moist air

buoyancy produces an upwards current of air through the tower

Mechanical draft mdash Uses power-driven fan motors to force or draw airthrough the tower

o Induced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a fan at the

discharge (at the top) which pulls air up through the tower The fan

induces hot moist air out the discharge This produces low entering

and high exiting air velocities reducing the possibility of

recirculation in which discharged air flows back into the air intake

o Forced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a blower type fan at

the intake The fan forces air into the tower creating high entering

and low exiting air velocities The low exiting velocity is much more

susceptible to recirculation This fanfill geometry is also known as

blow-through

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Forced Draft Cooling Tower Vs Induced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower have the ability to handle large water flow

rate than Forced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower is suitable for large cell sizes and fan sizes

as compared with Forced Draft Larger fan size may result in greater

efficiency and consequently lower power and sound level

Forced Draft Cooling Tower can be square or rectangular type only

however Induced Draft Cooling Towers can be round square or

rectangular type

Induced Draft Cooling Tower uses more compact ground area than Forced

Draft Cooling Tower equivalent capacity due to absence of fan on one

side

Fan equipment is warm exhaust air is less liable to icing up in winter

operation (Cold Countries)

Higher velocity in Forced Draft Cooling Tower cause drop in suspension

and cause additional static resistance to system

Configuration

There are two main configurations of factory assembled cooling towers crossflow

and counterflow In crossflow cooling towers the water flows vertically down the

fill as air flows horizontally across In counterflow cooling towers the water flows

vertically down the fill as air flows vertically up

Crossflow Configuration Counterflow Configuration

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Drift mdash Water droplets that are carried out of the cooling tower with the exhaust

air Drift droplets have the same concentration of impurities as the water entering

the tower The drift rate is typically reduced by employing baffle-like devices

called drift eliminators through which the air must travel after leaving the fill and

spray zones of the tower

Blow-out mdash Water droplets blown out of the cooling tower by wind generally at

the air inlet openings Water may also be lost in the absence of wind through

splashing or misting Devices such as wind screens louvers splash deflectors

and water diverters are used to limit these losses

Blow-down mdash The portion of the circulating water flow that is removed (usually

discharged to a drain) in order to maintain the amount of Total Dissolved Solids

(TDS) and other impurities at an acceptably low level Higher TDS concentration

in solution may result from greater cooling tower efficiency However the higher

the TDS concentration the greater the risk of scale biological growth and

corrosion

Make-up mdash The water that must be added to the circulating water system in

order to compensate for water losses such as evaporation drift loss blow-out

blow-down etc

Approach mdash The approach is the difference in temperature between the cooled-

water temperature and the entering-air wet bulb temperature

Range mdash The range is the temperature difference between the warm water inlet

and cooled water exit

Fill mdash Inside the tower fills are added to increase contact surface as well as

contact time between air and water to provide better heat transfer The efficiency

of the tower depends on the selection and amount of fill

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There are two types of fills that may be used

o Film type fill (causes water to spread into a thin film)

o Splash type fill (breaks up falling stream of water and interrupts its

vertical progress)

Important

Scale build up is controlled by adding chemicals to the cooling loop and diluting

the concentration by blow down and make-up Following chemicals are added to

the Cooling to control CorrosionSale and microbial growth

Corrosion Inhibitor To control corrosion in the Cooling system

Dispersant To kept ions in suspension to avoid settle down and buildup

Sodium hypo Chlorite To Control microbial Growth

Acid To control Alkalinity in the system

High Stress Polymer To run the system at higher conductivity It is a

multifunctional polymer for Zinc amp Phosphate stabilization in cooling tower

Fin Fan Cooler

Fin fan heat exchanger is simply a pressure vessel which cools a circulating fluid

within finned tubes by forcing ambient air over the exterior of the tubes A

common example of an air cooler is a carrsquos radiator Fin Fan Coolers are used in

any application where large quantities of heat need to be transferred This

includes chemical and petrochemical industries power stations waste-to-energy

facilities as well as steelworks

Fin Fan Cooler are used for two primary reasons

They increase plant efficiency

They are a green solution as compared to cooling towers and shell and

tube heat exchangers because they do not require an auxiliary water

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supply (water lost due to drift and evaporation plus no water treatment

chemicals are required)

Figure General Overview of Fin Fan Cooler

Produced Water

The produced water system receives liquid from the equipment Miano slug

catcher train 1 and 2 inlet separators and is fed to three phase separator where

water oil and gas is separated The gases produced are burnt in incinerator

whereas hydrocarbon liquid is stored to be sold Liquid from compressors

recycle inlet separator recycle feed scrubber high and low pressure slug

catchers is passed to degasser Separated water is injected down the earth

Incinerator

The term incinerate means to burn something until nothing is left but ashes An

incinerator is a unit or facility used to burn trash and other types of waste until it is

reduced to ash An incinerator is constructed of heavy well-insulated materials

so that it does not give off extreme amounts of external heat The high levels of

heat are kept inside the furnace or unit so that the waste is burned quickly and

efficiently If the heat were allowed to escape the waste would not burn as

completely or as rapidly

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Control System

The plant is controlled at CCR (Central Control Room) by PLCs (Programmable

Logic Controllers) through fiber optic control line All control parameters are

received at LER (Local Equipment Room) via two optic fiber control lines One

being primary and other secondary operating in redundancy ie if primary fails

control shifts to secondary These control parameters are sent to CCR via single

optic fiber cable

Safety System

Wellheads and Gas Processing Plant have their own Fire amp Gas detection

systems emergency shutdown (ESD) Plant has a fault tolerant controller It is

based on Triple Modular Redundant (TMR) architecture manufactured by

Triconex The TMR system is based on three isolated parallel control systems

integrated into one system The system operates on a two out of three voting

principle which provides high integrity error free uninterrupted operation with no

single point of failure The TMR receives inputs from Process Sensors Manual

Switches Fire amp Gas Detectors Packaged Equipment Control Systems and

Product Exporting Facilities The TMR carries out cause and effect processing on

the data received and where necessary produces output signals Outputs from

the TMR are hard wired directly to ESD shutdown and blow down valve

solenoids motor control instrumentelectrical interfaces to control electrical

drives package equipment logic control systems manifold area as well as

telecoms

The operator in central control room is able to accept alarms and once the fault

has been cleared reset the input All the control systems are centralized to a

single interface All the PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers) communicate with

the servers and servers communicate with the clients through Ethernet connectivity

Centralization eases the navigation of different systems at a common interface

Emergency Shutdown

The ESD system receives inputs from field mounted instrumentation on the process

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and utility equipment and initiates executive actions appropriate to the level of ESD

The system is an Active system which is in standby and will activate when in an

alarm or fault condition The Kadanwari Gas Process Facility ESD system is

comprised of five (5) levels The emergency severity decreases with increasing ESD

level number

ESD 1

This shutdown level is automatically initiated by fire major gas leak or a detected

toxic atmosphere in the process area of the plant or manually from CCR A level 1

shutdown will cause all production to cease close all emergency shutdown

valves stop the process and shutdown of the main power generation The

emergency vent valves to the stack will open and in addition all equipment of zone 1

certified will be isolated This is the highest level of ESD and will cause the following

to occur

All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close All slowdown Valves (BDVs) on the process facility will open

All Main Gas Driven Generators will be tripped

Emergency Diesel Generator will start

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close Upper Master Valve

(UMV) Close

ESD 2

This shutdown level is activated automatically if a major process or utility failure

occurs or manually from CCR All production to the plant from the wellhead is

stopped All emergency shutdown valves trip to their fail safe position

Venting shall be as specified This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

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All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valve Close Wing Valves Close and Upper Master Valve(UMV) Close

ESD 3

The level 3 shutdown isolates and stops a single process train only Production

continues via the other train This ESD level is initiated by process conditions or

operator at local panel This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

ESD 3A Train 1 production to cease

ESD 3B Train 2 production to cease

All online wellhead choke valves go to minimum flow ie (1O )

ESD 4

A level 4 shutdown shall cease all production from an entire field either

Kadanwari or Miano upstream of the associated slug catchers ESD 4K for

Kadanwari amp ESD 4M for Miano This ESD level is initiated automatically by slug

catcher abnormal process conditions This level of ESD will cause the following

to occur

All SDVs close isolating the relevant slug catcher and its upstream gas

production facility from the Kadanwari Gas Processing Plant

All Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close and Upper MasterValves (UMV) of the relevant gas production facility Close

A parallel timer is provided to close within 10 second if not closed in given

time SSSV seals the well

ESD 5

A level 5 shutdown represents equipment shutdown for the protection of the

individual equipment without any change in the process This level of ESD is for the

protection of various pieces of equipment and is initiated by its own inputs eg

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

Introduction to OMV 1

Scope of Plant 2

Process description 3

Wellhead and Christmas Tree 6

Types of Christmas Tree 10

Well Head Control Panel 12

Chemical Injection 13

Water Conning 14

Corrosion and Protection 15

Pigs and Pigging operations 17

Compressors 18

Front End Compressor (Reciprocating) 19

Centrifugal Compressors 23

Separators 24

Membranes 29

Working principle of Membranes 31

Advantages of Membrane System 36

Sorption 39

Absorption 39

Adsorption 40

Pre-treatment 41

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Memguard 42

H2S Polisher 46

Recycle Compressor 48

Sales Gas Compressor 49

Cooling Towers 50

Fin Fan Coolers 53

Produced Water 54

Incinerator 54

Control System 55

Safety System 55

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Introduction to OMV

OMV is Austriarsquos lar gest listed industrial company As the leading oil and gas

group in Central Europe OMV is active in Refining and Marketing (RampM) in 13

countries and in Exploration and Production (EampP) OMV is active in 18 countries

on five continents In Pakistan OMV has been active as an operator and partner

since 1990 In the years to date OMV (Pakistan) has established itself as the

largest international gas producer in Pakistan with an operated volume of more

than 110000 barrels of oil equivalent per day from Kadanwari-Miano and Sawan

fields This represents about 16 of the total gas produced in Pakistan The firstsignificant achievement was the discovery of the Miano gas reservoir in the Thar

Desert of Sindh province It came about by the end of 1993 just three years after

OMV came to Pakistan The second major breakthrough came five years later ie

in 1998 from the field named Sawan again in the same area of Sindh Sawan

was and still is one of the largest discoveries of gas reserves in Pakistan In a

record nineteen months from the ground-breaking ceremony in January 2002 of

the Sawan Gas Plant OMV was able to sell its raw gas by July 2003 Parallel to

the Sawan development OMV also took over the operator-ship of the Kadanwari

Gas Processing Plant on 1st January 2003 from Lasmo currently ENI OMV

remained quite aggressive on new developments and Kadanwari plant gas

processing capacity was enhanced to 232 MMscfd while Sawan plant capacity

has been enhanced to 400 MMscfd To further meet raw gas requirements

development drilling was continued successfully for both fields Besides these

activities carried out in OMV Pakistanrsquos core area OMV is pursuing new projects

in other parts of Pakistan Health Safety and Environmental standards are

parallel to the highest international level and second to none in the local

perspective OMV has strong commitment to reduce emissions to the

environment To achieve the same an ldquoEmission Reductionrdquo project has been

initiated for Kadanwari Plant

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Scope of Plant

Carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide which fall into the category of acid gasesare commonly found in natural gas streams at levels as high as 80 In

combination with water they are highly corrosive and can rapidly destroy

pipelines and equipment unless they are partially removed or exotic and

expensive materials of construction are used Hydrogen sulfide is toxic and at

relatively modest levels can be life threatening Carbon dioxide also reduces the

heating value of a natural gas stream and wastes pipeline capacity In LNG

plants CO2 must be removed to prevent freezing in the low-temperature chillers

Therefore the composition of gas is adjusted as per limits prescribed by SNGPL

(Sui Southern Gas Pakistan Limited) and is sold to the government The gas is

injected to the SNGPL main facility at a pressure of 1100 psi

The sales gas specifications are as follows

CO2 Maximum = 3

H2S Maximum = 38 ppm

CV Minimum = 920 BtuscfWater = 7lbMMscf

OMV Kadanwai facility sale gas composition

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OMV Kadanwai facility feed gas composition

Process Description

Gas from Kadanwari High pressure wells is routed to Kadanwari High Pressure

slug catcher Gas from Kadanwari low pressure wells is routed to Kadanwari low

pressure slug catcher and is fed to 2 stage Front End Compressor (FEC) to

increase the pressure up to production pressure Gas from FEC is fed to high

pressure stream flowing into Kadanwari High Pressure slug catcher The gas

from Miano wells is fed to Miano Slug Catcher

Kadanwari and Miano gas streams after separately metered are fed to a common

header which splits into two identical skids A and B Here we will discuss one

skid in common Each skid is routed to fin fan coolers where it is cooled and fed

to Inlet separator where water and heavy hydrocarbons are removed from feed

gas The condensate from all units is sent to produce water system

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The gas then passes through pretreatment skid which consists of following units

Feed Cooler

Feed Gas Scrubber

Filter Coalescer

Feed Gas Heater

Activated Carbon Guard Filter

Particle Filter

Its main function is to remove contaminants from gas such as dust lube oils

heavy hydrocarbons etc which may poison or reduce efficiency of membrane

unit

After pretreatment gas is fed to Molecular Sieve Absorbers (Memguard Units)

which ensures gas supplied to membranes is up to membrane standards of UOP

(vendor of membrane system) It removes all moisture and heavy hydrocarbons

from gas stream

Pretreated gas is now fed to the primary membranes The permeate stream (rich

in CO2) is sent to recycle membranes after passing through recycle compressor

and recycle pretreatment The permeate stream of recycle membranes is used as

regenerative medium for Memguard units and rest is sent to incinerator and

burnt The residual gas (rich in CH4) from primary membrane and recycle

membranes (all skids) is sent to H2S polishers via a common header

H2S polisher unit reduce the hydrogen sulfide level to the sales limit The gas is

now metered after compressing in sales gas compressor and is sent to SNGPL

trunk line after metering

Water is remove from condensate at produced water system by a three phase

separator The condensate is sold to refinery Major quantity is exported to

various industries

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Figure Overall plant Process Flow Diagram

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Wellhead

A wellhead is the component at the surface of an oil or gas well that provides the

structural and pressure-containing interface for the drilling and production

equipment Its function is to maintain surface control of the well It forms a seal to

prevent well fluids from leaking or blowing at the surface They are rated for

working pressure of 2000 psi to 15000 psi (or greater)

When the well has been drilled and it is ready to provide an interface with the

reservoir rock and a tubular channel for the well fluids The surface pressure

control is provided by a Christmas tree which is installed on top of the wellhead

with valves and choke equipment to control the flow of well fluids during

production

Christmas tree

A Christmas tree is an assembly of valves spools and fittings used for an oil

well gas well water injection well gas injection well condensate well and other

types of wells

The primary function of a tree is to control the flow usually oil or gas out of the

well When the well and facilities are ready to produce and receive oil or gas tree

valves are opened and the formation fluids are allowed to go through a flow line

This leads to a processing facility A tree often provides numerous additional

functions including chemical injection points well intervention means pressure

relief means monitoring points (such as pressure temperature corrosion

erosion sand detection flow rate flow composition valve and choke position

feedback) and connection points for devices such as down hole pressure andtemperature transducers (DHPT) On producing wells chemicals or alcohols or

oil distillates may be injected to preclude production problems (such as

blockages)

The control system attached to the tree controls the down-hole safety valve

(SCSSV) while the tree acts as an attachment and means of the control system

to the down-hole safety valve

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Figure 1

Well Head and Christmas Tree

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Master Valves

The two lower valves are called the master valves Master valves are normally in

the fully open position and are never opened or closed when the well is flowing

(except in an emergency) to prevent erosion of the valve sealing surfaces They

are gate type valves

1 Lower Master Valve (LMV)

2 Upper Master Valve (UMV)

The lower master valve will normally be manually operated while the upper

master valve is often hydraulically actuated allowing it to be used as a means of

remotely shutting in the well in the event of emergency

Wing Valve

A wing valve is normally used to shut in the well when flowing thus preserving

the master valves for positive shut off for maintenance purposes The wing

valve can be a gate valve or ball valve Hydraulic operated wing valves are

usually built to be fail safe closed meaning they require active hydraulic pressure

to stay open This feature means that if control fluid fails the well will

automatically shut itself in without operator action

In Kadanwari well sites there is only one manually operated wing valve On the

other hand at Miano well sites there are two wing valves one being operated

manually and other hydraulically

Production Wing Valve

The right hand valve is often called the flow wing valve or the production wing

valve because it provides flow path for hydrocarbons to production facility

Kill wing valve

The left hand valve is often called the kill wing valve It is primarily used for

injection of fluids such as corrosion inhibitors or methanol to prevent hydrate

formation It is typically manually operated It can kill the well temporarily be

injection brine solution which provides a pressure head to well and temporarily

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suspends it for maintenance of well head Also it is used to permanently kill the

well A chemical is injected down the well that seals the piping down the well and

kills the well permanently

Swab valve

The swab valve is used to gain access to the well for wire line operations

intervention and other work over procedure On top of it is a tree adapter

and cap that will mate with various equipment For such operations a

lubricator is assembled up onto the top of the tree and the wire or coil is lowered

through the lubricator through swab valve and into the well This valve is typically

manually operated

Choke

A choke holds back pressure by restricting the flow opening at the well head This

is done to make better use of the gas for natural gas lift and to control the bottom-

hole pressure for recovery reasons

CHECK VALVE

The check is introduced in production flow line to prevent any reverse flow from

the line into the well It has a hinged flap which lifts to permit normal flow but

closes to prevent reverse flow

TOP ADAPTOR

The top adaptor is a fitting on top of the swab valve with a threaded connection

During normal well operations a pressure gauge is fitted to monitor flowing and

shut in wellhead pressures However during well service operations the cap can

be removed to allow installation of lubricators for wire-line operations

SCSSSV (Surface Control Sub Surface Safety Valve)

A subsurface safety valve is essentially a shutdown valve installed at the upper

wellbore for emergency shutdown to protect the production tubing and wellhead

in case of overpressure Subsurface safety valves can offer a barrier against flow

in the event of a wellhead collapse or other disastrous event Purpose of asubsurface safety valve (SSSV) is to avoid the ultimate disaster which can result

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in release of reservoir fluids to the surroundings This makes SSSV a very

important component of a well completion

A subsurface safety valve is typically a uni-directional flapper valve directed in

such a way that the flappers open downwards when pressure is applied from an

upward direction The flapper can only open in the downward direction So even if

high pressure is applied by the well fluids from a

downward direction a safety valve can remain

closed This makes a subsurface safety valve fail-

safe To open the valve hydraulic signal is sent from

the surface well control panel This hydraulic

pressure is responsible for keeping the flappers of

SSSV open and loss of hydraulic pressure result in

closing of the valve Thus wellbore can be isolated in

case of system failure or damage to the surface

facilities

Types of Christmas tree

There are two types of Christmas Tree

1 Solid block

2 Conventional

The solid block Christmas Tree has a central solid unit holding several valves

in a pre-constructed block Their advantage is the reduction in potential leak

paths and their higher pressure rating (Fig 2)

The conventional Christmas Tree is built up from individual valves bolted

together to form an assembly (Fig 3)

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Figure 2

Figure 3

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Wellhead Control Panel

Wellhead control panel is key equipment in oil amp gas industry to protect oilfield

facilities and environment from emergency incidents such as wellhead fire which

is one of main control systems to ensure oilfield oil production and transportation

to be safely operation according to international standards and national

regulation Wellhead control panel is composed of hydraulic power unit tubing amp

fitting and instrument valve and electrical control devices Hydraulic power unit

supply hydraulic resource to open and close safety valves including master

valves wing valves and SCSSSV

Its performs

Local OnOff SSV

Remote control SSV through RTU( remote terminal unit)

High-Low pressure sense shut-down automatically

Fusible Plug Anti-fire Shut-down automatically

Function of showing system pressure

Relief Valve shall be installed on each hydraulic circuit to prevent high

pressure

Function of showing hydraulic level and level switch for alarm

Function of defending pressure impact of system

Function of system pressure monitoring (by pressure transmitter of control

panel)

Function of remote emergency shut-down (by magnetic valve of control

panel)

Function of OnOff SSV monitoring (by pressure switch of control loop of

control panel)

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Chemical Injection

Chemical injection systems are commonly used in production facilities to prevent

or eliminate a wide range of problems that might negatively affect the production

flow It is done for flow assurance protection of process equipment such as

pipelines or to optimize processes in production facilities

Typical flow assurance chemicals are

Wax inhibitors

Pour point depressants

Asphaltene inhibitors

Corrosion inhibitors

A corrosion inhibitor is a chemical compound that is added to liquid or gas to

decreases the corrosion rate of a material typically a metal or an alloy The

effectiveness of a corrosion inhibitor depends on fluid composition quantity of

water and flow regime Its common mechanism involves formation of a coating

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which prevents access of the corrosive substance to the metal The corrosive

agents are generally oxygen hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide

At our production site the major risk is corrosion of piping and equipment The

maximum allowable corrosion rate is approximately 02 mm per year and

corrosion rate without inhibitor could be approximately 11 mm per year so the

corrosion protection program is designed to achieve a target corrosion rate of

less than 01 mm per year which is achieved by an inhibitor system efficiency of

99 Inhibitor is injected into the well stream flow through an atomizing nozzle

located downstream of the respective wellhead coolers at the duplexcarbon steel

interface In normal operation as per NALCO standards chemical (brand name

EC1144B) at rate of frac12 Liter per MMSCFD of gas is being injected into the flow

line of miano15 flow lines made of carbon steel Moreover the composition can

vary depending upon the composition of well fluids and material of pipeline This

method of injection ensures even distribution of the chemical on the interior

surface of the pipeline The individual well sites are equipped with Chemical

Injection Packages comprising of a stainless steel storage tank and two

pneumatic motor driven pumps in parallel Instrument gas is used to drive the

pumps Normally one pump is running with the other standby

Water Conning

Water coning is a term used to describe the mechanism underlying the upward

movement of water into the perforations of a producing well Coning can seriously

impact the well productivity and influence the degree of depletion and the overall

recovery efficiency of the reservoir The specific problems of water coning are

listed below

Costly added water handling

Gas production from the original or secondary gas cap reduces pressure

Reduced efficiency of the depletion mechanism

The water is often corrosive and its disposal costly

The affected well may be abandoned early

Loss of the total field overall recovery

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Therefore conning has an important influence on operations recovery and

economics The phenomena is shown in picture below

Corrosion

Corrosion is referred as chemical deterioration of a metal Commonly this

means loss of electrons of metals reacting with water and oxygen

Weakening of iron due to oxidation of the iron atoms is a well-known

example of electrochemical corrosion This is commonly known as

rust Most structural alloys corrode merely from exposure to moisture

in the air but the process can be strongly affected by exposure to

certain substances Corrosion can be concentrated locally to form a pit

or crack or it can extend across a wide area to produce general

deterioration (uniform corrosion)

The following reaction takes place at the active sites

2Fe =gt 2Fe++ + 4e-

The free electrons travel through the metal path to the less active sites where

the following reaction takes place

O2 + 4e- + 2H20 =gt 4 OH-

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Recombination of these ions at the active surface produce the following

reaction which yields the iron-corrosion product ferrous hydroxide

2Fe + O2 + 2H2O =gt 2Fe (OH) 2

CORROSION PROTECTION SYSTEM

Coatings and painting

Painting and the application of enamel bitumen and PVC

coating are the most common anti-corrosion treatments They

work by providing a barrier of corrosion-resistant material

between the damaging environment and the structural material

Corrosion Inhibitors

Corrosion inhibitor is injected into the flow lines as mentioned in

detail on page 8

Cathodic Protection

Cathodic Protection (CP) is a technique used to control the corrosion of a

metal surface by making it the cathode of an electrochemical cell It

converts all of the anodic (active) sites on the metal surface to cathodic

(passive) sites by supplying electrical current (or free electrons) from an

alternate source It is accomplished in two ways

a) A simple method of protection connects protected metal to a more easily

corroded sacrificial metal to act as the anode The sacrificial metal then

corrodes instead of the protected metal The process is similar to a simple

DC cell in which the more active metal becomes the anode and corrodes

whereas the less active metal becomes the cathode and is protected

b) For larger structures galvanic anodes cannot economically deliver enough

current to provide protection Therefore impressed current cathodic

protection (ICCP) systems are used These consist of anodes connected

to a DC power source In remote areas power sources such as solar

panels may be used The output DC negative terminal is connected to the

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frequently to limit liquid holdup and minimize the slug volumes of liquid which can

be generated by the system

Coating

Pigs may be used to apply internal pipe coatings such as epoxy coating

materials in operating pipelines Pigs may also be used with corrosion inhibitors

to distribute and coat the entire internal wetted perimeter

Inspection

Pigs are being used more frequently as inspection tools Gauging or sizing pigs

are typically run following the completion of new construction or line repair to

determine if there are any internal obstacles bends or buckles in the pipe Pigs

can also be equipped with cameras to allow viewing of the pipe internals

Electronic intelligent or smart ldquopigsrdquo that use magnetic and ultrasonic systems

have been developed and refined that locate and measure internal and external

corrosion pitting dents buckles and any other anomalies in the pipe wall

Intelligent pigs

The accuracy of location and measurement of anomalies by the intelligent pigs

has continued to improve Initially the electronics and power systems were so

large that intelligent pigs could be used only in lines 30 in and greater in size

The continued sophistication and miniaturization of the electronic systems used

in the intelligent pigs has allowed the development of smaller pigs that can be

used in small-diameter pipelines Newly enacted DOT pipeline-integrity

regulations and rules acknowledge the effectiveness of the intelligent pigs and

incorporate their use in the pipeline-integrity testing process

Compressors

A gas compressor is a mechanical device that increases the pressure of a gas by

reducing its volume Gas pressure is increased by forcing gas molecules together

to reduce gas volume When volume is reduced gas pressure increases

All gases have large spaces among their molecules These spaces could be

enhanced further and decreased by doing some work Work done which is used

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for the enhancement of these spaces is called expansion and work done to

minimize these spaces is called compression All gases while expansion

produces cooling effect and while compression of gases raises there

temperature Compression is a term used to force gases to occupy smaller

volumes by increasing their pressure Volume of gases is interlinked with

temperature and pressure of the gas which is cleared by 2 laws govern gas

compressions

Boyles Law

Charles Law

The main types of compressor are listed below

Front End Compressor

The plant currently processes gas from a number of wells The flow and pressure

from some of these wells (currently K-10 K-11 amp K-12) has declined and they

cannot be fed directly into the Central Processing Facility To recover the

maximum gas reserves from these wells a Front End Compressor is employed

The compressor is a two stage double acting gas engine driven reciprocating

(PT) compressor Double acting means that gas is compressed on each end of

the piston It normal operates with a speed range of 600 to 900 RPM and isequipped with four compressor cylinders two for each stage Each cylinder is

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also equipped with a variable volume head end pocket

In case of compressor emergency shutdown the production chokes and the

Upper Master Valves on the on line wells will close and operator will be notified in

central control room Sweet gas from gas distribution network is used to operate the

gas engine driver of the compressor package The detailed scheme of working is

shown in figure (page 22 )

PT Reciprocating Compressor

The mechanical cycle of piston tube reciprocating compressor comprises four

strokes the expansion stroke the intake stroke the compression stroke and the

discharge stroke

Expansion Stroke

As the piston moves back on the expansion stroke the chamber volume

increases and the pressure drop As the pressure drops the discharge valve

closes since there is greater pressure in the discharge line than in the chamber

Intake Stroke

As the piston moves back during the intake stroke the pressure decreases until it

is less than the pressure in the inlet line This higher intake pressure opens the

inlet valve and gas rushes into the cylinder equalizing the pressure there with

the intake pressure The compression chamber is now at or near the intake

pressure

Compression Stroke

The piston now starts the compression stroke by moving forward decreasing the

chamber volume and increasing the pressure The increased pressure is now

higher than the intake pressure causing the intake valve to close

Discharge Stroke

The piston continues to move to the left during the discharge stroke This creates

an increase in chamber pressure until it is greater than the discharge pressure

When this happens the Discharge valve opens and the compressed air from the

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cylinder goes into the discharge line The compression cycle is then repeated

from the stage

Compressor Capacity

The capacity of the compressor depends upon cylinder displacement That

displacement is simply the volume that the piston displaces (moves) as it travels

from one end of the cylinder to the other Capacity and displacement is equal to

the cross-sectional area of the cylinder times the length of the stroke

Lubrication and Cooling

Lubricating oil is circulated through the system by a gear pump which is chain

driven from the engine crank shaft The oil pump is mounted on the engine front

housing

The pump operates between 30 - 40 psig

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A circulating pump deliver cooling water to the water jackets in the cylinder block

flowing around the cylinder liners and is directed into the cylinder heads Each

cylinder head has water cooled exhaust elbows which outlet the water into the

water cooled exhausts From the end of engine the water flows to compressor

1st and 2nd stage cylinders and compressor lube oil cooler (LOwater heat

exchanger) The water from the compressor cylinder and lube oil cooler returns

to engine water cooled exhaust

Figure Flow diagram of Front End Compressor

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Centrifugal Compressor

Centrifugal compressors are machines in which velocity and pressure given to air

or gas in a radial direction by one or more impellers diffuser combination In a

centrifugal compressor the mechanical energy is increased by centrifugal action

The gas enters the suction eye of a high speed rotary element called the impeller

which carries radial vanes integrally cast in it As the impeller rotates the blades

of the impeller force the gas outward from the center the impeller to the outer rim

of impeller the increase in velocity of the gas creates a flow pressure area at the

eye of the impeller The gas at the outer rim of the impeller is forced in to a

passage way called a diffuser where the velocity decreases in the pressure of the

gas

Inlet

The inlet to a centrifugal compressor is typically a simple pipe It may include

features such as a valve and both pressure and temperature instrumentation

Centrifugal impeller

The key component that makes a compressor centrifugal is the centrifugal

impeller shown above It is the impellers rotating set of vanes (or blades) that

gradually raises the energy of the working gas This is identical to an axial

compressor with the exception that the gases can reach higher velocities and

energy levels through the impellers increasing radius

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Diffuser

The next key component to the simple centrifugal compressor is the diffuser

Downstream of the impeller in the flow path it is the diffusers responsibility to

convert the kinetic energy (high velocity) of the gas into pressure by gradually

slowing (diffusing) the gas velocity

SEPERATORS

A well-stream is a mixture of gases hydrocarbon liquids water solids and

contaminants Due to variations in pressure and temperature gases evolve from

the liquids water vapor condenses and some of the well-stream changes to liquid

and free gas The separation of well-stream fluids takes place in a separator This

pressure vessel is manufactured in three forms

1 horizontal

2 vertical

3 spherical

To help separation the vessel is normally designed with a series of internal

fittings These fittings are built into the separator to ensure total phase separation

of the well-stream

In gas plants separators are given alternative names due to the function they

perform in the process system A scrubber does a similar job to a knockout drum

However the scrubber usually separates a stream containing high gas-to-liquid

ratios The knockout drum is used where a high degree of liquids are entrained in

the gas

Fluid flow from a well can include gas condensable liquid vapors water water

vapor crude oil and solids As well-stream fluids reach ground level where

pressure is lower than in the reservoir the capacity of the liquid to hold gas in

solution decreases and gas separates out of the oil

Separation depends upon the effect of gravity to separate liquids For adequate

separation one fluid must be lighter than the other fluid For example distillates

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(gasoline kerosene etc) and crude oil will not separate in a vessel because they

tend to dissolve in each other Because a separator basically depends upon

gravity to separate the fluids the ease with which separation takes place

depends upon the difference in density of the fluids

Droplets of liquid will separate from gas provided

a) The gas remains in the separator long enough

b) The gas flow remains constant to provoke separation

The difference in density between a gas and liquid will therefore determine the

maximum flow rate of liquid in the vessel

Figure Two phase horizontal separator

Gas bubbles in the liquid will break out in some oil field applications in 30 to 60

seconds Consequently the separator is designed so that the liquid remains in

the vessel for 30 to 60 seconds The length of time that a liquid remains in the

vessel is called its residence time Residence time differs widely from field to field

depending upon viscosity and API Gravity

Another important factor which must be considered is temperature Generally a

decrease in operating temperature will increase the liquid recovery in a separator

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as the gas condenses By reducing the pressure on the fluid flash separation

occurs resulting in a flow through the separator which is controlled by external

instrumentation

COALESCENCE

Another important principle in fluid separation is that of coalescence This means

the coming together of liquid droplets created by the force of gravity

A common example of coalescing occurs when drops of water form on the

windshield of a car as it is driven in fog As the tiny drops or water which make up

the fog strike the windshield they combine and eventually form a drop large

enough to run down the glass

Several of the internal devices of a separator such as deflector plates

straightening vanes and even the vessel walls are forms of coalescers In each

vessel drops of liquid adhere to the surface of the device and combine with other

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drops until the drop is large enough to fall out The effectiveness of separation

will also depend upon the total amount of coalescing surface area that is present

There are many different types of separators used in the Oil amp Gas industry

Consequently separators are manufactured with one two or several internal

fittings depending on their use and quick removal of these fluids from the vessel

DEFLECTOR PLATES

These are fitted in front of the inlet to the separator and can be net or

dish-shaped Their purpose is to absorb the impact of the incoming fluids and to

encourage the separation of gas and liquids They also slow the flow rate of the

liquids through the vessel

WEIRS

A weir is a metal wall which is fitted across the inside of the vessel normally to a

height of 50 of the overall height of the separator Its purpose is to assist the

process of three phase separation The inlet fluids (oil plus water) are given time

to separate in the liquid accumulation section The water level (interface) is

normally controlled at 50 of the height of the weir Oil floating on the wateroverflows the weir and accumulates in the small oil compartment where it is

drawn off under level control

CENTRIFUGAL DEVICES

These are used in both vertical and horizontal separators for gas-liquid

separation The device imparts a swirling motion to the fluids entering the vessel

Centrifugal force causes the heavier liquids to travel outwards towards the walls

of the vessel and the lighter gases to flow up the centre Centrifugal devices are

also known as cyclones

VORTEX BREAKERS

When liquid flows through a drain outlet a vortex (whirlpool) will form This can

be seen when we pull the plug from a sink or bath tub The same would happen

as water and oil flow from the separator This condition a vortex could allow gas

to flow down the centre of the whirlpool and enter the liquid phase causing

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pressurizing of tanks etc To stop this happening vortex breakers are fitted to all

liquid outlets Although they come in a number of different designs vortex

breakers all serve the same purpose - to prevent a whirlpool from forming

MIST OR DEMISTER PADS

The gas which is released from the fluids in the separator still contains droplets of

oil and water which coalesce and fall when the drops get large enough The

demister pad assists in this process Made from knitted wire and contained within

a sturdy frame it causes the gas to continually change its direction of flow

Because gas changes direction far easier than liquid the gas will flow around

each strand of wire whilst the liquid entrained in the gas stream will continue and

stick to the wire

COALESCING PLATES

There are several different forms of coalescing devices the most common of

which are coalescing plates These plates are mounted in the flow stream of the

fluids and assist in breaking down oil-water emulsions The fluid is forced to

follow a path that constantly changes direction This causes the water droplets to

gather together or coalesce and fall to the bottom of the separator The same

principle is used to separate gas and oil mixtures when the oil droplets are

induced to coalesce Simply stated every surface within the separator including

the separator walls assists with the coalescing process

STRAIGHTENlNG VANES

These are often fitted to horizontal separators to remove turbulence in the gas

stream after initial separation at the inlet deflector

FLOAT SHEILD

Internal floats are used as level controllers Any agitation of the liquid surface or

the effect of coalesced liquids falling on the float may cause control problems

Therefore a float shield is fitted to enclose the float creating an area of still liquid

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MEMBRANES

The gas contains 12 carbon dioxide and 22 ppm of hydrogen sulphide at 115oF

and 1100 psig This needs to be removed before the gas can be exported The

majority of carbon dioxide hydrogen sulphide and water is removed by means of

membranes

Membranes are thin semipermeable barriers that selectively separate some

compounds from others Currently the only commercially workable membranes

used for CO2 removal are polymer based for example cellulose acetate

polyimides polyamides polysulfone polycarbonates and polyetherimide The

membrane does not operate as a filter where small molecules are separated

from larger ones through a medium with pores rather it separates based on how

well different compounds dissolve into the membrane and diffuse through it The

membranes are manufactured in flat sheets consisting of an extremely thin

nonporous layer mounted on a much-thicker and highly porous layer of the same

material providing mechanical strength The flat sheets are combined into a

spiral-wound element (Figure below) Feed gas enters along the side of the

membrane and passes through the feed spacers As the gas travels between

membrane sheets CO2 H2S and H2O permeate through the membrane and are

collected in the permeate tube The driving force for transport is the high-feed

pressure and low-permeate pressures The gas on the feed side that does not

permeate leaves through the side of the element opposite the feed position Once

the membranes have been manufactured into elements six to 12 elements are

joined together and inserted into a tube Multiple tubes are mounted on skids in a

horizontal orientation

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Figure Membrane general Working

In high H2S applications most polymers have been shown to have very little

resistance to H2S plasticization (ldquosofteningrdquo of the membrane) and as a

consequence can only be used at very low H2S partial pressure limits Cellulose

acetate membranes in contrast have been shown to be applicable at extreme

H2S partial pressure conditions It is these membranes that have been utilized in

the testing to determine the limits of membrane performance in high H 2S

applications

The primary membranes used in Kadanwari facility are Cellulose acetate

Cellulose acetic acid and acetic anhydride are mixed together and reacted to

form cellulose acetate polymers This process is aided by the addition of a small

amount of sulfuric acid which is subsequently neutralized during processing

However the membranes are bought from UOP (vendor) and installed for use

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How membrane work

The basic principle of separation is selectivity of certain components of a mixture

for the membrane For example the cellulose acetate membrane has very high

selectivity for CO2 and H2S as compared to CH4 Therefore such type of

membrane can be used in gas sweetening process

The selectivity is directly related to the Permeability of gas which accounts that

which gas can pass across the membrane more easily In simple words

membranes being polymer materials are made of long chains of molecules The

different structure of polymer materials only allow selective molecules to pass

through them depending upon chemical and physical compatibility Thus

permeability depends upon choice of polymer

The permeability is determined by permeability coefficient (P) and is product of

solubility (S) and diffusivity (D)

P = S D

Solubility

The solubility is mainly determined by ease of condensation Heavy molecules

are more readily condensed Therefore higher molecular weighted molecules will

more easily condensed and therefore have greater solubility

Molecule Molecular weight

CH4 16

H2S 34

CO2 44

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Diffusivity

Diffusivity is ease of molecule to penetrate into some material It depends on size

of gas molecule Here size of molecule is not to be confused by molecular weight

it is the size of the structure Eg the size of O2 molecule is smaller than N2

Molecule Molecular Diameter (Ao)

CO2 33

H2S 36

Ch4 40

For cellulose acetate

DCO2DCH4 S CO2S CH4 P CO2P CH4

45 73 308

Chemical degradation

Cellulose acetate polymer is chemically degraded by a process called hydrolysis

which means breaking apart by the addition of water This is a chemical reaction

in which water is added to the cellulose acetate polymer causing the release of

acetic acid molecules This process proceeds stepwise until all the acetate

groups are released resulting in the reformation of cellulose Moreover alcohols

aromatic hydrocarbons or solvents with chlorine nitro benzene or similar

aromatic solvents will harm the membrane It will expand and lose plastification in

contact with them

Effect of Temperature

The permeation rates of all gases increases with increasing temperature

however membrane selectivity for CO2 over hydrocarbon decreases at higher

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temperature Consequently CO2 removal will improve as operating temperature

increases but hydro carbon recovery will decrease

Primary Membrane

The primary membranes comprise of two trains Each train consists of two

sections AB and CD each section consists of a 30 tube membrane skid (A and

C) followed by a 25 tube skid (B and D) The conditioned gas (after pre-

treatment) enters the primary membrane via the particulate filter adjacent to the

skid The gas is fed to the membranes through a common inlet manifold which

supplies primary membranes skids A and C A pressure control loop located

upstream of the manual inlet isolation valve is provided to maintain a constant

supply pressure to the membrane skid and to allow for preheating at the inlet

prior to skid start-up This pressure control loop can also be used during start-up

to control the pressurization of the pretreatment skid and associated pipes to the

primary membranes

The gas passes through membrane skid A the residual gas exiting the membrane

skid is sent to skid B and the permeate to common permeate discharge header An

identical arrangement is provide on the inlet to skid C as provided on skid A Theresidual gas from skid B combines with the residual gas from skid D in a common

discharge header and is then sent to the H2S polishing towers via the feed coolers

on the pre-treatment skid The permeate from skid B is sent to the common

permeate discharge header The permeate discharge header sends the gas to

either the recycle compressor or the vent header via a pressure control loop

Overpressure protection for the membranes is provided by a pressure safety valve

on the supply header to the membrane banks

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Secondary (Recycle) Membrane

The recycle membranes comprise of a single train with two skids each with four

banks of membrane tubes The conditioned gas from the discharge of the recycle

pre-treatment skid is routed to the first recycle membrane skid The gas passes

through the membranes the residual gas is fed to primary membrane (skid A) inlet

via feed gas cooler and permeate to the common permeate discharge header An

identical arrangement is provide on the inlet to skid B Permeate from the recycle

membrane skids A and B is routed to the vent header Some portion of permeate is

heated and sent for regeneration in Mem-Guard units Nitrogen purge can be

connected downstream of the inlet isolation valve on each skid to enable the

membrane tubes to be purged and left pressurized during prolonged shutdown

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Figure Flow Diagram of Recycle membrane unit

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ADVANTAGES OF MEMBRANE SYSTEMS

Membrane systems have major advantages over more-traditional methods of

acid gas removal

Lower capital cost Membrane systems are skid mounted and so the

scope cost and time taken for site preparation are minimal Installation

costs are significantly lower than alternative technologies especially for

remote areas Furthermore no additional facilities for solvent storage and

water treatment needed by other processes are required

Lower operating costs The only major operating cost for single-stage

membrane systems is membrane replacement This cost is significantly

lower than the solvent replacement and energy costs associated with

traditional technologies The improvements in membrane and

pretreatment design allow a longer useful membrane life which further

reduces operating costs The energy costs of multistage systems with

large recycle compressors are usually comparable to those for traditionaltechnologies

Deferred capital investment Often contracted sales-gas flow rates

increase over time as more wells are brought on-line With traditional

technologies the system design needs to take this later production into

account immediately and so the majority of the equipment is installed

before it is even needed The modular nature of membrane systems

means that only the membranes that are needed at start-up need be

installed The rest can be added either into existing tubes or in new skids

only when they are required

Operational simplicity and high reliability Because single-stage

membrane systems have no moving parts they have almost no

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unscheduled downtime and are extremely simple to operate They can

operate unattended for long periods of time The addition of a recycle

compressor adds some complexity to the system but still much less than

with a solvent- or adsorbent-based technology Multistage systems can be

operated at full capacity as single-stage systems when the recycle

compressor is down

Good weight and space efficiency Skid construction can be optimized

to the space available This space efficiency is especially important for

offshore environments where deck area is at a premium and is the

reason why so many new offshore developments have chosen to use

membranes for acid gas removal Figure 6 illustrates the space efficiency

of membrane systems The membrane unit in the lower left corner

replaced all the amine and glycol plant equipment shown in the rest of the

picture

Adaptability Because membrane area is dictated by the percentage of

acid gas removal rather than absolute acid gas removal small variations

in feed acid gas content hardly change the sales-gas acid gas

specification For example a system designed for 10 down to 3 acid

gas removal produces a 35 product from a 12 feed gas and a 5

product from a 15 feed gas

Design efficiency The membrane and pretreatment systems integrate a

number of operations such as dehydration CO2 and H2S removal dew-

point control and mercury removal Traditional acid gas removal

technologies require all of these operations as separate processes and

may also require additional dehydration because some technologies

saturate the product stream with water

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Power generation The permeate gas from membrane systems can be

used to provide fuel gas for power generation either for a recycle

compressor or other equipment

Ideal for debottlenecking Because expanding solvent- or adsorbent-

based acid gas removal plants without adding additional trains is difficult

an ideal solution is to use membranes for bulk acid gas removal and leave

the existing plant for final cleanup An additional advantage is that the

permeate gas from the membrane system can often be used as fuel for

the existing plant thus avoiding significant increase in hydrocarbon

losses

Environmentally friendly Membrane systems do not involve the

periodic removal and handling of spent solvents or adsorbents Permeate

gases can be flared used as fuel or re-injected into the well Items thatdo need disposal such as spent membrane elements can be incinerated

Ideal for remote locations Many of the factors mentioned above make

membrane systems a highly desirable technology for remote locations

where spare parts are rare and labor unskilled Furthermore solvents

storage and trucking water supply power generation or extensive

infrastructure are not required

Re-injection optimizations Since the permeate stream from the

membrane system can be operated at elevated pressures it is possible to

further pressurize by re-injection compression train

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Sorption

Sorption is a physical and chemical process by which one substance becomes

attached to another

It is of two main types

1 Absorption

2 Adsorption

Absorption

Absorption is a physical or chemical phenomenon or process in which atoms

molecules or ions enter some bulk phase ndash gas liquid or solid material This is a

different process from adsorption since molecules undergoing absorption are

taken up by the volume not by the surface (as in the case for adsorption)

Absorption process may be chemical (reactive) or physical (non-reactive)

Physical absorption

Physical absorption or non-reactive absorption is made between two phases ofmatter a liquid absorbs a gas or a solid absorbs a liquid

When a liquid solvent absorbs a gas mixture or part of it a mass of gas moves

into the liquid For example water may absorb oxygen from the air This mass

transfer takes place at the interface between the liquid and the gas at a rate

depending on both the gas and the liquid This type of absorption depends on the

solubility of gases the pressure and the temperature The rate and amount of

absorption also depend on the surface area of the interface and its duration in

time

When a solid absorbs a liquid mixture or part of it a mass of liquid moves into the

solid For example a clay pot used to store water may absorb some of the water

This mass transfer takes place at the interface between the solid and the liquid

at a rate depending on both the solid and the liquid

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Chemical absorption

Chemical absorption or reactive absorption is a chemical reaction between the

absorbed and the absorbing substances Sometimes it combines with physical

absorption This type of absorption depends upon the stoichiometry of the

reaction and the concentration of its reactants

Adsorption

Adsorption is the adhesion of atoms ions or molecules from a gas liquid or

dissolved solid to a surface This process creates a film of the adsorbate on the

surface of the adsorbent The binding to the surface is usually weak and

reversible Compounds with color and those that have taste or odor tend to bind

strongly Compounds that vibrate at frequencies in the visible spectrum are very

often are strongly adsorbed on activated carbon

The most common industrial adsorbents are activated carbon silica gel and

alumina because they present enormous surface areas per unit weight

Depending on the nature of attractive forces existing between the adsorbate and

adsorbent adsorption can be classified as

i) Physical adsorption

ii) Chemical adsorption

i) Physical adsorption (Physisorption)

In physical adsorption the forces of attraction between the molecules of the

adsorbate and the adsorbent are of the weak van der Waals type Since the

forces of attraction are weak the process of physisorption can be easily reversed

by heating or decreasing the pressure of the adsorbate (as in the case of gases)

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ii) Chemical adsorption (Chemisorption)

In chemisorption the forces of attraction between the adsorbate and the

adsorbent are very strong the molecules of adsorbate form chemical bonds with

the molecules of the adsorbent present in the surface

Adsorption is generally accompanied by release of energy that is most

adsorption processes are exothermic in nature Adsorption is a spontaneous

process therefore its free energy change is negative (∆Glt0) However the

entropy change associated with adsorption is generally negative because the

adsorbate molecules lose their translation freedom when they get attached to the

surface of the adsorbent Therefore in order for ∆G to be negative the enthalpy

change (∆H) must be sufficiently negative such that (∆G=∆H-T∆S) lt 0 This

explanation accounts for exothermic adsorption processes In cases where

endothermic adsorption occurs the entropy change ∆S is sufficiently positive

such that ∆G remains negative

Pre treatment

The main function of pretreatment skid is to provide membrane inlet specification

gas as mentioned by the vendor UOP It removes the contaminants that would

poison the membranes like dust solids (adsorbent particles) lube oil heavy

hydrocarbons etc It consists of

Feed Cooler

Feed Gas Scrubber

Filter Coalescer

Feed Gas Heater

Activated Carbon Guard Filter

Particle Filter

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The regeneration is carried out by heated permeate gas from the recycle

membranes at 450oF The vessel is depressurized to 20 psi and heated gas is

introduced from top The gas carries out the adsorbed contaminants and leaves

the vessel from bottom cleaning the adsorbent This contaminated gas is burnt in

the flare

UOP the vendor of Memguard unit has never disclosed that what substance

MG3 and MG5 exactly are But as mentioned by vendor that both care class of

aluminosilicates Therefore MG3 can be potassium aluminosilicate and MG5 can

be Calcium aluminosilicate These are molecular sieves adsorbents Molecular

sieves are a microporous material which can selectively adsorb gases andliquids They are synthetic zeolites (crystalline metal aluminosilicates) which

upon dehydration can efficiently and selectively remove water or other

solvents The selectivity of a molecular sieve is determined by its pore size

molecules with a critical diameter which is less than the pore size will be

efficiently adsorbed while larger molecules will be excluded

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3A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

The 3A molecular sieve adsorbent has a 3 angstrom (3A) pore size which means

that any molecule that is larger than the 3 angstrom pores will not be adsorbed

The 3A molecular sieve is the potassium type of A crystalline structure and is a

form of alkali Aluminosilicate For a 3A molecular sieve the sequence rate that

adsorption occurs is He Ne N and H2O

Due to the crystalline structure molecular sieves that have a 3 angstrom pore

size have a very high rate of adsorption and properties that promote a longer life

for products treated by the sieve The most common use for the 3A molecular

sieve is to remove water and moisture from materials that are in gas and liquid

form

5A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

These are molecular sieve adsorbents with a pore size of 5 angstrom (5A) 5A

molecular sieves are unable to adsorb any molecules or impurities that are

smaller than 5A It is calcium form of type A crystalline structure and is form of analkali-aluminosilicate that is most commonly used to separate isomerous alkanes

from normal alkanes and to co-adsorb moisture and water along with carbon

dioxide from gases In additional 5A molecular sieves are used for gaseous

pressure swing adsorption (PSA)mdashthat is to separate particular gases from other

gases

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of C3H8 to C22H46

Adsorption of Freon-12 (dichlorodifluoromethane)

Natural gas drying

Normal- and iso-paraffin separation

Separation of aromatic

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Inlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1096

MEHTANE 8593

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008

N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGEN 076

WATER 007

Outlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1098

MEHTANE 8608

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGENT 076

WATER 000

H2S polisher

The H2S polishing unit has been designed to treat 187 MMscfday of natural gas

containing up to 11 CO2 and 21 ppm H2S where the level of the CO2 and H2S

is reduced using a MemGuard Membrane separation unit The unit is situated

down-stream of the membrane unit and will further reduce the level of H2S in the

processed gas to a sales gas specification of 38 ppm

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This process uses three non-regenerable fixed bed absorber vessels using a low

temperature high activity absorbent The absorbent is a mixture of activated

metal oxides (mainly zinc oxide) The three towers can are generally operated in

parallel arrangement but on demand can be used in series (any of alternate

arrangements of A B C vessels) as shown in figure

The higher sales gas flow rate increased the catalyst consumption and

replacement frequency

ZnO + H2S =gt ZnS + H20

Routine samples are taken from the beds to provide a check on each bed

performance and to follow the saturation profile during the absorbent life After

the adsorbent has been fully utilized the adsorption vessels are recharged with

new adsorbent discarding the utilized one in a safe manner

109oF

1215 psig

Before H2S Polishing After H2S Polishing

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Figure

H2S Tower

Inlet pipe

4 Drums of 19mm

ceramic Balls

6 Micron mesh

5 Drums of 50mmceramic

1 Drums of19mm ceramic

01 Drums of6mm ceramic

112 drums of

Catalist ZnO

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Recycle Compressor

The permeate gas of the primary membrane unit carries recoverable amount of

CH4 It is fed to recycle membrane unit for further CH 4 recovery But the

permeate pressure from primary membranes which has been reduced to 12 psi

must be regenerated to 1200 psi for the gas to be fed again to the system For

this purpose we have employed recycle compressor The compressor is a four

stage centrifugal compressor It is driven by gas turbine of 31200 HP It has 25

MW producing capacity

Figure Recycle Compressor Process Flow Diagram

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Sales Gas Compressor

Gas from H2S polishing unit is sent to sales gas compressor where its pressure

is enhanced to 1100 psi so it may be injected to SNGPL high pressure trunk line

Sales gas compressor is single stage gas turbine driven

Figure Process Flow of Sales Gas Compressor

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Cooling Towers

A cooling tower is a heat rejection device which extracts waste heat to theatmosphere through the cooling of a water stream to a lower temperature Hot

water from the system enters the cooling tower and is distributed over the fill

(heat transfer surface) Air is induced or forced through the fill causing a small

portion of the water to evaporate This evaporation removes heat from the

remaining water which is collected in the cold water basin and returned to the

system to absorb more heat Each cooling tower line although operating under

the same basic principle of operation is arranged a little differently

Types

Natural draft mdash Utilizes buoyancy via a tall chimney Warm moist air naturally

rises due to the density differential compared to the dry cooler outside air Warm

moist air is less dense than drier air at the same pressure This moist air

buoyancy produces an upwards current of air through the tower

Mechanical draft mdash Uses power-driven fan motors to force or draw airthrough the tower

o Induced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a fan at the

discharge (at the top) which pulls air up through the tower The fan

induces hot moist air out the discharge This produces low entering

and high exiting air velocities reducing the possibility of

recirculation in which discharged air flows back into the air intake

o Forced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a blower type fan at

the intake The fan forces air into the tower creating high entering

and low exiting air velocities The low exiting velocity is much more

susceptible to recirculation This fanfill geometry is also known as

blow-through

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Forced Draft Cooling Tower Vs Induced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower have the ability to handle large water flow

rate than Forced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower is suitable for large cell sizes and fan sizes

as compared with Forced Draft Larger fan size may result in greater

efficiency and consequently lower power and sound level

Forced Draft Cooling Tower can be square or rectangular type only

however Induced Draft Cooling Towers can be round square or

rectangular type

Induced Draft Cooling Tower uses more compact ground area than Forced

Draft Cooling Tower equivalent capacity due to absence of fan on one

side

Fan equipment is warm exhaust air is less liable to icing up in winter

operation (Cold Countries)

Higher velocity in Forced Draft Cooling Tower cause drop in suspension

and cause additional static resistance to system

Configuration

There are two main configurations of factory assembled cooling towers crossflow

and counterflow In crossflow cooling towers the water flows vertically down the

fill as air flows horizontally across In counterflow cooling towers the water flows

vertically down the fill as air flows vertically up

Crossflow Configuration Counterflow Configuration

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Drift mdash Water droplets that are carried out of the cooling tower with the exhaust

air Drift droplets have the same concentration of impurities as the water entering

the tower The drift rate is typically reduced by employing baffle-like devices

called drift eliminators through which the air must travel after leaving the fill and

spray zones of the tower

Blow-out mdash Water droplets blown out of the cooling tower by wind generally at

the air inlet openings Water may also be lost in the absence of wind through

splashing or misting Devices such as wind screens louvers splash deflectors

and water diverters are used to limit these losses

Blow-down mdash The portion of the circulating water flow that is removed (usually

discharged to a drain) in order to maintain the amount of Total Dissolved Solids

(TDS) and other impurities at an acceptably low level Higher TDS concentration

in solution may result from greater cooling tower efficiency However the higher

the TDS concentration the greater the risk of scale biological growth and

corrosion

Make-up mdash The water that must be added to the circulating water system in

order to compensate for water losses such as evaporation drift loss blow-out

blow-down etc

Approach mdash The approach is the difference in temperature between the cooled-

water temperature and the entering-air wet bulb temperature

Range mdash The range is the temperature difference between the warm water inlet

and cooled water exit

Fill mdash Inside the tower fills are added to increase contact surface as well as

contact time between air and water to provide better heat transfer The efficiency

of the tower depends on the selection and amount of fill

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There are two types of fills that may be used

o Film type fill (causes water to spread into a thin film)

o Splash type fill (breaks up falling stream of water and interrupts its

vertical progress)

Important

Scale build up is controlled by adding chemicals to the cooling loop and diluting

the concentration by blow down and make-up Following chemicals are added to

the Cooling to control CorrosionSale and microbial growth

Corrosion Inhibitor To control corrosion in the Cooling system

Dispersant To kept ions in suspension to avoid settle down and buildup

Sodium hypo Chlorite To Control microbial Growth

Acid To control Alkalinity in the system

High Stress Polymer To run the system at higher conductivity It is a

multifunctional polymer for Zinc amp Phosphate stabilization in cooling tower

Fin Fan Cooler

Fin fan heat exchanger is simply a pressure vessel which cools a circulating fluid

within finned tubes by forcing ambient air over the exterior of the tubes A

common example of an air cooler is a carrsquos radiator Fin Fan Coolers are used in

any application where large quantities of heat need to be transferred This

includes chemical and petrochemical industries power stations waste-to-energy

facilities as well as steelworks

Fin Fan Cooler are used for two primary reasons

They increase plant efficiency

They are a green solution as compared to cooling towers and shell and

tube heat exchangers because they do not require an auxiliary water

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supply (water lost due to drift and evaporation plus no water treatment

chemicals are required)

Figure General Overview of Fin Fan Cooler

Produced Water

The produced water system receives liquid from the equipment Miano slug

catcher train 1 and 2 inlet separators and is fed to three phase separator where

water oil and gas is separated The gases produced are burnt in incinerator

whereas hydrocarbon liquid is stored to be sold Liquid from compressors

recycle inlet separator recycle feed scrubber high and low pressure slug

catchers is passed to degasser Separated water is injected down the earth

Incinerator

The term incinerate means to burn something until nothing is left but ashes An

incinerator is a unit or facility used to burn trash and other types of waste until it is

reduced to ash An incinerator is constructed of heavy well-insulated materials

so that it does not give off extreme amounts of external heat The high levels of

heat are kept inside the furnace or unit so that the waste is burned quickly and

efficiently If the heat were allowed to escape the waste would not burn as

completely or as rapidly

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Control System

The plant is controlled at CCR (Central Control Room) by PLCs (Programmable

Logic Controllers) through fiber optic control line All control parameters are

received at LER (Local Equipment Room) via two optic fiber control lines One

being primary and other secondary operating in redundancy ie if primary fails

control shifts to secondary These control parameters are sent to CCR via single

optic fiber cable

Safety System

Wellheads and Gas Processing Plant have their own Fire amp Gas detection

systems emergency shutdown (ESD) Plant has a fault tolerant controller It is

based on Triple Modular Redundant (TMR) architecture manufactured by

Triconex The TMR system is based on three isolated parallel control systems

integrated into one system The system operates on a two out of three voting

principle which provides high integrity error free uninterrupted operation with no

single point of failure The TMR receives inputs from Process Sensors Manual

Switches Fire amp Gas Detectors Packaged Equipment Control Systems and

Product Exporting Facilities The TMR carries out cause and effect processing on

the data received and where necessary produces output signals Outputs from

the TMR are hard wired directly to ESD shutdown and blow down valve

solenoids motor control instrumentelectrical interfaces to control electrical

drives package equipment logic control systems manifold area as well as

telecoms

The operator in central control room is able to accept alarms and once the fault

has been cleared reset the input All the control systems are centralized to a

single interface All the PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers) communicate with

the servers and servers communicate with the clients through Ethernet connectivity

Centralization eases the navigation of different systems at a common interface

Emergency Shutdown

The ESD system receives inputs from field mounted instrumentation on the process

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and utility equipment and initiates executive actions appropriate to the level of ESD

The system is an Active system which is in standby and will activate when in an

alarm or fault condition The Kadanwari Gas Process Facility ESD system is

comprised of five (5) levels The emergency severity decreases with increasing ESD

level number

ESD 1

This shutdown level is automatically initiated by fire major gas leak or a detected

toxic atmosphere in the process area of the plant or manually from CCR A level 1

shutdown will cause all production to cease close all emergency shutdown

valves stop the process and shutdown of the main power generation The

emergency vent valves to the stack will open and in addition all equipment of zone 1

certified will be isolated This is the highest level of ESD and will cause the following

to occur

All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close All slowdown Valves (BDVs) on the process facility will open

All Main Gas Driven Generators will be tripped

Emergency Diesel Generator will start

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close Upper Master Valve

(UMV) Close

ESD 2

This shutdown level is activated automatically if a major process or utility failure

occurs or manually from CCR All production to the plant from the wellhead is

stopped All emergency shutdown valves trip to their fail safe position

Venting shall be as specified This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

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All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valve Close Wing Valves Close and Upper Master Valve(UMV) Close

ESD 3

The level 3 shutdown isolates and stops a single process train only Production

continues via the other train This ESD level is initiated by process conditions or

operator at local panel This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

ESD 3A Train 1 production to cease

ESD 3B Train 2 production to cease

All online wellhead choke valves go to minimum flow ie (1O )

ESD 4

A level 4 shutdown shall cease all production from an entire field either

Kadanwari or Miano upstream of the associated slug catchers ESD 4K for

Kadanwari amp ESD 4M for Miano This ESD level is initiated automatically by slug

catcher abnormal process conditions This level of ESD will cause the following

to occur

All SDVs close isolating the relevant slug catcher and its upstream gas

production facility from the Kadanwari Gas Processing Plant

All Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close and Upper MasterValves (UMV) of the relevant gas production facility Close

A parallel timer is provided to close within 10 second if not closed in given

time SSSV seals the well

ESD 5

A level 5 shutdown represents equipment shutdown for the protection of the

individual equipment without any change in the process This level of ESD is for the

protection of various pieces of equipment and is initiated by its own inputs eg

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

Introduction to OMV 1

Scope of Plant 2

Process description 3

Wellhead and Christmas Tree 6

Types of Christmas Tree 10

Well Head Control Panel 12

Chemical Injection 13

Water Conning 14

Corrosion and Protection 15

Pigs and Pigging operations 17

Compressors 18

Front End Compressor (Reciprocating) 19

Centrifugal Compressors 23

Separators 24

Membranes 29

Working principle of Membranes 31

Advantages of Membrane System 36

Sorption 39

Absorption 39

Adsorption 40

Pre-treatment 41

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Memguard 42

H2S Polisher 46

Recycle Compressor 48

Sales Gas Compressor 49

Cooling Towers 50

Fin Fan Coolers 53

Produced Water 54

Incinerator 54

Control System 55

Safety System 55

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Introduction to OMV

OMV is Austriarsquos lar gest listed industrial company As the leading oil and gas

group in Central Europe OMV is active in Refining and Marketing (RampM) in 13

countries and in Exploration and Production (EampP) OMV is active in 18 countries

on five continents In Pakistan OMV has been active as an operator and partner

since 1990 In the years to date OMV (Pakistan) has established itself as the

largest international gas producer in Pakistan with an operated volume of more

than 110000 barrels of oil equivalent per day from Kadanwari-Miano and Sawan

fields This represents about 16 of the total gas produced in Pakistan The firstsignificant achievement was the discovery of the Miano gas reservoir in the Thar

Desert of Sindh province It came about by the end of 1993 just three years after

OMV came to Pakistan The second major breakthrough came five years later ie

in 1998 from the field named Sawan again in the same area of Sindh Sawan

was and still is one of the largest discoveries of gas reserves in Pakistan In a

record nineteen months from the ground-breaking ceremony in January 2002 of

the Sawan Gas Plant OMV was able to sell its raw gas by July 2003 Parallel to

the Sawan development OMV also took over the operator-ship of the Kadanwari

Gas Processing Plant on 1st January 2003 from Lasmo currently ENI OMV

remained quite aggressive on new developments and Kadanwari plant gas

processing capacity was enhanced to 232 MMscfd while Sawan plant capacity

has been enhanced to 400 MMscfd To further meet raw gas requirements

development drilling was continued successfully for both fields Besides these

activities carried out in OMV Pakistanrsquos core area OMV is pursuing new projects

in other parts of Pakistan Health Safety and Environmental standards are

parallel to the highest international level and second to none in the local

perspective OMV has strong commitment to reduce emissions to the

environment To achieve the same an ldquoEmission Reductionrdquo project has been

initiated for Kadanwari Plant

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Scope of Plant

Carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide which fall into the category of acid gasesare commonly found in natural gas streams at levels as high as 80 In

combination with water they are highly corrosive and can rapidly destroy

pipelines and equipment unless they are partially removed or exotic and

expensive materials of construction are used Hydrogen sulfide is toxic and at

relatively modest levels can be life threatening Carbon dioxide also reduces the

heating value of a natural gas stream and wastes pipeline capacity In LNG

plants CO2 must be removed to prevent freezing in the low-temperature chillers

Therefore the composition of gas is adjusted as per limits prescribed by SNGPL

(Sui Southern Gas Pakistan Limited) and is sold to the government The gas is

injected to the SNGPL main facility at a pressure of 1100 psi

The sales gas specifications are as follows

CO2 Maximum = 3

H2S Maximum = 38 ppm

CV Minimum = 920 BtuscfWater = 7lbMMscf

OMV Kadanwai facility sale gas composition

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OMV Kadanwai facility feed gas composition

Process Description

Gas from Kadanwari High pressure wells is routed to Kadanwari High Pressure

slug catcher Gas from Kadanwari low pressure wells is routed to Kadanwari low

pressure slug catcher and is fed to 2 stage Front End Compressor (FEC) to

increase the pressure up to production pressure Gas from FEC is fed to high

pressure stream flowing into Kadanwari High Pressure slug catcher The gas

from Miano wells is fed to Miano Slug Catcher

Kadanwari and Miano gas streams after separately metered are fed to a common

header which splits into two identical skids A and B Here we will discuss one

skid in common Each skid is routed to fin fan coolers where it is cooled and fed

to Inlet separator where water and heavy hydrocarbons are removed from feed

gas The condensate from all units is sent to produce water system

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The gas then passes through pretreatment skid which consists of following units

Feed Cooler

Feed Gas Scrubber

Filter Coalescer

Feed Gas Heater

Activated Carbon Guard Filter

Particle Filter

Its main function is to remove contaminants from gas such as dust lube oils

heavy hydrocarbons etc which may poison or reduce efficiency of membrane

unit

After pretreatment gas is fed to Molecular Sieve Absorbers (Memguard Units)

which ensures gas supplied to membranes is up to membrane standards of UOP

(vendor of membrane system) It removes all moisture and heavy hydrocarbons

from gas stream

Pretreated gas is now fed to the primary membranes The permeate stream (rich

in CO2) is sent to recycle membranes after passing through recycle compressor

and recycle pretreatment The permeate stream of recycle membranes is used as

regenerative medium for Memguard units and rest is sent to incinerator and

burnt The residual gas (rich in CH4) from primary membrane and recycle

membranes (all skids) is sent to H2S polishers via a common header

H2S polisher unit reduce the hydrogen sulfide level to the sales limit The gas is

now metered after compressing in sales gas compressor and is sent to SNGPL

trunk line after metering

Water is remove from condensate at produced water system by a three phase

separator The condensate is sold to refinery Major quantity is exported to

various industries

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Figure Overall plant Process Flow Diagram

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Wellhead

A wellhead is the component at the surface of an oil or gas well that provides the

structural and pressure-containing interface for the drilling and production

equipment Its function is to maintain surface control of the well It forms a seal to

prevent well fluids from leaking or blowing at the surface They are rated for

working pressure of 2000 psi to 15000 psi (or greater)

When the well has been drilled and it is ready to provide an interface with the

reservoir rock and a tubular channel for the well fluids The surface pressure

control is provided by a Christmas tree which is installed on top of the wellhead

with valves and choke equipment to control the flow of well fluids during

production

Christmas tree

A Christmas tree is an assembly of valves spools and fittings used for an oil

well gas well water injection well gas injection well condensate well and other

types of wells

The primary function of a tree is to control the flow usually oil or gas out of the

well When the well and facilities are ready to produce and receive oil or gas tree

valves are opened and the formation fluids are allowed to go through a flow line

This leads to a processing facility A tree often provides numerous additional

functions including chemical injection points well intervention means pressure

relief means monitoring points (such as pressure temperature corrosion

erosion sand detection flow rate flow composition valve and choke position

feedback) and connection points for devices such as down hole pressure andtemperature transducers (DHPT) On producing wells chemicals or alcohols or

oil distillates may be injected to preclude production problems (such as

blockages)

The control system attached to the tree controls the down-hole safety valve

(SCSSV) while the tree acts as an attachment and means of the control system

to the down-hole safety valve

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Figure 1

Well Head and Christmas Tree

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Master Valves

The two lower valves are called the master valves Master valves are normally in

the fully open position and are never opened or closed when the well is flowing

(except in an emergency) to prevent erosion of the valve sealing surfaces They

are gate type valves

1 Lower Master Valve (LMV)

2 Upper Master Valve (UMV)

The lower master valve will normally be manually operated while the upper

master valve is often hydraulically actuated allowing it to be used as a means of

remotely shutting in the well in the event of emergency

Wing Valve

A wing valve is normally used to shut in the well when flowing thus preserving

the master valves for positive shut off for maintenance purposes The wing

valve can be a gate valve or ball valve Hydraulic operated wing valves are

usually built to be fail safe closed meaning they require active hydraulic pressure

to stay open This feature means that if control fluid fails the well will

automatically shut itself in without operator action

In Kadanwari well sites there is only one manually operated wing valve On the

other hand at Miano well sites there are two wing valves one being operated

manually and other hydraulically

Production Wing Valve

The right hand valve is often called the flow wing valve or the production wing

valve because it provides flow path for hydrocarbons to production facility

Kill wing valve

The left hand valve is often called the kill wing valve It is primarily used for

injection of fluids such as corrosion inhibitors or methanol to prevent hydrate

formation It is typically manually operated It can kill the well temporarily be

injection brine solution which provides a pressure head to well and temporarily

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suspends it for maintenance of well head Also it is used to permanently kill the

well A chemical is injected down the well that seals the piping down the well and

kills the well permanently

Swab valve

The swab valve is used to gain access to the well for wire line operations

intervention and other work over procedure On top of it is a tree adapter

and cap that will mate with various equipment For such operations a

lubricator is assembled up onto the top of the tree and the wire or coil is lowered

through the lubricator through swab valve and into the well This valve is typically

manually operated

Choke

A choke holds back pressure by restricting the flow opening at the well head This

is done to make better use of the gas for natural gas lift and to control the bottom-

hole pressure for recovery reasons

CHECK VALVE

The check is introduced in production flow line to prevent any reverse flow from

the line into the well It has a hinged flap which lifts to permit normal flow but

closes to prevent reverse flow

TOP ADAPTOR

The top adaptor is a fitting on top of the swab valve with a threaded connection

During normal well operations a pressure gauge is fitted to monitor flowing and

shut in wellhead pressures However during well service operations the cap can

be removed to allow installation of lubricators for wire-line operations

SCSSSV (Surface Control Sub Surface Safety Valve)

A subsurface safety valve is essentially a shutdown valve installed at the upper

wellbore for emergency shutdown to protect the production tubing and wellhead

in case of overpressure Subsurface safety valves can offer a barrier against flow

in the event of a wellhead collapse or other disastrous event Purpose of asubsurface safety valve (SSSV) is to avoid the ultimate disaster which can result

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in release of reservoir fluids to the surroundings This makes SSSV a very

important component of a well completion

A subsurface safety valve is typically a uni-directional flapper valve directed in

such a way that the flappers open downwards when pressure is applied from an

upward direction The flapper can only open in the downward direction So even if

high pressure is applied by the well fluids from a

downward direction a safety valve can remain

closed This makes a subsurface safety valve fail-

safe To open the valve hydraulic signal is sent from

the surface well control panel This hydraulic

pressure is responsible for keeping the flappers of

SSSV open and loss of hydraulic pressure result in

closing of the valve Thus wellbore can be isolated in

case of system failure or damage to the surface

facilities

Types of Christmas tree

There are two types of Christmas Tree

1 Solid block

2 Conventional

The solid block Christmas Tree has a central solid unit holding several valves

in a pre-constructed block Their advantage is the reduction in potential leak

paths and their higher pressure rating (Fig 2)

The conventional Christmas Tree is built up from individual valves bolted

together to form an assembly (Fig 3)

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Figure 2

Figure 3

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Wellhead Control Panel

Wellhead control panel is key equipment in oil amp gas industry to protect oilfield

facilities and environment from emergency incidents such as wellhead fire which

is one of main control systems to ensure oilfield oil production and transportation

to be safely operation according to international standards and national

regulation Wellhead control panel is composed of hydraulic power unit tubing amp

fitting and instrument valve and electrical control devices Hydraulic power unit

supply hydraulic resource to open and close safety valves including master

valves wing valves and SCSSSV

Its performs

Local OnOff SSV

Remote control SSV through RTU( remote terminal unit)

High-Low pressure sense shut-down automatically

Fusible Plug Anti-fire Shut-down automatically

Function of showing system pressure

Relief Valve shall be installed on each hydraulic circuit to prevent high

pressure

Function of showing hydraulic level and level switch for alarm

Function of defending pressure impact of system

Function of system pressure monitoring (by pressure transmitter of control

panel)

Function of remote emergency shut-down (by magnetic valve of control

panel)

Function of OnOff SSV monitoring (by pressure switch of control loop of

control panel)

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Chemical Injection

Chemical injection systems are commonly used in production facilities to prevent

or eliminate a wide range of problems that might negatively affect the production

flow It is done for flow assurance protection of process equipment such as

pipelines or to optimize processes in production facilities

Typical flow assurance chemicals are

Wax inhibitors

Pour point depressants

Asphaltene inhibitors

Corrosion inhibitors

A corrosion inhibitor is a chemical compound that is added to liquid or gas to

decreases the corrosion rate of a material typically a metal or an alloy The

effectiveness of a corrosion inhibitor depends on fluid composition quantity of

water and flow regime Its common mechanism involves formation of a coating

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which prevents access of the corrosive substance to the metal The corrosive

agents are generally oxygen hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide

At our production site the major risk is corrosion of piping and equipment The

maximum allowable corrosion rate is approximately 02 mm per year and

corrosion rate without inhibitor could be approximately 11 mm per year so the

corrosion protection program is designed to achieve a target corrosion rate of

less than 01 mm per year which is achieved by an inhibitor system efficiency of

99 Inhibitor is injected into the well stream flow through an atomizing nozzle

located downstream of the respective wellhead coolers at the duplexcarbon steel

interface In normal operation as per NALCO standards chemical (brand name

EC1144B) at rate of frac12 Liter per MMSCFD of gas is being injected into the flow

line of miano15 flow lines made of carbon steel Moreover the composition can

vary depending upon the composition of well fluids and material of pipeline This

method of injection ensures even distribution of the chemical on the interior

surface of the pipeline The individual well sites are equipped with Chemical

Injection Packages comprising of a stainless steel storage tank and two

pneumatic motor driven pumps in parallel Instrument gas is used to drive the

pumps Normally one pump is running with the other standby

Water Conning

Water coning is a term used to describe the mechanism underlying the upward

movement of water into the perforations of a producing well Coning can seriously

impact the well productivity and influence the degree of depletion and the overall

recovery efficiency of the reservoir The specific problems of water coning are

listed below

Costly added water handling

Gas production from the original or secondary gas cap reduces pressure

Reduced efficiency of the depletion mechanism

The water is often corrosive and its disposal costly

The affected well may be abandoned early

Loss of the total field overall recovery

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Therefore conning has an important influence on operations recovery and

economics The phenomena is shown in picture below

Corrosion

Corrosion is referred as chemical deterioration of a metal Commonly this

means loss of electrons of metals reacting with water and oxygen

Weakening of iron due to oxidation of the iron atoms is a well-known

example of electrochemical corrosion This is commonly known as

rust Most structural alloys corrode merely from exposure to moisture

in the air but the process can be strongly affected by exposure to

certain substances Corrosion can be concentrated locally to form a pit

or crack or it can extend across a wide area to produce general

deterioration (uniform corrosion)

The following reaction takes place at the active sites

2Fe =gt 2Fe++ + 4e-

The free electrons travel through the metal path to the less active sites where

the following reaction takes place

O2 + 4e- + 2H20 =gt 4 OH-

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Recombination of these ions at the active surface produce the following

reaction which yields the iron-corrosion product ferrous hydroxide

2Fe + O2 + 2H2O =gt 2Fe (OH) 2

CORROSION PROTECTION SYSTEM

Coatings and painting

Painting and the application of enamel bitumen and PVC

coating are the most common anti-corrosion treatments They

work by providing a barrier of corrosion-resistant material

between the damaging environment and the structural material

Corrosion Inhibitors

Corrosion inhibitor is injected into the flow lines as mentioned in

detail on page 8

Cathodic Protection

Cathodic Protection (CP) is a technique used to control the corrosion of a

metal surface by making it the cathode of an electrochemical cell It

converts all of the anodic (active) sites on the metal surface to cathodic

(passive) sites by supplying electrical current (or free electrons) from an

alternate source It is accomplished in two ways

a) A simple method of protection connects protected metal to a more easily

corroded sacrificial metal to act as the anode The sacrificial metal then

corrodes instead of the protected metal The process is similar to a simple

DC cell in which the more active metal becomes the anode and corrodes

whereas the less active metal becomes the cathode and is protected

b) For larger structures galvanic anodes cannot economically deliver enough

current to provide protection Therefore impressed current cathodic

protection (ICCP) systems are used These consist of anodes connected

to a DC power source In remote areas power sources such as solar

panels may be used The output DC negative terminal is connected to the

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frequently to limit liquid holdup and minimize the slug volumes of liquid which can

be generated by the system

Coating

Pigs may be used to apply internal pipe coatings such as epoxy coating

materials in operating pipelines Pigs may also be used with corrosion inhibitors

to distribute and coat the entire internal wetted perimeter

Inspection

Pigs are being used more frequently as inspection tools Gauging or sizing pigs

are typically run following the completion of new construction or line repair to

determine if there are any internal obstacles bends or buckles in the pipe Pigs

can also be equipped with cameras to allow viewing of the pipe internals

Electronic intelligent or smart ldquopigsrdquo that use magnetic and ultrasonic systems

have been developed and refined that locate and measure internal and external

corrosion pitting dents buckles and any other anomalies in the pipe wall

Intelligent pigs

The accuracy of location and measurement of anomalies by the intelligent pigs

has continued to improve Initially the electronics and power systems were so

large that intelligent pigs could be used only in lines 30 in and greater in size

The continued sophistication and miniaturization of the electronic systems used

in the intelligent pigs has allowed the development of smaller pigs that can be

used in small-diameter pipelines Newly enacted DOT pipeline-integrity

regulations and rules acknowledge the effectiveness of the intelligent pigs and

incorporate their use in the pipeline-integrity testing process

Compressors

A gas compressor is a mechanical device that increases the pressure of a gas by

reducing its volume Gas pressure is increased by forcing gas molecules together

to reduce gas volume When volume is reduced gas pressure increases

All gases have large spaces among their molecules These spaces could be

enhanced further and decreased by doing some work Work done which is used

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for the enhancement of these spaces is called expansion and work done to

minimize these spaces is called compression All gases while expansion

produces cooling effect and while compression of gases raises there

temperature Compression is a term used to force gases to occupy smaller

volumes by increasing their pressure Volume of gases is interlinked with

temperature and pressure of the gas which is cleared by 2 laws govern gas

compressions

Boyles Law

Charles Law

The main types of compressor are listed below

Front End Compressor

The plant currently processes gas from a number of wells The flow and pressure

from some of these wells (currently K-10 K-11 amp K-12) has declined and they

cannot be fed directly into the Central Processing Facility To recover the

maximum gas reserves from these wells a Front End Compressor is employed

The compressor is a two stage double acting gas engine driven reciprocating

(PT) compressor Double acting means that gas is compressed on each end of

the piston It normal operates with a speed range of 600 to 900 RPM and isequipped with four compressor cylinders two for each stage Each cylinder is

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also equipped with a variable volume head end pocket

In case of compressor emergency shutdown the production chokes and the

Upper Master Valves on the on line wells will close and operator will be notified in

central control room Sweet gas from gas distribution network is used to operate the

gas engine driver of the compressor package The detailed scheme of working is

shown in figure (page 22 )

PT Reciprocating Compressor

The mechanical cycle of piston tube reciprocating compressor comprises four

strokes the expansion stroke the intake stroke the compression stroke and the

discharge stroke

Expansion Stroke

As the piston moves back on the expansion stroke the chamber volume

increases and the pressure drop As the pressure drops the discharge valve

closes since there is greater pressure in the discharge line than in the chamber

Intake Stroke

As the piston moves back during the intake stroke the pressure decreases until it

is less than the pressure in the inlet line This higher intake pressure opens the

inlet valve and gas rushes into the cylinder equalizing the pressure there with

the intake pressure The compression chamber is now at or near the intake

pressure

Compression Stroke

The piston now starts the compression stroke by moving forward decreasing the

chamber volume and increasing the pressure The increased pressure is now

higher than the intake pressure causing the intake valve to close

Discharge Stroke

The piston continues to move to the left during the discharge stroke This creates

an increase in chamber pressure until it is greater than the discharge pressure

When this happens the Discharge valve opens and the compressed air from the

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cylinder goes into the discharge line The compression cycle is then repeated

from the stage

Compressor Capacity

The capacity of the compressor depends upon cylinder displacement That

displacement is simply the volume that the piston displaces (moves) as it travels

from one end of the cylinder to the other Capacity and displacement is equal to

the cross-sectional area of the cylinder times the length of the stroke

Lubrication and Cooling

Lubricating oil is circulated through the system by a gear pump which is chain

driven from the engine crank shaft The oil pump is mounted on the engine front

housing

The pump operates between 30 - 40 psig

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A circulating pump deliver cooling water to the water jackets in the cylinder block

flowing around the cylinder liners and is directed into the cylinder heads Each

cylinder head has water cooled exhaust elbows which outlet the water into the

water cooled exhausts From the end of engine the water flows to compressor

1st and 2nd stage cylinders and compressor lube oil cooler (LOwater heat

exchanger) The water from the compressor cylinder and lube oil cooler returns

to engine water cooled exhaust

Figure Flow diagram of Front End Compressor

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Centrifugal Compressor

Centrifugal compressors are machines in which velocity and pressure given to air

or gas in a radial direction by one or more impellers diffuser combination In a

centrifugal compressor the mechanical energy is increased by centrifugal action

The gas enters the suction eye of a high speed rotary element called the impeller

which carries radial vanes integrally cast in it As the impeller rotates the blades

of the impeller force the gas outward from the center the impeller to the outer rim

of impeller the increase in velocity of the gas creates a flow pressure area at the

eye of the impeller The gas at the outer rim of the impeller is forced in to a

passage way called a diffuser where the velocity decreases in the pressure of the

gas

Inlet

The inlet to a centrifugal compressor is typically a simple pipe It may include

features such as a valve and both pressure and temperature instrumentation

Centrifugal impeller

The key component that makes a compressor centrifugal is the centrifugal

impeller shown above It is the impellers rotating set of vanes (or blades) that

gradually raises the energy of the working gas This is identical to an axial

compressor with the exception that the gases can reach higher velocities and

energy levels through the impellers increasing radius

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Diffuser

The next key component to the simple centrifugal compressor is the diffuser

Downstream of the impeller in the flow path it is the diffusers responsibility to

convert the kinetic energy (high velocity) of the gas into pressure by gradually

slowing (diffusing) the gas velocity

SEPERATORS

A well-stream is a mixture of gases hydrocarbon liquids water solids and

contaminants Due to variations in pressure and temperature gases evolve from

the liquids water vapor condenses and some of the well-stream changes to liquid

and free gas The separation of well-stream fluids takes place in a separator This

pressure vessel is manufactured in three forms

1 horizontal

2 vertical

3 spherical

To help separation the vessel is normally designed with a series of internal

fittings These fittings are built into the separator to ensure total phase separation

of the well-stream

In gas plants separators are given alternative names due to the function they

perform in the process system A scrubber does a similar job to a knockout drum

However the scrubber usually separates a stream containing high gas-to-liquid

ratios The knockout drum is used where a high degree of liquids are entrained in

the gas

Fluid flow from a well can include gas condensable liquid vapors water water

vapor crude oil and solids As well-stream fluids reach ground level where

pressure is lower than in the reservoir the capacity of the liquid to hold gas in

solution decreases and gas separates out of the oil

Separation depends upon the effect of gravity to separate liquids For adequate

separation one fluid must be lighter than the other fluid For example distillates

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(gasoline kerosene etc) and crude oil will not separate in a vessel because they

tend to dissolve in each other Because a separator basically depends upon

gravity to separate the fluids the ease with which separation takes place

depends upon the difference in density of the fluids

Droplets of liquid will separate from gas provided

a) The gas remains in the separator long enough

b) The gas flow remains constant to provoke separation

The difference in density between a gas and liquid will therefore determine the

maximum flow rate of liquid in the vessel

Figure Two phase horizontal separator

Gas bubbles in the liquid will break out in some oil field applications in 30 to 60

seconds Consequently the separator is designed so that the liquid remains in

the vessel for 30 to 60 seconds The length of time that a liquid remains in the

vessel is called its residence time Residence time differs widely from field to field

depending upon viscosity and API Gravity

Another important factor which must be considered is temperature Generally a

decrease in operating temperature will increase the liquid recovery in a separator

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as the gas condenses By reducing the pressure on the fluid flash separation

occurs resulting in a flow through the separator which is controlled by external

instrumentation

COALESCENCE

Another important principle in fluid separation is that of coalescence This means

the coming together of liquid droplets created by the force of gravity

A common example of coalescing occurs when drops of water form on the

windshield of a car as it is driven in fog As the tiny drops or water which make up

the fog strike the windshield they combine and eventually form a drop large

enough to run down the glass

Several of the internal devices of a separator such as deflector plates

straightening vanes and even the vessel walls are forms of coalescers In each

vessel drops of liquid adhere to the surface of the device and combine with other

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drops until the drop is large enough to fall out The effectiveness of separation

will also depend upon the total amount of coalescing surface area that is present

There are many different types of separators used in the Oil amp Gas industry

Consequently separators are manufactured with one two or several internal

fittings depending on their use and quick removal of these fluids from the vessel

DEFLECTOR PLATES

These are fitted in front of the inlet to the separator and can be net or

dish-shaped Their purpose is to absorb the impact of the incoming fluids and to

encourage the separation of gas and liquids They also slow the flow rate of the

liquids through the vessel

WEIRS

A weir is a metal wall which is fitted across the inside of the vessel normally to a

height of 50 of the overall height of the separator Its purpose is to assist the

process of three phase separation The inlet fluids (oil plus water) are given time

to separate in the liquid accumulation section The water level (interface) is

normally controlled at 50 of the height of the weir Oil floating on the wateroverflows the weir and accumulates in the small oil compartment where it is

drawn off under level control

CENTRIFUGAL DEVICES

These are used in both vertical and horizontal separators for gas-liquid

separation The device imparts a swirling motion to the fluids entering the vessel

Centrifugal force causes the heavier liquids to travel outwards towards the walls

of the vessel and the lighter gases to flow up the centre Centrifugal devices are

also known as cyclones

VORTEX BREAKERS

When liquid flows through a drain outlet a vortex (whirlpool) will form This can

be seen when we pull the plug from a sink or bath tub The same would happen

as water and oil flow from the separator This condition a vortex could allow gas

to flow down the centre of the whirlpool and enter the liquid phase causing

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pressurizing of tanks etc To stop this happening vortex breakers are fitted to all

liquid outlets Although they come in a number of different designs vortex

breakers all serve the same purpose - to prevent a whirlpool from forming

MIST OR DEMISTER PADS

The gas which is released from the fluids in the separator still contains droplets of

oil and water which coalesce and fall when the drops get large enough The

demister pad assists in this process Made from knitted wire and contained within

a sturdy frame it causes the gas to continually change its direction of flow

Because gas changes direction far easier than liquid the gas will flow around

each strand of wire whilst the liquid entrained in the gas stream will continue and

stick to the wire

COALESCING PLATES

There are several different forms of coalescing devices the most common of

which are coalescing plates These plates are mounted in the flow stream of the

fluids and assist in breaking down oil-water emulsions The fluid is forced to

follow a path that constantly changes direction This causes the water droplets to

gather together or coalesce and fall to the bottom of the separator The same

principle is used to separate gas and oil mixtures when the oil droplets are

induced to coalesce Simply stated every surface within the separator including

the separator walls assists with the coalescing process

STRAIGHTENlNG VANES

These are often fitted to horizontal separators to remove turbulence in the gas

stream after initial separation at the inlet deflector

FLOAT SHEILD

Internal floats are used as level controllers Any agitation of the liquid surface or

the effect of coalesced liquids falling on the float may cause control problems

Therefore a float shield is fitted to enclose the float creating an area of still liquid

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MEMBRANES

The gas contains 12 carbon dioxide and 22 ppm of hydrogen sulphide at 115oF

and 1100 psig This needs to be removed before the gas can be exported The

majority of carbon dioxide hydrogen sulphide and water is removed by means of

membranes

Membranes are thin semipermeable barriers that selectively separate some

compounds from others Currently the only commercially workable membranes

used for CO2 removal are polymer based for example cellulose acetate

polyimides polyamides polysulfone polycarbonates and polyetherimide The

membrane does not operate as a filter where small molecules are separated

from larger ones through a medium with pores rather it separates based on how

well different compounds dissolve into the membrane and diffuse through it The

membranes are manufactured in flat sheets consisting of an extremely thin

nonporous layer mounted on a much-thicker and highly porous layer of the same

material providing mechanical strength The flat sheets are combined into a

spiral-wound element (Figure below) Feed gas enters along the side of the

membrane and passes through the feed spacers As the gas travels between

membrane sheets CO2 H2S and H2O permeate through the membrane and are

collected in the permeate tube The driving force for transport is the high-feed

pressure and low-permeate pressures The gas on the feed side that does not

permeate leaves through the side of the element opposite the feed position Once

the membranes have been manufactured into elements six to 12 elements are

joined together and inserted into a tube Multiple tubes are mounted on skids in a

horizontal orientation

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Figure Membrane general Working

In high H2S applications most polymers have been shown to have very little

resistance to H2S plasticization (ldquosofteningrdquo of the membrane) and as a

consequence can only be used at very low H2S partial pressure limits Cellulose

acetate membranes in contrast have been shown to be applicable at extreme

H2S partial pressure conditions It is these membranes that have been utilized in

the testing to determine the limits of membrane performance in high H 2S

applications

The primary membranes used in Kadanwari facility are Cellulose acetate

Cellulose acetic acid and acetic anhydride are mixed together and reacted to

form cellulose acetate polymers This process is aided by the addition of a small

amount of sulfuric acid which is subsequently neutralized during processing

However the membranes are bought from UOP (vendor) and installed for use

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How membrane work

The basic principle of separation is selectivity of certain components of a mixture

for the membrane For example the cellulose acetate membrane has very high

selectivity for CO2 and H2S as compared to CH4 Therefore such type of

membrane can be used in gas sweetening process

The selectivity is directly related to the Permeability of gas which accounts that

which gas can pass across the membrane more easily In simple words

membranes being polymer materials are made of long chains of molecules The

different structure of polymer materials only allow selective molecules to pass

through them depending upon chemical and physical compatibility Thus

permeability depends upon choice of polymer

The permeability is determined by permeability coefficient (P) and is product of

solubility (S) and diffusivity (D)

P = S D

Solubility

The solubility is mainly determined by ease of condensation Heavy molecules

are more readily condensed Therefore higher molecular weighted molecules will

more easily condensed and therefore have greater solubility

Molecule Molecular weight

CH4 16

H2S 34

CO2 44

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Diffusivity

Diffusivity is ease of molecule to penetrate into some material It depends on size

of gas molecule Here size of molecule is not to be confused by molecular weight

it is the size of the structure Eg the size of O2 molecule is smaller than N2

Molecule Molecular Diameter (Ao)

CO2 33

H2S 36

Ch4 40

For cellulose acetate

DCO2DCH4 S CO2S CH4 P CO2P CH4

45 73 308

Chemical degradation

Cellulose acetate polymer is chemically degraded by a process called hydrolysis

which means breaking apart by the addition of water This is a chemical reaction

in which water is added to the cellulose acetate polymer causing the release of

acetic acid molecules This process proceeds stepwise until all the acetate

groups are released resulting in the reformation of cellulose Moreover alcohols

aromatic hydrocarbons or solvents with chlorine nitro benzene or similar

aromatic solvents will harm the membrane It will expand and lose plastification in

contact with them

Effect of Temperature

The permeation rates of all gases increases with increasing temperature

however membrane selectivity for CO2 over hydrocarbon decreases at higher

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temperature Consequently CO2 removal will improve as operating temperature

increases but hydro carbon recovery will decrease

Primary Membrane

The primary membranes comprise of two trains Each train consists of two

sections AB and CD each section consists of a 30 tube membrane skid (A and

C) followed by a 25 tube skid (B and D) The conditioned gas (after pre-

treatment) enters the primary membrane via the particulate filter adjacent to the

skid The gas is fed to the membranes through a common inlet manifold which

supplies primary membranes skids A and C A pressure control loop located

upstream of the manual inlet isolation valve is provided to maintain a constant

supply pressure to the membrane skid and to allow for preheating at the inlet

prior to skid start-up This pressure control loop can also be used during start-up

to control the pressurization of the pretreatment skid and associated pipes to the

primary membranes

The gas passes through membrane skid A the residual gas exiting the membrane

skid is sent to skid B and the permeate to common permeate discharge header An

identical arrangement is provide on the inlet to skid C as provided on skid A Theresidual gas from skid B combines with the residual gas from skid D in a common

discharge header and is then sent to the H2S polishing towers via the feed coolers

on the pre-treatment skid The permeate from skid B is sent to the common

permeate discharge header The permeate discharge header sends the gas to

either the recycle compressor or the vent header via a pressure control loop

Overpressure protection for the membranes is provided by a pressure safety valve

on the supply header to the membrane banks

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Secondary (Recycle) Membrane

The recycle membranes comprise of a single train with two skids each with four

banks of membrane tubes The conditioned gas from the discharge of the recycle

pre-treatment skid is routed to the first recycle membrane skid The gas passes

through the membranes the residual gas is fed to primary membrane (skid A) inlet

via feed gas cooler and permeate to the common permeate discharge header An

identical arrangement is provide on the inlet to skid B Permeate from the recycle

membrane skids A and B is routed to the vent header Some portion of permeate is

heated and sent for regeneration in Mem-Guard units Nitrogen purge can be

connected downstream of the inlet isolation valve on each skid to enable the

membrane tubes to be purged and left pressurized during prolonged shutdown

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Figure Flow Diagram of Recycle membrane unit

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ADVANTAGES OF MEMBRANE SYSTEMS

Membrane systems have major advantages over more-traditional methods of

acid gas removal

Lower capital cost Membrane systems are skid mounted and so the

scope cost and time taken for site preparation are minimal Installation

costs are significantly lower than alternative technologies especially for

remote areas Furthermore no additional facilities for solvent storage and

water treatment needed by other processes are required

Lower operating costs The only major operating cost for single-stage

membrane systems is membrane replacement This cost is significantly

lower than the solvent replacement and energy costs associated with

traditional technologies The improvements in membrane and

pretreatment design allow a longer useful membrane life which further

reduces operating costs The energy costs of multistage systems with

large recycle compressors are usually comparable to those for traditionaltechnologies

Deferred capital investment Often contracted sales-gas flow rates

increase over time as more wells are brought on-line With traditional

technologies the system design needs to take this later production into

account immediately and so the majority of the equipment is installed

before it is even needed The modular nature of membrane systems

means that only the membranes that are needed at start-up need be

installed The rest can be added either into existing tubes or in new skids

only when they are required

Operational simplicity and high reliability Because single-stage

membrane systems have no moving parts they have almost no

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unscheduled downtime and are extremely simple to operate They can

operate unattended for long periods of time The addition of a recycle

compressor adds some complexity to the system but still much less than

with a solvent- or adsorbent-based technology Multistage systems can be

operated at full capacity as single-stage systems when the recycle

compressor is down

Good weight and space efficiency Skid construction can be optimized

to the space available This space efficiency is especially important for

offshore environments where deck area is at a premium and is the

reason why so many new offshore developments have chosen to use

membranes for acid gas removal Figure 6 illustrates the space efficiency

of membrane systems The membrane unit in the lower left corner

replaced all the amine and glycol plant equipment shown in the rest of the

picture

Adaptability Because membrane area is dictated by the percentage of

acid gas removal rather than absolute acid gas removal small variations

in feed acid gas content hardly change the sales-gas acid gas

specification For example a system designed for 10 down to 3 acid

gas removal produces a 35 product from a 12 feed gas and a 5

product from a 15 feed gas

Design efficiency The membrane and pretreatment systems integrate a

number of operations such as dehydration CO2 and H2S removal dew-

point control and mercury removal Traditional acid gas removal

technologies require all of these operations as separate processes and

may also require additional dehydration because some technologies

saturate the product stream with water

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Power generation The permeate gas from membrane systems can be

used to provide fuel gas for power generation either for a recycle

compressor or other equipment

Ideal for debottlenecking Because expanding solvent- or adsorbent-

based acid gas removal plants without adding additional trains is difficult

an ideal solution is to use membranes for bulk acid gas removal and leave

the existing plant for final cleanup An additional advantage is that the

permeate gas from the membrane system can often be used as fuel for

the existing plant thus avoiding significant increase in hydrocarbon

losses

Environmentally friendly Membrane systems do not involve the

periodic removal and handling of spent solvents or adsorbents Permeate

gases can be flared used as fuel or re-injected into the well Items thatdo need disposal such as spent membrane elements can be incinerated

Ideal for remote locations Many of the factors mentioned above make

membrane systems a highly desirable technology for remote locations

where spare parts are rare and labor unskilled Furthermore solvents

storage and trucking water supply power generation or extensive

infrastructure are not required

Re-injection optimizations Since the permeate stream from the

membrane system can be operated at elevated pressures it is possible to

further pressurize by re-injection compression train

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Sorption

Sorption is a physical and chemical process by which one substance becomes

attached to another

It is of two main types

1 Absorption

2 Adsorption

Absorption

Absorption is a physical or chemical phenomenon or process in which atoms

molecules or ions enter some bulk phase ndash gas liquid or solid material This is a

different process from adsorption since molecules undergoing absorption are

taken up by the volume not by the surface (as in the case for adsorption)

Absorption process may be chemical (reactive) or physical (non-reactive)

Physical absorption

Physical absorption or non-reactive absorption is made between two phases ofmatter a liquid absorbs a gas or a solid absorbs a liquid

When a liquid solvent absorbs a gas mixture or part of it a mass of gas moves

into the liquid For example water may absorb oxygen from the air This mass

transfer takes place at the interface between the liquid and the gas at a rate

depending on both the gas and the liquid This type of absorption depends on the

solubility of gases the pressure and the temperature The rate and amount of

absorption also depend on the surface area of the interface and its duration in

time

When a solid absorbs a liquid mixture or part of it a mass of liquid moves into the

solid For example a clay pot used to store water may absorb some of the water

This mass transfer takes place at the interface between the solid and the liquid

at a rate depending on both the solid and the liquid

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Chemical absorption

Chemical absorption or reactive absorption is a chemical reaction between the

absorbed and the absorbing substances Sometimes it combines with physical

absorption This type of absorption depends upon the stoichiometry of the

reaction and the concentration of its reactants

Adsorption

Adsorption is the adhesion of atoms ions or molecules from a gas liquid or

dissolved solid to a surface This process creates a film of the adsorbate on the

surface of the adsorbent The binding to the surface is usually weak and

reversible Compounds with color and those that have taste or odor tend to bind

strongly Compounds that vibrate at frequencies in the visible spectrum are very

often are strongly adsorbed on activated carbon

The most common industrial adsorbents are activated carbon silica gel and

alumina because they present enormous surface areas per unit weight

Depending on the nature of attractive forces existing between the adsorbate and

adsorbent adsorption can be classified as

i) Physical adsorption

ii) Chemical adsorption

i) Physical adsorption (Physisorption)

In physical adsorption the forces of attraction between the molecules of the

adsorbate and the adsorbent are of the weak van der Waals type Since the

forces of attraction are weak the process of physisorption can be easily reversed

by heating or decreasing the pressure of the adsorbate (as in the case of gases)

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ii) Chemical adsorption (Chemisorption)

In chemisorption the forces of attraction between the adsorbate and the

adsorbent are very strong the molecules of adsorbate form chemical bonds with

the molecules of the adsorbent present in the surface

Adsorption is generally accompanied by release of energy that is most

adsorption processes are exothermic in nature Adsorption is a spontaneous

process therefore its free energy change is negative (∆Glt0) However the

entropy change associated with adsorption is generally negative because the

adsorbate molecules lose their translation freedom when they get attached to the

surface of the adsorbent Therefore in order for ∆G to be negative the enthalpy

change (∆H) must be sufficiently negative such that (∆G=∆H-T∆S) lt 0 This

explanation accounts for exothermic adsorption processes In cases where

endothermic adsorption occurs the entropy change ∆S is sufficiently positive

such that ∆G remains negative

Pre treatment

The main function of pretreatment skid is to provide membrane inlet specification

gas as mentioned by the vendor UOP It removes the contaminants that would

poison the membranes like dust solids (adsorbent particles) lube oil heavy

hydrocarbons etc It consists of

Feed Cooler

Feed Gas Scrubber

Filter Coalescer

Feed Gas Heater

Activated Carbon Guard Filter

Particle Filter

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The regeneration is carried out by heated permeate gas from the recycle

membranes at 450oF The vessel is depressurized to 20 psi and heated gas is

introduced from top The gas carries out the adsorbed contaminants and leaves

the vessel from bottom cleaning the adsorbent This contaminated gas is burnt in

the flare

UOP the vendor of Memguard unit has never disclosed that what substance

MG3 and MG5 exactly are But as mentioned by vendor that both care class of

aluminosilicates Therefore MG3 can be potassium aluminosilicate and MG5 can

be Calcium aluminosilicate These are molecular sieves adsorbents Molecular

sieves are a microporous material which can selectively adsorb gases andliquids They are synthetic zeolites (crystalline metal aluminosilicates) which

upon dehydration can efficiently and selectively remove water or other

solvents The selectivity of a molecular sieve is determined by its pore size

molecules with a critical diameter which is less than the pore size will be

efficiently adsorbed while larger molecules will be excluded

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3A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

The 3A molecular sieve adsorbent has a 3 angstrom (3A) pore size which means

that any molecule that is larger than the 3 angstrom pores will not be adsorbed

The 3A molecular sieve is the potassium type of A crystalline structure and is a

form of alkali Aluminosilicate For a 3A molecular sieve the sequence rate that

adsorption occurs is He Ne N and H2O

Due to the crystalline structure molecular sieves that have a 3 angstrom pore

size have a very high rate of adsorption and properties that promote a longer life

for products treated by the sieve The most common use for the 3A molecular

sieve is to remove water and moisture from materials that are in gas and liquid

form

5A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

These are molecular sieve adsorbents with a pore size of 5 angstrom (5A) 5A

molecular sieves are unable to adsorb any molecules or impurities that are

smaller than 5A It is calcium form of type A crystalline structure and is form of analkali-aluminosilicate that is most commonly used to separate isomerous alkanes

from normal alkanes and to co-adsorb moisture and water along with carbon

dioxide from gases In additional 5A molecular sieves are used for gaseous

pressure swing adsorption (PSA)mdashthat is to separate particular gases from other

gases

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of C3H8 to C22H46

Adsorption of Freon-12 (dichlorodifluoromethane)

Natural gas drying

Normal- and iso-paraffin separation

Separation of aromatic

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Inlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1096

MEHTANE 8593

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008

N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGEN 076

WATER 007

Outlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1098

MEHTANE 8608

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGENT 076

WATER 000

H2S polisher

The H2S polishing unit has been designed to treat 187 MMscfday of natural gas

containing up to 11 CO2 and 21 ppm H2S where the level of the CO2 and H2S

is reduced using a MemGuard Membrane separation unit The unit is situated

down-stream of the membrane unit and will further reduce the level of H2S in the

processed gas to a sales gas specification of 38 ppm

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This process uses three non-regenerable fixed bed absorber vessels using a low

temperature high activity absorbent The absorbent is a mixture of activated

metal oxides (mainly zinc oxide) The three towers can are generally operated in

parallel arrangement but on demand can be used in series (any of alternate

arrangements of A B C vessels) as shown in figure

The higher sales gas flow rate increased the catalyst consumption and

replacement frequency

ZnO + H2S =gt ZnS + H20

Routine samples are taken from the beds to provide a check on each bed

performance and to follow the saturation profile during the absorbent life After

the adsorbent has been fully utilized the adsorption vessels are recharged with

new adsorbent discarding the utilized one in a safe manner

109oF

1215 psig

Before H2S Polishing After H2S Polishing

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Figure

H2S Tower

Inlet pipe

4 Drums of 19mm

ceramic Balls

6 Micron mesh

5 Drums of 50mmceramic

1 Drums of19mm ceramic

01 Drums of6mm ceramic

112 drums of

Catalist ZnO

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Recycle Compressor

The permeate gas of the primary membrane unit carries recoverable amount of

CH4 It is fed to recycle membrane unit for further CH 4 recovery But the

permeate pressure from primary membranes which has been reduced to 12 psi

must be regenerated to 1200 psi for the gas to be fed again to the system For

this purpose we have employed recycle compressor The compressor is a four

stage centrifugal compressor It is driven by gas turbine of 31200 HP It has 25

MW producing capacity

Figure Recycle Compressor Process Flow Diagram

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Sales Gas Compressor

Gas from H2S polishing unit is sent to sales gas compressor where its pressure

is enhanced to 1100 psi so it may be injected to SNGPL high pressure trunk line

Sales gas compressor is single stage gas turbine driven

Figure Process Flow of Sales Gas Compressor

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Cooling Towers

A cooling tower is a heat rejection device which extracts waste heat to theatmosphere through the cooling of a water stream to a lower temperature Hot

water from the system enters the cooling tower and is distributed over the fill

(heat transfer surface) Air is induced or forced through the fill causing a small

portion of the water to evaporate This evaporation removes heat from the

remaining water which is collected in the cold water basin and returned to the

system to absorb more heat Each cooling tower line although operating under

the same basic principle of operation is arranged a little differently

Types

Natural draft mdash Utilizes buoyancy via a tall chimney Warm moist air naturally

rises due to the density differential compared to the dry cooler outside air Warm

moist air is less dense than drier air at the same pressure This moist air

buoyancy produces an upwards current of air through the tower

Mechanical draft mdash Uses power-driven fan motors to force or draw airthrough the tower

o Induced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a fan at the

discharge (at the top) which pulls air up through the tower The fan

induces hot moist air out the discharge This produces low entering

and high exiting air velocities reducing the possibility of

recirculation in which discharged air flows back into the air intake

o Forced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a blower type fan at

the intake The fan forces air into the tower creating high entering

and low exiting air velocities The low exiting velocity is much more

susceptible to recirculation This fanfill geometry is also known as

blow-through

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Forced Draft Cooling Tower Vs Induced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower have the ability to handle large water flow

rate than Forced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower is suitable for large cell sizes and fan sizes

as compared with Forced Draft Larger fan size may result in greater

efficiency and consequently lower power and sound level

Forced Draft Cooling Tower can be square or rectangular type only

however Induced Draft Cooling Towers can be round square or

rectangular type

Induced Draft Cooling Tower uses more compact ground area than Forced

Draft Cooling Tower equivalent capacity due to absence of fan on one

side

Fan equipment is warm exhaust air is less liable to icing up in winter

operation (Cold Countries)

Higher velocity in Forced Draft Cooling Tower cause drop in suspension

and cause additional static resistance to system

Configuration

There are two main configurations of factory assembled cooling towers crossflow

and counterflow In crossflow cooling towers the water flows vertically down the

fill as air flows horizontally across In counterflow cooling towers the water flows

vertically down the fill as air flows vertically up

Crossflow Configuration Counterflow Configuration

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Drift mdash Water droplets that are carried out of the cooling tower with the exhaust

air Drift droplets have the same concentration of impurities as the water entering

the tower The drift rate is typically reduced by employing baffle-like devices

called drift eliminators through which the air must travel after leaving the fill and

spray zones of the tower

Blow-out mdash Water droplets blown out of the cooling tower by wind generally at

the air inlet openings Water may also be lost in the absence of wind through

splashing or misting Devices such as wind screens louvers splash deflectors

and water diverters are used to limit these losses

Blow-down mdash The portion of the circulating water flow that is removed (usually

discharged to a drain) in order to maintain the amount of Total Dissolved Solids

(TDS) and other impurities at an acceptably low level Higher TDS concentration

in solution may result from greater cooling tower efficiency However the higher

the TDS concentration the greater the risk of scale biological growth and

corrosion

Make-up mdash The water that must be added to the circulating water system in

order to compensate for water losses such as evaporation drift loss blow-out

blow-down etc

Approach mdash The approach is the difference in temperature between the cooled-

water temperature and the entering-air wet bulb temperature

Range mdash The range is the temperature difference between the warm water inlet

and cooled water exit

Fill mdash Inside the tower fills are added to increase contact surface as well as

contact time between air and water to provide better heat transfer The efficiency

of the tower depends on the selection and amount of fill

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There are two types of fills that may be used

o Film type fill (causes water to spread into a thin film)

o Splash type fill (breaks up falling stream of water and interrupts its

vertical progress)

Important

Scale build up is controlled by adding chemicals to the cooling loop and diluting

the concentration by blow down and make-up Following chemicals are added to

the Cooling to control CorrosionSale and microbial growth

Corrosion Inhibitor To control corrosion in the Cooling system

Dispersant To kept ions in suspension to avoid settle down and buildup

Sodium hypo Chlorite To Control microbial Growth

Acid To control Alkalinity in the system

High Stress Polymer To run the system at higher conductivity It is a

multifunctional polymer for Zinc amp Phosphate stabilization in cooling tower

Fin Fan Cooler

Fin fan heat exchanger is simply a pressure vessel which cools a circulating fluid

within finned tubes by forcing ambient air over the exterior of the tubes A

common example of an air cooler is a carrsquos radiator Fin Fan Coolers are used in

any application where large quantities of heat need to be transferred This

includes chemical and petrochemical industries power stations waste-to-energy

facilities as well as steelworks

Fin Fan Cooler are used for two primary reasons

They increase plant efficiency

They are a green solution as compared to cooling towers and shell and

tube heat exchangers because they do not require an auxiliary water

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supply (water lost due to drift and evaporation plus no water treatment

chemicals are required)

Figure General Overview of Fin Fan Cooler

Produced Water

The produced water system receives liquid from the equipment Miano slug

catcher train 1 and 2 inlet separators and is fed to three phase separator where

water oil and gas is separated The gases produced are burnt in incinerator

whereas hydrocarbon liquid is stored to be sold Liquid from compressors

recycle inlet separator recycle feed scrubber high and low pressure slug

catchers is passed to degasser Separated water is injected down the earth

Incinerator

The term incinerate means to burn something until nothing is left but ashes An

incinerator is a unit or facility used to burn trash and other types of waste until it is

reduced to ash An incinerator is constructed of heavy well-insulated materials

so that it does not give off extreme amounts of external heat The high levels of

heat are kept inside the furnace or unit so that the waste is burned quickly and

efficiently If the heat were allowed to escape the waste would not burn as

completely or as rapidly

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Control System

The plant is controlled at CCR (Central Control Room) by PLCs (Programmable

Logic Controllers) through fiber optic control line All control parameters are

received at LER (Local Equipment Room) via two optic fiber control lines One

being primary and other secondary operating in redundancy ie if primary fails

control shifts to secondary These control parameters are sent to CCR via single

optic fiber cable

Safety System

Wellheads and Gas Processing Plant have their own Fire amp Gas detection

systems emergency shutdown (ESD) Plant has a fault tolerant controller It is

based on Triple Modular Redundant (TMR) architecture manufactured by

Triconex The TMR system is based on three isolated parallel control systems

integrated into one system The system operates on a two out of three voting

principle which provides high integrity error free uninterrupted operation with no

single point of failure The TMR receives inputs from Process Sensors Manual

Switches Fire amp Gas Detectors Packaged Equipment Control Systems and

Product Exporting Facilities The TMR carries out cause and effect processing on

the data received and where necessary produces output signals Outputs from

the TMR are hard wired directly to ESD shutdown and blow down valve

solenoids motor control instrumentelectrical interfaces to control electrical

drives package equipment logic control systems manifold area as well as

telecoms

The operator in central control room is able to accept alarms and once the fault

has been cleared reset the input All the control systems are centralized to a

single interface All the PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers) communicate with

the servers and servers communicate with the clients through Ethernet connectivity

Centralization eases the navigation of different systems at a common interface

Emergency Shutdown

The ESD system receives inputs from field mounted instrumentation on the process

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and utility equipment and initiates executive actions appropriate to the level of ESD

The system is an Active system which is in standby and will activate when in an

alarm or fault condition The Kadanwari Gas Process Facility ESD system is

comprised of five (5) levels The emergency severity decreases with increasing ESD

level number

ESD 1

This shutdown level is automatically initiated by fire major gas leak or a detected

toxic atmosphere in the process area of the plant or manually from CCR A level 1

shutdown will cause all production to cease close all emergency shutdown

valves stop the process and shutdown of the main power generation The

emergency vent valves to the stack will open and in addition all equipment of zone 1

certified will be isolated This is the highest level of ESD and will cause the following

to occur

All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close All slowdown Valves (BDVs) on the process facility will open

All Main Gas Driven Generators will be tripped

Emergency Diesel Generator will start

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close Upper Master Valve

(UMV) Close

ESD 2

This shutdown level is activated automatically if a major process or utility failure

occurs or manually from CCR All production to the plant from the wellhead is

stopped All emergency shutdown valves trip to their fail safe position

Venting shall be as specified This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

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All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valve Close Wing Valves Close and Upper Master Valve(UMV) Close

ESD 3

The level 3 shutdown isolates and stops a single process train only Production

continues via the other train This ESD level is initiated by process conditions or

operator at local panel This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

ESD 3A Train 1 production to cease

ESD 3B Train 2 production to cease

All online wellhead choke valves go to minimum flow ie (1O )

ESD 4

A level 4 shutdown shall cease all production from an entire field either

Kadanwari or Miano upstream of the associated slug catchers ESD 4K for

Kadanwari amp ESD 4M for Miano This ESD level is initiated automatically by slug

catcher abnormal process conditions This level of ESD will cause the following

to occur

All SDVs close isolating the relevant slug catcher and its upstream gas

production facility from the Kadanwari Gas Processing Plant

All Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close and Upper MasterValves (UMV) of the relevant gas production facility Close

A parallel timer is provided to close within 10 second if not closed in given

time SSSV seals the well

ESD 5

A level 5 shutdown represents equipment shutdown for the protection of the

individual equipment without any change in the process This level of ESD is for the

protection of various pieces of equipment and is initiated by its own inputs eg

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Memguard 42

H2S Polisher 46

Recycle Compressor 48

Sales Gas Compressor 49

Cooling Towers 50

Fin Fan Coolers 53

Produced Water 54

Incinerator 54

Control System 55

Safety System 55

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Introduction to OMV

OMV is Austriarsquos lar gest listed industrial company As the leading oil and gas

group in Central Europe OMV is active in Refining and Marketing (RampM) in 13

countries and in Exploration and Production (EampP) OMV is active in 18 countries

on five continents In Pakistan OMV has been active as an operator and partner

since 1990 In the years to date OMV (Pakistan) has established itself as the

largest international gas producer in Pakistan with an operated volume of more

than 110000 barrels of oil equivalent per day from Kadanwari-Miano and Sawan

fields This represents about 16 of the total gas produced in Pakistan The firstsignificant achievement was the discovery of the Miano gas reservoir in the Thar

Desert of Sindh province It came about by the end of 1993 just three years after

OMV came to Pakistan The second major breakthrough came five years later ie

in 1998 from the field named Sawan again in the same area of Sindh Sawan

was and still is one of the largest discoveries of gas reserves in Pakistan In a

record nineteen months from the ground-breaking ceremony in January 2002 of

the Sawan Gas Plant OMV was able to sell its raw gas by July 2003 Parallel to

the Sawan development OMV also took over the operator-ship of the Kadanwari

Gas Processing Plant on 1st January 2003 from Lasmo currently ENI OMV

remained quite aggressive on new developments and Kadanwari plant gas

processing capacity was enhanced to 232 MMscfd while Sawan plant capacity

has been enhanced to 400 MMscfd To further meet raw gas requirements

development drilling was continued successfully for both fields Besides these

activities carried out in OMV Pakistanrsquos core area OMV is pursuing new projects

in other parts of Pakistan Health Safety and Environmental standards are

parallel to the highest international level and second to none in the local

perspective OMV has strong commitment to reduce emissions to the

environment To achieve the same an ldquoEmission Reductionrdquo project has been

initiated for Kadanwari Plant

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Scope of Plant

Carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide which fall into the category of acid gasesare commonly found in natural gas streams at levels as high as 80 In

combination with water they are highly corrosive and can rapidly destroy

pipelines and equipment unless they are partially removed or exotic and

expensive materials of construction are used Hydrogen sulfide is toxic and at

relatively modest levels can be life threatening Carbon dioxide also reduces the

heating value of a natural gas stream and wastes pipeline capacity In LNG

plants CO2 must be removed to prevent freezing in the low-temperature chillers

Therefore the composition of gas is adjusted as per limits prescribed by SNGPL

(Sui Southern Gas Pakistan Limited) and is sold to the government The gas is

injected to the SNGPL main facility at a pressure of 1100 psi

The sales gas specifications are as follows

CO2 Maximum = 3

H2S Maximum = 38 ppm

CV Minimum = 920 BtuscfWater = 7lbMMscf

OMV Kadanwai facility sale gas composition

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OMV Kadanwai facility feed gas composition

Process Description

Gas from Kadanwari High pressure wells is routed to Kadanwari High Pressure

slug catcher Gas from Kadanwari low pressure wells is routed to Kadanwari low

pressure slug catcher and is fed to 2 stage Front End Compressor (FEC) to

increase the pressure up to production pressure Gas from FEC is fed to high

pressure stream flowing into Kadanwari High Pressure slug catcher The gas

from Miano wells is fed to Miano Slug Catcher

Kadanwari and Miano gas streams after separately metered are fed to a common

header which splits into two identical skids A and B Here we will discuss one

skid in common Each skid is routed to fin fan coolers where it is cooled and fed

to Inlet separator where water and heavy hydrocarbons are removed from feed

gas The condensate from all units is sent to produce water system

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The gas then passes through pretreatment skid which consists of following units

Feed Cooler

Feed Gas Scrubber

Filter Coalescer

Feed Gas Heater

Activated Carbon Guard Filter

Particle Filter

Its main function is to remove contaminants from gas such as dust lube oils

heavy hydrocarbons etc which may poison or reduce efficiency of membrane

unit

After pretreatment gas is fed to Molecular Sieve Absorbers (Memguard Units)

which ensures gas supplied to membranes is up to membrane standards of UOP

(vendor of membrane system) It removes all moisture and heavy hydrocarbons

from gas stream

Pretreated gas is now fed to the primary membranes The permeate stream (rich

in CO2) is sent to recycle membranes after passing through recycle compressor

and recycle pretreatment The permeate stream of recycle membranes is used as

regenerative medium for Memguard units and rest is sent to incinerator and

burnt The residual gas (rich in CH4) from primary membrane and recycle

membranes (all skids) is sent to H2S polishers via a common header

H2S polisher unit reduce the hydrogen sulfide level to the sales limit The gas is

now metered after compressing in sales gas compressor and is sent to SNGPL

trunk line after metering

Water is remove from condensate at produced water system by a three phase

separator The condensate is sold to refinery Major quantity is exported to

various industries

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Figure Overall plant Process Flow Diagram

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Wellhead

A wellhead is the component at the surface of an oil or gas well that provides the

structural and pressure-containing interface for the drilling and production

equipment Its function is to maintain surface control of the well It forms a seal to

prevent well fluids from leaking or blowing at the surface They are rated for

working pressure of 2000 psi to 15000 psi (or greater)

When the well has been drilled and it is ready to provide an interface with the

reservoir rock and a tubular channel for the well fluids The surface pressure

control is provided by a Christmas tree which is installed on top of the wellhead

with valves and choke equipment to control the flow of well fluids during

production

Christmas tree

A Christmas tree is an assembly of valves spools and fittings used for an oil

well gas well water injection well gas injection well condensate well and other

types of wells

The primary function of a tree is to control the flow usually oil or gas out of the

well When the well and facilities are ready to produce and receive oil or gas tree

valves are opened and the formation fluids are allowed to go through a flow line

This leads to a processing facility A tree often provides numerous additional

functions including chemical injection points well intervention means pressure

relief means monitoring points (such as pressure temperature corrosion

erosion sand detection flow rate flow composition valve and choke position

feedback) and connection points for devices such as down hole pressure andtemperature transducers (DHPT) On producing wells chemicals or alcohols or

oil distillates may be injected to preclude production problems (such as

blockages)

The control system attached to the tree controls the down-hole safety valve

(SCSSV) while the tree acts as an attachment and means of the control system

to the down-hole safety valve

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Figure 1

Well Head and Christmas Tree

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Master Valves

The two lower valves are called the master valves Master valves are normally in

the fully open position and are never opened or closed when the well is flowing

(except in an emergency) to prevent erosion of the valve sealing surfaces They

are gate type valves

1 Lower Master Valve (LMV)

2 Upper Master Valve (UMV)

The lower master valve will normally be manually operated while the upper

master valve is often hydraulically actuated allowing it to be used as a means of

remotely shutting in the well in the event of emergency

Wing Valve

A wing valve is normally used to shut in the well when flowing thus preserving

the master valves for positive shut off for maintenance purposes The wing

valve can be a gate valve or ball valve Hydraulic operated wing valves are

usually built to be fail safe closed meaning they require active hydraulic pressure

to stay open This feature means that if control fluid fails the well will

automatically shut itself in without operator action

In Kadanwari well sites there is only one manually operated wing valve On the

other hand at Miano well sites there are two wing valves one being operated

manually and other hydraulically

Production Wing Valve

The right hand valve is often called the flow wing valve or the production wing

valve because it provides flow path for hydrocarbons to production facility

Kill wing valve

The left hand valve is often called the kill wing valve It is primarily used for

injection of fluids such as corrosion inhibitors or methanol to prevent hydrate

formation It is typically manually operated It can kill the well temporarily be

injection brine solution which provides a pressure head to well and temporarily

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suspends it for maintenance of well head Also it is used to permanently kill the

well A chemical is injected down the well that seals the piping down the well and

kills the well permanently

Swab valve

The swab valve is used to gain access to the well for wire line operations

intervention and other work over procedure On top of it is a tree adapter

and cap that will mate with various equipment For such operations a

lubricator is assembled up onto the top of the tree and the wire or coil is lowered

through the lubricator through swab valve and into the well This valve is typically

manually operated

Choke

A choke holds back pressure by restricting the flow opening at the well head This

is done to make better use of the gas for natural gas lift and to control the bottom-

hole pressure for recovery reasons

CHECK VALVE

The check is introduced in production flow line to prevent any reverse flow from

the line into the well It has a hinged flap which lifts to permit normal flow but

closes to prevent reverse flow

TOP ADAPTOR

The top adaptor is a fitting on top of the swab valve with a threaded connection

During normal well operations a pressure gauge is fitted to monitor flowing and

shut in wellhead pressures However during well service operations the cap can

be removed to allow installation of lubricators for wire-line operations

SCSSSV (Surface Control Sub Surface Safety Valve)

A subsurface safety valve is essentially a shutdown valve installed at the upper

wellbore for emergency shutdown to protect the production tubing and wellhead

in case of overpressure Subsurface safety valves can offer a barrier against flow

in the event of a wellhead collapse or other disastrous event Purpose of asubsurface safety valve (SSSV) is to avoid the ultimate disaster which can result

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in release of reservoir fluids to the surroundings This makes SSSV a very

important component of a well completion

A subsurface safety valve is typically a uni-directional flapper valve directed in

such a way that the flappers open downwards when pressure is applied from an

upward direction The flapper can only open in the downward direction So even if

high pressure is applied by the well fluids from a

downward direction a safety valve can remain

closed This makes a subsurface safety valve fail-

safe To open the valve hydraulic signal is sent from

the surface well control panel This hydraulic

pressure is responsible for keeping the flappers of

SSSV open and loss of hydraulic pressure result in

closing of the valve Thus wellbore can be isolated in

case of system failure or damage to the surface

facilities

Types of Christmas tree

There are two types of Christmas Tree

1 Solid block

2 Conventional

The solid block Christmas Tree has a central solid unit holding several valves

in a pre-constructed block Their advantage is the reduction in potential leak

paths and their higher pressure rating (Fig 2)

The conventional Christmas Tree is built up from individual valves bolted

together to form an assembly (Fig 3)

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Figure 2

Figure 3

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Wellhead Control Panel

Wellhead control panel is key equipment in oil amp gas industry to protect oilfield

facilities and environment from emergency incidents such as wellhead fire which

is one of main control systems to ensure oilfield oil production and transportation

to be safely operation according to international standards and national

regulation Wellhead control panel is composed of hydraulic power unit tubing amp

fitting and instrument valve and electrical control devices Hydraulic power unit

supply hydraulic resource to open and close safety valves including master

valves wing valves and SCSSSV

Its performs

Local OnOff SSV

Remote control SSV through RTU( remote terminal unit)

High-Low pressure sense shut-down automatically

Fusible Plug Anti-fire Shut-down automatically

Function of showing system pressure

Relief Valve shall be installed on each hydraulic circuit to prevent high

pressure

Function of showing hydraulic level and level switch for alarm

Function of defending pressure impact of system

Function of system pressure monitoring (by pressure transmitter of control

panel)

Function of remote emergency shut-down (by magnetic valve of control

panel)

Function of OnOff SSV monitoring (by pressure switch of control loop of

control panel)

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Chemical Injection

Chemical injection systems are commonly used in production facilities to prevent

or eliminate a wide range of problems that might negatively affect the production

flow It is done for flow assurance protection of process equipment such as

pipelines or to optimize processes in production facilities

Typical flow assurance chemicals are

Wax inhibitors

Pour point depressants

Asphaltene inhibitors

Corrosion inhibitors

A corrosion inhibitor is a chemical compound that is added to liquid or gas to

decreases the corrosion rate of a material typically a metal or an alloy The

effectiveness of a corrosion inhibitor depends on fluid composition quantity of

water and flow regime Its common mechanism involves formation of a coating

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which prevents access of the corrosive substance to the metal The corrosive

agents are generally oxygen hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide

At our production site the major risk is corrosion of piping and equipment The

maximum allowable corrosion rate is approximately 02 mm per year and

corrosion rate without inhibitor could be approximately 11 mm per year so the

corrosion protection program is designed to achieve a target corrosion rate of

less than 01 mm per year which is achieved by an inhibitor system efficiency of

99 Inhibitor is injected into the well stream flow through an atomizing nozzle

located downstream of the respective wellhead coolers at the duplexcarbon steel

interface In normal operation as per NALCO standards chemical (brand name

EC1144B) at rate of frac12 Liter per MMSCFD of gas is being injected into the flow

line of miano15 flow lines made of carbon steel Moreover the composition can

vary depending upon the composition of well fluids and material of pipeline This

method of injection ensures even distribution of the chemical on the interior

surface of the pipeline The individual well sites are equipped with Chemical

Injection Packages comprising of a stainless steel storage tank and two

pneumatic motor driven pumps in parallel Instrument gas is used to drive the

pumps Normally one pump is running with the other standby

Water Conning

Water coning is a term used to describe the mechanism underlying the upward

movement of water into the perforations of a producing well Coning can seriously

impact the well productivity and influence the degree of depletion and the overall

recovery efficiency of the reservoir The specific problems of water coning are

listed below

Costly added water handling

Gas production from the original or secondary gas cap reduces pressure

Reduced efficiency of the depletion mechanism

The water is often corrosive and its disposal costly

The affected well may be abandoned early

Loss of the total field overall recovery

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Therefore conning has an important influence on operations recovery and

economics The phenomena is shown in picture below

Corrosion

Corrosion is referred as chemical deterioration of a metal Commonly this

means loss of electrons of metals reacting with water and oxygen

Weakening of iron due to oxidation of the iron atoms is a well-known

example of electrochemical corrosion This is commonly known as

rust Most structural alloys corrode merely from exposure to moisture

in the air but the process can be strongly affected by exposure to

certain substances Corrosion can be concentrated locally to form a pit

or crack or it can extend across a wide area to produce general

deterioration (uniform corrosion)

The following reaction takes place at the active sites

2Fe =gt 2Fe++ + 4e-

The free electrons travel through the metal path to the less active sites where

the following reaction takes place

O2 + 4e- + 2H20 =gt 4 OH-

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Recombination of these ions at the active surface produce the following

reaction which yields the iron-corrosion product ferrous hydroxide

2Fe + O2 + 2H2O =gt 2Fe (OH) 2

CORROSION PROTECTION SYSTEM

Coatings and painting

Painting and the application of enamel bitumen and PVC

coating are the most common anti-corrosion treatments They

work by providing a barrier of corrosion-resistant material

between the damaging environment and the structural material

Corrosion Inhibitors

Corrosion inhibitor is injected into the flow lines as mentioned in

detail on page 8

Cathodic Protection

Cathodic Protection (CP) is a technique used to control the corrosion of a

metal surface by making it the cathode of an electrochemical cell It

converts all of the anodic (active) sites on the metal surface to cathodic

(passive) sites by supplying electrical current (or free electrons) from an

alternate source It is accomplished in two ways

a) A simple method of protection connects protected metal to a more easily

corroded sacrificial metal to act as the anode The sacrificial metal then

corrodes instead of the protected metal The process is similar to a simple

DC cell in which the more active metal becomes the anode and corrodes

whereas the less active metal becomes the cathode and is protected

b) For larger structures galvanic anodes cannot economically deliver enough

current to provide protection Therefore impressed current cathodic

protection (ICCP) systems are used These consist of anodes connected

to a DC power source In remote areas power sources such as solar

panels may be used The output DC negative terminal is connected to the

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frequently to limit liquid holdup and minimize the slug volumes of liquid which can

be generated by the system

Coating

Pigs may be used to apply internal pipe coatings such as epoxy coating

materials in operating pipelines Pigs may also be used with corrosion inhibitors

to distribute and coat the entire internal wetted perimeter

Inspection

Pigs are being used more frequently as inspection tools Gauging or sizing pigs

are typically run following the completion of new construction or line repair to

determine if there are any internal obstacles bends or buckles in the pipe Pigs

can also be equipped with cameras to allow viewing of the pipe internals

Electronic intelligent or smart ldquopigsrdquo that use magnetic and ultrasonic systems

have been developed and refined that locate and measure internal and external

corrosion pitting dents buckles and any other anomalies in the pipe wall

Intelligent pigs

The accuracy of location and measurement of anomalies by the intelligent pigs

has continued to improve Initially the electronics and power systems were so

large that intelligent pigs could be used only in lines 30 in and greater in size

The continued sophistication and miniaturization of the electronic systems used

in the intelligent pigs has allowed the development of smaller pigs that can be

used in small-diameter pipelines Newly enacted DOT pipeline-integrity

regulations and rules acknowledge the effectiveness of the intelligent pigs and

incorporate their use in the pipeline-integrity testing process

Compressors

A gas compressor is a mechanical device that increases the pressure of a gas by

reducing its volume Gas pressure is increased by forcing gas molecules together

to reduce gas volume When volume is reduced gas pressure increases

All gases have large spaces among their molecules These spaces could be

enhanced further and decreased by doing some work Work done which is used

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for the enhancement of these spaces is called expansion and work done to

minimize these spaces is called compression All gases while expansion

produces cooling effect and while compression of gases raises there

temperature Compression is a term used to force gases to occupy smaller

volumes by increasing their pressure Volume of gases is interlinked with

temperature and pressure of the gas which is cleared by 2 laws govern gas

compressions

Boyles Law

Charles Law

The main types of compressor are listed below

Front End Compressor

The plant currently processes gas from a number of wells The flow and pressure

from some of these wells (currently K-10 K-11 amp K-12) has declined and they

cannot be fed directly into the Central Processing Facility To recover the

maximum gas reserves from these wells a Front End Compressor is employed

The compressor is a two stage double acting gas engine driven reciprocating

(PT) compressor Double acting means that gas is compressed on each end of

the piston It normal operates with a speed range of 600 to 900 RPM and isequipped with four compressor cylinders two for each stage Each cylinder is

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also equipped with a variable volume head end pocket

In case of compressor emergency shutdown the production chokes and the

Upper Master Valves on the on line wells will close and operator will be notified in

central control room Sweet gas from gas distribution network is used to operate the

gas engine driver of the compressor package The detailed scheme of working is

shown in figure (page 22 )

PT Reciprocating Compressor

The mechanical cycle of piston tube reciprocating compressor comprises four

strokes the expansion stroke the intake stroke the compression stroke and the

discharge stroke

Expansion Stroke

As the piston moves back on the expansion stroke the chamber volume

increases and the pressure drop As the pressure drops the discharge valve

closes since there is greater pressure in the discharge line than in the chamber

Intake Stroke

As the piston moves back during the intake stroke the pressure decreases until it

is less than the pressure in the inlet line This higher intake pressure opens the

inlet valve and gas rushes into the cylinder equalizing the pressure there with

the intake pressure The compression chamber is now at or near the intake

pressure

Compression Stroke

The piston now starts the compression stroke by moving forward decreasing the

chamber volume and increasing the pressure The increased pressure is now

higher than the intake pressure causing the intake valve to close

Discharge Stroke

The piston continues to move to the left during the discharge stroke This creates

an increase in chamber pressure until it is greater than the discharge pressure

When this happens the Discharge valve opens and the compressed air from the

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cylinder goes into the discharge line The compression cycle is then repeated

from the stage

Compressor Capacity

The capacity of the compressor depends upon cylinder displacement That

displacement is simply the volume that the piston displaces (moves) as it travels

from one end of the cylinder to the other Capacity and displacement is equal to

the cross-sectional area of the cylinder times the length of the stroke

Lubrication and Cooling

Lubricating oil is circulated through the system by a gear pump which is chain

driven from the engine crank shaft The oil pump is mounted on the engine front

housing

The pump operates between 30 - 40 psig

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A circulating pump deliver cooling water to the water jackets in the cylinder block

flowing around the cylinder liners and is directed into the cylinder heads Each

cylinder head has water cooled exhaust elbows which outlet the water into the

water cooled exhausts From the end of engine the water flows to compressor

1st and 2nd stage cylinders and compressor lube oil cooler (LOwater heat

exchanger) The water from the compressor cylinder and lube oil cooler returns

to engine water cooled exhaust

Figure Flow diagram of Front End Compressor

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Centrifugal Compressor

Centrifugal compressors are machines in which velocity and pressure given to air

or gas in a radial direction by one or more impellers diffuser combination In a

centrifugal compressor the mechanical energy is increased by centrifugal action

The gas enters the suction eye of a high speed rotary element called the impeller

which carries radial vanes integrally cast in it As the impeller rotates the blades

of the impeller force the gas outward from the center the impeller to the outer rim

of impeller the increase in velocity of the gas creates a flow pressure area at the

eye of the impeller The gas at the outer rim of the impeller is forced in to a

passage way called a diffuser where the velocity decreases in the pressure of the

gas

Inlet

The inlet to a centrifugal compressor is typically a simple pipe It may include

features such as a valve and both pressure and temperature instrumentation

Centrifugal impeller

The key component that makes a compressor centrifugal is the centrifugal

impeller shown above It is the impellers rotating set of vanes (or blades) that

gradually raises the energy of the working gas This is identical to an axial

compressor with the exception that the gases can reach higher velocities and

energy levels through the impellers increasing radius

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Diffuser

The next key component to the simple centrifugal compressor is the diffuser

Downstream of the impeller in the flow path it is the diffusers responsibility to

convert the kinetic energy (high velocity) of the gas into pressure by gradually

slowing (diffusing) the gas velocity

SEPERATORS

A well-stream is a mixture of gases hydrocarbon liquids water solids and

contaminants Due to variations in pressure and temperature gases evolve from

the liquids water vapor condenses and some of the well-stream changes to liquid

and free gas The separation of well-stream fluids takes place in a separator This

pressure vessel is manufactured in three forms

1 horizontal

2 vertical

3 spherical

To help separation the vessel is normally designed with a series of internal

fittings These fittings are built into the separator to ensure total phase separation

of the well-stream

In gas plants separators are given alternative names due to the function they

perform in the process system A scrubber does a similar job to a knockout drum

However the scrubber usually separates a stream containing high gas-to-liquid

ratios The knockout drum is used where a high degree of liquids are entrained in

the gas

Fluid flow from a well can include gas condensable liquid vapors water water

vapor crude oil and solids As well-stream fluids reach ground level where

pressure is lower than in the reservoir the capacity of the liquid to hold gas in

solution decreases and gas separates out of the oil

Separation depends upon the effect of gravity to separate liquids For adequate

separation one fluid must be lighter than the other fluid For example distillates

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(gasoline kerosene etc) and crude oil will not separate in a vessel because they

tend to dissolve in each other Because a separator basically depends upon

gravity to separate the fluids the ease with which separation takes place

depends upon the difference in density of the fluids

Droplets of liquid will separate from gas provided

a) The gas remains in the separator long enough

b) The gas flow remains constant to provoke separation

The difference in density between a gas and liquid will therefore determine the

maximum flow rate of liquid in the vessel

Figure Two phase horizontal separator

Gas bubbles in the liquid will break out in some oil field applications in 30 to 60

seconds Consequently the separator is designed so that the liquid remains in

the vessel for 30 to 60 seconds The length of time that a liquid remains in the

vessel is called its residence time Residence time differs widely from field to field

depending upon viscosity and API Gravity

Another important factor which must be considered is temperature Generally a

decrease in operating temperature will increase the liquid recovery in a separator

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as the gas condenses By reducing the pressure on the fluid flash separation

occurs resulting in a flow through the separator which is controlled by external

instrumentation

COALESCENCE

Another important principle in fluid separation is that of coalescence This means

the coming together of liquid droplets created by the force of gravity

A common example of coalescing occurs when drops of water form on the

windshield of a car as it is driven in fog As the tiny drops or water which make up

the fog strike the windshield they combine and eventually form a drop large

enough to run down the glass

Several of the internal devices of a separator such as deflector plates

straightening vanes and even the vessel walls are forms of coalescers In each

vessel drops of liquid adhere to the surface of the device and combine with other

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drops until the drop is large enough to fall out The effectiveness of separation

will also depend upon the total amount of coalescing surface area that is present

There are many different types of separators used in the Oil amp Gas industry

Consequently separators are manufactured with one two or several internal

fittings depending on their use and quick removal of these fluids from the vessel

DEFLECTOR PLATES

These are fitted in front of the inlet to the separator and can be net or

dish-shaped Their purpose is to absorb the impact of the incoming fluids and to

encourage the separation of gas and liquids They also slow the flow rate of the

liquids through the vessel

WEIRS

A weir is a metal wall which is fitted across the inside of the vessel normally to a

height of 50 of the overall height of the separator Its purpose is to assist the

process of three phase separation The inlet fluids (oil plus water) are given time

to separate in the liquid accumulation section The water level (interface) is

normally controlled at 50 of the height of the weir Oil floating on the wateroverflows the weir and accumulates in the small oil compartment where it is

drawn off under level control

CENTRIFUGAL DEVICES

These are used in both vertical and horizontal separators for gas-liquid

separation The device imparts a swirling motion to the fluids entering the vessel

Centrifugal force causes the heavier liquids to travel outwards towards the walls

of the vessel and the lighter gases to flow up the centre Centrifugal devices are

also known as cyclones

VORTEX BREAKERS

When liquid flows through a drain outlet a vortex (whirlpool) will form This can

be seen when we pull the plug from a sink or bath tub The same would happen

as water and oil flow from the separator This condition a vortex could allow gas

to flow down the centre of the whirlpool and enter the liquid phase causing

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pressurizing of tanks etc To stop this happening vortex breakers are fitted to all

liquid outlets Although they come in a number of different designs vortex

breakers all serve the same purpose - to prevent a whirlpool from forming

MIST OR DEMISTER PADS

The gas which is released from the fluids in the separator still contains droplets of

oil and water which coalesce and fall when the drops get large enough The

demister pad assists in this process Made from knitted wire and contained within

a sturdy frame it causes the gas to continually change its direction of flow

Because gas changes direction far easier than liquid the gas will flow around

each strand of wire whilst the liquid entrained in the gas stream will continue and

stick to the wire

COALESCING PLATES

There are several different forms of coalescing devices the most common of

which are coalescing plates These plates are mounted in the flow stream of the

fluids and assist in breaking down oil-water emulsions The fluid is forced to

follow a path that constantly changes direction This causes the water droplets to

gather together or coalesce and fall to the bottom of the separator The same

principle is used to separate gas and oil mixtures when the oil droplets are

induced to coalesce Simply stated every surface within the separator including

the separator walls assists with the coalescing process

STRAIGHTENlNG VANES

These are often fitted to horizontal separators to remove turbulence in the gas

stream after initial separation at the inlet deflector

FLOAT SHEILD

Internal floats are used as level controllers Any agitation of the liquid surface or

the effect of coalesced liquids falling on the float may cause control problems

Therefore a float shield is fitted to enclose the float creating an area of still liquid

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MEMBRANES

The gas contains 12 carbon dioxide and 22 ppm of hydrogen sulphide at 115oF

and 1100 psig This needs to be removed before the gas can be exported The

majority of carbon dioxide hydrogen sulphide and water is removed by means of

membranes

Membranes are thin semipermeable barriers that selectively separate some

compounds from others Currently the only commercially workable membranes

used for CO2 removal are polymer based for example cellulose acetate

polyimides polyamides polysulfone polycarbonates and polyetherimide The

membrane does not operate as a filter where small molecules are separated

from larger ones through a medium with pores rather it separates based on how

well different compounds dissolve into the membrane and diffuse through it The

membranes are manufactured in flat sheets consisting of an extremely thin

nonporous layer mounted on a much-thicker and highly porous layer of the same

material providing mechanical strength The flat sheets are combined into a

spiral-wound element (Figure below) Feed gas enters along the side of the

membrane and passes through the feed spacers As the gas travels between

membrane sheets CO2 H2S and H2O permeate through the membrane and are

collected in the permeate tube The driving force for transport is the high-feed

pressure and low-permeate pressures The gas on the feed side that does not

permeate leaves through the side of the element opposite the feed position Once

the membranes have been manufactured into elements six to 12 elements are

joined together and inserted into a tube Multiple tubes are mounted on skids in a

horizontal orientation

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Figure Membrane general Working

In high H2S applications most polymers have been shown to have very little

resistance to H2S plasticization (ldquosofteningrdquo of the membrane) and as a

consequence can only be used at very low H2S partial pressure limits Cellulose

acetate membranes in contrast have been shown to be applicable at extreme

H2S partial pressure conditions It is these membranes that have been utilized in

the testing to determine the limits of membrane performance in high H 2S

applications

The primary membranes used in Kadanwari facility are Cellulose acetate

Cellulose acetic acid and acetic anhydride are mixed together and reacted to

form cellulose acetate polymers This process is aided by the addition of a small

amount of sulfuric acid which is subsequently neutralized during processing

However the membranes are bought from UOP (vendor) and installed for use

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How membrane work

The basic principle of separation is selectivity of certain components of a mixture

for the membrane For example the cellulose acetate membrane has very high

selectivity for CO2 and H2S as compared to CH4 Therefore such type of

membrane can be used in gas sweetening process

The selectivity is directly related to the Permeability of gas which accounts that

which gas can pass across the membrane more easily In simple words

membranes being polymer materials are made of long chains of molecules The

different structure of polymer materials only allow selective molecules to pass

through them depending upon chemical and physical compatibility Thus

permeability depends upon choice of polymer

The permeability is determined by permeability coefficient (P) and is product of

solubility (S) and diffusivity (D)

P = S D

Solubility

The solubility is mainly determined by ease of condensation Heavy molecules

are more readily condensed Therefore higher molecular weighted molecules will

more easily condensed and therefore have greater solubility

Molecule Molecular weight

CH4 16

H2S 34

CO2 44

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Diffusivity

Diffusivity is ease of molecule to penetrate into some material It depends on size

of gas molecule Here size of molecule is not to be confused by molecular weight

it is the size of the structure Eg the size of O2 molecule is smaller than N2

Molecule Molecular Diameter (Ao)

CO2 33

H2S 36

Ch4 40

For cellulose acetate

DCO2DCH4 S CO2S CH4 P CO2P CH4

45 73 308

Chemical degradation

Cellulose acetate polymer is chemically degraded by a process called hydrolysis

which means breaking apart by the addition of water This is a chemical reaction

in which water is added to the cellulose acetate polymer causing the release of

acetic acid molecules This process proceeds stepwise until all the acetate

groups are released resulting in the reformation of cellulose Moreover alcohols

aromatic hydrocarbons or solvents with chlorine nitro benzene or similar

aromatic solvents will harm the membrane It will expand and lose plastification in

contact with them

Effect of Temperature

The permeation rates of all gases increases with increasing temperature

however membrane selectivity for CO2 over hydrocarbon decreases at higher

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temperature Consequently CO2 removal will improve as operating temperature

increases but hydro carbon recovery will decrease

Primary Membrane

The primary membranes comprise of two trains Each train consists of two

sections AB and CD each section consists of a 30 tube membrane skid (A and

C) followed by a 25 tube skid (B and D) The conditioned gas (after pre-

treatment) enters the primary membrane via the particulate filter adjacent to the

skid The gas is fed to the membranes through a common inlet manifold which

supplies primary membranes skids A and C A pressure control loop located

upstream of the manual inlet isolation valve is provided to maintain a constant

supply pressure to the membrane skid and to allow for preheating at the inlet

prior to skid start-up This pressure control loop can also be used during start-up

to control the pressurization of the pretreatment skid and associated pipes to the

primary membranes

The gas passes through membrane skid A the residual gas exiting the membrane

skid is sent to skid B and the permeate to common permeate discharge header An

identical arrangement is provide on the inlet to skid C as provided on skid A Theresidual gas from skid B combines with the residual gas from skid D in a common

discharge header and is then sent to the H2S polishing towers via the feed coolers

on the pre-treatment skid The permeate from skid B is sent to the common

permeate discharge header The permeate discharge header sends the gas to

either the recycle compressor or the vent header via a pressure control loop

Overpressure protection for the membranes is provided by a pressure safety valve

on the supply header to the membrane banks

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Secondary (Recycle) Membrane

The recycle membranes comprise of a single train with two skids each with four

banks of membrane tubes The conditioned gas from the discharge of the recycle

pre-treatment skid is routed to the first recycle membrane skid The gas passes

through the membranes the residual gas is fed to primary membrane (skid A) inlet

via feed gas cooler and permeate to the common permeate discharge header An

identical arrangement is provide on the inlet to skid B Permeate from the recycle

membrane skids A and B is routed to the vent header Some portion of permeate is

heated and sent for regeneration in Mem-Guard units Nitrogen purge can be

connected downstream of the inlet isolation valve on each skid to enable the

membrane tubes to be purged and left pressurized during prolonged shutdown

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Figure Flow Diagram of Recycle membrane unit

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ADVANTAGES OF MEMBRANE SYSTEMS

Membrane systems have major advantages over more-traditional methods of

acid gas removal

Lower capital cost Membrane systems are skid mounted and so the

scope cost and time taken for site preparation are minimal Installation

costs are significantly lower than alternative technologies especially for

remote areas Furthermore no additional facilities for solvent storage and

water treatment needed by other processes are required

Lower operating costs The only major operating cost for single-stage

membrane systems is membrane replacement This cost is significantly

lower than the solvent replacement and energy costs associated with

traditional technologies The improvements in membrane and

pretreatment design allow a longer useful membrane life which further

reduces operating costs The energy costs of multistage systems with

large recycle compressors are usually comparable to those for traditionaltechnologies

Deferred capital investment Often contracted sales-gas flow rates

increase over time as more wells are brought on-line With traditional

technologies the system design needs to take this later production into

account immediately and so the majority of the equipment is installed

before it is even needed The modular nature of membrane systems

means that only the membranes that are needed at start-up need be

installed The rest can be added either into existing tubes or in new skids

only when they are required

Operational simplicity and high reliability Because single-stage

membrane systems have no moving parts they have almost no

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unscheduled downtime and are extremely simple to operate They can

operate unattended for long periods of time The addition of a recycle

compressor adds some complexity to the system but still much less than

with a solvent- or adsorbent-based technology Multistage systems can be

operated at full capacity as single-stage systems when the recycle

compressor is down

Good weight and space efficiency Skid construction can be optimized

to the space available This space efficiency is especially important for

offshore environments where deck area is at a premium and is the

reason why so many new offshore developments have chosen to use

membranes for acid gas removal Figure 6 illustrates the space efficiency

of membrane systems The membrane unit in the lower left corner

replaced all the amine and glycol plant equipment shown in the rest of the

picture

Adaptability Because membrane area is dictated by the percentage of

acid gas removal rather than absolute acid gas removal small variations

in feed acid gas content hardly change the sales-gas acid gas

specification For example a system designed for 10 down to 3 acid

gas removal produces a 35 product from a 12 feed gas and a 5

product from a 15 feed gas

Design efficiency The membrane and pretreatment systems integrate a

number of operations such as dehydration CO2 and H2S removal dew-

point control and mercury removal Traditional acid gas removal

technologies require all of these operations as separate processes and

may also require additional dehydration because some technologies

saturate the product stream with water

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Power generation The permeate gas from membrane systems can be

used to provide fuel gas for power generation either for a recycle

compressor or other equipment

Ideal for debottlenecking Because expanding solvent- or adsorbent-

based acid gas removal plants without adding additional trains is difficult

an ideal solution is to use membranes for bulk acid gas removal and leave

the existing plant for final cleanup An additional advantage is that the

permeate gas from the membrane system can often be used as fuel for

the existing plant thus avoiding significant increase in hydrocarbon

losses

Environmentally friendly Membrane systems do not involve the

periodic removal and handling of spent solvents or adsorbents Permeate

gases can be flared used as fuel or re-injected into the well Items thatdo need disposal such as spent membrane elements can be incinerated

Ideal for remote locations Many of the factors mentioned above make

membrane systems a highly desirable technology for remote locations

where spare parts are rare and labor unskilled Furthermore solvents

storage and trucking water supply power generation or extensive

infrastructure are not required

Re-injection optimizations Since the permeate stream from the

membrane system can be operated at elevated pressures it is possible to

further pressurize by re-injection compression train

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Sorption

Sorption is a physical and chemical process by which one substance becomes

attached to another

It is of two main types

1 Absorption

2 Adsorption

Absorption

Absorption is a physical or chemical phenomenon or process in which atoms

molecules or ions enter some bulk phase ndash gas liquid or solid material This is a

different process from adsorption since molecules undergoing absorption are

taken up by the volume not by the surface (as in the case for adsorption)

Absorption process may be chemical (reactive) or physical (non-reactive)

Physical absorption

Physical absorption or non-reactive absorption is made between two phases ofmatter a liquid absorbs a gas or a solid absorbs a liquid

When a liquid solvent absorbs a gas mixture or part of it a mass of gas moves

into the liquid For example water may absorb oxygen from the air This mass

transfer takes place at the interface between the liquid and the gas at a rate

depending on both the gas and the liquid This type of absorption depends on the

solubility of gases the pressure and the temperature The rate and amount of

absorption also depend on the surface area of the interface and its duration in

time

When a solid absorbs a liquid mixture or part of it a mass of liquid moves into the

solid For example a clay pot used to store water may absorb some of the water

This mass transfer takes place at the interface between the solid and the liquid

at a rate depending on both the solid and the liquid

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Chemical absorption

Chemical absorption or reactive absorption is a chemical reaction between the

absorbed and the absorbing substances Sometimes it combines with physical

absorption This type of absorption depends upon the stoichiometry of the

reaction and the concentration of its reactants

Adsorption

Adsorption is the adhesion of atoms ions or molecules from a gas liquid or

dissolved solid to a surface This process creates a film of the adsorbate on the

surface of the adsorbent The binding to the surface is usually weak and

reversible Compounds with color and those that have taste or odor tend to bind

strongly Compounds that vibrate at frequencies in the visible spectrum are very

often are strongly adsorbed on activated carbon

The most common industrial adsorbents are activated carbon silica gel and

alumina because they present enormous surface areas per unit weight

Depending on the nature of attractive forces existing between the adsorbate and

adsorbent adsorption can be classified as

i) Physical adsorption

ii) Chemical adsorption

i) Physical adsorption (Physisorption)

In physical adsorption the forces of attraction between the molecules of the

adsorbate and the adsorbent are of the weak van der Waals type Since the

forces of attraction are weak the process of physisorption can be easily reversed

by heating or decreasing the pressure of the adsorbate (as in the case of gases)

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ii) Chemical adsorption (Chemisorption)

In chemisorption the forces of attraction between the adsorbate and the

adsorbent are very strong the molecules of adsorbate form chemical bonds with

the molecules of the adsorbent present in the surface

Adsorption is generally accompanied by release of energy that is most

adsorption processes are exothermic in nature Adsorption is a spontaneous

process therefore its free energy change is negative (∆Glt0) However the

entropy change associated with adsorption is generally negative because the

adsorbate molecules lose their translation freedom when they get attached to the

surface of the adsorbent Therefore in order for ∆G to be negative the enthalpy

change (∆H) must be sufficiently negative such that (∆G=∆H-T∆S) lt 0 This

explanation accounts for exothermic adsorption processes In cases where

endothermic adsorption occurs the entropy change ∆S is sufficiently positive

such that ∆G remains negative

Pre treatment

The main function of pretreatment skid is to provide membrane inlet specification

gas as mentioned by the vendor UOP It removes the contaminants that would

poison the membranes like dust solids (adsorbent particles) lube oil heavy

hydrocarbons etc It consists of

Feed Cooler

Feed Gas Scrubber

Filter Coalescer

Feed Gas Heater

Activated Carbon Guard Filter

Particle Filter

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The regeneration is carried out by heated permeate gas from the recycle

membranes at 450oF The vessel is depressurized to 20 psi and heated gas is

introduced from top The gas carries out the adsorbed contaminants and leaves

the vessel from bottom cleaning the adsorbent This contaminated gas is burnt in

the flare

UOP the vendor of Memguard unit has never disclosed that what substance

MG3 and MG5 exactly are But as mentioned by vendor that both care class of

aluminosilicates Therefore MG3 can be potassium aluminosilicate and MG5 can

be Calcium aluminosilicate These are molecular sieves adsorbents Molecular

sieves are a microporous material which can selectively adsorb gases andliquids They are synthetic zeolites (crystalline metal aluminosilicates) which

upon dehydration can efficiently and selectively remove water or other

solvents The selectivity of a molecular sieve is determined by its pore size

molecules with a critical diameter which is less than the pore size will be

efficiently adsorbed while larger molecules will be excluded

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3A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

The 3A molecular sieve adsorbent has a 3 angstrom (3A) pore size which means

that any molecule that is larger than the 3 angstrom pores will not be adsorbed

The 3A molecular sieve is the potassium type of A crystalline structure and is a

form of alkali Aluminosilicate For a 3A molecular sieve the sequence rate that

adsorption occurs is He Ne N and H2O

Due to the crystalline structure molecular sieves that have a 3 angstrom pore

size have a very high rate of adsorption and properties that promote a longer life

for products treated by the sieve The most common use for the 3A molecular

sieve is to remove water and moisture from materials that are in gas and liquid

form

5A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

These are molecular sieve adsorbents with a pore size of 5 angstrom (5A) 5A

molecular sieves are unable to adsorb any molecules or impurities that are

smaller than 5A It is calcium form of type A crystalline structure and is form of analkali-aluminosilicate that is most commonly used to separate isomerous alkanes

from normal alkanes and to co-adsorb moisture and water along with carbon

dioxide from gases In additional 5A molecular sieves are used for gaseous

pressure swing adsorption (PSA)mdashthat is to separate particular gases from other

gases

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of C3H8 to C22H46

Adsorption of Freon-12 (dichlorodifluoromethane)

Natural gas drying

Normal- and iso-paraffin separation

Separation of aromatic

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Inlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1096

MEHTANE 8593

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008

N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGEN 076

WATER 007

Outlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1098

MEHTANE 8608

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGENT 076

WATER 000

H2S polisher

The H2S polishing unit has been designed to treat 187 MMscfday of natural gas

containing up to 11 CO2 and 21 ppm H2S where the level of the CO2 and H2S

is reduced using a MemGuard Membrane separation unit The unit is situated

down-stream of the membrane unit and will further reduce the level of H2S in the

processed gas to a sales gas specification of 38 ppm

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This process uses three non-regenerable fixed bed absorber vessels using a low

temperature high activity absorbent The absorbent is a mixture of activated

metal oxides (mainly zinc oxide) The three towers can are generally operated in

parallel arrangement but on demand can be used in series (any of alternate

arrangements of A B C vessels) as shown in figure

The higher sales gas flow rate increased the catalyst consumption and

replacement frequency

ZnO + H2S =gt ZnS + H20

Routine samples are taken from the beds to provide a check on each bed

performance and to follow the saturation profile during the absorbent life After

the adsorbent has been fully utilized the adsorption vessels are recharged with

new adsorbent discarding the utilized one in a safe manner

109oF

1215 psig

Before H2S Polishing After H2S Polishing

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Figure

H2S Tower

Inlet pipe

4 Drums of 19mm

ceramic Balls

6 Micron mesh

5 Drums of 50mmceramic

1 Drums of19mm ceramic

01 Drums of6mm ceramic

112 drums of

Catalist ZnO

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Recycle Compressor

The permeate gas of the primary membrane unit carries recoverable amount of

CH4 It is fed to recycle membrane unit for further CH 4 recovery But the

permeate pressure from primary membranes which has been reduced to 12 psi

must be regenerated to 1200 psi for the gas to be fed again to the system For

this purpose we have employed recycle compressor The compressor is a four

stage centrifugal compressor It is driven by gas turbine of 31200 HP It has 25

MW producing capacity

Figure Recycle Compressor Process Flow Diagram

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Sales Gas Compressor

Gas from H2S polishing unit is sent to sales gas compressor where its pressure

is enhanced to 1100 psi so it may be injected to SNGPL high pressure trunk line

Sales gas compressor is single stage gas turbine driven

Figure Process Flow of Sales Gas Compressor

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Cooling Towers

A cooling tower is a heat rejection device which extracts waste heat to theatmosphere through the cooling of a water stream to a lower temperature Hot

water from the system enters the cooling tower and is distributed over the fill

(heat transfer surface) Air is induced or forced through the fill causing a small

portion of the water to evaporate This evaporation removes heat from the

remaining water which is collected in the cold water basin and returned to the

system to absorb more heat Each cooling tower line although operating under

the same basic principle of operation is arranged a little differently

Types

Natural draft mdash Utilizes buoyancy via a tall chimney Warm moist air naturally

rises due to the density differential compared to the dry cooler outside air Warm

moist air is less dense than drier air at the same pressure This moist air

buoyancy produces an upwards current of air through the tower

Mechanical draft mdash Uses power-driven fan motors to force or draw airthrough the tower

o Induced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a fan at the

discharge (at the top) which pulls air up through the tower The fan

induces hot moist air out the discharge This produces low entering

and high exiting air velocities reducing the possibility of

recirculation in which discharged air flows back into the air intake

o Forced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a blower type fan at

the intake The fan forces air into the tower creating high entering

and low exiting air velocities The low exiting velocity is much more

susceptible to recirculation This fanfill geometry is also known as

blow-through

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Forced Draft Cooling Tower Vs Induced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower have the ability to handle large water flow

rate than Forced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower is suitable for large cell sizes and fan sizes

as compared with Forced Draft Larger fan size may result in greater

efficiency and consequently lower power and sound level

Forced Draft Cooling Tower can be square or rectangular type only

however Induced Draft Cooling Towers can be round square or

rectangular type

Induced Draft Cooling Tower uses more compact ground area than Forced

Draft Cooling Tower equivalent capacity due to absence of fan on one

side

Fan equipment is warm exhaust air is less liable to icing up in winter

operation (Cold Countries)

Higher velocity in Forced Draft Cooling Tower cause drop in suspension

and cause additional static resistance to system

Configuration

There are two main configurations of factory assembled cooling towers crossflow

and counterflow In crossflow cooling towers the water flows vertically down the

fill as air flows horizontally across In counterflow cooling towers the water flows

vertically down the fill as air flows vertically up

Crossflow Configuration Counterflow Configuration

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Drift mdash Water droplets that are carried out of the cooling tower with the exhaust

air Drift droplets have the same concentration of impurities as the water entering

the tower The drift rate is typically reduced by employing baffle-like devices

called drift eliminators through which the air must travel after leaving the fill and

spray zones of the tower

Blow-out mdash Water droplets blown out of the cooling tower by wind generally at

the air inlet openings Water may also be lost in the absence of wind through

splashing or misting Devices such as wind screens louvers splash deflectors

and water diverters are used to limit these losses

Blow-down mdash The portion of the circulating water flow that is removed (usually

discharged to a drain) in order to maintain the amount of Total Dissolved Solids

(TDS) and other impurities at an acceptably low level Higher TDS concentration

in solution may result from greater cooling tower efficiency However the higher

the TDS concentration the greater the risk of scale biological growth and

corrosion

Make-up mdash The water that must be added to the circulating water system in

order to compensate for water losses such as evaporation drift loss blow-out

blow-down etc

Approach mdash The approach is the difference in temperature between the cooled-

water temperature and the entering-air wet bulb temperature

Range mdash The range is the temperature difference between the warm water inlet

and cooled water exit

Fill mdash Inside the tower fills are added to increase contact surface as well as

contact time between air and water to provide better heat transfer The efficiency

of the tower depends on the selection and amount of fill

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There are two types of fills that may be used

o Film type fill (causes water to spread into a thin film)

o Splash type fill (breaks up falling stream of water and interrupts its

vertical progress)

Important

Scale build up is controlled by adding chemicals to the cooling loop and diluting

the concentration by blow down and make-up Following chemicals are added to

the Cooling to control CorrosionSale and microbial growth

Corrosion Inhibitor To control corrosion in the Cooling system

Dispersant To kept ions in suspension to avoid settle down and buildup

Sodium hypo Chlorite To Control microbial Growth

Acid To control Alkalinity in the system

High Stress Polymer To run the system at higher conductivity It is a

multifunctional polymer for Zinc amp Phosphate stabilization in cooling tower

Fin Fan Cooler

Fin fan heat exchanger is simply a pressure vessel which cools a circulating fluid

within finned tubes by forcing ambient air over the exterior of the tubes A

common example of an air cooler is a carrsquos radiator Fin Fan Coolers are used in

any application where large quantities of heat need to be transferred This

includes chemical and petrochemical industries power stations waste-to-energy

facilities as well as steelworks

Fin Fan Cooler are used for two primary reasons

They increase plant efficiency

They are a green solution as compared to cooling towers and shell and

tube heat exchangers because they do not require an auxiliary water

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supply (water lost due to drift and evaporation plus no water treatment

chemicals are required)

Figure General Overview of Fin Fan Cooler

Produced Water

The produced water system receives liquid from the equipment Miano slug

catcher train 1 and 2 inlet separators and is fed to three phase separator where

water oil and gas is separated The gases produced are burnt in incinerator

whereas hydrocarbon liquid is stored to be sold Liquid from compressors

recycle inlet separator recycle feed scrubber high and low pressure slug

catchers is passed to degasser Separated water is injected down the earth

Incinerator

The term incinerate means to burn something until nothing is left but ashes An

incinerator is a unit or facility used to burn trash and other types of waste until it is

reduced to ash An incinerator is constructed of heavy well-insulated materials

so that it does not give off extreme amounts of external heat The high levels of

heat are kept inside the furnace or unit so that the waste is burned quickly and

efficiently If the heat were allowed to escape the waste would not burn as

completely or as rapidly

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Control System

The plant is controlled at CCR (Central Control Room) by PLCs (Programmable

Logic Controllers) through fiber optic control line All control parameters are

received at LER (Local Equipment Room) via two optic fiber control lines One

being primary and other secondary operating in redundancy ie if primary fails

control shifts to secondary These control parameters are sent to CCR via single

optic fiber cable

Safety System

Wellheads and Gas Processing Plant have their own Fire amp Gas detection

systems emergency shutdown (ESD) Plant has a fault tolerant controller It is

based on Triple Modular Redundant (TMR) architecture manufactured by

Triconex The TMR system is based on three isolated parallel control systems

integrated into one system The system operates on a two out of three voting

principle which provides high integrity error free uninterrupted operation with no

single point of failure The TMR receives inputs from Process Sensors Manual

Switches Fire amp Gas Detectors Packaged Equipment Control Systems and

Product Exporting Facilities The TMR carries out cause and effect processing on

the data received and where necessary produces output signals Outputs from

the TMR are hard wired directly to ESD shutdown and blow down valve

solenoids motor control instrumentelectrical interfaces to control electrical

drives package equipment logic control systems manifold area as well as

telecoms

The operator in central control room is able to accept alarms and once the fault

has been cleared reset the input All the control systems are centralized to a

single interface All the PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers) communicate with

the servers and servers communicate with the clients through Ethernet connectivity

Centralization eases the navigation of different systems at a common interface

Emergency Shutdown

The ESD system receives inputs from field mounted instrumentation on the process

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and utility equipment and initiates executive actions appropriate to the level of ESD

The system is an Active system which is in standby and will activate when in an

alarm or fault condition The Kadanwari Gas Process Facility ESD system is

comprised of five (5) levels The emergency severity decreases with increasing ESD

level number

ESD 1

This shutdown level is automatically initiated by fire major gas leak or a detected

toxic atmosphere in the process area of the plant or manually from CCR A level 1

shutdown will cause all production to cease close all emergency shutdown

valves stop the process and shutdown of the main power generation The

emergency vent valves to the stack will open and in addition all equipment of zone 1

certified will be isolated This is the highest level of ESD and will cause the following

to occur

All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close All slowdown Valves (BDVs) on the process facility will open

All Main Gas Driven Generators will be tripped

Emergency Diesel Generator will start

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close Upper Master Valve

(UMV) Close

ESD 2

This shutdown level is activated automatically if a major process or utility failure

occurs or manually from CCR All production to the plant from the wellhead is

stopped All emergency shutdown valves trip to their fail safe position

Venting shall be as specified This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

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All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valve Close Wing Valves Close and Upper Master Valve(UMV) Close

ESD 3

The level 3 shutdown isolates and stops a single process train only Production

continues via the other train This ESD level is initiated by process conditions or

operator at local panel This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

ESD 3A Train 1 production to cease

ESD 3B Train 2 production to cease

All online wellhead choke valves go to minimum flow ie (1O )

ESD 4

A level 4 shutdown shall cease all production from an entire field either

Kadanwari or Miano upstream of the associated slug catchers ESD 4K for

Kadanwari amp ESD 4M for Miano This ESD level is initiated automatically by slug

catcher abnormal process conditions This level of ESD will cause the following

to occur

All SDVs close isolating the relevant slug catcher and its upstream gas

production facility from the Kadanwari Gas Processing Plant

All Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close and Upper MasterValves (UMV) of the relevant gas production facility Close

A parallel timer is provided to close within 10 second if not closed in given

time SSSV seals the well

ESD 5

A level 5 shutdown represents equipment shutdown for the protection of the

individual equipment without any change in the process This level of ESD is for the

protection of various pieces of equipment and is initiated by its own inputs eg

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Introduction to OMV

OMV is Austriarsquos lar gest listed industrial company As the leading oil and gas

group in Central Europe OMV is active in Refining and Marketing (RampM) in 13

countries and in Exploration and Production (EampP) OMV is active in 18 countries

on five continents In Pakistan OMV has been active as an operator and partner

since 1990 In the years to date OMV (Pakistan) has established itself as the

largest international gas producer in Pakistan with an operated volume of more

than 110000 barrels of oil equivalent per day from Kadanwari-Miano and Sawan

fields This represents about 16 of the total gas produced in Pakistan The firstsignificant achievement was the discovery of the Miano gas reservoir in the Thar

Desert of Sindh province It came about by the end of 1993 just three years after

OMV came to Pakistan The second major breakthrough came five years later ie

in 1998 from the field named Sawan again in the same area of Sindh Sawan

was and still is one of the largest discoveries of gas reserves in Pakistan In a

record nineteen months from the ground-breaking ceremony in January 2002 of

the Sawan Gas Plant OMV was able to sell its raw gas by July 2003 Parallel to

the Sawan development OMV also took over the operator-ship of the Kadanwari

Gas Processing Plant on 1st January 2003 from Lasmo currently ENI OMV

remained quite aggressive on new developments and Kadanwari plant gas

processing capacity was enhanced to 232 MMscfd while Sawan plant capacity

has been enhanced to 400 MMscfd To further meet raw gas requirements

development drilling was continued successfully for both fields Besides these

activities carried out in OMV Pakistanrsquos core area OMV is pursuing new projects

in other parts of Pakistan Health Safety and Environmental standards are

parallel to the highest international level and second to none in the local

perspective OMV has strong commitment to reduce emissions to the

environment To achieve the same an ldquoEmission Reductionrdquo project has been

initiated for Kadanwari Plant

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Scope of Plant

Carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide which fall into the category of acid gasesare commonly found in natural gas streams at levels as high as 80 In

combination with water they are highly corrosive and can rapidly destroy

pipelines and equipment unless they are partially removed or exotic and

expensive materials of construction are used Hydrogen sulfide is toxic and at

relatively modest levels can be life threatening Carbon dioxide also reduces the

heating value of a natural gas stream and wastes pipeline capacity In LNG

plants CO2 must be removed to prevent freezing in the low-temperature chillers

Therefore the composition of gas is adjusted as per limits prescribed by SNGPL

(Sui Southern Gas Pakistan Limited) and is sold to the government The gas is

injected to the SNGPL main facility at a pressure of 1100 psi

The sales gas specifications are as follows

CO2 Maximum = 3

H2S Maximum = 38 ppm

CV Minimum = 920 BtuscfWater = 7lbMMscf

OMV Kadanwai facility sale gas composition

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OMV Kadanwai facility feed gas composition

Process Description

Gas from Kadanwari High pressure wells is routed to Kadanwari High Pressure

slug catcher Gas from Kadanwari low pressure wells is routed to Kadanwari low

pressure slug catcher and is fed to 2 stage Front End Compressor (FEC) to

increase the pressure up to production pressure Gas from FEC is fed to high

pressure stream flowing into Kadanwari High Pressure slug catcher The gas

from Miano wells is fed to Miano Slug Catcher

Kadanwari and Miano gas streams after separately metered are fed to a common

header which splits into two identical skids A and B Here we will discuss one

skid in common Each skid is routed to fin fan coolers where it is cooled and fed

to Inlet separator where water and heavy hydrocarbons are removed from feed

gas The condensate from all units is sent to produce water system

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The gas then passes through pretreatment skid which consists of following units

Feed Cooler

Feed Gas Scrubber

Filter Coalescer

Feed Gas Heater

Activated Carbon Guard Filter

Particle Filter

Its main function is to remove contaminants from gas such as dust lube oils

heavy hydrocarbons etc which may poison or reduce efficiency of membrane

unit

After pretreatment gas is fed to Molecular Sieve Absorbers (Memguard Units)

which ensures gas supplied to membranes is up to membrane standards of UOP

(vendor of membrane system) It removes all moisture and heavy hydrocarbons

from gas stream

Pretreated gas is now fed to the primary membranes The permeate stream (rich

in CO2) is sent to recycle membranes after passing through recycle compressor

and recycle pretreatment The permeate stream of recycle membranes is used as

regenerative medium for Memguard units and rest is sent to incinerator and

burnt The residual gas (rich in CH4) from primary membrane and recycle

membranes (all skids) is sent to H2S polishers via a common header

H2S polisher unit reduce the hydrogen sulfide level to the sales limit The gas is

now metered after compressing in sales gas compressor and is sent to SNGPL

trunk line after metering

Water is remove from condensate at produced water system by a three phase

separator The condensate is sold to refinery Major quantity is exported to

various industries

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Figure Overall plant Process Flow Diagram

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Wellhead

A wellhead is the component at the surface of an oil or gas well that provides the

structural and pressure-containing interface for the drilling and production

equipment Its function is to maintain surface control of the well It forms a seal to

prevent well fluids from leaking or blowing at the surface They are rated for

working pressure of 2000 psi to 15000 psi (or greater)

When the well has been drilled and it is ready to provide an interface with the

reservoir rock and a tubular channel for the well fluids The surface pressure

control is provided by a Christmas tree which is installed on top of the wellhead

with valves and choke equipment to control the flow of well fluids during

production

Christmas tree

A Christmas tree is an assembly of valves spools and fittings used for an oil

well gas well water injection well gas injection well condensate well and other

types of wells

The primary function of a tree is to control the flow usually oil or gas out of the

well When the well and facilities are ready to produce and receive oil or gas tree

valves are opened and the formation fluids are allowed to go through a flow line

This leads to a processing facility A tree often provides numerous additional

functions including chemical injection points well intervention means pressure

relief means monitoring points (such as pressure temperature corrosion

erosion sand detection flow rate flow composition valve and choke position

feedback) and connection points for devices such as down hole pressure andtemperature transducers (DHPT) On producing wells chemicals or alcohols or

oil distillates may be injected to preclude production problems (such as

blockages)

The control system attached to the tree controls the down-hole safety valve

(SCSSV) while the tree acts as an attachment and means of the control system

to the down-hole safety valve

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Figure 1

Well Head and Christmas Tree

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Master Valves

The two lower valves are called the master valves Master valves are normally in

the fully open position and are never opened or closed when the well is flowing

(except in an emergency) to prevent erosion of the valve sealing surfaces They

are gate type valves

1 Lower Master Valve (LMV)

2 Upper Master Valve (UMV)

The lower master valve will normally be manually operated while the upper

master valve is often hydraulically actuated allowing it to be used as a means of

remotely shutting in the well in the event of emergency

Wing Valve

A wing valve is normally used to shut in the well when flowing thus preserving

the master valves for positive shut off for maintenance purposes The wing

valve can be a gate valve or ball valve Hydraulic operated wing valves are

usually built to be fail safe closed meaning they require active hydraulic pressure

to stay open This feature means that if control fluid fails the well will

automatically shut itself in without operator action

In Kadanwari well sites there is only one manually operated wing valve On the

other hand at Miano well sites there are two wing valves one being operated

manually and other hydraulically

Production Wing Valve

The right hand valve is often called the flow wing valve or the production wing

valve because it provides flow path for hydrocarbons to production facility

Kill wing valve

The left hand valve is often called the kill wing valve It is primarily used for

injection of fluids such as corrosion inhibitors or methanol to prevent hydrate

formation It is typically manually operated It can kill the well temporarily be

injection brine solution which provides a pressure head to well and temporarily

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suspends it for maintenance of well head Also it is used to permanently kill the

well A chemical is injected down the well that seals the piping down the well and

kills the well permanently

Swab valve

The swab valve is used to gain access to the well for wire line operations

intervention and other work over procedure On top of it is a tree adapter

and cap that will mate with various equipment For such operations a

lubricator is assembled up onto the top of the tree and the wire or coil is lowered

through the lubricator through swab valve and into the well This valve is typically

manually operated

Choke

A choke holds back pressure by restricting the flow opening at the well head This

is done to make better use of the gas for natural gas lift and to control the bottom-

hole pressure for recovery reasons

CHECK VALVE

The check is introduced in production flow line to prevent any reverse flow from

the line into the well It has a hinged flap which lifts to permit normal flow but

closes to prevent reverse flow

TOP ADAPTOR

The top adaptor is a fitting on top of the swab valve with a threaded connection

During normal well operations a pressure gauge is fitted to monitor flowing and

shut in wellhead pressures However during well service operations the cap can

be removed to allow installation of lubricators for wire-line operations

SCSSSV (Surface Control Sub Surface Safety Valve)

A subsurface safety valve is essentially a shutdown valve installed at the upper

wellbore for emergency shutdown to protect the production tubing and wellhead

in case of overpressure Subsurface safety valves can offer a barrier against flow

in the event of a wellhead collapse or other disastrous event Purpose of asubsurface safety valve (SSSV) is to avoid the ultimate disaster which can result

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in release of reservoir fluids to the surroundings This makes SSSV a very

important component of a well completion

A subsurface safety valve is typically a uni-directional flapper valve directed in

such a way that the flappers open downwards when pressure is applied from an

upward direction The flapper can only open in the downward direction So even if

high pressure is applied by the well fluids from a

downward direction a safety valve can remain

closed This makes a subsurface safety valve fail-

safe To open the valve hydraulic signal is sent from

the surface well control panel This hydraulic

pressure is responsible for keeping the flappers of

SSSV open and loss of hydraulic pressure result in

closing of the valve Thus wellbore can be isolated in

case of system failure or damage to the surface

facilities

Types of Christmas tree

There are two types of Christmas Tree

1 Solid block

2 Conventional

The solid block Christmas Tree has a central solid unit holding several valves

in a pre-constructed block Their advantage is the reduction in potential leak

paths and their higher pressure rating (Fig 2)

The conventional Christmas Tree is built up from individual valves bolted

together to form an assembly (Fig 3)

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Figure 2

Figure 3

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Wellhead Control Panel

Wellhead control panel is key equipment in oil amp gas industry to protect oilfield

facilities and environment from emergency incidents such as wellhead fire which

is one of main control systems to ensure oilfield oil production and transportation

to be safely operation according to international standards and national

regulation Wellhead control panel is composed of hydraulic power unit tubing amp

fitting and instrument valve and electrical control devices Hydraulic power unit

supply hydraulic resource to open and close safety valves including master

valves wing valves and SCSSSV

Its performs

Local OnOff SSV

Remote control SSV through RTU( remote terminal unit)

High-Low pressure sense shut-down automatically

Fusible Plug Anti-fire Shut-down automatically

Function of showing system pressure

Relief Valve shall be installed on each hydraulic circuit to prevent high

pressure

Function of showing hydraulic level and level switch for alarm

Function of defending pressure impact of system

Function of system pressure monitoring (by pressure transmitter of control

panel)

Function of remote emergency shut-down (by magnetic valve of control

panel)

Function of OnOff SSV monitoring (by pressure switch of control loop of

control panel)

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Chemical Injection

Chemical injection systems are commonly used in production facilities to prevent

or eliminate a wide range of problems that might negatively affect the production

flow It is done for flow assurance protection of process equipment such as

pipelines or to optimize processes in production facilities

Typical flow assurance chemicals are

Wax inhibitors

Pour point depressants

Asphaltene inhibitors

Corrosion inhibitors

A corrosion inhibitor is a chemical compound that is added to liquid or gas to

decreases the corrosion rate of a material typically a metal or an alloy The

effectiveness of a corrosion inhibitor depends on fluid composition quantity of

water and flow regime Its common mechanism involves formation of a coating

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which prevents access of the corrosive substance to the metal The corrosive

agents are generally oxygen hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide

At our production site the major risk is corrosion of piping and equipment The

maximum allowable corrosion rate is approximately 02 mm per year and

corrosion rate without inhibitor could be approximately 11 mm per year so the

corrosion protection program is designed to achieve a target corrosion rate of

less than 01 mm per year which is achieved by an inhibitor system efficiency of

99 Inhibitor is injected into the well stream flow through an atomizing nozzle

located downstream of the respective wellhead coolers at the duplexcarbon steel

interface In normal operation as per NALCO standards chemical (brand name

EC1144B) at rate of frac12 Liter per MMSCFD of gas is being injected into the flow

line of miano15 flow lines made of carbon steel Moreover the composition can

vary depending upon the composition of well fluids and material of pipeline This

method of injection ensures even distribution of the chemical on the interior

surface of the pipeline The individual well sites are equipped with Chemical

Injection Packages comprising of a stainless steel storage tank and two

pneumatic motor driven pumps in parallel Instrument gas is used to drive the

pumps Normally one pump is running with the other standby

Water Conning

Water coning is a term used to describe the mechanism underlying the upward

movement of water into the perforations of a producing well Coning can seriously

impact the well productivity and influence the degree of depletion and the overall

recovery efficiency of the reservoir The specific problems of water coning are

listed below

Costly added water handling

Gas production from the original or secondary gas cap reduces pressure

Reduced efficiency of the depletion mechanism

The water is often corrosive and its disposal costly

The affected well may be abandoned early

Loss of the total field overall recovery

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Therefore conning has an important influence on operations recovery and

economics The phenomena is shown in picture below

Corrosion

Corrosion is referred as chemical deterioration of a metal Commonly this

means loss of electrons of metals reacting with water and oxygen

Weakening of iron due to oxidation of the iron atoms is a well-known

example of electrochemical corrosion This is commonly known as

rust Most structural alloys corrode merely from exposure to moisture

in the air but the process can be strongly affected by exposure to

certain substances Corrosion can be concentrated locally to form a pit

or crack or it can extend across a wide area to produce general

deterioration (uniform corrosion)

The following reaction takes place at the active sites

2Fe =gt 2Fe++ + 4e-

The free electrons travel through the metal path to the less active sites where

the following reaction takes place

O2 + 4e- + 2H20 =gt 4 OH-

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Recombination of these ions at the active surface produce the following

reaction which yields the iron-corrosion product ferrous hydroxide

2Fe + O2 + 2H2O =gt 2Fe (OH) 2

CORROSION PROTECTION SYSTEM

Coatings and painting

Painting and the application of enamel bitumen and PVC

coating are the most common anti-corrosion treatments They

work by providing a barrier of corrosion-resistant material

between the damaging environment and the structural material

Corrosion Inhibitors

Corrosion inhibitor is injected into the flow lines as mentioned in

detail on page 8

Cathodic Protection

Cathodic Protection (CP) is a technique used to control the corrosion of a

metal surface by making it the cathode of an electrochemical cell It

converts all of the anodic (active) sites on the metal surface to cathodic

(passive) sites by supplying electrical current (or free electrons) from an

alternate source It is accomplished in two ways

a) A simple method of protection connects protected metal to a more easily

corroded sacrificial metal to act as the anode The sacrificial metal then

corrodes instead of the protected metal The process is similar to a simple

DC cell in which the more active metal becomes the anode and corrodes

whereas the less active metal becomes the cathode and is protected

b) For larger structures galvanic anodes cannot economically deliver enough

current to provide protection Therefore impressed current cathodic

protection (ICCP) systems are used These consist of anodes connected

to a DC power source In remote areas power sources such as solar

panels may be used The output DC negative terminal is connected to the

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frequently to limit liquid holdup and minimize the slug volumes of liquid which can

be generated by the system

Coating

Pigs may be used to apply internal pipe coatings such as epoxy coating

materials in operating pipelines Pigs may also be used with corrosion inhibitors

to distribute and coat the entire internal wetted perimeter

Inspection

Pigs are being used more frequently as inspection tools Gauging or sizing pigs

are typically run following the completion of new construction or line repair to

determine if there are any internal obstacles bends or buckles in the pipe Pigs

can also be equipped with cameras to allow viewing of the pipe internals

Electronic intelligent or smart ldquopigsrdquo that use magnetic and ultrasonic systems

have been developed and refined that locate and measure internal and external

corrosion pitting dents buckles and any other anomalies in the pipe wall

Intelligent pigs

The accuracy of location and measurement of anomalies by the intelligent pigs

has continued to improve Initially the electronics and power systems were so

large that intelligent pigs could be used only in lines 30 in and greater in size

The continued sophistication and miniaturization of the electronic systems used

in the intelligent pigs has allowed the development of smaller pigs that can be

used in small-diameter pipelines Newly enacted DOT pipeline-integrity

regulations and rules acknowledge the effectiveness of the intelligent pigs and

incorporate their use in the pipeline-integrity testing process

Compressors

A gas compressor is a mechanical device that increases the pressure of a gas by

reducing its volume Gas pressure is increased by forcing gas molecules together

to reduce gas volume When volume is reduced gas pressure increases

All gases have large spaces among their molecules These spaces could be

enhanced further and decreased by doing some work Work done which is used

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for the enhancement of these spaces is called expansion and work done to

minimize these spaces is called compression All gases while expansion

produces cooling effect and while compression of gases raises there

temperature Compression is a term used to force gases to occupy smaller

volumes by increasing their pressure Volume of gases is interlinked with

temperature and pressure of the gas which is cleared by 2 laws govern gas

compressions

Boyles Law

Charles Law

The main types of compressor are listed below

Front End Compressor

The plant currently processes gas from a number of wells The flow and pressure

from some of these wells (currently K-10 K-11 amp K-12) has declined and they

cannot be fed directly into the Central Processing Facility To recover the

maximum gas reserves from these wells a Front End Compressor is employed

The compressor is a two stage double acting gas engine driven reciprocating

(PT) compressor Double acting means that gas is compressed on each end of

the piston It normal operates with a speed range of 600 to 900 RPM and isequipped with four compressor cylinders two for each stage Each cylinder is

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also equipped with a variable volume head end pocket

In case of compressor emergency shutdown the production chokes and the

Upper Master Valves on the on line wells will close and operator will be notified in

central control room Sweet gas from gas distribution network is used to operate the

gas engine driver of the compressor package The detailed scheme of working is

shown in figure (page 22 )

PT Reciprocating Compressor

The mechanical cycle of piston tube reciprocating compressor comprises four

strokes the expansion stroke the intake stroke the compression stroke and the

discharge stroke

Expansion Stroke

As the piston moves back on the expansion stroke the chamber volume

increases and the pressure drop As the pressure drops the discharge valve

closes since there is greater pressure in the discharge line than in the chamber

Intake Stroke

As the piston moves back during the intake stroke the pressure decreases until it

is less than the pressure in the inlet line This higher intake pressure opens the

inlet valve and gas rushes into the cylinder equalizing the pressure there with

the intake pressure The compression chamber is now at or near the intake

pressure

Compression Stroke

The piston now starts the compression stroke by moving forward decreasing the

chamber volume and increasing the pressure The increased pressure is now

higher than the intake pressure causing the intake valve to close

Discharge Stroke

The piston continues to move to the left during the discharge stroke This creates

an increase in chamber pressure until it is greater than the discharge pressure

When this happens the Discharge valve opens and the compressed air from the

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cylinder goes into the discharge line The compression cycle is then repeated

from the stage

Compressor Capacity

The capacity of the compressor depends upon cylinder displacement That

displacement is simply the volume that the piston displaces (moves) as it travels

from one end of the cylinder to the other Capacity and displacement is equal to

the cross-sectional area of the cylinder times the length of the stroke

Lubrication and Cooling

Lubricating oil is circulated through the system by a gear pump which is chain

driven from the engine crank shaft The oil pump is mounted on the engine front

housing

The pump operates between 30 - 40 psig

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A circulating pump deliver cooling water to the water jackets in the cylinder block

flowing around the cylinder liners and is directed into the cylinder heads Each

cylinder head has water cooled exhaust elbows which outlet the water into the

water cooled exhausts From the end of engine the water flows to compressor

1st and 2nd stage cylinders and compressor lube oil cooler (LOwater heat

exchanger) The water from the compressor cylinder and lube oil cooler returns

to engine water cooled exhaust

Figure Flow diagram of Front End Compressor

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Centrifugal Compressor

Centrifugal compressors are machines in which velocity and pressure given to air

or gas in a radial direction by one or more impellers diffuser combination In a

centrifugal compressor the mechanical energy is increased by centrifugal action

The gas enters the suction eye of a high speed rotary element called the impeller

which carries radial vanes integrally cast in it As the impeller rotates the blades

of the impeller force the gas outward from the center the impeller to the outer rim

of impeller the increase in velocity of the gas creates a flow pressure area at the

eye of the impeller The gas at the outer rim of the impeller is forced in to a

passage way called a diffuser where the velocity decreases in the pressure of the

gas

Inlet

The inlet to a centrifugal compressor is typically a simple pipe It may include

features such as a valve and both pressure and temperature instrumentation

Centrifugal impeller

The key component that makes a compressor centrifugal is the centrifugal

impeller shown above It is the impellers rotating set of vanes (or blades) that

gradually raises the energy of the working gas This is identical to an axial

compressor with the exception that the gases can reach higher velocities and

energy levels through the impellers increasing radius

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Diffuser

The next key component to the simple centrifugal compressor is the diffuser

Downstream of the impeller in the flow path it is the diffusers responsibility to

convert the kinetic energy (high velocity) of the gas into pressure by gradually

slowing (diffusing) the gas velocity

SEPERATORS

A well-stream is a mixture of gases hydrocarbon liquids water solids and

contaminants Due to variations in pressure and temperature gases evolve from

the liquids water vapor condenses and some of the well-stream changes to liquid

and free gas The separation of well-stream fluids takes place in a separator This

pressure vessel is manufactured in three forms

1 horizontal

2 vertical

3 spherical

To help separation the vessel is normally designed with a series of internal

fittings These fittings are built into the separator to ensure total phase separation

of the well-stream

In gas plants separators are given alternative names due to the function they

perform in the process system A scrubber does a similar job to a knockout drum

However the scrubber usually separates a stream containing high gas-to-liquid

ratios The knockout drum is used where a high degree of liquids are entrained in

the gas

Fluid flow from a well can include gas condensable liquid vapors water water

vapor crude oil and solids As well-stream fluids reach ground level where

pressure is lower than in the reservoir the capacity of the liquid to hold gas in

solution decreases and gas separates out of the oil

Separation depends upon the effect of gravity to separate liquids For adequate

separation one fluid must be lighter than the other fluid For example distillates

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(gasoline kerosene etc) and crude oil will not separate in a vessel because they

tend to dissolve in each other Because a separator basically depends upon

gravity to separate the fluids the ease with which separation takes place

depends upon the difference in density of the fluids

Droplets of liquid will separate from gas provided

a) The gas remains in the separator long enough

b) The gas flow remains constant to provoke separation

The difference in density between a gas and liquid will therefore determine the

maximum flow rate of liquid in the vessel

Figure Two phase horizontal separator

Gas bubbles in the liquid will break out in some oil field applications in 30 to 60

seconds Consequently the separator is designed so that the liquid remains in

the vessel for 30 to 60 seconds The length of time that a liquid remains in the

vessel is called its residence time Residence time differs widely from field to field

depending upon viscosity and API Gravity

Another important factor which must be considered is temperature Generally a

decrease in operating temperature will increase the liquid recovery in a separator

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as the gas condenses By reducing the pressure on the fluid flash separation

occurs resulting in a flow through the separator which is controlled by external

instrumentation

COALESCENCE

Another important principle in fluid separation is that of coalescence This means

the coming together of liquid droplets created by the force of gravity

A common example of coalescing occurs when drops of water form on the

windshield of a car as it is driven in fog As the tiny drops or water which make up

the fog strike the windshield they combine and eventually form a drop large

enough to run down the glass

Several of the internal devices of a separator such as deflector plates

straightening vanes and even the vessel walls are forms of coalescers In each

vessel drops of liquid adhere to the surface of the device and combine with other

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drops until the drop is large enough to fall out The effectiveness of separation

will also depend upon the total amount of coalescing surface area that is present

There are many different types of separators used in the Oil amp Gas industry

Consequently separators are manufactured with one two or several internal

fittings depending on their use and quick removal of these fluids from the vessel

DEFLECTOR PLATES

These are fitted in front of the inlet to the separator and can be net or

dish-shaped Their purpose is to absorb the impact of the incoming fluids and to

encourage the separation of gas and liquids They also slow the flow rate of the

liquids through the vessel

WEIRS

A weir is a metal wall which is fitted across the inside of the vessel normally to a

height of 50 of the overall height of the separator Its purpose is to assist the

process of three phase separation The inlet fluids (oil plus water) are given time

to separate in the liquid accumulation section The water level (interface) is

normally controlled at 50 of the height of the weir Oil floating on the wateroverflows the weir and accumulates in the small oil compartment where it is

drawn off under level control

CENTRIFUGAL DEVICES

These are used in both vertical and horizontal separators for gas-liquid

separation The device imparts a swirling motion to the fluids entering the vessel

Centrifugal force causes the heavier liquids to travel outwards towards the walls

of the vessel and the lighter gases to flow up the centre Centrifugal devices are

also known as cyclones

VORTEX BREAKERS

When liquid flows through a drain outlet a vortex (whirlpool) will form This can

be seen when we pull the plug from a sink or bath tub The same would happen

as water and oil flow from the separator This condition a vortex could allow gas

to flow down the centre of the whirlpool and enter the liquid phase causing

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pressurizing of tanks etc To stop this happening vortex breakers are fitted to all

liquid outlets Although they come in a number of different designs vortex

breakers all serve the same purpose - to prevent a whirlpool from forming

MIST OR DEMISTER PADS

The gas which is released from the fluids in the separator still contains droplets of

oil and water which coalesce and fall when the drops get large enough The

demister pad assists in this process Made from knitted wire and contained within

a sturdy frame it causes the gas to continually change its direction of flow

Because gas changes direction far easier than liquid the gas will flow around

each strand of wire whilst the liquid entrained in the gas stream will continue and

stick to the wire

COALESCING PLATES

There are several different forms of coalescing devices the most common of

which are coalescing plates These plates are mounted in the flow stream of the

fluids and assist in breaking down oil-water emulsions The fluid is forced to

follow a path that constantly changes direction This causes the water droplets to

gather together or coalesce and fall to the bottom of the separator The same

principle is used to separate gas and oil mixtures when the oil droplets are

induced to coalesce Simply stated every surface within the separator including

the separator walls assists with the coalescing process

STRAIGHTENlNG VANES

These are often fitted to horizontal separators to remove turbulence in the gas

stream after initial separation at the inlet deflector

FLOAT SHEILD

Internal floats are used as level controllers Any agitation of the liquid surface or

the effect of coalesced liquids falling on the float may cause control problems

Therefore a float shield is fitted to enclose the float creating an area of still liquid

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MEMBRANES

The gas contains 12 carbon dioxide and 22 ppm of hydrogen sulphide at 115oF

and 1100 psig This needs to be removed before the gas can be exported The

majority of carbon dioxide hydrogen sulphide and water is removed by means of

membranes

Membranes are thin semipermeable barriers that selectively separate some

compounds from others Currently the only commercially workable membranes

used for CO2 removal are polymer based for example cellulose acetate

polyimides polyamides polysulfone polycarbonates and polyetherimide The

membrane does not operate as a filter where small molecules are separated

from larger ones through a medium with pores rather it separates based on how

well different compounds dissolve into the membrane and diffuse through it The

membranes are manufactured in flat sheets consisting of an extremely thin

nonporous layer mounted on a much-thicker and highly porous layer of the same

material providing mechanical strength The flat sheets are combined into a

spiral-wound element (Figure below) Feed gas enters along the side of the

membrane and passes through the feed spacers As the gas travels between

membrane sheets CO2 H2S and H2O permeate through the membrane and are

collected in the permeate tube The driving force for transport is the high-feed

pressure and low-permeate pressures The gas on the feed side that does not

permeate leaves through the side of the element opposite the feed position Once

the membranes have been manufactured into elements six to 12 elements are

joined together and inserted into a tube Multiple tubes are mounted on skids in a

horizontal orientation

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Figure Membrane general Working

In high H2S applications most polymers have been shown to have very little

resistance to H2S plasticization (ldquosofteningrdquo of the membrane) and as a

consequence can only be used at very low H2S partial pressure limits Cellulose

acetate membranes in contrast have been shown to be applicable at extreme

H2S partial pressure conditions It is these membranes that have been utilized in

the testing to determine the limits of membrane performance in high H 2S

applications

The primary membranes used in Kadanwari facility are Cellulose acetate

Cellulose acetic acid and acetic anhydride are mixed together and reacted to

form cellulose acetate polymers This process is aided by the addition of a small

amount of sulfuric acid which is subsequently neutralized during processing

However the membranes are bought from UOP (vendor) and installed for use

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How membrane work

The basic principle of separation is selectivity of certain components of a mixture

for the membrane For example the cellulose acetate membrane has very high

selectivity for CO2 and H2S as compared to CH4 Therefore such type of

membrane can be used in gas sweetening process

The selectivity is directly related to the Permeability of gas which accounts that

which gas can pass across the membrane more easily In simple words

membranes being polymer materials are made of long chains of molecules The

different structure of polymer materials only allow selective molecules to pass

through them depending upon chemical and physical compatibility Thus

permeability depends upon choice of polymer

The permeability is determined by permeability coefficient (P) and is product of

solubility (S) and diffusivity (D)

P = S D

Solubility

The solubility is mainly determined by ease of condensation Heavy molecules

are more readily condensed Therefore higher molecular weighted molecules will

more easily condensed and therefore have greater solubility

Molecule Molecular weight

CH4 16

H2S 34

CO2 44

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Diffusivity

Diffusivity is ease of molecule to penetrate into some material It depends on size

of gas molecule Here size of molecule is not to be confused by molecular weight

it is the size of the structure Eg the size of O2 molecule is smaller than N2

Molecule Molecular Diameter (Ao)

CO2 33

H2S 36

Ch4 40

For cellulose acetate

DCO2DCH4 S CO2S CH4 P CO2P CH4

45 73 308

Chemical degradation

Cellulose acetate polymer is chemically degraded by a process called hydrolysis

which means breaking apart by the addition of water This is a chemical reaction

in which water is added to the cellulose acetate polymer causing the release of

acetic acid molecules This process proceeds stepwise until all the acetate

groups are released resulting in the reformation of cellulose Moreover alcohols

aromatic hydrocarbons or solvents with chlorine nitro benzene or similar

aromatic solvents will harm the membrane It will expand and lose plastification in

contact with them

Effect of Temperature

The permeation rates of all gases increases with increasing temperature

however membrane selectivity for CO2 over hydrocarbon decreases at higher

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temperature Consequently CO2 removal will improve as operating temperature

increases but hydro carbon recovery will decrease

Primary Membrane

The primary membranes comprise of two trains Each train consists of two

sections AB and CD each section consists of a 30 tube membrane skid (A and

C) followed by a 25 tube skid (B and D) The conditioned gas (after pre-

treatment) enters the primary membrane via the particulate filter adjacent to the

skid The gas is fed to the membranes through a common inlet manifold which

supplies primary membranes skids A and C A pressure control loop located

upstream of the manual inlet isolation valve is provided to maintain a constant

supply pressure to the membrane skid and to allow for preheating at the inlet

prior to skid start-up This pressure control loop can also be used during start-up

to control the pressurization of the pretreatment skid and associated pipes to the

primary membranes

The gas passes through membrane skid A the residual gas exiting the membrane

skid is sent to skid B and the permeate to common permeate discharge header An

identical arrangement is provide on the inlet to skid C as provided on skid A Theresidual gas from skid B combines with the residual gas from skid D in a common

discharge header and is then sent to the H2S polishing towers via the feed coolers

on the pre-treatment skid The permeate from skid B is sent to the common

permeate discharge header The permeate discharge header sends the gas to

either the recycle compressor or the vent header via a pressure control loop

Overpressure protection for the membranes is provided by a pressure safety valve

on the supply header to the membrane banks

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Secondary (Recycle) Membrane

The recycle membranes comprise of a single train with two skids each with four

banks of membrane tubes The conditioned gas from the discharge of the recycle

pre-treatment skid is routed to the first recycle membrane skid The gas passes

through the membranes the residual gas is fed to primary membrane (skid A) inlet

via feed gas cooler and permeate to the common permeate discharge header An

identical arrangement is provide on the inlet to skid B Permeate from the recycle

membrane skids A and B is routed to the vent header Some portion of permeate is

heated and sent for regeneration in Mem-Guard units Nitrogen purge can be

connected downstream of the inlet isolation valve on each skid to enable the

membrane tubes to be purged and left pressurized during prolonged shutdown

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Figure Flow Diagram of Recycle membrane unit

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ADVANTAGES OF MEMBRANE SYSTEMS

Membrane systems have major advantages over more-traditional methods of

acid gas removal

Lower capital cost Membrane systems are skid mounted and so the

scope cost and time taken for site preparation are minimal Installation

costs are significantly lower than alternative technologies especially for

remote areas Furthermore no additional facilities for solvent storage and

water treatment needed by other processes are required

Lower operating costs The only major operating cost for single-stage

membrane systems is membrane replacement This cost is significantly

lower than the solvent replacement and energy costs associated with

traditional technologies The improvements in membrane and

pretreatment design allow a longer useful membrane life which further

reduces operating costs The energy costs of multistage systems with

large recycle compressors are usually comparable to those for traditionaltechnologies

Deferred capital investment Often contracted sales-gas flow rates

increase over time as more wells are brought on-line With traditional

technologies the system design needs to take this later production into

account immediately and so the majority of the equipment is installed

before it is even needed The modular nature of membrane systems

means that only the membranes that are needed at start-up need be

installed The rest can be added either into existing tubes or in new skids

only when they are required

Operational simplicity and high reliability Because single-stage

membrane systems have no moving parts they have almost no

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unscheduled downtime and are extremely simple to operate They can

operate unattended for long periods of time The addition of a recycle

compressor adds some complexity to the system but still much less than

with a solvent- or adsorbent-based technology Multistage systems can be

operated at full capacity as single-stage systems when the recycle

compressor is down

Good weight and space efficiency Skid construction can be optimized

to the space available This space efficiency is especially important for

offshore environments where deck area is at a premium and is the

reason why so many new offshore developments have chosen to use

membranes for acid gas removal Figure 6 illustrates the space efficiency

of membrane systems The membrane unit in the lower left corner

replaced all the amine and glycol plant equipment shown in the rest of the

picture

Adaptability Because membrane area is dictated by the percentage of

acid gas removal rather than absolute acid gas removal small variations

in feed acid gas content hardly change the sales-gas acid gas

specification For example a system designed for 10 down to 3 acid

gas removal produces a 35 product from a 12 feed gas and a 5

product from a 15 feed gas

Design efficiency The membrane and pretreatment systems integrate a

number of operations such as dehydration CO2 and H2S removal dew-

point control and mercury removal Traditional acid gas removal

technologies require all of these operations as separate processes and

may also require additional dehydration because some technologies

saturate the product stream with water

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Power generation The permeate gas from membrane systems can be

used to provide fuel gas for power generation either for a recycle

compressor or other equipment

Ideal for debottlenecking Because expanding solvent- or adsorbent-

based acid gas removal plants without adding additional trains is difficult

an ideal solution is to use membranes for bulk acid gas removal and leave

the existing plant for final cleanup An additional advantage is that the

permeate gas from the membrane system can often be used as fuel for

the existing plant thus avoiding significant increase in hydrocarbon

losses

Environmentally friendly Membrane systems do not involve the

periodic removal and handling of spent solvents or adsorbents Permeate

gases can be flared used as fuel or re-injected into the well Items thatdo need disposal such as spent membrane elements can be incinerated

Ideal for remote locations Many of the factors mentioned above make

membrane systems a highly desirable technology for remote locations

where spare parts are rare and labor unskilled Furthermore solvents

storage and trucking water supply power generation or extensive

infrastructure are not required

Re-injection optimizations Since the permeate stream from the

membrane system can be operated at elevated pressures it is possible to

further pressurize by re-injection compression train

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Sorption

Sorption is a physical and chemical process by which one substance becomes

attached to another

It is of two main types

1 Absorption

2 Adsorption

Absorption

Absorption is a physical or chemical phenomenon or process in which atoms

molecules or ions enter some bulk phase ndash gas liquid or solid material This is a

different process from adsorption since molecules undergoing absorption are

taken up by the volume not by the surface (as in the case for adsorption)

Absorption process may be chemical (reactive) or physical (non-reactive)

Physical absorption

Physical absorption or non-reactive absorption is made between two phases ofmatter a liquid absorbs a gas or a solid absorbs a liquid

When a liquid solvent absorbs a gas mixture or part of it a mass of gas moves

into the liquid For example water may absorb oxygen from the air This mass

transfer takes place at the interface between the liquid and the gas at a rate

depending on both the gas and the liquid This type of absorption depends on the

solubility of gases the pressure and the temperature The rate and amount of

absorption also depend on the surface area of the interface and its duration in

time

When a solid absorbs a liquid mixture or part of it a mass of liquid moves into the

solid For example a clay pot used to store water may absorb some of the water

This mass transfer takes place at the interface between the solid and the liquid

at a rate depending on both the solid and the liquid

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Chemical absorption

Chemical absorption or reactive absorption is a chemical reaction between the

absorbed and the absorbing substances Sometimes it combines with physical

absorption This type of absorption depends upon the stoichiometry of the

reaction and the concentration of its reactants

Adsorption

Adsorption is the adhesion of atoms ions or molecules from a gas liquid or

dissolved solid to a surface This process creates a film of the adsorbate on the

surface of the adsorbent The binding to the surface is usually weak and

reversible Compounds with color and those that have taste or odor tend to bind

strongly Compounds that vibrate at frequencies in the visible spectrum are very

often are strongly adsorbed on activated carbon

The most common industrial adsorbents are activated carbon silica gel and

alumina because they present enormous surface areas per unit weight

Depending on the nature of attractive forces existing between the adsorbate and

adsorbent adsorption can be classified as

i) Physical adsorption

ii) Chemical adsorption

i) Physical adsorption (Physisorption)

In physical adsorption the forces of attraction between the molecules of the

adsorbate and the adsorbent are of the weak van der Waals type Since the

forces of attraction are weak the process of physisorption can be easily reversed

by heating or decreasing the pressure of the adsorbate (as in the case of gases)

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ii) Chemical adsorption (Chemisorption)

In chemisorption the forces of attraction between the adsorbate and the

adsorbent are very strong the molecules of adsorbate form chemical bonds with

the molecules of the adsorbent present in the surface

Adsorption is generally accompanied by release of energy that is most

adsorption processes are exothermic in nature Adsorption is a spontaneous

process therefore its free energy change is negative (∆Glt0) However the

entropy change associated with adsorption is generally negative because the

adsorbate molecules lose their translation freedom when they get attached to the

surface of the adsorbent Therefore in order for ∆G to be negative the enthalpy

change (∆H) must be sufficiently negative such that (∆G=∆H-T∆S) lt 0 This

explanation accounts for exothermic adsorption processes In cases where

endothermic adsorption occurs the entropy change ∆S is sufficiently positive

such that ∆G remains negative

Pre treatment

The main function of pretreatment skid is to provide membrane inlet specification

gas as mentioned by the vendor UOP It removes the contaminants that would

poison the membranes like dust solids (adsorbent particles) lube oil heavy

hydrocarbons etc It consists of

Feed Cooler

Feed Gas Scrubber

Filter Coalescer

Feed Gas Heater

Activated Carbon Guard Filter

Particle Filter

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The regeneration is carried out by heated permeate gas from the recycle

membranes at 450oF The vessel is depressurized to 20 psi and heated gas is

introduced from top The gas carries out the adsorbed contaminants and leaves

the vessel from bottom cleaning the adsorbent This contaminated gas is burnt in

the flare

UOP the vendor of Memguard unit has never disclosed that what substance

MG3 and MG5 exactly are But as mentioned by vendor that both care class of

aluminosilicates Therefore MG3 can be potassium aluminosilicate and MG5 can

be Calcium aluminosilicate These are molecular sieves adsorbents Molecular

sieves are a microporous material which can selectively adsorb gases andliquids They are synthetic zeolites (crystalline metal aluminosilicates) which

upon dehydration can efficiently and selectively remove water or other

solvents The selectivity of a molecular sieve is determined by its pore size

molecules with a critical diameter which is less than the pore size will be

efficiently adsorbed while larger molecules will be excluded

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3A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

The 3A molecular sieve adsorbent has a 3 angstrom (3A) pore size which means

that any molecule that is larger than the 3 angstrom pores will not be adsorbed

The 3A molecular sieve is the potassium type of A crystalline structure and is a

form of alkali Aluminosilicate For a 3A molecular sieve the sequence rate that

adsorption occurs is He Ne N and H2O

Due to the crystalline structure molecular sieves that have a 3 angstrom pore

size have a very high rate of adsorption and properties that promote a longer life

for products treated by the sieve The most common use for the 3A molecular

sieve is to remove water and moisture from materials that are in gas and liquid

form

5A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

These are molecular sieve adsorbents with a pore size of 5 angstrom (5A) 5A

molecular sieves are unable to adsorb any molecules or impurities that are

smaller than 5A It is calcium form of type A crystalline structure and is form of analkali-aluminosilicate that is most commonly used to separate isomerous alkanes

from normal alkanes and to co-adsorb moisture and water along with carbon

dioxide from gases In additional 5A molecular sieves are used for gaseous

pressure swing adsorption (PSA)mdashthat is to separate particular gases from other

gases

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of C3H8 to C22H46

Adsorption of Freon-12 (dichlorodifluoromethane)

Natural gas drying

Normal- and iso-paraffin separation

Separation of aromatic

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Inlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1096

MEHTANE 8593

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008

N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGEN 076

WATER 007

Outlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1098

MEHTANE 8608

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGENT 076

WATER 000

H2S polisher

The H2S polishing unit has been designed to treat 187 MMscfday of natural gas

containing up to 11 CO2 and 21 ppm H2S where the level of the CO2 and H2S

is reduced using a MemGuard Membrane separation unit The unit is situated

down-stream of the membrane unit and will further reduce the level of H2S in the

processed gas to a sales gas specification of 38 ppm

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This process uses three non-regenerable fixed bed absorber vessels using a low

temperature high activity absorbent The absorbent is a mixture of activated

metal oxides (mainly zinc oxide) The three towers can are generally operated in

parallel arrangement but on demand can be used in series (any of alternate

arrangements of A B C vessels) as shown in figure

The higher sales gas flow rate increased the catalyst consumption and

replacement frequency

ZnO + H2S =gt ZnS + H20

Routine samples are taken from the beds to provide a check on each bed

performance and to follow the saturation profile during the absorbent life After

the adsorbent has been fully utilized the adsorption vessels are recharged with

new adsorbent discarding the utilized one in a safe manner

109oF

1215 psig

Before H2S Polishing After H2S Polishing

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Figure

H2S Tower

Inlet pipe

4 Drums of 19mm

ceramic Balls

6 Micron mesh

5 Drums of 50mmceramic

1 Drums of19mm ceramic

01 Drums of6mm ceramic

112 drums of

Catalist ZnO

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Recycle Compressor

The permeate gas of the primary membrane unit carries recoverable amount of

CH4 It is fed to recycle membrane unit for further CH 4 recovery But the

permeate pressure from primary membranes which has been reduced to 12 psi

must be regenerated to 1200 psi for the gas to be fed again to the system For

this purpose we have employed recycle compressor The compressor is a four

stage centrifugal compressor It is driven by gas turbine of 31200 HP It has 25

MW producing capacity

Figure Recycle Compressor Process Flow Diagram

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Sales Gas Compressor

Gas from H2S polishing unit is sent to sales gas compressor where its pressure

is enhanced to 1100 psi so it may be injected to SNGPL high pressure trunk line

Sales gas compressor is single stage gas turbine driven

Figure Process Flow of Sales Gas Compressor

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Cooling Towers

A cooling tower is a heat rejection device which extracts waste heat to theatmosphere through the cooling of a water stream to a lower temperature Hot

water from the system enters the cooling tower and is distributed over the fill

(heat transfer surface) Air is induced or forced through the fill causing a small

portion of the water to evaporate This evaporation removes heat from the

remaining water which is collected in the cold water basin and returned to the

system to absorb more heat Each cooling tower line although operating under

the same basic principle of operation is arranged a little differently

Types

Natural draft mdash Utilizes buoyancy via a tall chimney Warm moist air naturally

rises due to the density differential compared to the dry cooler outside air Warm

moist air is less dense than drier air at the same pressure This moist air

buoyancy produces an upwards current of air through the tower

Mechanical draft mdash Uses power-driven fan motors to force or draw airthrough the tower

o Induced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a fan at the

discharge (at the top) which pulls air up through the tower The fan

induces hot moist air out the discharge This produces low entering

and high exiting air velocities reducing the possibility of

recirculation in which discharged air flows back into the air intake

o Forced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a blower type fan at

the intake The fan forces air into the tower creating high entering

and low exiting air velocities The low exiting velocity is much more

susceptible to recirculation This fanfill geometry is also known as

blow-through

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Forced Draft Cooling Tower Vs Induced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower have the ability to handle large water flow

rate than Forced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower is suitable for large cell sizes and fan sizes

as compared with Forced Draft Larger fan size may result in greater

efficiency and consequently lower power and sound level

Forced Draft Cooling Tower can be square or rectangular type only

however Induced Draft Cooling Towers can be round square or

rectangular type

Induced Draft Cooling Tower uses more compact ground area than Forced

Draft Cooling Tower equivalent capacity due to absence of fan on one

side

Fan equipment is warm exhaust air is less liable to icing up in winter

operation (Cold Countries)

Higher velocity in Forced Draft Cooling Tower cause drop in suspension

and cause additional static resistance to system

Configuration

There are two main configurations of factory assembled cooling towers crossflow

and counterflow In crossflow cooling towers the water flows vertically down the

fill as air flows horizontally across In counterflow cooling towers the water flows

vertically down the fill as air flows vertically up

Crossflow Configuration Counterflow Configuration

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Drift mdash Water droplets that are carried out of the cooling tower with the exhaust

air Drift droplets have the same concentration of impurities as the water entering

the tower The drift rate is typically reduced by employing baffle-like devices

called drift eliminators through which the air must travel after leaving the fill and

spray zones of the tower

Blow-out mdash Water droplets blown out of the cooling tower by wind generally at

the air inlet openings Water may also be lost in the absence of wind through

splashing or misting Devices such as wind screens louvers splash deflectors

and water diverters are used to limit these losses

Blow-down mdash The portion of the circulating water flow that is removed (usually

discharged to a drain) in order to maintain the amount of Total Dissolved Solids

(TDS) and other impurities at an acceptably low level Higher TDS concentration

in solution may result from greater cooling tower efficiency However the higher

the TDS concentration the greater the risk of scale biological growth and

corrosion

Make-up mdash The water that must be added to the circulating water system in

order to compensate for water losses such as evaporation drift loss blow-out

blow-down etc

Approach mdash The approach is the difference in temperature between the cooled-

water temperature and the entering-air wet bulb temperature

Range mdash The range is the temperature difference between the warm water inlet

and cooled water exit

Fill mdash Inside the tower fills are added to increase contact surface as well as

contact time between air and water to provide better heat transfer The efficiency

of the tower depends on the selection and amount of fill

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There are two types of fills that may be used

o Film type fill (causes water to spread into a thin film)

o Splash type fill (breaks up falling stream of water and interrupts its

vertical progress)

Important

Scale build up is controlled by adding chemicals to the cooling loop and diluting

the concentration by blow down and make-up Following chemicals are added to

the Cooling to control CorrosionSale and microbial growth

Corrosion Inhibitor To control corrosion in the Cooling system

Dispersant To kept ions in suspension to avoid settle down and buildup

Sodium hypo Chlorite To Control microbial Growth

Acid To control Alkalinity in the system

High Stress Polymer To run the system at higher conductivity It is a

multifunctional polymer for Zinc amp Phosphate stabilization in cooling tower

Fin Fan Cooler

Fin fan heat exchanger is simply a pressure vessel which cools a circulating fluid

within finned tubes by forcing ambient air over the exterior of the tubes A

common example of an air cooler is a carrsquos radiator Fin Fan Coolers are used in

any application where large quantities of heat need to be transferred This

includes chemical and petrochemical industries power stations waste-to-energy

facilities as well as steelworks

Fin Fan Cooler are used for two primary reasons

They increase plant efficiency

They are a green solution as compared to cooling towers and shell and

tube heat exchangers because they do not require an auxiliary water

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supply (water lost due to drift and evaporation plus no water treatment

chemicals are required)

Figure General Overview of Fin Fan Cooler

Produced Water

The produced water system receives liquid from the equipment Miano slug

catcher train 1 and 2 inlet separators and is fed to three phase separator where

water oil and gas is separated The gases produced are burnt in incinerator

whereas hydrocarbon liquid is stored to be sold Liquid from compressors

recycle inlet separator recycle feed scrubber high and low pressure slug

catchers is passed to degasser Separated water is injected down the earth

Incinerator

The term incinerate means to burn something until nothing is left but ashes An

incinerator is a unit or facility used to burn trash and other types of waste until it is

reduced to ash An incinerator is constructed of heavy well-insulated materials

so that it does not give off extreme amounts of external heat The high levels of

heat are kept inside the furnace or unit so that the waste is burned quickly and

efficiently If the heat were allowed to escape the waste would not burn as

completely or as rapidly

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Control System

The plant is controlled at CCR (Central Control Room) by PLCs (Programmable

Logic Controllers) through fiber optic control line All control parameters are

received at LER (Local Equipment Room) via two optic fiber control lines One

being primary and other secondary operating in redundancy ie if primary fails

control shifts to secondary These control parameters are sent to CCR via single

optic fiber cable

Safety System

Wellheads and Gas Processing Plant have their own Fire amp Gas detection

systems emergency shutdown (ESD) Plant has a fault tolerant controller It is

based on Triple Modular Redundant (TMR) architecture manufactured by

Triconex The TMR system is based on three isolated parallel control systems

integrated into one system The system operates on a two out of three voting

principle which provides high integrity error free uninterrupted operation with no

single point of failure The TMR receives inputs from Process Sensors Manual

Switches Fire amp Gas Detectors Packaged Equipment Control Systems and

Product Exporting Facilities The TMR carries out cause and effect processing on

the data received and where necessary produces output signals Outputs from

the TMR are hard wired directly to ESD shutdown and blow down valve

solenoids motor control instrumentelectrical interfaces to control electrical

drives package equipment logic control systems manifold area as well as

telecoms

The operator in central control room is able to accept alarms and once the fault

has been cleared reset the input All the control systems are centralized to a

single interface All the PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers) communicate with

the servers and servers communicate with the clients through Ethernet connectivity

Centralization eases the navigation of different systems at a common interface

Emergency Shutdown

The ESD system receives inputs from field mounted instrumentation on the process

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and utility equipment and initiates executive actions appropriate to the level of ESD

The system is an Active system which is in standby and will activate when in an

alarm or fault condition The Kadanwari Gas Process Facility ESD system is

comprised of five (5) levels The emergency severity decreases with increasing ESD

level number

ESD 1

This shutdown level is automatically initiated by fire major gas leak or a detected

toxic atmosphere in the process area of the plant or manually from CCR A level 1

shutdown will cause all production to cease close all emergency shutdown

valves stop the process and shutdown of the main power generation The

emergency vent valves to the stack will open and in addition all equipment of zone 1

certified will be isolated This is the highest level of ESD and will cause the following

to occur

All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close All slowdown Valves (BDVs) on the process facility will open

All Main Gas Driven Generators will be tripped

Emergency Diesel Generator will start

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close Upper Master Valve

(UMV) Close

ESD 2

This shutdown level is activated automatically if a major process or utility failure

occurs or manually from CCR All production to the plant from the wellhead is

stopped All emergency shutdown valves trip to their fail safe position

Venting shall be as specified This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

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All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valve Close Wing Valves Close and Upper Master Valve(UMV) Close

ESD 3

The level 3 shutdown isolates and stops a single process train only Production

continues via the other train This ESD level is initiated by process conditions or

operator at local panel This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

ESD 3A Train 1 production to cease

ESD 3B Train 2 production to cease

All online wellhead choke valves go to minimum flow ie (1O )

ESD 4

A level 4 shutdown shall cease all production from an entire field either

Kadanwari or Miano upstream of the associated slug catchers ESD 4K for

Kadanwari amp ESD 4M for Miano This ESD level is initiated automatically by slug

catcher abnormal process conditions This level of ESD will cause the following

to occur

All SDVs close isolating the relevant slug catcher and its upstream gas

production facility from the Kadanwari Gas Processing Plant

All Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close and Upper MasterValves (UMV) of the relevant gas production facility Close

A parallel timer is provided to close within 10 second if not closed in given

time SSSV seals the well

ESD 5

A level 5 shutdown represents equipment shutdown for the protection of the

individual equipment without any change in the process This level of ESD is for the

protection of various pieces of equipment and is initiated by its own inputs eg

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Scope of Plant

Carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide which fall into the category of acid gasesare commonly found in natural gas streams at levels as high as 80 In

combination with water they are highly corrosive and can rapidly destroy

pipelines and equipment unless they are partially removed or exotic and

expensive materials of construction are used Hydrogen sulfide is toxic and at

relatively modest levels can be life threatening Carbon dioxide also reduces the

heating value of a natural gas stream and wastes pipeline capacity In LNG

plants CO2 must be removed to prevent freezing in the low-temperature chillers

Therefore the composition of gas is adjusted as per limits prescribed by SNGPL

(Sui Southern Gas Pakistan Limited) and is sold to the government The gas is

injected to the SNGPL main facility at a pressure of 1100 psi

The sales gas specifications are as follows

CO2 Maximum = 3

H2S Maximum = 38 ppm

CV Minimum = 920 BtuscfWater = 7lbMMscf

OMV Kadanwai facility sale gas composition

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OMV Kadanwai facility feed gas composition

Process Description

Gas from Kadanwari High pressure wells is routed to Kadanwari High Pressure

slug catcher Gas from Kadanwari low pressure wells is routed to Kadanwari low

pressure slug catcher and is fed to 2 stage Front End Compressor (FEC) to

increase the pressure up to production pressure Gas from FEC is fed to high

pressure stream flowing into Kadanwari High Pressure slug catcher The gas

from Miano wells is fed to Miano Slug Catcher

Kadanwari and Miano gas streams after separately metered are fed to a common

header which splits into two identical skids A and B Here we will discuss one

skid in common Each skid is routed to fin fan coolers where it is cooled and fed

to Inlet separator where water and heavy hydrocarbons are removed from feed

gas The condensate from all units is sent to produce water system

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The gas then passes through pretreatment skid which consists of following units

Feed Cooler

Feed Gas Scrubber

Filter Coalescer

Feed Gas Heater

Activated Carbon Guard Filter

Particle Filter

Its main function is to remove contaminants from gas such as dust lube oils

heavy hydrocarbons etc which may poison or reduce efficiency of membrane

unit

After pretreatment gas is fed to Molecular Sieve Absorbers (Memguard Units)

which ensures gas supplied to membranes is up to membrane standards of UOP

(vendor of membrane system) It removes all moisture and heavy hydrocarbons

from gas stream

Pretreated gas is now fed to the primary membranes The permeate stream (rich

in CO2) is sent to recycle membranes after passing through recycle compressor

and recycle pretreatment The permeate stream of recycle membranes is used as

regenerative medium for Memguard units and rest is sent to incinerator and

burnt The residual gas (rich in CH4) from primary membrane and recycle

membranes (all skids) is sent to H2S polishers via a common header

H2S polisher unit reduce the hydrogen sulfide level to the sales limit The gas is

now metered after compressing in sales gas compressor and is sent to SNGPL

trunk line after metering

Water is remove from condensate at produced water system by a three phase

separator The condensate is sold to refinery Major quantity is exported to

various industries

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Figure Overall plant Process Flow Diagram

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Wellhead

A wellhead is the component at the surface of an oil or gas well that provides the

structural and pressure-containing interface for the drilling and production

equipment Its function is to maintain surface control of the well It forms a seal to

prevent well fluids from leaking or blowing at the surface They are rated for

working pressure of 2000 psi to 15000 psi (or greater)

When the well has been drilled and it is ready to provide an interface with the

reservoir rock and a tubular channel for the well fluids The surface pressure

control is provided by a Christmas tree which is installed on top of the wellhead

with valves and choke equipment to control the flow of well fluids during

production

Christmas tree

A Christmas tree is an assembly of valves spools and fittings used for an oil

well gas well water injection well gas injection well condensate well and other

types of wells

The primary function of a tree is to control the flow usually oil or gas out of the

well When the well and facilities are ready to produce and receive oil or gas tree

valves are opened and the formation fluids are allowed to go through a flow line

This leads to a processing facility A tree often provides numerous additional

functions including chemical injection points well intervention means pressure

relief means monitoring points (such as pressure temperature corrosion

erosion sand detection flow rate flow composition valve and choke position

feedback) and connection points for devices such as down hole pressure andtemperature transducers (DHPT) On producing wells chemicals or alcohols or

oil distillates may be injected to preclude production problems (such as

blockages)

The control system attached to the tree controls the down-hole safety valve

(SCSSV) while the tree acts as an attachment and means of the control system

to the down-hole safety valve

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Figure 1

Well Head and Christmas Tree

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Master Valves

The two lower valves are called the master valves Master valves are normally in

the fully open position and are never opened or closed when the well is flowing

(except in an emergency) to prevent erosion of the valve sealing surfaces They

are gate type valves

1 Lower Master Valve (LMV)

2 Upper Master Valve (UMV)

The lower master valve will normally be manually operated while the upper

master valve is often hydraulically actuated allowing it to be used as a means of

remotely shutting in the well in the event of emergency

Wing Valve

A wing valve is normally used to shut in the well when flowing thus preserving

the master valves for positive shut off for maintenance purposes The wing

valve can be a gate valve or ball valve Hydraulic operated wing valves are

usually built to be fail safe closed meaning they require active hydraulic pressure

to stay open This feature means that if control fluid fails the well will

automatically shut itself in without operator action

In Kadanwari well sites there is only one manually operated wing valve On the

other hand at Miano well sites there are two wing valves one being operated

manually and other hydraulically

Production Wing Valve

The right hand valve is often called the flow wing valve or the production wing

valve because it provides flow path for hydrocarbons to production facility

Kill wing valve

The left hand valve is often called the kill wing valve It is primarily used for

injection of fluids such as corrosion inhibitors or methanol to prevent hydrate

formation It is typically manually operated It can kill the well temporarily be

injection brine solution which provides a pressure head to well and temporarily

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suspends it for maintenance of well head Also it is used to permanently kill the

well A chemical is injected down the well that seals the piping down the well and

kills the well permanently

Swab valve

The swab valve is used to gain access to the well for wire line operations

intervention and other work over procedure On top of it is a tree adapter

and cap that will mate with various equipment For such operations a

lubricator is assembled up onto the top of the tree and the wire or coil is lowered

through the lubricator through swab valve and into the well This valve is typically

manually operated

Choke

A choke holds back pressure by restricting the flow opening at the well head This

is done to make better use of the gas for natural gas lift and to control the bottom-

hole pressure for recovery reasons

CHECK VALVE

The check is introduced in production flow line to prevent any reverse flow from

the line into the well It has a hinged flap which lifts to permit normal flow but

closes to prevent reverse flow

TOP ADAPTOR

The top adaptor is a fitting on top of the swab valve with a threaded connection

During normal well operations a pressure gauge is fitted to monitor flowing and

shut in wellhead pressures However during well service operations the cap can

be removed to allow installation of lubricators for wire-line operations

SCSSSV (Surface Control Sub Surface Safety Valve)

A subsurface safety valve is essentially a shutdown valve installed at the upper

wellbore for emergency shutdown to protect the production tubing and wellhead

in case of overpressure Subsurface safety valves can offer a barrier against flow

in the event of a wellhead collapse or other disastrous event Purpose of asubsurface safety valve (SSSV) is to avoid the ultimate disaster which can result

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in release of reservoir fluids to the surroundings This makes SSSV a very

important component of a well completion

A subsurface safety valve is typically a uni-directional flapper valve directed in

such a way that the flappers open downwards when pressure is applied from an

upward direction The flapper can only open in the downward direction So even if

high pressure is applied by the well fluids from a

downward direction a safety valve can remain

closed This makes a subsurface safety valve fail-

safe To open the valve hydraulic signal is sent from

the surface well control panel This hydraulic

pressure is responsible for keeping the flappers of

SSSV open and loss of hydraulic pressure result in

closing of the valve Thus wellbore can be isolated in

case of system failure or damage to the surface

facilities

Types of Christmas tree

There are two types of Christmas Tree

1 Solid block

2 Conventional

The solid block Christmas Tree has a central solid unit holding several valves

in a pre-constructed block Their advantage is the reduction in potential leak

paths and their higher pressure rating (Fig 2)

The conventional Christmas Tree is built up from individual valves bolted

together to form an assembly (Fig 3)

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Figure 2

Figure 3

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Wellhead Control Panel

Wellhead control panel is key equipment in oil amp gas industry to protect oilfield

facilities and environment from emergency incidents such as wellhead fire which

is one of main control systems to ensure oilfield oil production and transportation

to be safely operation according to international standards and national

regulation Wellhead control panel is composed of hydraulic power unit tubing amp

fitting and instrument valve and electrical control devices Hydraulic power unit

supply hydraulic resource to open and close safety valves including master

valves wing valves and SCSSSV

Its performs

Local OnOff SSV

Remote control SSV through RTU( remote terminal unit)

High-Low pressure sense shut-down automatically

Fusible Plug Anti-fire Shut-down automatically

Function of showing system pressure

Relief Valve shall be installed on each hydraulic circuit to prevent high

pressure

Function of showing hydraulic level and level switch for alarm

Function of defending pressure impact of system

Function of system pressure monitoring (by pressure transmitter of control

panel)

Function of remote emergency shut-down (by magnetic valve of control

panel)

Function of OnOff SSV monitoring (by pressure switch of control loop of

control panel)

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Chemical Injection

Chemical injection systems are commonly used in production facilities to prevent

or eliminate a wide range of problems that might negatively affect the production

flow It is done for flow assurance protection of process equipment such as

pipelines or to optimize processes in production facilities

Typical flow assurance chemicals are

Wax inhibitors

Pour point depressants

Asphaltene inhibitors

Corrosion inhibitors

A corrosion inhibitor is a chemical compound that is added to liquid or gas to

decreases the corrosion rate of a material typically a metal or an alloy The

effectiveness of a corrosion inhibitor depends on fluid composition quantity of

water and flow regime Its common mechanism involves formation of a coating

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which prevents access of the corrosive substance to the metal The corrosive

agents are generally oxygen hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide

At our production site the major risk is corrosion of piping and equipment The

maximum allowable corrosion rate is approximately 02 mm per year and

corrosion rate without inhibitor could be approximately 11 mm per year so the

corrosion protection program is designed to achieve a target corrosion rate of

less than 01 mm per year which is achieved by an inhibitor system efficiency of

99 Inhibitor is injected into the well stream flow through an atomizing nozzle

located downstream of the respective wellhead coolers at the duplexcarbon steel

interface In normal operation as per NALCO standards chemical (brand name

EC1144B) at rate of frac12 Liter per MMSCFD of gas is being injected into the flow

line of miano15 flow lines made of carbon steel Moreover the composition can

vary depending upon the composition of well fluids and material of pipeline This

method of injection ensures even distribution of the chemical on the interior

surface of the pipeline The individual well sites are equipped with Chemical

Injection Packages comprising of a stainless steel storage tank and two

pneumatic motor driven pumps in parallel Instrument gas is used to drive the

pumps Normally one pump is running with the other standby

Water Conning

Water coning is a term used to describe the mechanism underlying the upward

movement of water into the perforations of a producing well Coning can seriously

impact the well productivity and influence the degree of depletion and the overall

recovery efficiency of the reservoir The specific problems of water coning are

listed below

Costly added water handling

Gas production from the original or secondary gas cap reduces pressure

Reduced efficiency of the depletion mechanism

The water is often corrosive and its disposal costly

The affected well may be abandoned early

Loss of the total field overall recovery

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Therefore conning has an important influence on operations recovery and

economics The phenomena is shown in picture below

Corrosion

Corrosion is referred as chemical deterioration of a metal Commonly this

means loss of electrons of metals reacting with water and oxygen

Weakening of iron due to oxidation of the iron atoms is a well-known

example of electrochemical corrosion This is commonly known as

rust Most structural alloys corrode merely from exposure to moisture

in the air but the process can be strongly affected by exposure to

certain substances Corrosion can be concentrated locally to form a pit

or crack or it can extend across a wide area to produce general

deterioration (uniform corrosion)

The following reaction takes place at the active sites

2Fe =gt 2Fe++ + 4e-

The free electrons travel through the metal path to the less active sites where

the following reaction takes place

O2 + 4e- + 2H20 =gt 4 OH-

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Recombination of these ions at the active surface produce the following

reaction which yields the iron-corrosion product ferrous hydroxide

2Fe + O2 + 2H2O =gt 2Fe (OH) 2

CORROSION PROTECTION SYSTEM

Coatings and painting

Painting and the application of enamel bitumen and PVC

coating are the most common anti-corrosion treatments They

work by providing a barrier of corrosion-resistant material

between the damaging environment and the structural material

Corrosion Inhibitors

Corrosion inhibitor is injected into the flow lines as mentioned in

detail on page 8

Cathodic Protection

Cathodic Protection (CP) is a technique used to control the corrosion of a

metal surface by making it the cathode of an electrochemical cell It

converts all of the anodic (active) sites on the metal surface to cathodic

(passive) sites by supplying electrical current (or free electrons) from an

alternate source It is accomplished in two ways

a) A simple method of protection connects protected metal to a more easily

corroded sacrificial metal to act as the anode The sacrificial metal then

corrodes instead of the protected metal The process is similar to a simple

DC cell in which the more active metal becomes the anode and corrodes

whereas the less active metal becomes the cathode and is protected

b) For larger structures galvanic anodes cannot economically deliver enough

current to provide protection Therefore impressed current cathodic

protection (ICCP) systems are used These consist of anodes connected

to a DC power source In remote areas power sources such as solar

panels may be used The output DC negative terminal is connected to the

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frequently to limit liquid holdup and minimize the slug volumes of liquid which can

be generated by the system

Coating

Pigs may be used to apply internal pipe coatings such as epoxy coating

materials in operating pipelines Pigs may also be used with corrosion inhibitors

to distribute and coat the entire internal wetted perimeter

Inspection

Pigs are being used more frequently as inspection tools Gauging or sizing pigs

are typically run following the completion of new construction or line repair to

determine if there are any internal obstacles bends or buckles in the pipe Pigs

can also be equipped with cameras to allow viewing of the pipe internals

Electronic intelligent or smart ldquopigsrdquo that use magnetic and ultrasonic systems

have been developed and refined that locate and measure internal and external

corrosion pitting dents buckles and any other anomalies in the pipe wall

Intelligent pigs

The accuracy of location and measurement of anomalies by the intelligent pigs

has continued to improve Initially the electronics and power systems were so

large that intelligent pigs could be used only in lines 30 in and greater in size

The continued sophistication and miniaturization of the electronic systems used

in the intelligent pigs has allowed the development of smaller pigs that can be

used in small-diameter pipelines Newly enacted DOT pipeline-integrity

regulations and rules acknowledge the effectiveness of the intelligent pigs and

incorporate their use in the pipeline-integrity testing process

Compressors

A gas compressor is a mechanical device that increases the pressure of a gas by

reducing its volume Gas pressure is increased by forcing gas molecules together

to reduce gas volume When volume is reduced gas pressure increases

All gases have large spaces among their molecules These spaces could be

enhanced further and decreased by doing some work Work done which is used

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for the enhancement of these spaces is called expansion and work done to

minimize these spaces is called compression All gases while expansion

produces cooling effect and while compression of gases raises there

temperature Compression is a term used to force gases to occupy smaller

volumes by increasing their pressure Volume of gases is interlinked with

temperature and pressure of the gas which is cleared by 2 laws govern gas

compressions

Boyles Law

Charles Law

The main types of compressor are listed below

Front End Compressor

The plant currently processes gas from a number of wells The flow and pressure

from some of these wells (currently K-10 K-11 amp K-12) has declined and they

cannot be fed directly into the Central Processing Facility To recover the

maximum gas reserves from these wells a Front End Compressor is employed

The compressor is a two stage double acting gas engine driven reciprocating

(PT) compressor Double acting means that gas is compressed on each end of

the piston It normal operates with a speed range of 600 to 900 RPM and isequipped with four compressor cylinders two for each stage Each cylinder is

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also equipped with a variable volume head end pocket

In case of compressor emergency shutdown the production chokes and the

Upper Master Valves on the on line wells will close and operator will be notified in

central control room Sweet gas from gas distribution network is used to operate the

gas engine driver of the compressor package The detailed scheme of working is

shown in figure (page 22 )

PT Reciprocating Compressor

The mechanical cycle of piston tube reciprocating compressor comprises four

strokes the expansion stroke the intake stroke the compression stroke and the

discharge stroke

Expansion Stroke

As the piston moves back on the expansion stroke the chamber volume

increases and the pressure drop As the pressure drops the discharge valve

closes since there is greater pressure in the discharge line than in the chamber

Intake Stroke

As the piston moves back during the intake stroke the pressure decreases until it

is less than the pressure in the inlet line This higher intake pressure opens the

inlet valve and gas rushes into the cylinder equalizing the pressure there with

the intake pressure The compression chamber is now at or near the intake

pressure

Compression Stroke

The piston now starts the compression stroke by moving forward decreasing the

chamber volume and increasing the pressure The increased pressure is now

higher than the intake pressure causing the intake valve to close

Discharge Stroke

The piston continues to move to the left during the discharge stroke This creates

an increase in chamber pressure until it is greater than the discharge pressure

When this happens the Discharge valve opens and the compressed air from the

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cylinder goes into the discharge line The compression cycle is then repeated

from the stage

Compressor Capacity

The capacity of the compressor depends upon cylinder displacement That

displacement is simply the volume that the piston displaces (moves) as it travels

from one end of the cylinder to the other Capacity and displacement is equal to

the cross-sectional area of the cylinder times the length of the stroke

Lubrication and Cooling

Lubricating oil is circulated through the system by a gear pump which is chain

driven from the engine crank shaft The oil pump is mounted on the engine front

housing

The pump operates between 30 - 40 psig

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A circulating pump deliver cooling water to the water jackets in the cylinder block

flowing around the cylinder liners and is directed into the cylinder heads Each

cylinder head has water cooled exhaust elbows which outlet the water into the

water cooled exhausts From the end of engine the water flows to compressor

1st and 2nd stage cylinders and compressor lube oil cooler (LOwater heat

exchanger) The water from the compressor cylinder and lube oil cooler returns

to engine water cooled exhaust

Figure Flow diagram of Front End Compressor

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Centrifugal Compressor

Centrifugal compressors are machines in which velocity and pressure given to air

or gas in a radial direction by one or more impellers diffuser combination In a

centrifugal compressor the mechanical energy is increased by centrifugal action

The gas enters the suction eye of a high speed rotary element called the impeller

which carries radial vanes integrally cast in it As the impeller rotates the blades

of the impeller force the gas outward from the center the impeller to the outer rim

of impeller the increase in velocity of the gas creates a flow pressure area at the

eye of the impeller The gas at the outer rim of the impeller is forced in to a

passage way called a diffuser where the velocity decreases in the pressure of the

gas

Inlet

The inlet to a centrifugal compressor is typically a simple pipe It may include

features such as a valve and both pressure and temperature instrumentation

Centrifugal impeller

The key component that makes a compressor centrifugal is the centrifugal

impeller shown above It is the impellers rotating set of vanes (or blades) that

gradually raises the energy of the working gas This is identical to an axial

compressor with the exception that the gases can reach higher velocities and

energy levels through the impellers increasing radius

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Diffuser

The next key component to the simple centrifugal compressor is the diffuser

Downstream of the impeller in the flow path it is the diffusers responsibility to

convert the kinetic energy (high velocity) of the gas into pressure by gradually

slowing (diffusing) the gas velocity

SEPERATORS

A well-stream is a mixture of gases hydrocarbon liquids water solids and

contaminants Due to variations in pressure and temperature gases evolve from

the liquids water vapor condenses and some of the well-stream changes to liquid

and free gas The separation of well-stream fluids takes place in a separator This

pressure vessel is manufactured in three forms

1 horizontal

2 vertical

3 spherical

To help separation the vessel is normally designed with a series of internal

fittings These fittings are built into the separator to ensure total phase separation

of the well-stream

In gas plants separators are given alternative names due to the function they

perform in the process system A scrubber does a similar job to a knockout drum

However the scrubber usually separates a stream containing high gas-to-liquid

ratios The knockout drum is used where a high degree of liquids are entrained in

the gas

Fluid flow from a well can include gas condensable liquid vapors water water

vapor crude oil and solids As well-stream fluids reach ground level where

pressure is lower than in the reservoir the capacity of the liquid to hold gas in

solution decreases and gas separates out of the oil

Separation depends upon the effect of gravity to separate liquids For adequate

separation one fluid must be lighter than the other fluid For example distillates

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(gasoline kerosene etc) and crude oil will not separate in a vessel because they

tend to dissolve in each other Because a separator basically depends upon

gravity to separate the fluids the ease with which separation takes place

depends upon the difference in density of the fluids

Droplets of liquid will separate from gas provided

a) The gas remains in the separator long enough

b) The gas flow remains constant to provoke separation

The difference in density between a gas and liquid will therefore determine the

maximum flow rate of liquid in the vessel

Figure Two phase horizontal separator

Gas bubbles in the liquid will break out in some oil field applications in 30 to 60

seconds Consequently the separator is designed so that the liquid remains in

the vessel for 30 to 60 seconds The length of time that a liquid remains in the

vessel is called its residence time Residence time differs widely from field to field

depending upon viscosity and API Gravity

Another important factor which must be considered is temperature Generally a

decrease in operating temperature will increase the liquid recovery in a separator

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as the gas condenses By reducing the pressure on the fluid flash separation

occurs resulting in a flow through the separator which is controlled by external

instrumentation

COALESCENCE

Another important principle in fluid separation is that of coalescence This means

the coming together of liquid droplets created by the force of gravity

A common example of coalescing occurs when drops of water form on the

windshield of a car as it is driven in fog As the tiny drops or water which make up

the fog strike the windshield they combine and eventually form a drop large

enough to run down the glass

Several of the internal devices of a separator such as deflector plates

straightening vanes and even the vessel walls are forms of coalescers In each

vessel drops of liquid adhere to the surface of the device and combine with other

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drops until the drop is large enough to fall out The effectiveness of separation

will also depend upon the total amount of coalescing surface area that is present

There are many different types of separators used in the Oil amp Gas industry

Consequently separators are manufactured with one two or several internal

fittings depending on their use and quick removal of these fluids from the vessel

DEFLECTOR PLATES

These are fitted in front of the inlet to the separator and can be net or

dish-shaped Their purpose is to absorb the impact of the incoming fluids and to

encourage the separation of gas and liquids They also slow the flow rate of the

liquids through the vessel

WEIRS

A weir is a metal wall which is fitted across the inside of the vessel normally to a

height of 50 of the overall height of the separator Its purpose is to assist the

process of three phase separation The inlet fluids (oil plus water) are given time

to separate in the liquid accumulation section The water level (interface) is

normally controlled at 50 of the height of the weir Oil floating on the wateroverflows the weir and accumulates in the small oil compartment where it is

drawn off under level control

CENTRIFUGAL DEVICES

These are used in both vertical and horizontal separators for gas-liquid

separation The device imparts a swirling motion to the fluids entering the vessel

Centrifugal force causes the heavier liquids to travel outwards towards the walls

of the vessel and the lighter gases to flow up the centre Centrifugal devices are

also known as cyclones

VORTEX BREAKERS

When liquid flows through a drain outlet a vortex (whirlpool) will form This can

be seen when we pull the plug from a sink or bath tub The same would happen

as water and oil flow from the separator This condition a vortex could allow gas

to flow down the centre of the whirlpool and enter the liquid phase causing

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pressurizing of tanks etc To stop this happening vortex breakers are fitted to all

liquid outlets Although they come in a number of different designs vortex

breakers all serve the same purpose - to prevent a whirlpool from forming

MIST OR DEMISTER PADS

The gas which is released from the fluids in the separator still contains droplets of

oil and water which coalesce and fall when the drops get large enough The

demister pad assists in this process Made from knitted wire and contained within

a sturdy frame it causes the gas to continually change its direction of flow

Because gas changes direction far easier than liquid the gas will flow around

each strand of wire whilst the liquid entrained in the gas stream will continue and

stick to the wire

COALESCING PLATES

There are several different forms of coalescing devices the most common of

which are coalescing plates These plates are mounted in the flow stream of the

fluids and assist in breaking down oil-water emulsions The fluid is forced to

follow a path that constantly changes direction This causes the water droplets to

gather together or coalesce and fall to the bottom of the separator The same

principle is used to separate gas and oil mixtures when the oil droplets are

induced to coalesce Simply stated every surface within the separator including

the separator walls assists with the coalescing process

STRAIGHTENlNG VANES

These are often fitted to horizontal separators to remove turbulence in the gas

stream after initial separation at the inlet deflector

FLOAT SHEILD

Internal floats are used as level controllers Any agitation of the liquid surface or

the effect of coalesced liquids falling on the float may cause control problems

Therefore a float shield is fitted to enclose the float creating an area of still liquid

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MEMBRANES

The gas contains 12 carbon dioxide and 22 ppm of hydrogen sulphide at 115oF

and 1100 psig This needs to be removed before the gas can be exported The

majority of carbon dioxide hydrogen sulphide and water is removed by means of

membranes

Membranes are thin semipermeable barriers that selectively separate some

compounds from others Currently the only commercially workable membranes

used for CO2 removal are polymer based for example cellulose acetate

polyimides polyamides polysulfone polycarbonates and polyetherimide The

membrane does not operate as a filter where small molecules are separated

from larger ones through a medium with pores rather it separates based on how

well different compounds dissolve into the membrane and diffuse through it The

membranes are manufactured in flat sheets consisting of an extremely thin

nonporous layer mounted on a much-thicker and highly porous layer of the same

material providing mechanical strength The flat sheets are combined into a

spiral-wound element (Figure below) Feed gas enters along the side of the

membrane and passes through the feed spacers As the gas travels between

membrane sheets CO2 H2S and H2O permeate through the membrane and are

collected in the permeate tube The driving force for transport is the high-feed

pressure and low-permeate pressures The gas on the feed side that does not

permeate leaves through the side of the element opposite the feed position Once

the membranes have been manufactured into elements six to 12 elements are

joined together and inserted into a tube Multiple tubes are mounted on skids in a

horizontal orientation

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Figure Membrane general Working

In high H2S applications most polymers have been shown to have very little

resistance to H2S plasticization (ldquosofteningrdquo of the membrane) and as a

consequence can only be used at very low H2S partial pressure limits Cellulose

acetate membranes in contrast have been shown to be applicable at extreme

H2S partial pressure conditions It is these membranes that have been utilized in

the testing to determine the limits of membrane performance in high H 2S

applications

The primary membranes used in Kadanwari facility are Cellulose acetate

Cellulose acetic acid and acetic anhydride are mixed together and reacted to

form cellulose acetate polymers This process is aided by the addition of a small

amount of sulfuric acid which is subsequently neutralized during processing

However the membranes are bought from UOP (vendor) and installed for use

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How membrane work

The basic principle of separation is selectivity of certain components of a mixture

for the membrane For example the cellulose acetate membrane has very high

selectivity for CO2 and H2S as compared to CH4 Therefore such type of

membrane can be used in gas sweetening process

The selectivity is directly related to the Permeability of gas which accounts that

which gas can pass across the membrane more easily In simple words

membranes being polymer materials are made of long chains of molecules The

different structure of polymer materials only allow selective molecules to pass

through them depending upon chemical and physical compatibility Thus

permeability depends upon choice of polymer

The permeability is determined by permeability coefficient (P) and is product of

solubility (S) and diffusivity (D)

P = S D

Solubility

The solubility is mainly determined by ease of condensation Heavy molecules

are more readily condensed Therefore higher molecular weighted molecules will

more easily condensed and therefore have greater solubility

Molecule Molecular weight

CH4 16

H2S 34

CO2 44

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Diffusivity

Diffusivity is ease of molecule to penetrate into some material It depends on size

of gas molecule Here size of molecule is not to be confused by molecular weight

it is the size of the structure Eg the size of O2 molecule is smaller than N2

Molecule Molecular Diameter (Ao)

CO2 33

H2S 36

Ch4 40

For cellulose acetate

DCO2DCH4 S CO2S CH4 P CO2P CH4

45 73 308

Chemical degradation

Cellulose acetate polymer is chemically degraded by a process called hydrolysis

which means breaking apart by the addition of water This is a chemical reaction

in which water is added to the cellulose acetate polymer causing the release of

acetic acid molecules This process proceeds stepwise until all the acetate

groups are released resulting in the reformation of cellulose Moreover alcohols

aromatic hydrocarbons or solvents with chlorine nitro benzene or similar

aromatic solvents will harm the membrane It will expand and lose plastification in

contact with them

Effect of Temperature

The permeation rates of all gases increases with increasing temperature

however membrane selectivity for CO2 over hydrocarbon decreases at higher

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temperature Consequently CO2 removal will improve as operating temperature

increases but hydro carbon recovery will decrease

Primary Membrane

The primary membranes comprise of two trains Each train consists of two

sections AB and CD each section consists of a 30 tube membrane skid (A and

C) followed by a 25 tube skid (B and D) The conditioned gas (after pre-

treatment) enters the primary membrane via the particulate filter adjacent to the

skid The gas is fed to the membranes through a common inlet manifold which

supplies primary membranes skids A and C A pressure control loop located

upstream of the manual inlet isolation valve is provided to maintain a constant

supply pressure to the membrane skid and to allow for preheating at the inlet

prior to skid start-up This pressure control loop can also be used during start-up

to control the pressurization of the pretreatment skid and associated pipes to the

primary membranes

The gas passes through membrane skid A the residual gas exiting the membrane

skid is sent to skid B and the permeate to common permeate discharge header An

identical arrangement is provide on the inlet to skid C as provided on skid A Theresidual gas from skid B combines with the residual gas from skid D in a common

discharge header and is then sent to the H2S polishing towers via the feed coolers

on the pre-treatment skid The permeate from skid B is sent to the common

permeate discharge header The permeate discharge header sends the gas to

either the recycle compressor or the vent header via a pressure control loop

Overpressure protection for the membranes is provided by a pressure safety valve

on the supply header to the membrane banks

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Secondary (Recycle) Membrane

The recycle membranes comprise of a single train with two skids each with four

banks of membrane tubes The conditioned gas from the discharge of the recycle

pre-treatment skid is routed to the first recycle membrane skid The gas passes

through the membranes the residual gas is fed to primary membrane (skid A) inlet

via feed gas cooler and permeate to the common permeate discharge header An

identical arrangement is provide on the inlet to skid B Permeate from the recycle

membrane skids A and B is routed to the vent header Some portion of permeate is

heated and sent for regeneration in Mem-Guard units Nitrogen purge can be

connected downstream of the inlet isolation valve on each skid to enable the

membrane tubes to be purged and left pressurized during prolonged shutdown

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Figure Flow Diagram of Recycle membrane unit

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ADVANTAGES OF MEMBRANE SYSTEMS

Membrane systems have major advantages over more-traditional methods of

acid gas removal

Lower capital cost Membrane systems are skid mounted and so the

scope cost and time taken for site preparation are minimal Installation

costs are significantly lower than alternative technologies especially for

remote areas Furthermore no additional facilities for solvent storage and

water treatment needed by other processes are required

Lower operating costs The only major operating cost for single-stage

membrane systems is membrane replacement This cost is significantly

lower than the solvent replacement and energy costs associated with

traditional technologies The improvements in membrane and

pretreatment design allow a longer useful membrane life which further

reduces operating costs The energy costs of multistage systems with

large recycle compressors are usually comparable to those for traditionaltechnologies

Deferred capital investment Often contracted sales-gas flow rates

increase over time as more wells are brought on-line With traditional

technologies the system design needs to take this later production into

account immediately and so the majority of the equipment is installed

before it is even needed The modular nature of membrane systems

means that only the membranes that are needed at start-up need be

installed The rest can be added either into existing tubes or in new skids

only when they are required

Operational simplicity and high reliability Because single-stage

membrane systems have no moving parts they have almost no

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unscheduled downtime and are extremely simple to operate They can

operate unattended for long periods of time The addition of a recycle

compressor adds some complexity to the system but still much less than

with a solvent- or adsorbent-based technology Multistage systems can be

operated at full capacity as single-stage systems when the recycle

compressor is down

Good weight and space efficiency Skid construction can be optimized

to the space available This space efficiency is especially important for

offshore environments where deck area is at a premium and is the

reason why so many new offshore developments have chosen to use

membranes for acid gas removal Figure 6 illustrates the space efficiency

of membrane systems The membrane unit in the lower left corner

replaced all the amine and glycol plant equipment shown in the rest of the

picture

Adaptability Because membrane area is dictated by the percentage of

acid gas removal rather than absolute acid gas removal small variations

in feed acid gas content hardly change the sales-gas acid gas

specification For example a system designed for 10 down to 3 acid

gas removal produces a 35 product from a 12 feed gas and a 5

product from a 15 feed gas

Design efficiency The membrane and pretreatment systems integrate a

number of operations such as dehydration CO2 and H2S removal dew-

point control and mercury removal Traditional acid gas removal

technologies require all of these operations as separate processes and

may also require additional dehydration because some technologies

saturate the product stream with water

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Power generation The permeate gas from membrane systems can be

used to provide fuel gas for power generation either for a recycle

compressor or other equipment

Ideal for debottlenecking Because expanding solvent- or adsorbent-

based acid gas removal plants without adding additional trains is difficult

an ideal solution is to use membranes for bulk acid gas removal and leave

the existing plant for final cleanup An additional advantage is that the

permeate gas from the membrane system can often be used as fuel for

the existing plant thus avoiding significant increase in hydrocarbon

losses

Environmentally friendly Membrane systems do not involve the

periodic removal and handling of spent solvents or adsorbents Permeate

gases can be flared used as fuel or re-injected into the well Items thatdo need disposal such as spent membrane elements can be incinerated

Ideal for remote locations Many of the factors mentioned above make

membrane systems a highly desirable technology for remote locations

where spare parts are rare and labor unskilled Furthermore solvents

storage and trucking water supply power generation or extensive

infrastructure are not required

Re-injection optimizations Since the permeate stream from the

membrane system can be operated at elevated pressures it is possible to

further pressurize by re-injection compression train

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Sorption

Sorption is a physical and chemical process by which one substance becomes

attached to another

It is of two main types

1 Absorption

2 Adsorption

Absorption

Absorption is a physical or chemical phenomenon or process in which atoms

molecules or ions enter some bulk phase ndash gas liquid or solid material This is a

different process from adsorption since molecules undergoing absorption are

taken up by the volume not by the surface (as in the case for adsorption)

Absorption process may be chemical (reactive) or physical (non-reactive)

Physical absorption

Physical absorption or non-reactive absorption is made between two phases ofmatter a liquid absorbs a gas or a solid absorbs a liquid

When a liquid solvent absorbs a gas mixture or part of it a mass of gas moves

into the liquid For example water may absorb oxygen from the air This mass

transfer takes place at the interface between the liquid and the gas at a rate

depending on both the gas and the liquid This type of absorption depends on the

solubility of gases the pressure and the temperature The rate and amount of

absorption also depend on the surface area of the interface and its duration in

time

When a solid absorbs a liquid mixture or part of it a mass of liquid moves into the

solid For example a clay pot used to store water may absorb some of the water

This mass transfer takes place at the interface between the solid and the liquid

at a rate depending on both the solid and the liquid

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Chemical absorption

Chemical absorption or reactive absorption is a chemical reaction between the

absorbed and the absorbing substances Sometimes it combines with physical

absorption This type of absorption depends upon the stoichiometry of the

reaction and the concentration of its reactants

Adsorption

Adsorption is the adhesion of atoms ions or molecules from a gas liquid or

dissolved solid to a surface This process creates a film of the adsorbate on the

surface of the adsorbent The binding to the surface is usually weak and

reversible Compounds with color and those that have taste or odor tend to bind

strongly Compounds that vibrate at frequencies in the visible spectrum are very

often are strongly adsorbed on activated carbon

The most common industrial adsorbents are activated carbon silica gel and

alumina because they present enormous surface areas per unit weight

Depending on the nature of attractive forces existing between the adsorbate and

adsorbent adsorption can be classified as

i) Physical adsorption

ii) Chemical adsorption

i) Physical adsorption (Physisorption)

In physical adsorption the forces of attraction between the molecules of the

adsorbate and the adsorbent are of the weak van der Waals type Since the

forces of attraction are weak the process of physisorption can be easily reversed

by heating or decreasing the pressure of the adsorbate (as in the case of gases)

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ii) Chemical adsorption (Chemisorption)

In chemisorption the forces of attraction between the adsorbate and the

adsorbent are very strong the molecules of adsorbate form chemical bonds with

the molecules of the adsorbent present in the surface

Adsorption is generally accompanied by release of energy that is most

adsorption processes are exothermic in nature Adsorption is a spontaneous

process therefore its free energy change is negative (∆Glt0) However the

entropy change associated with adsorption is generally negative because the

adsorbate molecules lose their translation freedom when they get attached to the

surface of the adsorbent Therefore in order for ∆G to be negative the enthalpy

change (∆H) must be sufficiently negative such that (∆G=∆H-T∆S) lt 0 This

explanation accounts for exothermic adsorption processes In cases where

endothermic adsorption occurs the entropy change ∆S is sufficiently positive

such that ∆G remains negative

Pre treatment

The main function of pretreatment skid is to provide membrane inlet specification

gas as mentioned by the vendor UOP It removes the contaminants that would

poison the membranes like dust solids (adsorbent particles) lube oil heavy

hydrocarbons etc It consists of

Feed Cooler

Feed Gas Scrubber

Filter Coalescer

Feed Gas Heater

Activated Carbon Guard Filter

Particle Filter

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The regeneration is carried out by heated permeate gas from the recycle

membranes at 450oF The vessel is depressurized to 20 psi and heated gas is

introduced from top The gas carries out the adsorbed contaminants and leaves

the vessel from bottom cleaning the adsorbent This contaminated gas is burnt in

the flare

UOP the vendor of Memguard unit has never disclosed that what substance

MG3 and MG5 exactly are But as mentioned by vendor that both care class of

aluminosilicates Therefore MG3 can be potassium aluminosilicate and MG5 can

be Calcium aluminosilicate These are molecular sieves adsorbents Molecular

sieves are a microporous material which can selectively adsorb gases andliquids They are synthetic zeolites (crystalline metal aluminosilicates) which

upon dehydration can efficiently and selectively remove water or other

solvents The selectivity of a molecular sieve is determined by its pore size

molecules with a critical diameter which is less than the pore size will be

efficiently adsorbed while larger molecules will be excluded

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3A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

The 3A molecular sieve adsorbent has a 3 angstrom (3A) pore size which means

that any molecule that is larger than the 3 angstrom pores will not be adsorbed

The 3A molecular sieve is the potassium type of A crystalline structure and is a

form of alkali Aluminosilicate For a 3A molecular sieve the sequence rate that

adsorption occurs is He Ne N and H2O

Due to the crystalline structure molecular sieves that have a 3 angstrom pore

size have a very high rate of adsorption and properties that promote a longer life

for products treated by the sieve The most common use for the 3A molecular

sieve is to remove water and moisture from materials that are in gas and liquid

form

5A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

These are molecular sieve adsorbents with a pore size of 5 angstrom (5A) 5A

molecular sieves are unable to adsorb any molecules or impurities that are

smaller than 5A It is calcium form of type A crystalline structure and is form of analkali-aluminosilicate that is most commonly used to separate isomerous alkanes

from normal alkanes and to co-adsorb moisture and water along with carbon

dioxide from gases In additional 5A molecular sieves are used for gaseous

pressure swing adsorption (PSA)mdashthat is to separate particular gases from other

gases

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of C3H8 to C22H46

Adsorption of Freon-12 (dichlorodifluoromethane)

Natural gas drying

Normal- and iso-paraffin separation

Separation of aromatic

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Inlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1096

MEHTANE 8593

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008

N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGEN 076

WATER 007

Outlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1098

MEHTANE 8608

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGENT 076

WATER 000

H2S polisher

The H2S polishing unit has been designed to treat 187 MMscfday of natural gas

containing up to 11 CO2 and 21 ppm H2S where the level of the CO2 and H2S

is reduced using a MemGuard Membrane separation unit The unit is situated

down-stream of the membrane unit and will further reduce the level of H2S in the

processed gas to a sales gas specification of 38 ppm

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This process uses three non-regenerable fixed bed absorber vessels using a low

temperature high activity absorbent The absorbent is a mixture of activated

metal oxides (mainly zinc oxide) The three towers can are generally operated in

parallel arrangement but on demand can be used in series (any of alternate

arrangements of A B C vessels) as shown in figure

The higher sales gas flow rate increased the catalyst consumption and

replacement frequency

ZnO + H2S =gt ZnS + H20

Routine samples are taken from the beds to provide a check on each bed

performance and to follow the saturation profile during the absorbent life After

the adsorbent has been fully utilized the adsorption vessels are recharged with

new adsorbent discarding the utilized one in a safe manner

109oF

1215 psig

Before H2S Polishing After H2S Polishing

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Figure

H2S Tower

Inlet pipe

4 Drums of 19mm

ceramic Balls

6 Micron mesh

5 Drums of 50mmceramic

1 Drums of19mm ceramic

01 Drums of6mm ceramic

112 drums of

Catalist ZnO

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Recycle Compressor

The permeate gas of the primary membrane unit carries recoverable amount of

CH4 It is fed to recycle membrane unit for further CH 4 recovery But the

permeate pressure from primary membranes which has been reduced to 12 psi

must be regenerated to 1200 psi for the gas to be fed again to the system For

this purpose we have employed recycle compressor The compressor is a four

stage centrifugal compressor It is driven by gas turbine of 31200 HP It has 25

MW producing capacity

Figure Recycle Compressor Process Flow Diagram

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Sales Gas Compressor

Gas from H2S polishing unit is sent to sales gas compressor where its pressure

is enhanced to 1100 psi so it may be injected to SNGPL high pressure trunk line

Sales gas compressor is single stage gas turbine driven

Figure Process Flow of Sales Gas Compressor

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Cooling Towers

A cooling tower is a heat rejection device which extracts waste heat to theatmosphere through the cooling of a water stream to a lower temperature Hot

water from the system enters the cooling tower and is distributed over the fill

(heat transfer surface) Air is induced or forced through the fill causing a small

portion of the water to evaporate This evaporation removes heat from the

remaining water which is collected in the cold water basin and returned to the

system to absorb more heat Each cooling tower line although operating under

the same basic principle of operation is arranged a little differently

Types

Natural draft mdash Utilizes buoyancy via a tall chimney Warm moist air naturally

rises due to the density differential compared to the dry cooler outside air Warm

moist air is less dense than drier air at the same pressure This moist air

buoyancy produces an upwards current of air through the tower

Mechanical draft mdash Uses power-driven fan motors to force or draw airthrough the tower

o Induced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a fan at the

discharge (at the top) which pulls air up through the tower The fan

induces hot moist air out the discharge This produces low entering

and high exiting air velocities reducing the possibility of

recirculation in which discharged air flows back into the air intake

o Forced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a blower type fan at

the intake The fan forces air into the tower creating high entering

and low exiting air velocities The low exiting velocity is much more

susceptible to recirculation This fanfill geometry is also known as

blow-through

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Forced Draft Cooling Tower Vs Induced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower have the ability to handle large water flow

rate than Forced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower is suitable for large cell sizes and fan sizes

as compared with Forced Draft Larger fan size may result in greater

efficiency and consequently lower power and sound level

Forced Draft Cooling Tower can be square or rectangular type only

however Induced Draft Cooling Towers can be round square or

rectangular type

Induced Draft Cooling Tower uses more compact ground area than Forced

Draft Cooling Tower equivalent capacity due to absence of fan on one

side

Fan equipment is warm exhaust air is less liable to icing up in winter

operation (Cold Countries)

Higher velocity in Forced Draft Cooling Tower cause drop in suspension

and cause additional static resistance to system

Configuration

There are two main configurations of factory assembled cooling towers crossflow

and counterflow In crossflow cooling towers the water flows vertically down the

fill as air flows horizontally across In counterflow cooling towers the water flows

vertically down the fill as air flows vertically up

Crossflow Configuration Counterflow Configuration

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Drift mdash Water droplets that are carried out of the cooling tower with the exhaust

air Drift droplets have the same concentration of impurities as the water entering

the tower The drift rate is typically reduced by employing baffle-like devices

called drift eliminators through which the air must travel after leaving the fill and

spray zones of the tower

Blow-out mdash Water droplets blown out of the cooling tower by wind generally at

the air inlet openings Water may also be lost in the absence of wind through

splashing or misting Devices such as wind screens louvers splash deflectors

and water diverters are used to limit these losses

Blow-down mdash The portion of the circulating water flow that is removed (usually

discharged to a drain) in order to maintain the amount of Total Dissolved Solids

(TDS) and other impurities at an acceptably low level Higher TDS concentration

in solution may result from greater cooling tower efficiency However the higher

the TDS concentration the greater the risk of scale biological growth and

corrosion

Make-up mdash The water that must be added to the circulating water system in

order to compensate for water losses such as evaporation drift loss blow-out

blow-down etc

Approach mdash The approach is the difference in temperature between the cooled-

water temperature and the entering-air wet bulb temperature

Range mdash The range is the temperature difference between the warm water inlet

and cooled water exit

Fill mdash Inside the tower fills are added to increase contact surface as well as

contact time between air and water to provide better heat transfer The efficiency

of the tower depends on the selection and amount of fill

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There are two types of fills that may be used

o Film type fill (causes water to spread into a thin film)

o Splash type fill (breaks up falling stream of water and interrupts its

vertical progress)

Important

Scale build up is controlled by adding chemicals to the cooling loop and diluting

the concentration by blow down and make-up Following chemicals are added to

the Cooling to control CorrosionSale and microbial growth

Corrosion Inhibitor To control corrosion in the Cooling system

Dispersant To kept ions in suspension to avoid settle down and buildup

Sodium hypo Chlorite To Control microbial Growth

Acid To control Alkalinity in the system

High Stress Polymer To run the system at higher conductivity It is a

multifunctional polymer for Zinc amp Phosphate stabilization in cooling tower

Fin Fan Cooler

Fin fan heat exchanger is simply a pressure vessel which cools a circulating fluid

within finned tubes by forcing ambient air over the exterior of the tubes A

common example of an air cooler is a carrsquos radiator Fin Fan Coolers are used in

any application where large quantities of heat need to be transferred This

includes chemical and petrochemical industries power stations waste-to-energy

facilities as well as steelworks

Fin Fan Cooler are used for two primary reasons

They increase plant efficiency

They are a green solution as compared to cooling towers and shell and

tube heat exchangers because they do not require an auxiliary water

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supply (water lost due to drift and evaporation plus no water treatment

chemicals are required)

Figure General Overview of Fin Fan Cooler

Produced Water

The produced water system receives liquid from the equipment Miano slug

catcher train 1 and 2 inlet separators and is fed to three phase separator where

water oil and gas is separated The gases produced are burnt in incinerator

whereas hydrocarbon liquid is stored to be sold Liquid from compressors

recycle inlet separator recycle feed scrubber high and low pressure slug

catchers is passed to degasser Separated water is injected down the earth

Incinerator

The term incinerate means to burn something until nothing is left but ashes An

incinerator is a unit or facility used to burn trash and other types of waste until it is

reduced to ash An incinerator is constructed of heavy well-insulated materials

so that it does not give off extreme amounts of external heat The high levels of

heat are kept inside the furnace or unit so that the waste is burned quickly and

efficiently If the heat were allowed to escape the waste would not burn as

completely or as rapidly

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Control System

The plant is controlled at CCR (Central Control Room) by PLCs (Programmable

Logic Controllers) through fiber optic control line All control parameters are

received at LER (Local Equipment Room) via two optic fiber control lines One

being primary and other secondary operating in redundancy ie if primary fails

control shifts to secondary These control parameters are sent to CCR via single

optic fiber cable

Safety System

Wellheads and Gas Processing Plant have their own Fire amp Gas detection

systems emergency shutdown (ESD) Plant has a fault tolerant controller It is

based on Triple Modular Redundant (TMR) architecture manufactured by

Triconex The TMR system is based on three isolated parallel control systems

integrated into one system The system operates on a two out of three voting

principle which provides high integrity error free uninterrupted operation with no

single point of failure The TMR receives inputs from Process Sensors Manual

Switches Fire amp Gas Detectors Packaged Equipment Control Systems and

Product Exporting Facilities The TMR carries out cause and effect processing on

the data received and where necessary produces output signals Outputs from

the TMR are hard wired directly to ESD shutdown and blow down valve

solenoids motor control instrumentelectrical interfaces to control electrical

drives package equipment logic control systems manifold area as well as

telecoms

The operator in central control room is able to accept alarms and once the fault

has been cleared reset the input All the control systems are centralized to a

single interface All the PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers) communicate with

the servers and servers communicate with the clients through Ethernet connectivity

Centralization eases the navigation of different systems at a common interface

Emergency Shutdown

The ESD system receives inputs from field mounted instrumentation on the process

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and utility equipment and initiates executive actions appropriate to the level of ESD

The system is an Active system which is in standby and will activate when in an

alarm or fault condition The Kadanwari Gas Process Facility ESD system is

comprised of five (5) levels The emergency severity decreases with increasing ESD

level number

ESD 1

This shutdown level is automatically initiated by fire major gas leak or a detected

toxic atmosphere in the process area of the plant or manually from CCR A level 1

shutdown will cause all production to cease close all emergency shutdown

valves stop the process and shutdown of the main power generation The

emergency vent valves to the stack will open and in addition all equipment of zone 1

certified will be isolated This is the highest level of ESD and will cause the following

to occur

All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close All slowdown Valves (BDVs) on the process facility will open

All Main Gas Driven Generators will be tripped

Emergency Diesel Generator will start

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close Upper Master Valve

(UMV) Close

ESD 2

This shutdown level is activated automatically if a major process or utility failure

occurs or manually from CCR All production to the plant from the wellhead is

stopped All emergency shutdown valves trip to their fail safe position

Venting shall be as specified This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

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All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valve Close Wing Valves Close and Upper Master Valve(UMV) Close

ESD 3

The level 3 shutdown isolates and stops a single process train only Production

continues via the other train This ESD level is initiated by process conditions or

operator at local panel This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

ESD 3A Train 1 production to cease

ESD 3B Train 2 production to cease

All online wellhead choke valves go to minimum flow ie (1O )

ESD 4

A level 4 shutdown shall cease all production from an entire field either

Kadanwari or Miano upstream of the associated slug catchers ESD 4K for

Kadanwari amp ESD 4M for Miano This ESD level is initiated automatically by slug

catcher abnormal process conditions This level of ESD will cause the following

to occur

All SDVs close isolating the relevant slug catcher and its upstream gas

production facility from the Kadanwari Gas Processing Plant

All Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close and Upper MasterValves (UMV) of the relevant gas production facility Close

A parallel timer is provided to close within 10 second if not closed in given

time SSSV seals the well

ESD 5

A level 5 shutdown represents equipment shutdown for the protection of the

individual equipment without any change in the process This level of ESD is for the

protection of various pieces of equipment and is initiated by its own inputs eg

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OMV Kadanwai facility feed gas composition

Process Description

Gas from Kadanwari High pressure wells is routed to Kadanwari High Pressure

slug catcher Gas from Kadanwari low pressure wells is routed to Kadanwari low

pressure slug catcher and is fed to 2 stage Front End Compressor (FEC) to

increase the pressure up to production pressure Gas from FEC is fed to high

pressure stream flowing into Kadanwari High Pressure slug catcher The gas

from Miano wells is fed to Miano Slug Catcher

Kadanwari and Miano gas streams after separately metered are fed to a common

header which splits into two identical skids A and B Here we will discuss one

skid in common Each skid is routed to fin fan coolers where it is cooled and fed

to Inlet separator where water and heavy hydrocarbons are removed from feed

gas The condensate from all units is sent to produce water system

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The gas then passes through pretreatment skid which consists of following units

Feed Cooler

Feed Gas Scrubber

Filter Coalescer

Feed Gas Heater

Activated Carbon Guard Filter

Particle Filter

Its main function is to remove contaminants from gas such as dust lube oils

heavy hydrocarbons etc which may poison or reduce efficiency of membrane

unit

After pretreatment gas is fed to Molecular Sieve Absorbers (Memguard Units)

which ensures gas supplied to membranes is up to membrane standards of UOP

(vendor of membrane system) It removes all moisture and heavy hydrocarbons

from gas stream

Pretreated gas is now fed to the primary membranes The permeate stream (rich

in CO2) is sent to recycle membranes after passing through recycle compressor

and recycle pretreatment The permeate stream of recycle membranes is used as

regenerative medium for Memguard units and rest is sent to incinerator and

burnt The residual gas (rich in CH4) from primary membrane and recycle

membranes (all skids) is sent to H2S polishers via a common header

H2S polisher unit reduce the hydrogen sulfide level to the sales limit The gas is

now metered after compressing in sales gas compressor and is sent to SNGPL

trunk line after metering

Water is remove from condensate at produced water system by a three phase

separator The condensate is sold to refinery Major quantity is exported to

various industries

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Figure Overall plant Process Flow Diagram

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Wellhead

A wellhead is the component at the surface of an oil or gas well that provides the

structural and pressure-containing interface for the drilling and production

equipment Its function is to maintain surface control of the well It forms a seal to

prevent well fluids from leaking or blowing at the surface They are rated for

working pressure of 2000 psi to 15000 psi (or greater)

When the well has been drilled and it is ready to provide an interface with the

reservoir rock and a tubular channel for the well fluids The surface pressure

control is provided by a Christmas tree which is installed on top of the wellhead

with valves and choke equipment to control the flow of well fluids during

production

Christmas tree

A Christmas tree is an assembly of valves spools and fittings used for an oil

well gas well water injection well gas injection well condensate well and other

types of wells

The primary function of a tree is to control the flow usually oil or gas out of the

well When the well and facilities are ready to produce and receive oil or gas tree

valves are opened and the formation fluids are allowed to go through a flow line

This leads to a processing facility A tree often provides numerous additional

functions including chemical injection points well intervention means pressure

relief means monitoring points (such as pressure temperature corrosion

erosion sand detection flow rate flow composition valve and choke position

feedback) and connection points for devices such as down hole pressure andtemperature transducers (DHPT) On producing wells chemicals or alcohols or

oil distillates may be injected to preclude production problems (such as

blockages)

The control system attached to the tree controls the down-hole safety valve

(SCSSV) while the tree acts as an attachment and means of the control system

to the down-hole safety valve

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Figure 1

Well Head and Christmas Tree

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Master Valves

The two lower valves are called the master valves Master valves are normally in

the fully open position and are never opened or closed when the well is flowing

(except in an emergency) to prevent erosion of the valve sealing surfaces They

are gate type valves

1 Lower Master Valve (LMV)

2 Upper Master Valve (UMV)

The lower master valve will normally be manually operated while the upper

master valve is often hydraulically actuated allowing it to be used as a means of

remotely shutting in the well in the event of emergency

Wing Valve

A wing valve is normally used to shut in the well when flowing thus preserving

the master valves for positive shut off for maintenance purposes The wing

valve can be a gate valve or ball valve Hydraulic operated wing valves are

usually built to be fail safe closed meaning they require active hydraulic pressure

to stay open This feature means that if control fluid fails the well will

automatically shut itself in without operator action

In Kadanwari well sites there is only one manually operated wing valve On the

other hand at Miano well sites there are two wing valves one being operated

manually and other hydraulically

Production Wing Valve

The right hand valve is often called the flow wing valve or the production wing

valve because it provides flow path for hydrocarbons to production facility

Kill wing valve

The left hand valve is often called the kill wing valve It is primarily used for

injection of fluids such as corrosion inhibitors or methanol to prevent hydrate

formation It is typically manually operated It can kill the well temporarily be

injection brine solution which provides a pressure head to well and temporarily

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suspends it for maintenance of well head Also it is used to permanently kill the

well A chemical is injected down the well that seals the piping down the well and

kills the well permanently

Swab valve

The swab valve is used to gain access to the well for wire line operations

intervention and other work over procedure On top of it is a tree adapter

and cap that will mate with various equipment For such operations a

lubricator is assembled up onto the top of the tree and the wire or coil is lowered

through the lubricator through swab valve and into the well This valve is typically

manually operated

Choke

A choke holds back pressure by restricting the flow opening at the well head This

is done to make better use of the gas for natural gas lift and to control the bottom-

hole pressure for recovery reasons

CHECK VALVE

The check is introduced in production flow line to prevent any reverse flow from

the line into the well It has a hinged flap which lifts to permit normal flow but

closes to prevent reverse flow

TOP ADAPTOR

The top adaptor is a fitting on top of the swab valve with a threaded connection

During normal well operations a pressure gauge is fitted to monitor flowing and

shut in wellhead pressures However during well service operations the cap can

be removed to allow installation of lubricators for wire-line operations

SCSSSV (Surface Control Sub Surface Safety Valve)

A subsurface safety valve is essentially a shutdown valve installed at the upper

wellbore for emergency shutdown to protect the production tubing and wellhead

in case of overpressure Subsurface safety valves can offer a barrier against flow

in the event of a wellhead collapse or other disastrous event Purpose of asubsurface safety valve (SSSV) is to avoid the ultimate disaster which can result

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in release of reservoir fluids to the surroundings This makes SSSV a very

important component of a well completion

A subsurface safety valve is typically a uni-directional flapper valve directed in

such a way that the flappers open downwards when pressure is applied from an

upward direction The flapper can only open in the downward direction So even if

high pressure is applied by the well fluids from a

downward direction a safety valve can remain

closed This makes a subsurface safety valve fail-

safe To open the valve hydraulic signal is sent from

the surface well control panel This hydraulic

pressure is responsible for keeping the flappers of

SSSV open and loss of hydraulic pressure result in

closing of the valve Thus wellbore can be isolated in

case of system failure or damage to the surface

facilities

Types of Christmas tree

There are two types of Christmas Tree

1 Solid block

2 Conventional

The solid block Christmas Tree has a central solid unit holding several valves

in a pre-constructed block Their advantage is the reduction in potential leak

paths and their higher pressure rating (Fig 2)

The conventional Christmas Tree is built up from individual valves bolted

together to form an assembly (Fig 3)

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Figure 2

Figure 3

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Wellhead Control Panel

Wellhead control panel is key equipment in oil amp gas industry to protect oilfield

facilities and environment from emergency incidents such as wellhead fire which

is one of main control systems to ensure oilfield oil production and transportation

to be safely operation according to international standards and national

regulation Wellhead control panel is composed of hydraulic power unit tubing amp

fitting and instrument valve and electrical control devices Hydraulic power unit

supply hydraulic resource to open and close safety valves including master

valves wing valves and SCSSSV

Its performs

Local OnOff SSV

Remote control SSV through RTU( remote terminal unit)

High-Low pressure sense shut-down automatically

Fusible Plug Anti-fire Shut-down automatically

Function of showing system pressure

Relief Valve shall be installed on each hydraulic circuit to prevent high

pressure

Function of showing hydraulic level and level switch for alarm

Function of defending pressure impact of system

Function of system pressure monitoring (by pressure transmitter of control

panel)

Function of remote emergency shut-down (by magnetic valve of control

panel)

Function of OnOff SSV monitoring (by pressure switch of control loop of

control panel)

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Chemical Injection

Chemical injection systems are commonly used in production facilities to prevent

or eliminate a wide range of problems that might negatively affect the production

flow It is done for flow assurance protection of process equipment such as

pipelines or to optimize processes in production facilities

Typical flow assurance chemicals are

Wax inhibitors

Pour point depressants

Asphaltene inhibitors

Corrosion inhibitors

A corrosion inhibitor is a chemical compound that is added to liquid or gas to

decreases the corrosion rate of a material typically a metal or an alloy The

effectiveness of a corrosion inhibitor depends on fluid composition quantity of

water and flow regime Its common mechanism involves formation of a coating

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which prevents access of the corrosive substance to the metal The corrosive

agents are generally oxygen hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide

At our production site the major risk is corrosion of piping and equipment The

maximum allowable corrosion rate is approximately 02 mm per year and

corrosion rate without inhibitor could be approximately 11 mm per year so the

corrosion protection program is designed to achieve a target corrosion rate of

less than 01 mm per year which is achieved by an inhibitor system efficiency of

99 Inhibitor is injected into the well stream flow through an atomizing nozzle

located downstream of the respective wellhead coolers at the duplexcarbon steel

interface In normal operation as per NALCO standards chemical (brand name

EC1144B) at rate of frac12 Liter per MMSCFD of gas is being injected into the flow

line of miano15 flow lines made of carbon steel Moreover the composition can

vary depending upon the composition of well fluids and material of pipeline This

method of injection ensures even distribution of the chemical on the interior

surface of the pipeline The individual well sites are equipped with Chemical

Injection Packages comprising of a stainless steel storage tank and two

pneumatic motor driven pumps in parallel Instrument gas is used to drive the

pumps Normally one pump is running with the other standby

Water Conning

Water coning is a term used to describe the mechanism underlying the upward

movement of water into the perforations of a producing well Coning can seriously

impact the well productivity and influence the degree of depletion and the overall

recovery efficiency of the reservoir The specific problems of water coning are

listed below

Costly added water handling

Gas production from the original or secondary gas cap reduces pressure

Reduced efficiency of the depletion mechanism

The water is often corrosive and its disposal costly

The affected well may be abandoned early

Loss of the total field overall recovery

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Therefore conning has an important influence on operations recovery and

economics The phenomena is shown in picture below

Corrosion

Corrosion is referred as chemical deterioration of a metal Commonly this

means loss of electrons of metals reacting with water and oxygen

Weakening of iron due to oxidation of the iron atoms is a well-known

example of electrochemical corrosion This is commonly known as

rust Most structural alloys corrode merely from exposure to moisture

in the air but the process can be strongly affected by exposure to

certain substances Corrosion can be concentrated locally to form a pit

or crack or it can extend across a wide area to produce general

deterioration (uniform corrosion)

The following reaction takes place at the active sites

2Fe =gt 2Fe++ + 4e-

The free electrons travel through the metal path to the less active sites where

the following reaction takes place

O2 + 4e- + 2H20 =gt 4 OH-

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Recombination of these ions at the active surface produce the following

reaction which yields the iron-corrosion product ferrous hydroxide

2Fe + O2 + 2H2O =gt 2Fe (OH) 2

CORROSION PROTECTION SYSTEM

Coatings and painting

Painting and the application of enamel bitumen and PVC

coating are the most common anti-corrosion treatments They

work by providing a barrier of corrosion-resistant material

between the damaging environment and the structural material

Corrosion Inhibitors

Corrosion inhibitor is injected into the flow lines as mentioned in

detail on page 8

Cathodic Protection

Cathodic Protection (CP) is a technique used to control the corrosion of a

metal surface by making it the cathode of an electrochemical cell It

converts all of the anodic (active) sites on the metal surface to cathodic

(passive) sites by supplying electrical current (or free electrons) from an

alternate source It is accomplished in two ways

a) A simple method of protection connects protected metal to a more easily

corroded sacrificial metal to act as the anode The sacrificial metal then

corrodes instead of the protected metal The process is similar to a simple

DC cell in which the more active metal becomes the anode and corrodes

whereas the less active metal becomes the cathode and is protected

b) For larger structures galvanic anodes cannot economically deliver enough

current to provide protection Therefore impressed current cathodic

protection (ICCP) systems are used These consist of anodes connected

to a DC power source In remote areas power sources such as solar

panels may be used The output DC negative terminal is connected to the

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frequently to limit liquid holdup and minimize the slug volumes of liquid which can

be generated by the system

Coating

Pigs may be used to apply internal pipe coatings such as epoxy coating

materials in operating pipelines Pigs may also be used with corrosion inhibitors

to distribute and coat the entire internal wetted perimeter

Inspection

Pigs are being used more frequently as inspection tools Gauging or sizing pigs

are typically run following the completion of new construction or line repair to

determine if there are any internal obstacles bends or buckles in the pipe Pigs

can also be equipped with cameras to allow viewing of the pipe internals

Electronic intelligent or smart ldquopigsrdquo that use magnetic and ultrasonic systems

have been developed and refined that locate and measure internal and external

corrosion pitting dents buckles and any other anomalies in the pipe wall

Intelligent pigs

The accuracy of location and measurement of anomalies by the intelligent pigs

has continued to improve Initially the electronics and power systems were so

large that intelligent pigs could be used only in lines 30 in and greater in size

The continued sophistication and miniaturization of the electronic systems used

in the intelligent pigs has allowed the development of smaller pigs that can be

used in small-diameter pipelines Newly enacted DOT pipeline-integrity

regulations and rules acknowledge the effectiveness of the intelligent pigs and

incorporate their use in the pipeline-integrity testing process

Compressors

A gas compressor is a mechanical device that increases the pressure of a gas by

reducing its volume Gas pressure is increased by forcing gas molecules together

to reduce gas volume When volume is reduced gas pressure increases

All gases have large spaces among their molecules These spaces could be

enhanced further and decreased by doing some work Work done which is used

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for the enhancement of these spaces is called expansion and work done to

minimize these spaces is called compression All gases while expansion

produces cooling effect and while compression of gases raises there

temperature Compression is a term used to force gases to occupy smaller

volumes by increasing their pressure Volume of gases is interlinked with

temperature and pressure of the gas which is cleared by 2 laws govern gas

compressions

Boyles Law

Charles Law

The main types of compressor are listed below

Front End Compressor

The plant currently processes gas from a number of wells The flow and pressure

from some of these wells (currently K-10 K-11 amp K-12) has declined and they

cannot be fed directly into the Central Processing Facility To recover the

maximum gas reserves from these wells a Front End Compressor is employed

The compressor is a two stage double acting gas engine driven reciprocating

(PT) compressor Double acting means that gas is compressed on each end of

the piston It normal operates with a speed range of 600 to 900 RPM and isequipped with four compressor cylinders two for each stage Each cylinder is

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also equipped with a variable volume head end pocket

In case of compressor emergency shutdown the production chokes and the

Upper Master Valves on the on line wells will close and operator will be notified in

central control room Sweet gas from gas distribution network is used to operate the

gas engine driver of the compressor package The detailed scheme of working is

shown in figure (page 22 )

PT Reciprocating Compressor

The mechanical cycle of piston tube reciprocating compressor comprises four

strokes the expansion stroke the intake stroke the compression stroke and the

discharge stroke

Expansion Stroke

As the piston moves back on the expansion stroke the chamber volume

increases and the pressure drop As the pressure drops the discharge valve

closes since there is greater pressure in the discharge line than in the chamber

Intake Stroke

As the piston moves back during the intake stroke the pressure decreases until it

is less than the pressure in the inlet line This higher intake pressure opens the

inlet valve and gas rushes into the cylinder equalizing the pressure there with

the intake pressure The compression chamber is now at or near the intake

pressure

Compression Stroke

The piston now starts the compression stroke by moving forward decreasing the

chamber volume and increasing the pressure The increased pressure is now

higher than the intake pressure causing the intake valve to close

Discharge Stroke

The piston continues to move to the left during the discharge stroke This creates

an increase in chamber pressure until it is greater than the discharge pressure

When this happens the Discharge valve opens and the compressed air from the

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cylinder goes into the discharge line The compression cycle is then repeated

from the stage

Compressor Capacity

The capacity of the compressor depends upon cylinder displacement That

displacement is simply the volume that the piston displaces (moves) as it travels

from one end of the cylinder to the other Capacity and displacement is equal to

the cross-sectional area of the cylinder times the length of the stroke

Lubrication and Cooling

Lubricating oil is circulated through the system by a gear pump which is chain

driven from the engine crank shaft The oil pump is mounted on the engine front

housing

The pump operates between 30 - 40 psig

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A circulating pump deliver cooling water to the water jackets in the cylinder block

flowing around the cylinder liners and is directed into the cylinder heads Each

cylinder head has water cooled exhaust elbows which outlet the water into the

water cooled exhausts From the end of engine the water flows to compressor

1st and 2nd stage cylinders and compressor lube oil cooler (LOwater heat

exchanger) The water from the compressor cylinder and lube oil cooler returns

to engine water cooled exhaust

Figure Flow diagram of Front End Compressor

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Centrifugal Compressor

Centrifugal compressors are machines in which velocity and pressure given to air

or gas in a radial direction by one or more impellers diffuser combination In a

centrifugal compressor the mechanical energy is increased by centrifugal action

The gas enters the suction eye of a high speed rotary element called the impeller

which carries radial vanes integrally cast in it As the impeller rotates the blades

of the impeller force the gas outward from the center the impeller to the outer rim

of impeller the increase in velocity of the gas creates a flow pressure area at the

eye of the impeller The gas at the outer rim of the impeller is forced in to a

passage way called a diffuser where the velocity decreases in the pressure of the

gas

Inlet

The inlet to a centrifugal compressor is typically a simple pipe It may include

features such as a valve and both pressure and temperature instrumentation

Centrifugal impeller

The key component that makes a compressor centrifugal is the centrifugal

impeller shown above It is the impellers rotating set of vanes (or blades) that

gradually raises the energy of the working gas This is identical to an axial

compressor with the exception that the gases can reach higher velocities and

energy levels through the impellers increasing radius

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Diffuser

The next key component to the simple centrifugal compressor is the diffuser

Downstream of the impeller in the flow path it is the diffusers responsibility to

convert the kinetic energy (high velocity) of the gas into pressure by gradually

slowing (diffusing) the gas velocity

SEPERATORS

A well-stream is a mixture of gases hydrocarbon liquids water solids and

contaminants Due to variations in pressure and temperature gases evolve from

the liquids water vapor condenses and some of the well-stream changes to liquid

and free gas The separation of well-stream fluids takes place in a separator This

pressure vessel is manufactured in three forms

1 horizontal

2 vertical

3 spherical

To help separation the vessel is normally designed with a series of internal

fittings These fittings are built into the separator to ensure total phase separation

of the well-stream

In gas plants separators are given alternative names due to the function they

perform in the process system A scrubber does a similar job to a knockout drum

However the scrubber usually separates a stream containing high gas-to-liquid

ratios The knockout drum is used where a high degree of liquids are entrained in

the gas

Fluid flow from a well can include gas condensable liquid vapors water water

vapor crude oil and solids As well-stream fluids reach ground level where

pressure is lower than in the reservoir the capacity of the liquid to hold gas in

solution decreases and gas separates out of the oil

Separation depends upon the effect of gravity to separate liquids For adequate

separation one fluid must be lighter than the other fluid For example distillates

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(gasoline kerosene etc) and crude oil will not separate in a vessel because they

tend to dissolve in each other Because a separator basically depends upon

gravity to separate the fluids the ease with which separation takes place

depends upon the difference in density of the fluids

Droplets of liquid will separate from gas provided

a) The gas remains in the separator long enough

b) The gas flow remains constant to provoke separation

The difference in density between a gas and liquid will therefore determine the

maximum flow rate of liquid in the vessel

Figure Two phase horizontal separator

Gas bubbles in the liquid will break out in some oil field applications in 30 to 60

seconds Consequently the separator is designed so that the liquid remains in

the vessel for 30 to 60 seconds The length of time that a liquid remains in the

vessel is called its residence time Residence time differs widely from field to field

depending upon viscosity and API Gravity

Another important factor which must be considered is temperature Generally a

decrease in operating temperature will increase the liquid recovery in a separator

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as the gas condenses By reducing the pressure on the fluid flash separation

occurs resulting in a flow through the separator which is controlled by external

instrumentation

COALESCENCE

Another important principle in fluid separation is that of coalescence This means

the coming together of liquid droplets created by the force of gravity

A common example of coalescing occurs when drops of water form on the

windshield of a car as it is driven in fog As the tiny drops or water which make up

the fog strike the windshield they combine and eventually form a drop large

enough to run down the glass

Several of the internal devices of a separator such as deflector plates

straightening vanes and even the vessel walls are forms of coalescers In each

vessel drops of liquid adhere to the surface of the device and combine with other

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drops until the drop is large enough to fall out The effectiveness of separation

will also depend upon the total amount of coalescing surface area that is present

There are many different types of separators used in the Oil amp Gas industry

Consequently separators are manufactured with one two or several internal

fittings depending on their use and quick removal of these fluids from the vessel

DEFLECTOR PLATES

These are fitted in front of the inlet to the separator and can be net or

dish-shaped Their purpose is to absorb the impact of the incoming fluids and to

encourage the separation of gas and liquids They also slow the flow rate of the

liquids through the vessel

WEIRS

A weir is a metal wall which is fitted across the inside of the vessel normally to a

height of 50 of the overall height of the separator Its purpose is to assist the

process of three phase separation The inlet fluids (oil plus water) are given time

to separate in the liquid accumulation section The water level (interface) is

normally controlled at 50 of the height of the weir Oil floating on the wateroverflows the weir and accumulates in the small oil compartment where it is

drawn off under level control

CENTRIFUGAL DEVICES

These are used in both vertical and horizontal separators for gas-liquid

separation The device imparts a swirling motion to the fluids entering the vessel

Centrifugal force causes the heavier liquids to travel outwards towards the walls

of the vessel and the lighter gases to flow up the centre Centrifugal devices are

also known as cyclones

VORTEX BREAKERS

When liquid flows through a drain outlet a vortex (whirlpool) will form This can

be seen when we pull the plug from a sink or bath tub The same would happen

as water and oil flow from the separator This condition a vortex could allow gas

to flow down the centre of the whirlpool and enter the liquid phase causing

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pressurizing of tanks etc To stop this happening vortex breakers are fitted to all

liquid outlets Although they come in a number of different designs vortex

breakers all serve the same purpose - to prevent a whirlpool from forming

MIST OR DEMISTER PADS

The gas which is released from the fluids in the separator still contains droplets of

oil and water which coalesce and fall when the drops get large enough The

demister pad assists in this process Made from knitted wire and contained within

a sturdy frame it causes the gas to continually change its direction of flow

Because gas changes direction far easier than liquid the gas will flow around

each strand of wire whilst the liquid entrained in the gas stream will continue and

stick to the wire

COALESCING PLATES

There are several different forms of coalescing devices the most common of

which are coalescing plates These plates are mounted in the flow stream of the

fluids and assist in breaking down oil-water emulsions The fluid is forced to

follow a path that constantly changes direction This causes the water droplets to

gather together or coalesce and fall to the bottom of the separator The same

principle is used to separate gas and oil mixtures when the oil droplets are

induced to coalesce Simply stated every surface within the separator including

the separator walls assists with the coalescing process

STRAIGHTENlNG VANES

These are often fitted to horizontal separators to remove turbulence in the gas

stream after initial separation at the inlet deflector

FLOAT SHEILD

Internal floats are used as level controllers Any agitation of the liquid surface or

the effect of coalesced liquids falling on the float may cause control problems

Therefore a float shield is fitted to enclose the float creating an area of still liquid

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MEMBRANES

The gas contains 12 carbon dioxide and 22 ppm of hydrogen sulphide at 115oF

and 1100 psig This needs to be removed before the gas can be exported The

majority of carbon dioxide hydrogen sulphide and water is removed by means of

membranes

Membranes are thin semipermeable barriers that selectively separate some

compounds from others Currently the only commercially workable membranes

used for CO2 removal are polymer based for example cellulose acetate

polyimides polyamides polysulfone polycarbonates and polyetherimide The

membrane does not operate as a filter where small molecules are separated

from larger ones through a medium with pores rather it separates based on how

well different compounds dissolve into the membrane and diffuse through it The

membranes are manufactured in flat sheets consisting of an extremely thin

nonporous layer mounted on a much-thicker and highly porous layer of the same

material providing mechanical strength The flat sheets are combined into a

spiral-wound element (Figure below) Feed gas enters along the side of the

membrane and passes through the feed spacers As the gas travels between

membrane sheets CO2 H2S and H2O permeate through the membrane and are

collected in the permeate tube The driving force for transport is the high-feed

pressure and low-permeate pressures The gas on the feed side that does not

permeate leaves through the side of the element opposite the feed position Once

the membranes have been manufactured into elements six to 12 elements are

joined together and inserted into a tube Multiple tubes are mounted on skids in a

horizontal orientation

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Figure Membrane general Working

In high H2S applications most polymers have been shown to have very little

resistance to H2S plasticization (ldquosofteningrdquo of the membrane) and as a

consequence can only be used at very low H2S partial pressure limits Cellulose

acetate membranes in contrast have been shown to be applicable at extreme

H2S partial pressure conditions It is these membranes that have been utilized in

the testing to determine the limits of membrane performance in high H 2S

applications

The primary membranes used in Kadanwari facility are Cellulose acetate

Cellulose acetic acid and acetic anhydride are mixed together and reacted to

form cellulose acetate polymers This process is aided by the addition of a small

amount of sulfuric acid which is subsequently neutralized during processing

However the membranes are bought from UOP (vendor) and installed for use

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How membrane work

The basic principle of separation is selectivity of certain components of a mixture

for the membrane For example the cellulose acetate membrane has very high

selectivity for CO2 and H2S as compared to CH4 Therefore such type of

membrane can be used in gas sweetening process

The selectivity is directly related to the Permeability of gas which accounts that

which gas can pass across the membrane more easily In simple words

membranes being polymer materials are made of long chains of molecules The

different structure of polymer materials only allow selective molecules to pass

through them depending upon chemical and physical compatibility Thus

permeability depends upon choice of polymer

The permeability is determined by permeability coefficient (P) and is product of

solubility (S) and diffusivity (D)

P = S D

Solubility

The solubility is mainly determined by ease of condensation Heavy molecules

are more readily condensed Therefore higher molecular weighted molecules will

more easily condensed and therefore have greater solubility

Molecule Molecular weight

CH4 16

H2S 34

CO2 44

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Diffusivity

Diffusivity is ease of molecule to penetrate into some material It depends on size

of gas molecule Here size of molecule is not to be confused by molecular weight

it is the size of the structure Eg the size of O2 molecule is smaller than N2

Molecule Molecular Diameter (Ao)

CO2 33

H2S 36

Ch4 40

For cellulose acetate

DCO2DCH4 S CO2S CH4 P CO2P CH4

45 73 308

Chemical degradation

Cellulose acetate polymer is chemically degraded by a process called hydrolysis

which means breaking apart by the addition of water This is a chemical reaction

in which water is added to the cellulose acetate polymer causing the release of

acetic acid molecules This process proceeds stepwise until all the acetate

groups are released resulting in the reformation of cellulose Moreover alcohols

aromatic hydrocarbons or solvents with chlorine nitro benzene or similar

aromatic solvents will harm the membrane It will expand and lose plastification in

contact with them

Effect of Temperature

The permeation rates of all gases increases with increasing temperature

however membrane selectivity for CO2 over hydrocarbon decreases at higher

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temperature Consequently CO2 removal will improve as operating temperature

increases but hydro carbon recovery will decrease

Primary Membrane

The primary membranes comprise of two trains Each train consists of two

sections AB and CD each section consists of a 30 tube membrane skid (A and

C) followed by a 25 tube skid (B and D) The conditioned gas (after pre-

treatment) enters the primary membrane via the particulate filter adjacent to the

skid The gas is fed to the membranes through a common inlet manifold which

supplies primary membranes skids A and C A pressure control loop located

upstream of the manual inlet isolation valve is provided to maintain a constant

supply pressure to the membrane skid and to allow for preheating at the inlet

prior to skid start-up This pressure control loop can also be used during start-up

to control the pressurization of the pretreatment skid and associated pipes to the

primary membranes

The gas passes through membrane skid A the residual gas exiting the membrane

skid is sent to skid B and the permeate to common permeate discharge header An

identical arrangement is provide on the inlet to skid C as provided on skid A Theresidual gas from skid B combines with the residual gas from skid D in a common

discharge header and is then sent to the H2S polishing towers via the feed coolers

on the pre-treatment skid The permeate from skid B is sent to the common

permeate discharge header The permeate discharge header sends the gas to

either the recycle compressor or the vent header via a pressure control loop

Overpressure protection for the membranes is provided by a pressure safety valve

on the supply header to the membrane banks

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Secondary (Recycle) Membrane

The recycle membranes comprise of a single train with two skids each with four

banks of membrane tubes The conditioned gas from the discharge of the recycle

pre-treatment skid is routed to the first recycle membrane skid The gas passes

through the membranes the residual gas is fed to primary membrane (skid A) inlet

via feed gas cooler and permeate to the common permeate discharge header An

identical arrangement is provide on the inlet to skid B Permeate from the recycle

membrane skids A and B is routed to the vent header Some portion of permeate is

heated and sent for regeneration in Mem-Guard units Nitrogen purge can be

connected downstream of the inlet isolation valve on each skid to enable the

membrane tubes to be purged and left pressurized during prolonged shutdown

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Figure Flow Diagram of Recycle membrane unit

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ADVANTAGES OF MEMBRANE SYSTEMS

Membrane systems have major advantages over more-traditional methods of

acid gas removal

Lower capital cost Membrane systems are skid mounted and so the

scope cost and time taken for site preparation are minimal Installation

costs are significantly lower than alternative technologies especially for

remote areas Furthermore no additional facilities for solvent storage and

water treatment needed by other processes are required

Lower operating costs The only major operating cost for single-stage

membrane systems is membrane replacement This cost is significantly

lower than the solvent replacement and energy costs associated with

traditional technologies The improvements in membrane and

pretreatment design allow a longer useful membrane life which further

reduces operating costs The energy costs of multistage systems with

large recycle compressors are usually comparable to those for traditionaltechnologies

Deferred capital investment Often contracted sales-gas flow rates

increase over time as more wells are brought on-line With traditional

technologies the system design needs to take this later production into

account immediately and so the majority of the equipment is installed

before it is even needed The modular nature of membrane systems

means that only the membranes that are needed at start-up need be

installed The rest can be added either into existing tubes or in new skids

only when they are required

Operational simplicity and high reliability Because single-stage

membrane systems have no moving parts they have almost no

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unscheduled downtime and are extremely simple to operate They can

operate unattended for long periods of time The addition of a recycle

compressor adds some complexity to the system but still much less than

with a solvent- or adsorbent-based technology Multistage systems can be

operated at full capacity as single-stage systems when the recycle

compressor is down

Good weight and space efficiency Skid construction can be optimized

to the space available This space efficiency is especially important for

offshore environments where deck area is at a premium and is the

reason why so many new offshore developments have chosen to use

membranes for acid gas removal Figure 6 illustrates the space efficiency

of membrane systems The membrane unit in the lower left corner

replaced all the amine and glycol plant equipment shown in the rest of the

picture

Adaptability Because membrane area is dictated by the percentage of

acid gas removal rather than absolute acid gas removal small variations

in feed acid gas content hardly change the sales-gas acid gas

specification For example a system designed for 10 down to 3 acid

gas removal produces a 35 product from a 12 feed gas and a 5

product from a 15 feed gas

Design efficiency The membrane and pretreatment systems integrate a

number of operations such as dehydration CO2 and H2S removal dew-

point control and mercury removal Traditional acid gas removal

technologies require all of these operations as separate processes and

may also require additional dehydration because some technologies

saturate the product stream with water

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Power generation The permeate gas from membrane systems can be

used to provide fuel gas for power generation either for a recycle

compressor or other equipment

Ideal for debottlenecking Because expanding solvent- or adsorbent-

based acid gas removal plants without adding additional trains is difficult

an ideal solution is to use membranes for bulk acid gas removal and leave

the existing plant for final cleanup An additional advantage is that the

permeate gas from the membrane system can often be used as fuel for

the existing plant thus avoiding significant increase in hydrocarbon

losses

Environmentally friendly Membrane systems do not involve the

periodic removal and handling of spent solvents or adsorbents Permeate

gases can be flared used as fuel or re-injected into the well Items thatdo need disposal such as spent membrane elements can be incinerated

Ideal for remote locations Many of the factors mentioned above make

membrane systems a highly desirable technology for remote locations

where spare parts are rare and labor unskilled Furthermore solvents

storage and trucking water supply power generation or extensive

infrastructure are not required

Re-injection optimizations Since the permeate stream from the

membrane system can be operated at elevated pressures it is possible to

further pressurize by re-injection compression train

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Sorption

Sorption is a physical and chemical process by which one substance becomes

attached to another

It is of two main types

1 Absorption

2 Adsorption

Absorption

Absorption is a physical or chemical phenomenon or process in which atoms

molecules or ions enter some bulk phase ndash gas liquid or solid material This is a

different process from adsorption since molecules undergoing absorption are

taken up by the volume not by the surface (as in the case for adsorption)

Absorption process may be chemical (reactive) or physical (non-reactive)

Physical absorption

Physical absorption or non-reactive absorption is made between two phases ofmatter a liquid absorbs a gas or a solid absorbs a liquid

When a liquid solvent absorbs a gas mixture or part of it a mass of gas moves

into the liquid For example water may absorb oxygen from the air This mass

transfer takes place at the interface between the liquid and the gas at a rate

depending on both the gas and the liquid This type of absorption depends on the

solubility of gases the pressure and the temperature The rate and amount of

absorption also depend on the surface area of the interface and its duration in

time

When a solid absorbs a liquid mixture or part of it a mass of liquid moves into the

solid For example a clay pot used to store water may absorb some of the water

This mass transfer takes place at the interface between the solid and the liquid

at a rate depending on both the solid and the liquid

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Chemical absorption

Chemical absorption or reactive absorption is a chemical reaction between the

absorbed and the absorbing substances Sometimes it combines with physical

absorption This type of absorption depends upon the stoichiometry of the

reaction and the concentration of its reactants

Adsorption

Adsorption is the adhesion of atoms ions or molecules from a gas liquid or

dissolved solid to a surface This process creates a film of the adsorbate on the

surface of the adsorbent The binding to the surface is usually weak and

reversible Compounds with color and those that have taste or odor tend to bind

strongly Compounds that vibrate at frequencies in the visible spectrum are very

often are strongly adsorbed on activated carbon

The most common industrial adsorbents are activated carbon silica gel and

alumina because they present enormous surface areas per unit weight

Depending on the nature of attractive forces existing between the adsorbate and

adsorbent adsorption can be classified as

i) Physical adsorption

ii) Chemical adsorption

i) Physical adsorption (Physisorption)

In physical adsorption the forces of attraction between the molecules of the

adsorbate and the adsorbent are of the weak van der Waals type Since the

forces of attraction are weak the process of physisorption can be easily reversed

by heating or decreasing the pressure of the adsorbate (as in the case of gases)

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ii) Chemical adsorption (Chemisorption)

In chemisorption the forces of attraction between the adsorbate and the

adsorbent are very strong the molecules of adsorbate form chemical bonds with

the molecules of the adsorbent present in the surface

Adsorption is generally accompanied by release of energy that is most

adsorption processes are exothermic in nature Adsorption is a spontaneous

process therefore its free energy change is negative (∆Glt0) However the

entropy change associated with adsorption is generally negative because the

adsorbate molecules lose their translation freedom when they get attached to the

surface of the adsorbent Therefore in order for ∆G to be negative the enthalpy

change (∆H) must be sufficiently negative such that (∆G=∆H-T∆S) lt 0 This

explanation accounts for exothermic adsorption processes In cases where

endothermic adsorption occurs the entropy change ∆S is sufficiently positive

such that ∆G remains negative

Pre treatment

The main function of pretreatment skid is to provide membrane inlet specification

gas as mentioned by the vendor UOP It removes the contaminants that would

poison the membranes like dust solids (adsorbent particles) lube oil heavy

hydrocarbons etc It consists of

Feed Cooler

Feed Gas Scrubber

Filter Coalescer

Feed Gas Heater

Activated Carbon Guard Filter

Particle Filter

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The regeneration is carried out by heated permeate gas from the recycle

membranes at 450oF The vessel is depressurized to 20 psi and heated gas is

introduced from top The gas carries out the adsorbed contaminants and leaves

the vessel from bottom cleaning the adsorbent This contaminated gas is burnt in

the flare

UOP the vendor of Memguard unit has never disclosed that what substance

MG3 and MG5 exactly are But as mentioned by vendor that both care class of

aluminosilicates Therefore MG3 can be potassium aluminosilicate and MG5 can

be Calcium aluminosilicate These are molecular sieves adsorbents Molecular

sieves are a microporous material which can selectively adsorb gases andliquids They are synthetic zeolites (crystalline metal aluminosilicates) which

upon dehydration can efficiently and selectively remove water or other

solvents The selectivity of a molecular sieve is determined by its pore size

molecules with a critical diameter which is less than the pore size will be

efficiently adsorbed while larger molecules will be excluded

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3A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

The 3A molecular sieve adsorbent has a 3 angstrom (3A) pore size which means

that any molecule that is larger than the 3 angstrom pores will not be adsorbed

The 3A molecular sieve is the potassium type of A crystalline structure and is a

form of alkali Aluminosilicate For a 3A molecular sieve the sequence rate that

adsorption occurs is He Ne N and H2O

Due to the crystalline structure molecular sieves that have a 3 angstrom pore

size have a very high rate of adsorption and properties that promote a longer life

for products treated by the sieve The most common use for the 3A molecular

sieve is to remove water and moisture from materials that are in gas and liquid

form

5A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

These are molecular sieve adsorbents with a pore size of 5 angstrom (5A) 5A

molecular sieves are unable to adsorb any molecules or impurities that are

smaller than 5A It is calcium form of type A crystalline structure and is form of analkali-aluminosilicate that is most commonly used to separate isomerous alkanes

from normal alkanes and to co-adsorb moisture and water along with carbon

dioxide from gases In additional 5A molecular sieves are used for gaseous

pressure swing adsorption (PSA)mdashthat is to separate particular gases from other

gases

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of C3H8 to C22H46

Adsorption of Freon-12 (dichlorodifluoromethane)

Natural gas drying

Normal- and iso-paraffin separation

Separation of aromatic

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Inlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1096

MEHTANE 8593

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008

N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGEN 076

WATER 007

Outlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1098

MEHTANE 8608

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGENT 076

WATER 000

H2S polisher

The H2S polishing unit has been designed to treat 187 MMscfday of natural gas

containing up to 11 CO2 and 21 ppm H2S where the level of the CO2 and H2S

is reduced using a MemGuard Membrane separation unit The unit is situated

down-stream of the membrane unit and will further reduce the level of H2S in the

processed gas to a sales gas specification of 38 ppm

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This process uses three non-regenerable fixed bed absorber vessels using a low

temperature high activity absorbent The absorbent is a mixture of activated

metal oxides (mainly zinc oxide) The three towers can are generally operated in

parallel arrangement but on demand can be used in series (any of alternate

arrangements of A B C vessels) as shown in figure

The higher sales gas flow rate increased the catalyst consumption and

replacement frequency

ZnO + H2S =gt ZnS + H20

Routine samples are taken from the beds to provide a check on each bed

performance and to follow the saturation profile during the absorbent life After

the adsorbent has been fully utilized the adsorption vessels are recharged with

new adsorbent discarding the utilized one in a safe manner

109oF

1215 psig

Before H2S Polishing After H2S Polishing

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Figure

H2S Tower

Inlet pipe

4 Drums of 19mm

ceramic Balls

6 Micron mesh

5 Drums of 50mmceramic

1 Drums of19mm ceramic

01 Drums of6mm ceramic

112 drums of

Catalist ZnO

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Recycle Compressor

The permeate gas of the primary membrane unit carries recoverable amount of

CH4 It is fed to recycle membrane unit for further CH 4 recovery But the

permeate pressure from primary membranes which has been reduced to 12 psi

must be regenerated to 1200 psi for the gas to be fed again to the system For

this purpose we have employed recycle compressor The compressor is a four

stage centrifugal compressor It is driven by gas turbine of 31200 HP It has 25

MW producing capacity

Figure Recycle Compressor Process Flow Diagram

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Sales Gas Compressor

Gas from H2S polishing unit is sent to sales gas compressor where its pressure

is enhanced to 1100 psi so it may be injected to SNGPL high pressure trunk line

Sales gas compressor is single stage gas turbine driven

Figure Process Flow of Sales Gas Compressor

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Cooling Towers

A cooling tower is a heat rejection device which extracts waste heat to theatmosphere through the cooling of a water stream to a lower temperature Hot

water from the system enters the cooling tower and is distributed over the fill

(heat transfer surface) Air is induced or forced through the fill causing a small

portion of the water to evaporate This evaporation removes heat from the

remaining water which is collected in the cold water basin and returned to the

system to absorb more heat Each cooling tower line although operating under

the same basic principle of operation is arranged a little differently

Types

Natural draft mdash Utilizes buoyancy via a tall chimney Warm moist air naturally

rises due to the density differential compared to the dry cooler outside air Warm

moist air is less dense than drier air at the same pressure This moist air

buoyancy produces an upwards current of air through the tower

Mechanical draft mdash Uses power-driven fan motors to force or draw airthrough the tower

o Induced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a fan at the

discharge (at the top) which pulls air up through the tower The fan

induces hot moist air out the discharge This produces low entering

and high exiting air velocities reducing the possibility of

recirculation in which discharged air flows back into the air intake

o Forced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a blower type fan at

the intake The fan forces air into the tower creating high entering

and low exiting air velocities The low exiting velocity is much more

susceptible to recirculation This fanfill geometry is also known as

blow-through

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Forced Draft Cooling Tower Vs Induced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower have the ability to handle large water flow

rate than Forced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower is suitable for large cell sizes and fan sizes

as compared with Forced Draft Larger fan size may result in greater

efficiency and consequently lower power and sound level

Forced Draft Cooling Tower can be square or rectangular type only

however Induced Draft Cooling Towers can be round square or

rectangular type

Induced Draft Cooling Tower uses more compact ground area than Forced

Draft Cooling Tower equivalent capacity due to absence of fan on one

side

Fan equipment is warm exhaust air is less liable to icing up in winter

operation (Cold Countries)

Higher velocity in Forced Draft Cooling Tower cause drop in suspension

and cause additional static resistance to system

Configuration

There are two main configurations of factory assembled cooling towers crossflow

and counterflow In crossflow cooling towers the water flows vertically down the

fill as air flows horizontally across In counterflow cooling towers the water flows

vertically down the fill as air flows vertically up

Crossflow Configuration Counterflow Configuration

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Drift mdash Water droplets that are carried out of the cooling tower with the exhaust

air Drift droplets have the same concentration of impurities as the water entering

the tower The drift rate is typically reduced by employing baffle-like devices

called drift eliminators through which the air must travel after leaving the fill and

spray zones of the tower

Blow-out mdash Water droplets blown out of the cooling tower by wind generally at

the air inlet openings Water may also be lost in the absence of wind through

splashing or misting Devices such as wind screens louvers splash deflectors

and water diverters are used to limit these losses

Blow-down mdash The portion of the circulating water flow that is removed (usually

discharged to a drain) in order to maintain the amount of Total Dissolved Solids

(TDS) and other impurities at an acceptably low level Higher TDS concentration

in solution may result from greater cooling tower efficiency However the higher

the TDS concentration the greater the risk of scale biological growth and

corrosion

Make-up mdash The water that must be added to the circulating water system in

order to compensate for water losses such as evaporation drift loss blow-out

blow-down etc

Approach mdash The approach is the difference in temperature between the cooled-

water temperature and the entering-air wet bulb temperature

Range mdash The range is the temperature difference between the warm water inlet

and cooled water exit

Fill mdash Inside the tower fills are added to increase contact surface as well as

contact time between air and water to provide better heat transfer The efficiency

of the tower depends on the selection and amount of fill

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There are two types of fills that may be used

o Film type fill (causes water to spread into a thin film)

o Splash type fill (breaks up falling stream of water and interrupts its

vertical progress)

Important

Scale build up is controlled by adding chemicals to the cooling loop and diluting

the concentration by blow down and make-up Following chemicals are added to

the Cooling to control CorrosionSale and microbial growth

Corrosion Inhibitor To control corrosion in the Cooling system

Dispersant To kept ions in suspension to avoid settle down and buildup

Sodium hypo Chlorite To Control microbial Growth

Acid To control Alkalinity in the system

High Stress Polymer To run the system at higher conductivity It is a

multifunctional polymer for Zinc amp Phosphate stabilization in cooling tower

Fin Fan Cooler

Fin fan heat exchanger is simply a pressure vessel which cools a circulating fluid

within finned tubes by forcing ambient air over the exterior of the tubes A

common example of an air cooler is a carrsquos radiator Fin Fan Coolers are used in

any application where large quantities of heat need to be transferred This

includes chemical and petrochemical industries power stations waste-to-energy

facilities as well as steelworks

Fin Fan Cooler are used for two primary reasons

They increase plant efficiency

They are a green solution as compared to cooling towers and shell and

tube heat exchangers because they do not require an auxiliary water

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supply (water lost due to drift and evaporation plus no water treatment

chemicals are required)

Figure General Overview of Fin Fan Cooler

Produced Water

The produced water system receives liquid from the equipment Miano slug

catcher train 1 and 2 inlet separators and is fed to three phase separator where

water oil and gas is separated The gases produced are burnt in incinerator

whereas hydrocarbon liquid is stored to be sold Liquid from compressors

recycle inlet separator recycle feed scrubber high and low pressure slug

catchers is passed to degasser Separated water is injected down the earth

Incinerator

The term incinerate means to burn something until nothing is left but ashes An

incinerator is a unit or facility used to burn trash and other types of waste until it is

reduced to ash An incinerator is constructed of heavy well-insulated materials

so that it does not give off extreme amounts of external heat The high levels of

heat are kept inside the furnace or unit so that the waste is burned quickly and

efficiently If the heat were allowed to escape the waste would not burn as

completely or as rapidly

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Control System

The plant is controlled at CCR (Central Control Room) by PLCs (Programmable

Logic Controllers) through fiber optic control line All control parameters are

received at LER (Local Equipment Room) via two optic fiber control lines One

being primary and other secondary operating in redundancy ie if primary fails

control shifts to secondary These control parameters are sent to CCR via single

optic fiber cable

Safety System

Wellheads and Gas Processing Plant have their own Fire amp Gas detection

systems emergency shutdown (ESD) Plant has a fault tolerant controller It is

based on Triple Modular Redundant (TMR) architecture manufactured by

Triconex The TMR system is based on three isolated parallel control systems

integrated into one system The system operates on a two out of three voting

principle which provides high integrity error free uninterrupted operation with no

single point of failure The TMR receives inputs from Process Sensors Manual

Switches Fire amp Gas Detectors Packaged Equipment Control Systems and

Product Exporting Facilities The TMR carries out cause and effect processing on

the data received and where necessary produces output signals Outputs from

the TMR are hard wired directly to ESD shutdown and blow down valve

solenoids motor control instrumentelectrical interfaces to control electrical

drives package equipment logic control systems manifold area as well as

telecoms

The operator in central control room is able to accept alarms and once the fault

has been cleared reset the input All the control systems are centralized to a

single interface All the PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers) communicate with

the servers and servers communicate with the clients through Ethernet connectivity

Centralization eases the navigation of different systems at a common interface

Emergency Shutdown

The ESD system receives inputs from field mounted instrumentation on the process

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and utility equipment and initiates executive actions appropriate to the level of ESD

The system is an Active system which is in standby and will activate when in an

alarm or fault condition The Kadanwari Gas Process Facility ESD system is

comprised of five (5) levels The emergency severity decreases with increasing ESD

level number

ESD 1

This shutdown level is automatically initiated by fire major gas leak or a detected

toxic atmosphere in the process area of the plant or manually from CCR A level 1

shutdown will cause all production to cease close all emergency shutdown

valves stop the process and shutdown of the main power generation The

emergency vent valves to the stack will open and in addition all equipment of zone 1

certified will be isolated This is the highest level of ESD and will cause the following

to occur

All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close All slowdown Valves (BDVs) on the process facility will open

All Main Gas Driven Generators will be tripped

Emergency Diesel Generator will start

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close Upper Master Valve

(UMV) Close

ESD 2

This shutdown level is activated automatically if a major process or utility failure

occurs or manually from CCR All production to the plant from the wellhead is

stopped All emergency shutdown valves trip to their fail safe position

Venting shall be as specified This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

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All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valve Close Wing Valves Close and Upper Master Valve(UMV) Close

ESD 3

The level 3 shutdown isolates and stops a single process train only Production

continues via the other train This ESD level is initiated by process conditions or

operator at local panel This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

ESD 3A Train 1 production to cease

ESD 3B Train 2 production to cease

All online wellhead choke valves go to minimum flow ie (1O )

ESD 4

A level 4 shutdown shall cease all production from an entire field either

Kadanwari or Miano upstream of the associated slug catchers ESD 4K for

Kadanwari amp ESD 4M for Miano This ESD level is initiated automatically by slug

catcher abnormal process conditions This level of ESD will cause the following

to occur

All SDVs close isolating the relevant slug catcher and its upstream gas

production facility from the Kadanwari Gas Processing Plant

All Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close and Upper MasterValves (UMV) of the relevant gas production facility Close

A parallel timer is provided to close within 10 second if not closed in given

time SSSV seals the well

ESD 5

A level 5 shutdown represents equipment shutdown for the protection of the

individual equipment without any change in the process This level of ESD is for the

protection of various pieces of equipment and is initiated by its own inputs eg

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The gas then passes through pretreatment skid which consists of following units

Feed Cooler

Feed Gas Scrubber

Filter Coalescer

Feed Gas Heater

Activated Carbon Guard Filter

Particle Filter

Its main function is to remove contaminants from gas such as dust lube oils

heavy hydrocarbons etc which may poison or reduce efficiency of membrane

unit

After pretreatment gas is fed to Molecular Sieve Absorbers (Memguard Units)

which ensures gas supplied to membranes is up to membrane standards of UOP

(vendor of membrane system) It removes all moisture and heavy hydrocarbons

from gas stream

Pretreated gas is now fed to the primary membranes The permeate stream (rich

in CO2) is sent to recycle membranes after passing through recycle compressor

and recycle pretreatment The permeate stream of recycle membranes is used as

regenerative medium for Memguard units and rest is sent to incinerator and

burnt The residual gas (rich in CH4) from primary membrane and recycle

membranes (all skids) is sent to H2S polishers via a common header

H2S polisher unit reduce the hydrogen sulfide level to the sales limit The gas is

now metered after compressing in sales gas compressor and is sent to SNGPL

trunk line after metering

Water is remove from condensate at produced water system by a three phase

separator The condensate is sold to refinery Major quantity is exported to

various industries

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Figure Overall plant Process Flow Diagram

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Wellhead

A wellhead is the component at the surface of an oil or gas well that provides the

structural and pressure-containing interface for the drilling and production

equipment Its function is to maintain surface control of the well It forms a seal to

prevent well fluids from leaking or blowing at the surface They are rated for

working pressure of 2000 psi to 15000 psi (or greater)

When the well has been drilled and it is ready to provide an interface with the

reservoir rock and a tubular channel for the well fluids The surface pressure

control is provided by a Christmas tree which is installed on top of the wellhead

with valves and choke equipment to control the flow of well fluids during

production

Christmas tree

A Christmas tree is an assembly of valves spools and fittings used for an oil

well gas well water injection well gas injection well condensate well and other

types of wells

The primary function of a tree is to control the flow usually oil or gas out of the

well When the well and facilities are ready to produce and receive oil or gas tree

valves are opened and the formation fluids are allowed to go through a flow line

This leads to a processing facility A tree often provides numerous additional

functions including chemical injection points well intervention means pressure

relief means monitoring points (such as pressure temperature corrosion

erosion sand detection flow rate flow composition valve and choke position

feedback) and connection points for devices such as down hole pressure andtemperature transducers (DHPT) On producing wells chemicals or alcohols or

oil distillates may be injected to preclude production problems (such as

blockages)

The control system attached to the tree controls the down-hole safety valve

(SCSSV) while the tree acts as an attachment and means of the control system

to the down-hole safety valve

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Figure 1

Well Head and Christmas Tree

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Master Valves

The two lower valves are called the master valves Master valves are normally in

the fully open position and are never opened or closed when the well is flowing

(except in an emergency) to prevent erosion of the valve sealing surfaces They

are gate type valves

1 Lower Master Valve (LMV)

2 Upper Master Valve (UMV)

The lower master valve will normally be manually operated while the upper

master valve is often hydraulically actuated allowing it to be used as a means of

remotely shutting in the well in the event of emergency

Wing Valve

A wing valve is normally used to shut in the well when flowing thus preserving

the master valves for positive shut off for maintenance purposes The wing

valve can be a gate valve or ball valve Hydraulic operated wing valves are

usually built to be fail safe closed meaning they require active hydraulic pressure

to stay open This feature means that if control fluid fails the well will

automatically shut itself in without operator action

In Kadanwari well sites there is only one manually operated wing valve On the

other hand at Miano well sites there are two wing valves one being operated

manually and other hydraulically

Production Wing Valve

The right hand valve is often called the flow wing valve or the production wing

valve because it provides flow path for hydrocarbons to production facility

Kill wing valve

The left hand valve is often called the kill wing valve It is primarily used for

injection of fluids such as corrosion inhibitors or methanol to prevent hydrate

formation It is typically manually operated It can kill the well temporarily be

injection brine solution which provides a pressure head to well and temporarily

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suspends it for maintenance of well head Also it is used to permanently kill the

well A chemical is injected down the well that seals the piping down the well and

kills the well permanently

Swab valve

The swab valve is used to gain access to the well for wire line operations

intervention and other work over procedure On top of it is a tree adapter

and cap that will mate with various equipment For such operations a

lubricator is assembled up onto the top of the tree and the wire or coil is lowered

through the lubricator through swab valve and into the well This valve is typically

manually operated

Choke

A choke holds back pressure by restricting the flow opening at the well head This

is done to make better use of the gas for natural gas lift and to control the bottom-

hole pressure for recovery reasons

CHECK VALVE

The check is introduced in production flow line to prevent any reverse flow from

the line into the well It has a hinged flap which lifts to permit normal flow but

closes to prevent reverse flow

TOP ADAPTOR

The top adaptor is a fitting on top of the swab valve with a threaded connection

During normal well operations a pressure gauge is fitted to monitor flowing and

shut in wellhead pressures However during well service operations the cap can

be removed to allow installation of lubricators for wire-line operations

SCSSSV (Surface Control Sub Surface Safety Valve)

A subsurface safety valve is essentially a shutdown valve installed at the upper

wellbore for emergency shutdown to protect the production tubing and wellhead

in case of overpressure Subsurface safety valves can offer a barrier against flow

in the event of a wellhead collapse or other disastrous event Purpose of asubsurface safety valve (SSSV) is to avoid the ultimate disaster which can result

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in release of reservoir fluids to the surroundings This makes SSSV a very

important component of a well completion

A subsurface safety valve is typically a uni-directional flapper valve directed in

such a way that the flappers open downwards when pressure is applied from an

upward direction The flapper can only open in the downward direction So even if

high pressure is applied by the well fluids from a

downward direction a safety valve can remain

closed This makes a subsurface safety valve fail-

safe To open the valve hydraulic signal is sent from

the surface well control panel This hydraulic

pressure is responsible for keeping the flappers of

SSSV open and loss of hydraulic pressure result in

closing of the valve Thus wellbore can be isolated in

case of system failure or damage to the surface

facilities

Types of Christmas tree

There are two types of Christmas Tree

1 Solid block

2 Conventional

The solid block Christmas Tree has a central solid unit holding several valves

in a pre-constructed block Their advantage is the reduction in potential leak

paths and their higher pressure rating (Fig 2)

The conventional Christmas Tree is built up from individual valves bolted

together to form an assembly (Fig 3)

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Figure 2

Figure 3

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Wellhead Control Panel

Wellhead control panel is key equipment in oil amp gas industry to protect oilfield

facilities and environment from emergency incidents such as wellhead fire which

is one of main control systems to ensure oilfield oil production and transportation

to be safely operation according to international standards and national

regulation Wellhead control panel is composed of hydraulic power unit tubing amp

fitting and instrument valve and electrical control devices Hydraulic power unit

supply hydraulic resource to open and close safety valves including master

valves wing valves and SCSSSV

Its performs

Local OnOff SSV

Remote control SSV through RTU( remote terminal unit)

High-Low pressure sense shut-down automatically

Fusible Plug Anti-fire Shut-down automatically

Function of showing system pressure

Relief Valve shall be installed on each hydraulic circuit to prevent high

pressure

Function of showing hydraulic level and level switch for alarm

Function of defending pressure impact of system

Function of system pressure monitoring (by pressure transmitter of control

panel)

Function of remote emergency shut-down (by magnetic valve of control

panel)

Function of OnOff SSV monitoring (by pressure switch of control loop of

control panel)

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Chemical Injection

Chemical injection systems are commonly used in production facilities to prevent

or eliminate a wide range of problems that might negatively affect the production

flow It is done for flow assurance protection of process equipment such as

pipelines or to optimize processes in production facilities

Typical flow assurance chemicals are

Wax inhibitors

Pour point depressants

Asphaltene inhibitors

Corrosion inhibitors

A corrosion inhibitor is a chemical compound that is added to liquid or gas to

decreases the corrosion rate of a material typically a metal or an alloy The

effectiveness of a corrosion inhibitor depends on fluid composition quantity of

water and flow regime Its common mechanism involves formation of a coating

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which prevents access of the corrosive substance to the metal The corrosive

agents are generally oxygen hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide

At our production site the major risk is corrosion of piping and equipment The

maximum allowable corrosion rate is approximately 02 mm per year and

corrosion rate without inhibitor could be approximately 11 mm per year so the

corrosion protection program is designed to achieve a target corrosion rate of

less than 01 mm per year which is achieved by an inhibitor system efficiency of

99 Inhibitor is injected into the well stream flow through an atomizing nozzle

located downstream of the respective wellhead coolers at the duplexcarbon steel

interface In normal operation as per NALCO standards chemical (brand name

EC1144B) at rate of frac12 Liter per MMSCFD of gas is being injected into the flow

line of miano15 flow lines made of carbon steel Moreover the composition can

vary depending upon the composition of well fluids and material of pipeline This

method of injection ensures even distribution of the chemical on the interior

surface of the pipeline The individual well sites are equipped with Chemical

Injection Packages comprising of a stainless steel storage tank and two

pneumatic motor driven pumps in parallel Instrument gas is used to drive the

pumps Normally one pump is running with the other standby

Water Conning

Water coning is a term used to describe the mechanism underlying the upward

movement of water into the perforations of a producing well Coning can seriously

impact the well productivity and influence the degree of depletion and the overall

recovery efficiency of the reservoir The specific problems of water coning are

listed below

Costly added water handling

Gas production from the original or secondary gas cap reduces pressure

Reduced efficiency of the depletion mechanism

The water is often corrosive and its disposal costly

The affected well may be abandoned early

Loss of the total field overall recovery

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Therefore conning has an important influence on operations recovery and

economics The phenomena is shown in picture below

Corrosion

Corrosion is referred as chemical deterioration of a metal Commonly this

means loss of electrons of metals reacting with water and oxygen

Weakening of iron due to oxidation of the iron atoms is a well-known

example of electrochemical corrosion This is commonly known as

rust Most structural alloys corrode merely from exposure to moisture

in the air but the process can be strongly affected by exposure to

certain substances Corrosion can be concentrated locally to form a pit

or crack or it can extend across a wide area to produce general

deterioration (uniform corrosion)

The following reaction takes place at the active sites

2Fe =gt 2Fe++ + 4e-

The free electrons travel through the metal path to the less active sites where

the following reaction takes place

O2 + 4e- + 2H20 =gt 4 OH-

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Recombination of these ions at the active surface produce the following

reaction which yields the iron-corrosion product ferrous hydroxide

2Fe + O2 + 2H2O =gt 2Fe (OH) 2

CORROSION PROTECTION SYSTEM

Coatings and painting

Painting and the application of enamel bitumen and PVC

coating are the most common anti-corrosion treatments They

work by providing a barrier of corrosion-resistant material

between the damaging environment and the structural material

Corrosion Inhibitors

Corrosion inhibitor is injected into the flow lines as mentioned in

detail on page 8

Cathodic Protection

Cathodic Protection (CP) is a technique used to control the corrosion of a

metal surface by making it the cathode of an electrochemical cell It

converts all of the anodic (active) sites on the metal surface to cathodic

(passive) sites by supplying electrical current (or free electrons) from an

alternate source It is accomplished in two ways

a) A simple method of protection connects protected metal to a more easily

corroded sacrificial metal to act as the anode The sacrificial metal then

corrodes instead of the protected metal The process is similar to a simple

DC cell in which the more active metal becomes the anode and corrodes

whereas the less active metal becomes the cathode and is protected

b) For larger structures galvanic anodes cannot economically deliver enough

current to provide protection Therefore impressed current cathodic

protection (ICCP) systems are used These consist of anodes connected

to a DC power source In remote areas power sources such as solar

panels may be used The output DC negative terminal is connected to the

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frequently to limit liquid holdup and minimize the slug volumes of liquid which can

be generated by the system

Coating

Pigs may be used to apply internal pipe coatings such as epoxy coating

materials in operating pipelines Pigs may also be used with corrosion inhibitors

to distribute and coat the entire internal wetted perimeter

Inspection

Pigs are being used more frequently as inspection tools Gauging or sizing pigs

are typically run following the completion of new construction or line repair to

determine if there are any internal obstacles bends or buckles in the pipe Pigs

can also be equipped with cameras to allow viewing of the pipe internals

Electronic intelligent or smart ldquopigsrdquo that use magnetic and ultrasonic systems

have been developed and refined that locate and measure internal and external

corrosion pitting dents buckles and any other anomalies in the pipe wall

Intelligent pigs

The accuracy of location and measurement of anomalies by the intelligent pigs

has continued to improve Initially the electronics and power systems were so

large that intelligent pigs could be used only in lines 30 in and greater in size

The continued sophistication and miniaturization of the electronic systems used

in the intelligent pigs has allowed the development of smaller pigs that can be

used in small-diameter pipelines Newly enacted DOT pipeline-integrity

regulations and rules acknowledge the effectiveness of the intelligent pigs and

incorporate their use in the pipeline-integrity testing process

Compressors

A gas compressor is a mechanical device that increases the pressure of a gas by

reducing its volume Gas pressure is increased by forcing gas molecules together

to reduce gas volume When volume is reduced gas pressure increases

All gases have large spaces among their molecules These spaces could be

enhanced further and decreased by doing some work Work done which is used

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for the enhancement of these spaces is called expansion and work done to

minimize these spaces is called compression All gases while expansion

produces cooling effect and while compression of gases raises there

temperature Compression is a term used to force gases to occupy smaller

volumes by increasing their pressure Volume of gases is interlinked with

temperature and pressure of the gas which is cleared by 2 laws govern gas

compressions

Boyles Law

Charles Law

The main types of compressor are listed below

Front End Compressor

The plant currently processes gas from a number of wells The flow and pressure

from some of these wells (currently K-10 K-11 amp K-12) has declined and they

cannot be fed directly into the Central Processing Facility To recover the

maximum gas reserves from these wells a Front End Compressor is employed

The compressor is a two stage double acting gas engine driven reciprocating

(PT) compressor Double acting means that gas is compressed on each end of

the piston It normal operates with a speed range of 600 to 900 RPM and isequipped with four compressor cylinders two for each stage Each cylinder is

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also equipped with a variable volume head end pocket

In case of compressor emergency shutdown the production chokes and the

Upper Master Valves on the on line wells will close and operator will be notified in

central control room Sweet gas from gas distribution network is used to operate the

gas engine driver of the compressor package The detailed scheme of working is

shown in figure (page 22 )

PT Reciprocating Compressor

The mechanical cycle of piston tube reciprocating compressor comprises four

strokes the expansion stroke the intake stroke the compression stroke and the

discharge stroke

Expansion Stroke

As the piston moves back on the expansion stroke the chamber volume

increases and the pressure drop As the pressure drops the discharge valve

closes since there is greater pressure in the discharge line than in the chamber

Intake Stroke

As the piston moves back during the intake stroke the pressure decreases until it

is less than the pressure in the inlet line This higher intake pressure opens the

inlet valve and gas rushes into the cylinder equalizing the pressure there with

the intake pressure The compression chamber is now at or near the intake

pressure

Compression Stroke

The piston now starts the compression stroke by moving forward decreasing the

chamber volume and increasing the pressure The increased pressure is now

higher than the intake pressure causing the intake valve to close

Discharge Stroke

The piston continues to move to the left during the discharge stroke This creates

an increase in chamber pressure until it is greater than the discharge pressure

When this happens the Discharge valve opens and the compressed air from the

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cylinder goes into the discharge line The compression cycle is then repeated

from the stage

Compressor Capacity

The capacity of the compressor depends upon cylinder displacement That

displacement is simply the volume that the piston displaces (moves) as it travels

from one end of the cylinder to the other Capacity and displacement is equal to

the cross-sectional area of the cylinder times the length of the stroke

Lubrication and Cooling

Lubricating oil is circulated through the system by a gear pump which is chain

driven from the engine crank shaft The oil pump is mounted on the engine front

housing

The pump operates between 30 - 40 psig

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A circulating pump deliver cooling water to the water jackets in the cylinder block

flowing around the cylinder liners and is directed into the cylinder heads Each

cylinder head has water cooled exhaust elbows which outlet the water into the

water cooled exhausts From the end of engine the water flows to compressor

1st and 2nd stage cylinders and compressor lube oil cooler (LOwater heat

exchanger) The water from the compressor cylinder and lube oil cooler returns

to engine water cooled exhaust

Figure Flow diagram of Front End Compressor

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Centrifugal Compressor

Centrifugal compressors are machines in which velocity and pressure given to air

or gas in a radial direction by one or more impellers diffuser combination In a

centrifugal compressor the mechanical energy is increased by centrifugal action

The gas enters the suction eye of a high speed rotary element called the impeller

which carries radial vanes integrally cast in it As the impeller rotates the blades

of the impeller force the gas outward from the center the impeller to the outer rim

of impeller the increase in velocity of the gas creates a flow pressure area at the

eye of the impeller The gas at the outer rim of the impeller is forced in to a

passage way called a diffuser where the velocity decreases in the pressure of the

gas

Inlet

The inlet to a centrifugal compressor is typically a simple pipe It may include

features such as a valve and both pressure and temperature instrumentation

Centrifugal impeller

The key component that makes a compressor centrifugal is the centrifugal

impeller shown above It is the impellers rotating set of vanes (or blades) that

gradually raises the energy of the working gas This is identical to an axial

compressor with the exception that the gases can reach higher velocities and

energy levels through the impellers increasing radius

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Diffuser

The next key component to the simple centrifugal compressor is the diffuser

Downstream of the impeller in the flow path it is the diffusers responsibility to

convert the kinetic energy (high velocity) of the gas into pressure by gradually

slowing (diffusing) the gas velocity

SEPERATORS

A well-stream is a mixture of gases hydrocarbon liquids water solids and

contaminants Due to variations in pressure and temperature gases evolve from

the liquids water vapor condenses and some of the well-stream changes to liquid

and free gas The separation of well-stream fluids takes place in a separator This

pressure vessel is manufactured in three forms

1 horizontal

2 vertical

3 spherical

To help separation the vessel is normally designed with a series of internal

fittings These fittings are built into the separator to ensure total phase separation

of the well-stream

In gas plants separators are given alternative names due to the function they

perform in the process system A scrubber does a similar job to a knockout drum

However the scrubber usually separates a stream containing high gas-to-liquid

ratios The knockout drum is used where a high degree of liquids are entrained in

the gas

Fluid flow from a well can include gas condensable liquid vapors water water

vapor crude oil and solids As well-stream fluids reach ground level where

pressure is lower than in the reservoir the capacity of the liquid to hold gas in

solution decreases and gas separates out of the oil

Separation depends upon the effect of gravity to separate liquids For adequate

separation one fluid must be lighter than the other fluid For example distillates

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(gasoline kerosene etc) and crude oil will not separate in a vessel because they

tend to dissolve in each other Because a separator basically depends upon

gravity to separate the fluids the ease with which separation takes place

depends upon the difference in density of the fluids

Droplets of liquid will separate from gas provided

a) The gas remains in the separator long enough

b) The gas flow remains constant to provoke separation

The difference in density between a gas and liquid will therefore determine the

maximum flow rate of liquid in the vessel

Figure Two phase horizontal separator

Gas bubbles in the liquid will break out in some oil field applications in 30 to 60

seconds Consequently the separator is designed so that the liquid remains in

the vessel for 30 to 60 seconds The length of time that a liquid remains in the

vessel is called its residence time Residence time differs widely from field to field

depending upon viscosity and API Gravity

Another important factor which must be considered is temperature Generally a

decrease in operating temperature will increase the liquid recovery in a separator

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as the gas condenses By reducing the pressure on the fluid flash separation

occurs resulting in a flow through the separator which is controlled by external

instrumentation

COALESCENCE

Another important principle in fluid separation is that of coalescence This means

the coming together of liquid droplets created by the force of gravity

A common example of coalescing occurs when drops of water form on the

windshield of a car as it is driven in fog As the tiny drops or water which make up

the fog strike the windshield they combine and eventually form a drop large

enough to run down the glass

Several of the internal devices of a separator such as deflector plates

straightening vanes and even the vessel walls are forms of coalescers In each

vessel drops of liquid adhere to the surface of the device and combine with other

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drops until the drop is large enough to fall out The effectiveness of separation

will also depend upon the total amount of coalescing surface area that is present

There are many different types of separators used in the Oil amp Gas industry

Consequently separators are manufactured with one two or several internal

fittings depending on their use and quick removal of these fluids from the vessel

DEFLECTOR PLATES

These are fitted in front of the inlet to the separator and can be net or

dish-shaped Their purpose is to absorb the impact of the incoming fluids and to

encourage the separation of gas and liquids They also slow the flow rate of the

liquids through the vessel

WEIRS

A weir is a metal wall which is fitted across the inside of the vessel normally to a

height of 50 of the overall height of the separator Its purpose is to assist the

process of three phase separation The inlet fluids (oil plus water) are given time

to separate in the liquid accumulation section The water level (interface) is

normally controlled at 50 of the height of the weir Oil floating on the wateroverflows the weir and accumulates in the small oil compartment where it is

drawn off under level control

CENTRIFUGAL DEVICES

These are used in both vertical and horizontal separators for gas-liquid

separation The device imparts a swirling motion to the fluids entering the vessel

Centrifugal force causes the heavier liquids to travel outwards towards the walls

of the vessel and the lighter gases to flow up the centre Centrifugal devices are

also known as cyclones

VORTEX BREAKERS

When liquid flows through a drain outlet a vortex (whirlpool) will form This can

be seen when we pull the plug from a sink or bath tub The same would happen

as water and oil flow from the separator This condition a vortex could allow gas

to flow down the centre of the whirlpool and enter the liquid phase causing

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pressurizing of tanks etc To stop this happening vortex breakers are fitted to all

liquid outlets Although they come in a number of different designs vortex

breakers all serve the same purpose - to prevent a whirlpool from forming

MIST OR DEMISTER PADS

The gas which is released from the fluids in the separator still contains droplets of

oil and water which coalesce and fall when the drops get large enough The

demister pad assists in this process Made from knitted wire and contained within

a sturdy frame it causes the gas to continually change its direction of flow

Because gas changes direction far easier than liquid the gas will flow around

each strand of wire whilst the liquid entrained in the gas stream will continue and

stick to the wire

COALESCING PLATES

There are several different forms of coalescing devices the most common of

which are coalescing plates These plates are mounted in the flow stream of the

fluids and assist in breaking down oil-water emulsions The fluid is forced to

follow a path that constantly changes direction This causes the water droplets to

gather together or coalesce and fall to the bottom of the separator The same

principle is used to separate gas and oil mixtures when the oil droplets are

induced to coalesce Simply stated every surface within the separator including

the separator walls assists with the coalescing process

STRAIGHTENlNG VANES

These are often fitted to horizontal separators to remove turbulence in the gas

stream after initial separation at the inlet deflector

FLOAT SHEILD

Internal floats are used as level controllers Any agitation of the liquid surface or

the effect of coalesced liquids falling on the float may cause control problems

Therefore a float shield is fitted to enclose the float creating an area of still liquid

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MEMBRANES

The gas contains 12 carbon dioxide and 22 ppm of hydrogen sulphide at 115oF

and 1100 psig This needs to be removed before the gas can be exported The

majority of carbon dioxide hydrogen sulphide and water is removed by means of

membranes

Membranes are thin semipermeable barriers that selectively separate some

compounds from others Currently the only commercially workable membranes

used for CO2 removal are polymer based for example cellulose acetate

polyimides polyamides polysulfone polycarbonates and polyetherimide The

membrane does not operate as a filter where small molecules are separated

from larger ones through a medium with pores rather it separates based on how

well different compounds dissolve into the membrane and diffuse through it The

membranes are manufactured in flat sheets consisting of an extremely thin

nonporous layer mounted on a much-thicker and highly porous layer of the same

material providing mechanical strength The flat sheets are combined into a

spiral-wound element (Figure below) Feed gas enters along the side of the

membrane and passes through the feed spacers As the gas travels between

membrane sheets CO2 H2S and H2O permeate through the membrane and are

collected in the permeate tube The driving force for transport is the high-feed

pressure and low-permeate pressures The gas on the feed side that does not

permeate leaves through the side of the element opposite the feed position Once

the membranes have been manufactured into elements six to 12 elements are

joined together and inserted into a tube Multiple tubes are mounted on skids in a

horizontal orientation

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Figure Membrane general Working

In high H2S applications most polymers have been shown to have very little

resistance to H2S plasticization (ldquosofteningrdquo of the membrane) and as a

consequence can only be used at very low H2S partial pressure limits Cellulose

acetate membranes in contrast have been shown to be applicable at extreme

H2S partial pressure conditions It is these membranes that have been utilized in

the testing to determine the limits of membrane performance in high H 2S

applications

The primary membranes used in Kadanwari facility are Cellulose acetate

Cellulose acetic acid and acetic anhydride are mixed together and reacted to

form cellulose acetate polymers This process is aided by the addition of a small

amount of sulfuric acid which is subsequently neutralized during processing

However the membranes are bought from UOP (vendor) and installed for use

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How membrane work

The basic principle of separation is selectivity of certain components of a mixture

for the membrane For example the cellulose acetate membrane has very high

selectivity for CO2 and H2S as compared to CH4 Therefore such type of

membrane can be used in gas sweetening process

The selectivity is directly related to the Permeability of gas which accounts that

which gas can pass across the membrane more easily In simple words

membranes being polymer materials are made of long chains of molecules The

different structure of polymer materials only allow selective molecules to pass

through them depending upon chemical and physical compatibility Thus

permeability depends upon choice of polymer

The permeability is determined by permeability coefficient (P) and is product of

solubility (S) and diffusivity (D)

P = S D

Solubility

The solubility is mainly determined by ease of condensation Heavy molecules

are more readily condensed Therefore higher molecular weighted molecules will

more easily condensed and therefore have greater solubility

Molecule Molecular weight

CH4 16

H2S 34

CO2 44

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Diffusivity

Diffusivity is ease of molecule to penetrate into some material It depends on size

of gas molecule Here size of molecule is not to be confused by molecular weight

it is the size of the structure Eg the size of O2 molecule is smaller than N2

Molecule Molecular Diameter (Ao)

CO2 33

H2S 36

Ch4 40

For cellulose acetate

DCO2DCH4 S CO2S CH4 P CO2P CH4

45 73 308

Chemical degradation

Cellulose acetate polymer is chemically degraded by a process called hydrolysis

which means breaking apart by the addition of water This is a chemical reaction

in which water is added to the cellulose acetate polymer causing the release of

acetic acid molecules This process proceeds stepwise until all the acetate

groups are released resulting in the reformation of cellulose Moreover alcohols

aromatic hydrocarbons or solvents with chlorine nitro benzene or similar

aromatic solvents will harm the membrane It will expand and lose plastification in

contact with them

Effect of Temperature

The permeation rates of all gases increases with increasing temperature

however membrane selectivity for CO2 over hydrocarbon decreases at higher

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temperature Consequently CO2 removal will improve as operating temperature

increases but hydro carbon recovery will decrease

Primary Membrane

The primary membranes comprise of two trains Each train consists of two

sections AB and CD each section consists of a 30 tube membrane skid (A and

C) followed by a 25 tube skid (B and D) The conditioned gas (after pre-

treatment) enters the primary membrane via the particulate filter adjacent to the

skid The gas is fed to the membranes through a common inlet manifold which

supplies primary membranes skids A and C A pressure control loop located

upstream of the manual inlet isolation valve is provided to maintain a constant

supply pressure to the membrane skid and to allow for preheating at the inlet

prior to skid start-up This pressure control loop can also be used during start-up

to control the pressurization of the pretreatment skid and associated pipes to the

primary membranes

The gas passes through membrane skid A the residual gas exiting the membrane

skid is sent to skid B and the permeate to common permeate discharge header An

identical arrangement is provide on the inlet to skid C as provided on skid A Theresidual gas from skid B combines with the residual gas from skid D in a common

discharge header and is then sent to the H2S polishing towers via the feed coolers

on the pre-treatment skid The permeate from skid B is sent to the common

permeate discharge header The permeate discharge header sends the gas to

either the recycle compressor or the vent header via a pressure control loop

Overpressure protection for the membranes is provided by a pressure safety valve

on the supply header to the membrane banks

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Secondary (Recycle) Membrane

The recycle membranes comprise of a single train with two skids each with four

banks of membrane tubes The conditioned gas from the discharge of the recycle

pre-treatment skid is routed to the first recycle membrane skid The gas passes

through the membranes the residual gas is fed to primary membrane (skid A) inlet

via feed gas cooler and permeate to the common permeate discharge header An

identical arrangement is provide on the inlet to skid B Permeate from the recycle

membrane skids A and B is routed to the vent header Some portion of permeate is

heated and sent for regeneration in Mem-Guard units Nitrogen purge can be

connected downstream of the inlet isolation valve on each skid to enable the

membrane tubes to be purged and left pressurized during prolonged shutdown

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Figure Flow Diagram of Recycle membrane unit

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ADVANTAGES OF MEMBRANE SYSTEMS

Membrane systems have major advantages over more-traditional methods of

acid gas removal

Lower capital cost Membrane systems are skid mounted and so the

scope cost and time taken for site preparation are minimal Installation

costs are significantly lower than alternative technologies especially for

remote areas Furthermore no additional facilities for solvent storage and

water treatment needed by other processes are required

Lower operating costs The only major operating cost for single-stage

membrane systems is membrane replacement This cost is significantly

lower than the solvent replacement and energy costs associated with

traditional technologies The improvements in membrane and

pretreatment design allow a longer useful membrane life which further

reduces operating costs The energy costs of multistage systems with

large recycle compressors are usually comparable to those for traditionaltechnologies

Deferred capital investment Often contracted sales-gas flow rates

increase over time as more wells are brought on-line With traditional

technologies the system design needs to take this later production into

account immediately and so the majority of the equipment is installed

before it is even needed The modular nature of membrane systems

means that only the membranes that are needed at start-up need be

installed The rest can be added either into existing tubes or in new skids

only when they are required

Operational simplicity and high reliability Because single-stage

membrane systems have no moving parts they have almost no

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unscheduled downtime and are extremely simple to operate They can

operate unattended for long periods of time The addition of a recycle

compressor adds some complexity to the system but still much less than

with a solvent- or adsorbent-based technology Multistage systems can be

operated at full capacity as single-stage systems when the recycle

compressor is down

Good weight and space efficiency Skid construction can be optimized

to the space available This space efficiency is especially important for

offshore environments where deck area is at a premium and is the

reason why so many new offshore developments have chosen to use

membranes for acid gas removal Figure 6 illustrates the space efficiency

of membrane systems The membrane unit in the lower left corner

replaced all the amine and glycol plant equipment shown in the rest of the

picture

Adaptability Because membrane area is dictated by the percentage of

acid gas removal rather than absolute acid gas removal small variations

in feed acid gas content hardly change the sales-gas acid gas

specification For example a system designed for 10 down to 3 acid

gas removal produces a 35 product from a 12 feed gas and a 5

product from a 15 feed gas

Design efficiency The membrane and pretreatment systems integrate a

number of operations such as dehydration CO2 and H2S removal dew-

point control and mercury removal Traditional acid gas removal

technologies require all of these operations as separate processes and

may also require additional dehydration because some technologies

saturate the product stream with water

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Power generation The permeate gas from membrane systems can be

used to provide fuel gas for power generation either for a recycle

compressor or other equipment

Ideal for debottlenecking Because expanding solvent- or adsorbent-

based acid gas removal plants without adding additional trains is difficult

an ideal solution is to use membranes for bulk acid gas removal and leave

the existing plant for final cleanup An additional advantage is that the

permeate gas from the membrane system can often be used as fuel for

the existing plant thus avoiding significant increase in hydrocarbon

losses

Environmentally friendly Membrane systems do not involve the

periodic removal and handling of spent solvents or adsorbents Permeate

gases can be flared used as fuel or re-injected into the well Items thatdo need disposal such as spent membrane elements can be incinerated

Ideal for remote locations Many of the factors mentioned above make

membrane systems a highly desirable technology for remote locations

where spare parts are rare and labor unskilled Furthermore solvents

storage and trucking water supply power generation or extensive

infrastructure are not required

Re-injection optimizations Since the permeate stream from the

membrane system can be operated at elevated pressures it is possible to

further pressurize by re-injection compression train

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Sorption

Sorption is a physical and chemical process by which one substance becomes

attached to another

It is of two main types

1 Absorption

2 Adsorption

Absorption

Absorption is a physical or chemical phenomenon or process in which atoms

molecules or ions enter some bulk phase ndash gas liquid or solid material This is a

different process from adsorption since molecules undergoing absorption are

taken up by the volume not by the surface (as in the case for adsorption)

Absorption process may be chemical (reactive) or physical (non-reactive)

Physical absorption

Physical absorption or non-reactive absorption is made between two phases ofmatter a liquid absorbs a gas or a solid absorbs a liquid

When a liquid solvent absorbs a gas mixture or part of it a mass of gas moves

into the liquid For example water may absorb oxygen from the air This mass

transfer takes place at the interface between the liquid and the gas at a rate

depending on both the gas and the liquid This type of absorption depends on the

solubility of gases the pressure and the temperature The rate and amount of

absorption also depend on the surface area of the interface and its duration in

time

When a solid absorbs a liquid mixture or part of it a mass of liquid moves into the

solid For example a clay pot used to store water may absorb some of the water

This mass transfer takes place at the interface between the solid and the liquid

at a rate depending on both the solid and the liquid

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Chemical absorption

Chemical absorption or reactive absorption is a chemical reaction between the

absorbed and the absorbing substances Sometimes it combines with physical

absorption This type of absorption depends upon the stoichiometry of the

reaction and the concentration of its reactants

Adsorption

Adsorption is the adhesion of atoms ions or molecules from a gas liquid or

dissolved solid to a surface This process creates a film of the adsorbate on the

surface of the adsorbent The binding to the surface is usually weak and

reversible Compounds with color and those that have taste or odor tend to bind

strongly Compounds that vibrate at frequencies in the visible spectrum are very

often are strongly adsorbed on activated carbon

The most common industrial adsorbents are activated carbon silica gel and

alumina because they present enormous surface areas per unit weight

Depending on the nature of attractive forces existing between the adsorbate and

adsorbent adsorption can be classified as

i) Physical adsorption

ii) Chemical adsorption

i) Physical adsorption (Physisorption)

In physical adsorption the forces of attraction between the molecules of the

adsorbate and the adsorbent are of the weak van der Waals type Since the

forces of attraction are weak the process of physisorption can be easily reversed

by heating or decreasing the pressure of the adsorbate (as in the case of gases)

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ii) Chemical adsorption (Chemisorption)

In chemisorption the forces of attraction between the adsorbate and the

adsorbent are very strong the molecules of adsorbate form chemical bonds with

the molecules of the adsorbent present in the surface

Adsorption is generally accompanied by release of energy that is most

adsorption processes are exothermic in nature Adsorption is a spontaneous

process therefore its free energy change is negative (∆Glt0) However the

entropy change associated with adsorption is generally negative because the

adsorbate molecules lose their translation freedom when they get attached to the

surface of the adsorbent Therefore in order for ∆G to be negative the enthalpy

change (∆H) must be sufficiently negative such that (∆G=∆H-T∆S) lt 0 This

explanation accounts for exothermic adsorption processes In cases where

endothermic adsorption occurs the entropy change ∆S is sufficiently positive

such that ∆G remains negative

Pre treatment

The main function of pretreatment skid is to provide membrane inlet specification

gas as mentioned by the vendor UOP It removes the contaminants that would

poison the membranes like dust solids (adsorbent particles) lube oil heavy

hydrocarbons etc It consists of

Feed Cooler

Feed Gas Scrubber

Filter Coalescer

Feed Gas Heater

Activated Carbon Guard Filter

Particle Filter

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The regeneration is carried out by heated permeate gas from the recycle

membranes at 450oF The vessel is depressurized to 20 psi and heated gas is

introduced from top The gas carries out the adsorbed contaminants and leaves

the vessel from bottom cleaning the adsorbent This contaminated gas is burnt in

the flare

UOP the vendor of Memguard unit has never disclosed that what substance

MG3 and MG5 exactly are But as mentioned by vendor that both care class of

aluminosilicates Therefore MG3 can be potassium aluminosilicate and MG5 can

be Calcium aluminosilicate These are molecular sieves adsorbents Molecular

sieves are a microporous material which can selectively adsorb gases andliquids They are synthetic zeolites (crystalline metal aluminosilicates) which

upon dehydration can efficiently and selectively remove water or other

solvents The selectivity of a molecular sieve is determined by its pore size

molecules with a critical diameter which is less than the pore size will be

efficiently adsorbed while larger molecules will be excluded

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3A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

The 3A molecular sieve adsorbent has a 3 angstrom (3A) pore size which means

that any molecule that is larger than the 3 angstrom pores will not be adsorbed

The 3A molecular sieve is the potassium type of A crystalline structure and is a

form of alkali Aluminosilicate For a 3A molecular sieve the sequence rate that

adsorption occurs is He Ne N and H2O

Due to the crystalline structure molecular sieves that have a 3 angstrom pore

size have a very high rate of adsorption and properties that promote a longer life

for products treated by the sieve The most common use for the 3A molecular

sieve is to remove water and moisture from materials that are in gas and liquid

form

5A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

These are molecular sieve adsorbents with a pore size of 5 angstrom (5A) 5A

molecular sieves are unable to adsorb any molecules or impurities that are

smaller than 5A It is calcium form of type A crystalline structure and is form of analkali-aluminosilicate that is most commonly used to separate isomerous alkanes

from normal alkanes and to co-adsorb moisture and water along with carbon

dioxide from gases In additional 5A molecular sieves are used for gaseous

pressure swing adsorption (PSA)mdashthat is to separate particular gases from other

gases

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of C3H8 to C22H46

Adsorption of Freon-12 (dichlorodifluoromethane)

Natural gas drying

Normal- and iso-paraffin separation

Separation of aromatic

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Inlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1096

MEHTANE 8593

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008

N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGEN 076

WATER 007

Outlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1098

MEHTANE 8608

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGENT 076

WATER 000

H2S polisher

The H2S polishing unit has been designed to treat 187 MMscfday of natural gas

containing up to 11 CO2 and 21 ppm H2S where the level of the CO2 and H2S

is reduced using a MemGuard Membrane separation unit The unit is situated

down-stream of the membrane unit and will further reduce the level of H2S in the

processed gas to a sales gas specification of 38 ppm

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This process uses three non-regenerable fixed bed absorber vessels using a low

temperature high activity absorbent The absorbent is a mixture of activated

metal oxides (mainly zinc oxide) The three towers can are generally operated in

parallel arrangement but on demand can be used in series (any of alternate

arrangements of A B C vessels) as shown in figure

The higher sales gas flow rate increased the catalyst consumption and

replacement frequency

ZnO + H2S =gt ZnS + H20

Routine samples are taken from the beds to provide a check on each bed

performance and to follow the saturation profile during the absorbent life After

the adsorbent has been fully utilized the adsorption vessels are recharged with

new adsorbent discarding the utilized one in a safe manner

109oF

1215 psig

Before H2S Polishing After H2S Polishing

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Figure

H2S Tower

Inlet pipe

4 Drums of 19mm

ceramic Balls

6 Micron mesh

5 Drums of 50mmceramic

1 Drums of19mm ceramic

01 Drums of6mm ceramic

112 drums of

Catalist ZnO

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Recycle Compressor

The permeate gas of the primary membrane unit carries recoverable amount of

CH4 It is fed to recycle membrane unit for further CH 4 recovery But the

permeate pressure from primary membranes which has been reduced to 12 psi

must be regenerated to 1200 psi for the gas to be fed again to the system For

this purpose we have employed recycle compressor The compressor is a four

stage centrifugal compressor It is driven by gas turbine of 31200 HP It has 25

MW producing capacity

Figure Recycle Compressor Process Flow Diagram

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Sales Gas Compressor

Gas from H2S polishing unit is sent to sales gas compressor where its pressure

is enhanced to 1100 psi so it may be injected to SNGPL high pressure trunk line

Sales gas compressor is single stage gas turbine driven

Figure Process Flow of Sales Gas Compressor

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Cooling Towers

A cooling tower is a heat rejection device which extracts waste heat to theatmosphere through the cooling of a water stream to a lower temperature Hot

water from the system enters the cooling tower and is distributed over the fill

(heat transfer surface) Air is induced or forced through the fill causing a small

portion of the water to evaporate This evaporation removes heat from the

remaining water which is collected in the cold water basin and returned to the

system to absorb more heat Each cooling tower line although operating under

the same basic principle of operation is arranged a little differently

Types

Natural draft mdash Utilizes buoyancy via a tall chimney Warm moist air naturally

rises due to the density differential compared to the dry cooler outside air Warm

moist air is less dense than drier air at the same pressure This moist air

buoyancy produces an upwards current of air through the tower

Mechanical draft mdash Uses power-driven fan motors to force or draw airthrough the tower

o Induced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a fan at the

discharge (at the top) which pulls air up through the tower The fan

induces hot moist air out the discharge This produces low entering

and high exiting air velocities reducing the possibility of

recirculation in which discharged air flows back into the air intake

o Forced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a blower type fan at

the intake The fan forces air into the tower creating high entering

and low exiting air velocities The low exiting velocity is much more

susceptible to recirculation This fanfill geometry is also known as

blow-through

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Forced Draft Cooling Tower Vs Induced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower have the ability to handle large water flow

rate than Forced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower is suitable for large cell sizes and fan sizes

as compared with Forced Draft Larger fan size may result in greater

efficiency and consequently lower power and sound level

Forced Draft Cooling Tower can be square or rectangular type only

however Induced Draft Cooling Towers can be round square or

rectangular type

Induced Draft Cooling Tower uses more compact ground area than Forced

Draft Cooling Tower equivalent capacity due to absence of fan on one

side

Fan equipment is warm exhaust air is less liable to icing up in winter

operation (Cold Countries)

Higher velocity in Forced Draft Cooling Tower cause drop in suspension

and cause additional static resistance to system

Configuration

There are two main configurations of factory assembled cooling towers crossflow

and counterflow In crossflow cooling towers the water flows vertically down the

fill as air flows horizontally across In counterflow cooling towers the water flows

vertically down the fill as air flows vertically up

Crossflow Configuration Counterflow Configuration

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Drift mdash Water droplets that are carried out of the cooling tower with the exhaust

air Drift droplets have the same concentration of impurities as the water entering

the tower The drift rate is typically reduced by employing baffle-like devices

called drift eliminators through which the air must travel after leaving the fill and

spray zones of the tower

Blow-out mdash Water droplets blown out of the cooling tower by wind generally at

the air inlet openings Water may also be lost in the absence of wind through

splashing or misting Devices such as wind screens louvers splash deflectors

and water diverters are used to limit these losses

Blow-down mdash The portion of the circulating water flow that is removed (usually

discharged to a drain) in order to maintain the amount of Total Dissolved Solids

(TDS) and other impurities at an acceptably low level Higher TDS concentration

in solution may result from greater cooling tower efficiency However the higher

the TDS concentration the greater the risk of scale biological growth and

corrosion

Make-up mdash The water that must be added to the circulating water system in

order to compensate for water losses such as evaporation drift loss blow-out

blow-down etc

Approach mdash The approach is the difference in temperature between the cooled-

water temperature and the entering-air wet bulb temperature

Range mdash The range is the temperature difference between the warm water inlet

and cooled water exit

Fill mdash Inside the tower fills are added to increase contact surface as well as

contact time between air and water to provide better heat transfer The efficiency

of the tower depends on the selection and amount of fill

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There are two types of fills that may be used

o Film type fill (causes water to spread into a thin film)

o Splash type fill (breaks up falling stream of water and interrupts its

vertical progress)

Important

Scale build up is controlled by adding chemicals to the cooling loop and diluting

the concentration by blow down and make-up Following chemicals are added to

the Cooling to control CorrosionSale and microbial growth

Corrosion Inhibitor To control corrosion in the Cooling system

Dispersant To kept ions in suspension to avoid settle down and buildup

Sodium hypo Chlorite To Control microbial Growth

Acid To control Alkalinity in the system

High Stress Polymer To run the system at higher conductivity It is a

multifunctional polymer for Zinc amp Phosphate stabilization in cooling tower

Fin Fan Cooler

Fin fan heat exchanger is simply a pressure vessel which cools a circulating fluid

within finned tubes by forcing ambient air over the exterior of the tubes A

common example of an air cooler is a carrsquos radiator Fin Fan Coolers are used in

any application where large quantities of heat need to be transferred This

includes chemical and petrochemical industries power stations waste-to-energy

facilities as well as steelworks

Fin Fan Cooler are used for two primary reasons

They increase plant efficiency

They are a green solution as compared to cooling towers and shell and

tube heat exchangers because they do not require an auxiliary water

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supply (water lost due to drift and evaporation plus no water treatment

chemicals are required)

Figure General Overview of Fin Fan Cooler

Produced Water

The produced water system receives liquid from the equipment Miano slug

catcher train 1 and 2 inlet separators and is fed to three phase separator where

water oil and gas is separated The gases produced are burnt in incinerator

whereas hydrocarbon liquid is stored to be sold Liquid from compressors

recycle inlet separator recycle feed scrubber high and low pressure slug

catchers is passed to degasser Separated water is injected down the earth

Incinerator

The term incinerate means to burn something until nothing is left but ashes An

incinerator is a unit or facility used to burn trash and other types of waste until it is

reduced to ash An incinerator is constructed of heavy well-insulated materials

so that it does not give off extreme amounts of external heat The high levels of

heat are kept inside the furnace or unit so that the waste is burned quickly and

efficiently If the heat were allowed to escape the waste would not burn as

completely or as rapidly

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Control System

The plant is controlled at CCR (Central Control Room) by PLCs (Programmable

Logic Controllers) through fiber optic control line All control parameters are

received at LER (Local Equipment Room) via two optic fiber control lines One

being primary and other secondary operating in redundancy ie if primary fails

control shifts to secondary These control parameters are sent to CCR via single

optic fiber cable

Safety System

Wellheads and Gas Processing Plant have their own Fire amp Gas detection

systems emergency shutdown (ESD) Plant has a fault tolerant controller It is

based on Triple Modular Redundant (TMR) architecture manufactured by

Triconex The TMR system is based on three isolated parallel control systems

integrated into one system The system operates on a two out of three voting

principle which provides high integrity error free uninterrupted operation with no

single point of failure The TMR receives inputs from Process Sensors Manual

Switches Fire amp Gas Detectors Packaged Equipment Control Systems and

Product Exporting Facilities The TMR carries out cause and effect processing on

the data received and where necessary produces output signals Outputs from

the TMR are hard wired directly to ESD shutdown and blow down valve

solenoids motor control instrumentelectrical interfaces to control electrical

drives package equipment logic control systems manifold area as well as

telecoms

The operator in central control room is able to accept alarms and once the fault

has been cleared reset the input All the control systems are centralized to a

single interface All the PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers) communicate with

the servers and servers communicate with the clients through Ethernet connectivity

Centralization eases the navigation of different systems at a common interface

Emergency Shutdown

The ESD system receives inputs from field mounted instrumentation on the process

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and utility equipment and initiates executive actions appropriate to the level of ESD

The system is an Active system which is in standby and will activate when in an

alarm or fault condition The Kadanwari Gas Process Facility ESD system is

comprised of five (5) levels The emergency severity decreases with increasing ESD

level number

ESD 1

This shutdown level is automatically initiated by fire major gas leak or a detected

toxic atmosphere in the process area of the plant or manually from CCR A level 1

shutdown will cause all production to cease close all emergency shutdown

valves stop the process and shutdown of the main power generation The

emergency vent valves to the stack will open and in addition all equipment of zone 1

certified will be isolated This is the highest level of ESD and will cause the following

to occur

All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close All slowdown Valves (BDVs) on the process facility will open

All Main Gas Driven Generators will be tripped

Emergency Diesel Generator will start

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close Upper Master Valve

(UMV) Close

ESD 2

This shutdown level is activated automatically if a major process or utility failure

occurs or manually from CCR All production to the plant from the wellhead is

stopped All emergency shutdown valves trip to their fail safe position

Venting shall be as specified This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

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All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valve Close Wing Valves Close and Upper Master Valve(UMV) Close

ESD 3

The level 3 shutdown isolates and stops a single process train only Production

continues via the other train This ESD level is initiated by process conditions or

operator at local panel This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

ESD 3A Train 1 production to cease

ESD 3B Train 2 production to cease

All online wellhead choke valves go to minimum flow ie (1O )

ESD 4

A level 4 shutdown shall cease all production from an entire field either

Kadanwari or Miano upstream of the associated slug catchers ESD 4K for

Kadanwari amp ESD 4M for Miano This ESD level is initiated automatically by slug

catcher abnormal process conditions This level of ESD will cause the following

to occur

All SDVs close isolating the relevant slug catcher and its upstream gas

production facility from the Kadanwari Gas Processing Plant

All Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close and Upper MasterValves (UMV) of the relevant gas production facility Close

A parallel timer is provided to close within 10 second if not closed in given

time SSSV seals the well

ESD 5

A level 5 shutdown represents equipment shutdown for the protection of the

individual equipment without any change in the process This level of ESD is for the

protection of various pieces of equipment and is initiated by its own inputs eg

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Figure Overall plant Process Flow Diagram

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Wellhead

A wellhead is the component at the surface of an oil or gas well that provides the

structural and pressure-containing interface for the drilling and production

equipment Its function is to maintain surface control of the well It forms a seal to

prevent well fluids from leaking or blowing at the surface They are rated for

working pressure of 2000 psi to 15000 psi (or greater)

When the well has been drilled and it is ready to provide an interface with the

reservoir rock and a tubular channel for the well fluids The surface pressure

control is provided by a Christmas tree which is installed on top of the wellhead

with valves and choke equipment to control the flow of well fluids during

production

Christmas tree

A Christmas tree is an assembly of valves spools and fittings used for an oil

well gas well water injection well gas injection well condensate well and other

types of wells

The primary function of a tree is to control the flow usually oil or gas out of the

well When the well and facilities are ready to produce and receive oil or gas tree

valves are opened and the formation fluids are allowed to go through a flow line

This leads to a processing facility A tree often provides numerous additional

functions including chemical injection points well intervention means pressure

relief means monitoring points (such as pressure temperature corrosion

erosion sand detection flow rate flow composition valve and choke position

feedback) and connection points for devices such as down hole pressure andtemperature transducers (DHPT) On producing wells chemicals or alcohols or

oil distillates may be injected to preclude production problems (such as

blockages)

The control system attached to the tree controls the down-hole safety valve

(SCSSV) while the tree acts as an attachment and means of the control system

to the down-hole safety valve

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Figure 1

Well Head and Christmas Tree

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Master Valves

The two lower valves are called the master valves Master valves are normally in

the fully open position and are never opened or closed when the well is flowing

(except in an emergency) to prevent erosion of the valve sealing surfaces They

are gate type valves

1 Lower Master Valve (LMV)

2 Upper Master Valve (UMV)

The lower master valve will normally be manually operated while the upper

master valve is often hydraulically actuated allowing it to be used as a means of

remotely shutting in the well in the event of emergency

Wing Valve

A wing valve is normally used to shut in the well when flowing thus preserving

the master valves for positive shut off for maintenance purposes The wing

valve can be a gate valve or ball valve Hydraulic operated wing valves are

usually built to be fail safe closed meaning they require active hydraulic pressure

to stay open This feature means that if control fluid fails the well will

automatically shut itself in without operator action

In Kadanwari well sites there is only one manually operated wing valve On the

other hand at Miano well sites there are two wing valves one being operated

manually and other hydraulically

Production Wing Valve

The right hand valve is often called the flow wing valve or the production wing

valve because it provides flow path for hydrocarbons to production facility

Kill wing valve

The left hand valve is often called the kill wing valve It is primarily used for

injection of fluids such as corrosion inhibitors or methanol to prevent hydrate

formation It is typically manually operated It can kill the well temporarily be

injection brine solution which provides a pressure head to well and temporarily

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suspends it for maintenance of well head Also it is used to permanently kill the

well A chemical is injected down the well that seals the piping down the well and

kills the well permanently

Swab valve

The swab valve is used to gain access to the well for wire line operations

intervention and other work over procedure On top of it is a tree adapter

and cap that will mate with various equipment For such operations a

lubricator is assembled up onto the top of the tree and the wire or coil is lowered

through the lubricator through swab valve and into the well This valve is typically

manually operated

Choke

A choke holds back pressure by restricting the flow opening at the well head This

is done to make better use of the gas for natural gas lift and to control the bottom-

hole pressure for recovery reasons

CHECK VALVE

The check is introduced in production flow line to prevent any reverse flow from

the line into the well It has a hinged flap which lifts to permit normal flow but

closes to prevent reverse flow

TOP ADAPTOR

The top adaptor is a fitting on top of the swab valve with a threaded connection

During normal well operations a pressure gauge is fitted to monitor flowing and

shut in wellhead pressures However during well service operations the cap can

be removed to allow installation of lubricators for wire-line operations

SCSSSV (Surface Control Sub Surface Safety Valve)

A subsurface safety valve is essentially a shutdown valve installed at the upper

wellbore for emergency shutdown to protect the production tubing and wellhead

in case of overpressure Subsurface safety valves can offer a barrier against flow

in the event of a wellhead collapse or other disastrous event Purpose of asubsurface safety valve (SSSV) is to avoid the ultimate disaster which can result

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in release of reservoir fluids to the surroundings This makes SSSV a very

important component of a well completion

A subsurface safety valve is typically a uni-directional flapper valve directed in

such a way that the flappers open downwards when pressure is applied from an

upward direction The flapper can only open in the downward direction So even if

high pressure is applied by the well fluids from a

downward direction a safety valve can remain

closed This makes a subsurface safety valve fail-

safe To open the valve hydraulic signal is sent from

the surface well control panel This hydraulic

pressure is responsible for keeping the flappers of

SSSV open and loss of hydraulic pressure result in

closing of the valve Thus wellbore can be isolated in

case of system failure or damage to the surface

facilities

Types of Christmas tree

There are two types of Christmas Tree

1 Solid block

2 Conventional

The solid block Christmas Tree has a central solid unit holding several valves

in a pre-constructed block Their advantage is the reduction in potential leak

paths and their higher pressure rating (Fig 2)

The conventional Christmas Tree is built up from individual valves bolted

together to form an assembly (Fig 3)

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Figure 2

Figure 3

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Wellhead Control Panel

Wellhead control panel is key equipment in oil amp gas industry to protect oilfield

facilities and environment from emergency incidents such as wellhead fire which

is one of main control systems to ensure oilfield oil production and transportation

to be safely operation according to international standards and national

regulation Wellhead control panel is composed of hydraulic power unit tubing amp

fitting and instrument valve and electrical control devices Hydraulic power unit

supply hydraulic resource to open and close safety valves including master

valves wing valves and SCSSSV

Its performs

Local OnOff SSV

Remote control SSV through RTU( remote terminal unit)

High-Low pressure sense shut-down automatically

Fusible Plug Anti-fire Shut-down automatically

Function of showing system pressure

Relief Valve shall be installed on each hydraulic circuit to prevent high

pressure

Function of showing hydraulic level and level switch for alarm

Function of defending pressure impact of system

Function of system pressure monitoring (by pressure transmitter of control

panel)

Function of remote emergency shut-down (by magnetic valve of control

panel)

Function of OnOff SSV monitoring (by pressure switch of control loop of

control panel)

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Chemical Injection

Chemical injection systems are commonly used in production facilities to prevent

or eliminate a wide range of problems that might negatively affect the production

flow It is done for flow assurance protection of process equipment such as

pipelines or to optimize processes in production facilities

Typical flow assurance chemicals are

Wax inhibitors

Pour point depressants

Asphaltene inhibitors

Corrosion inhibitors

A corrosion inhibitor is a chemical compound that is added to liquid or gas to

decreases the corrosion rate of a material typically a metal or an alloy The

effectiveness of a corrosion inhibitor depends on fluid composition quantity of

water and flow regime Its common mechanism involves formation of a coating

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which prevents access of the corrosive substance to the metal The corrosive

agents are generally oxygen hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide

At our production site the major risk is corrosion of piping and equipment The

maximum allowable corrosion rate is approximately 02 mm per year and

corrosion rate without inhibitor could be approximately 11 mm per year so the

corrosion protection program is designed to achieve a target corrosion rate of

less than 01 mm per year which is achieved by an inhibitor system efficiency of

99 Inhibitor is injected into the well stream flow through an atomizing nozzle

located downstream of the respective wellhead coolers at the duplexcarbon steel

interface In normal operation as per NALCO standards chemical (brand name

EC1144B) at rate of frac12 Liter per MMSCFD of gas is being injected into the flow

line of miano15 flow lines made of carbon steel Moreover the composition can

vary depending upon the composition of well fluids and material of pipeline This

method of injection ensures even distribution of the chemical on the interior

surface of the pipeline The individual well sites are equipped with Chemical

Injection Packages comprising of a stainless steel storage tank and two

pneumatic motor driven pumps in parallel Instrument gas is used to drive the

pumps Normally one pump is running with the other standby

Water Conning

Water coning is a term used to describe the mechanism underlying the upward

movement of water into the perforations of a producing well Coning can seriously

impact the well productivity and influence the degree of depletion and the overall

recovery efficiency of the reservoir The specific problems of water coning are

listed below

Costly added water handling

Gas production from the original or secondary gas cap reduces pressure

Reduced efficiency of the depletion mechanism

The water is often corrosive and its disposal costly

The affected well may be abandoned early

Loss of the total field overall recovery

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Therefore conning has an important influence on operations recovery and

economics The phenomena is shown in picture below

Corrosion

Corrosion is referred as chemical deterioration of a metal Commonly this

means loss of electrons of metals reacting with water and oxygen

Weakening of iron due to oxidation of the iron atoms is a well-known

example of electrochemical corrosion This is commonly known as

rust Most structural alloys corrode merely from exposure to moisture

in the air but the process can be strongly affected by exposure to

certain substances Corrosion can be concentrated locally to form a pit

or crack or it can extend across a wide area to produce general

deterioration (uniform corrosion)

The following reaction takes place at the active sites

2Fe =gt 2Fe++ + 4e-

The free electrons travel through the metal path to the less active sites where

the following reaction takes place

O2 + 4e- + 2H20 =gt 4 OH-

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Recombination of these ions at the active surface produce the following

reaction which yields the iron-corrosion product ferrous hydroxide

2Fe + O2 + 2H2O =gt 2Fe (OH) 2

CORROSION PROTECTION SYSTEM

Coatings and painting

Painting and the application of enamel bitumen and PVC

coating are the most common anti-corrosion treatments They

work by providing a barrier of corrosion-resistant material

between the damaging environment and the structural material

Corrosion Inhibitors

Corrosion inhibitor is injected into the flow lines as mentioned in

detail on page 8

Cathodic Protection

Cathodic Protection (CP) is a technique used to control the corrosion of a

metal surface by making it the cathode of an electrochemical cell It

converts all of the anodic (active) sites on the metal surface to cathodic

(passive) sites by supplying electrical current (or free electrons) from an

alternate source It is accomplished in two ways

a) A simple method of protection connects protected metal to a more easily

corroded sacrificial metal to act as the anode The sacrificial metal then

corrodes instead of the protected metal The process is similar to a simple

DC cell in which the more active metal becomes the anode and corrodes

whereas the less active metal becomes the cathode and is protected

b) For larger structures galvanic anodes cannot economically deliver enough

current to provide protection Therefore impressed current cathodic

protection (ICCP) systems are used These consist of anodes connected

to a DC power source In remote areas power sources such as solar

panels may be used The output DC negative terminal is connected to the

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frequently to limit liquid holdup and minimize the slug volumes of liquid which can

be generated by the system

Coating

Pigs may be used to apply internal pipe coatings such as epoxy coating

materials in operating pipelines Pigs may also be used with corrosion inhibitors

to distribute and coat the entire internal wetted perimeter

Inspection

Pigs are being used more frequently as inspection tools Gauging or sizing pigs

are typically run following the completion of new construction or line repair to

determine if there are any internal obstacles bends or buckles in the pipe Pigs

can also be equipped with cameras to allow viewing of the pipe internals

Electronic intelligent or smart ldquopigsrdquo that use magnetic and ultrasonic systems

have been developed and refined that locate and measure internal and external

corrosion pitting dents buckles and any other anomalies in the pipe wall

Intelligent pigs

The accuracy of location and measurement of anomalies by the intelligent pigs

has continued to improve Initially the electronics and power systems were so

large that intelligent pigs could be used only in lines 30 in and greater in size

The continued sophistication and miniaturization of the electronic systems used

in the intelligent pigs has allowed the development of smaller pigs that can be

used in small-diameter pipelines Newly enacted DOT pipeline-integrity

regulations and rules acknowledge the effectiveness of the intelligent pigs and

incorporate their use in the pipeline-integrity testing process

Compressors

A gas compressor is a mechanical device that increases the pressure of a gas by

reducing its volume Gas pressure is increased by forcing gas molecules together

to reduce gas volume When volume is reduced gas pressure increases

All gases have large spaces among their molecules These spaces could be

enhanced further and decreased by doing some work Work done which is used

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for the enhancement of these spaces is called expansion and work done to

minimize these spaces is called compression All gases while expansion

produces cooling effect and while compression of gases raises there

temperature Compression is a term used to force gases to occupy smaller

volumes by increasing their pressure Volume of gases is interlinked with

temperature and pressure of the gas which is cleared by 2 laws govern gas

compressions

Boyles Law

Charles Law

The main types of compressor are listed below

Front End Compressor

The plant currently processes gas from a number of wells The flow and pressure

from some of these wells (currently K-10 K-11 amp K-12) has declined and they

cannot be fed directly into the Central Processing Facility To recover the

maximum gas reserves from these wells a Front End Compressor is employed

The compressor is a two stage double acting gas engine driven reciprocating

(PT) compressor Double acting means that gas is compressed on each end of

the piston It normal operates with a speed range of 600 to 900 RPM and isequipped with four compressor cylinders two for each stage Each cylinder is

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also equipped with a variable volume head end pocket

In case of compressor emergency shutdown the production chokes and the

Upper Master Valves on the on line wells will close and operator will be notified in

central control room Sweet gas from gas distribution network is used to operate the

gas engine driver of the compressor package The detailed scheme of working is

shown in figure (page 22 )

PT Reciprocating Compressor

The mechanical cycle of piston tube reciprocating compressor comprises four

strokes the expansion stroke the intake stroke the compression stroke and the

discharge stroke

Expansion Stroke

As the piston moves back on the expansion stroke the chamber volume

increases and the pressure drop As the pressure drops the discharge valve

closes since there is greater pressure in the discharge line than in the chamber

Intake Stroke

As the piston moves back during the intake stroke the pressure decreases until it

is less than the pressure in the inlet line This higher intake pressure opens the

inlet valve and gas rushes into the cylinder equalizing the pressure there with

the intake pressure The compression chamber is now at or near the intake

pressure

Compression Stroke

The piston now starts the compression stroke by moving forward decreasing the

chamber volume and increasing the pressure The increased pressure is now

higher than the intake pressure causing the intake valve to close

Discharge Stroke

The piston continues to move to the left during the discharge stroke This creates

an increase in chamber pressure until it is greater than the discharge pressure

When this happens the Discharge valve opens and the compressed air from the

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cylinder goes into the discharge line The compression cycle is then repeated

from the stage

Compressor Capacity

The capacity of the compressor depends upon cylinder displacement That

displacement is simply the volume that the piston displaces (moves) as it travels

from one end of the cylinder to the other Capacity and displacement is equal to

the cross-sectional area of the cylinder times the length of the stroke

Lubrication and Cooling

Lubricating oil is circulated through the system by a gear pump which is chain

driven from the engine crank shaft The oil pump is mounted on the engine front

housing

The pump operates between 30 - 40 psig

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A circulating pump deliver cooling water to the water jackets in the cylinder block

flowing around the cylinder liners and is directed into the cylinder heads Each

cylinder head has water cooled exhaust elbows which outlet the water into the

water cooled exhausts From the end of engine the water flows to compressor

1st and 2nd stage cylinders and compressor lube oil cooler (LOwater heat

exchanger) The water from the compressor cylinder and lube oil cooler returns

to engine water cooled exhaust

Figure Flow diagram of Front End Compressor

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Centrifugal Compressor

Centrifugal compressors are machines in which velocity and pressure given to air

or gas in a radial direction by one or more impellers diffuser combination In a

centrifugal compressor the mechanical energy is increased by centrifugal action

The gas enters the suction eye of a high speed rotary element called the impeller

which carries radial vanes integrally cast in it As the impeller rotates the blades

of the impeller force the gas outward from the center the impeller to the outer rim

of impeller the increase in velocity of the gas creates a flow pressure area at the

eye of the impeller The gas at the outer rim of the impeller is forced in to a

passage way called a diffuser where the velocity decreases in the pressure of the

gas

Inlet

The inlet to a centrifugal compressor is typically a simple pipe It may include

features such as a valve and both pressure and temperature instrumentation

Centrifugal impeller

The key component that makes a compressor centrifugal is the centrifugal

impeller shown above It is the impellers rotating set of vanes (or blades) that

gradually raises the energy of the working gas This is identical to an axial

compressor with the exception that the gases can reach higher velocities and

energy levels through the impellers increasing radius

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Diffuser

The next key component to the simple centrifugal compressor is the diffuser

Downstream of the impeller in the flow path it is the diffusers responsibility to

convert the kinetic energy (high velocity) of the gas into pressure by gradually

slowing (diffusing) the gas velocity

SEPERATORS

A well-stream is a mixture of gases hydrocarbon liquids water solids and

contaminants Due to variations in pressure and temperature gases evolve from

the liquids water vapor condenses and some of the well-stream changes to liquid

and free gas The separation of well-stream fluids takes place in a separator This

pressure vessel is manufactured in three forms

1 horizontal

2 vertical

3 spherical

To help separation the vessel is normally designed with a series of internal

fittings These fittings are built into the separator to ensure total phase separation

of the well-stream

In gas plants separators are given alternative names due to the function they

perform in the process system A scrubber does a similar job to a knockout drum

However the scrubber usually separates a stream containing high gas-to-liquid

ratios The knockout drum is used where a high degree of liquids are entrained in

the gas

Fluid flow from a well can include gas condensable liquid vapors water water

vapor crude oil and solids As well-stream fluids reach ground level where

pressure is lower than in the reservoir the capacity of the liquid to hold gas in

solution decreases and gas separates out of the oil

Separation depends upon the effect of gravity to separate liquids For adequate

separation one fluid must be lighter than the other fluid For example distillates

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(gasoline kerosene etc) and crude oil will not separate in a vessel because they

tend to dissolve in each other Because a separator basically depends upon

gravity to separate the fluids the ease with which separation takes place

depends upon the difference in density of the fluids

Droplets of liquid will separate from gas provided

a) The gas remains in the separator long enough

b) The gas flow remains constant to provoke separation

The difference in density between a gas and liquid will therefore determine the

maximum flow rate of liquid in the vessel

Figure Two phase horizontal separator

Gas bubbles in the liquid will break out in some oil field applications in 30 to 60

seconds Consequently the separator is designed so that the liquid remains in

the vessel for 30 to 60 seconds The length of time that a liquid remains in the

vessel is called its residence time Residence time differs widely from field to field

depending upon viscosity and API Gravity

Another important factor which must be considered is temperature Generally a

decrease in operating temperature will increase the liquid recovery in a separator

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as the gas condenses By reducing the pressure on the fluid flash separation

occurs resulting in a flow through the separator which is controlled by external

instrumentation

COALESCENCE

Another important principle in fluid separation is that of coalescence This means

the coming together of liquid droplets created by the force of gravity

A common example of coalescing occurs when drops of water form on the

windshield of a car as it is driven in fog As the tiny drops or water which make up

the fog strike the windshield they combine and eventually form a drop large

enough to run down the glass

Several of the internal devices of a separator such as deflector plates

straightening vanes and even the vessel walls are forms of coalescers In each

vessel drops of liquid adhere to the surface of the device and combine with other

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drops until the drop is large enough to fall out The effectiveness of separation

will also depend upon the total amount of coalescing surface area that is present

There are many different types of separators used in the Oil amp Gas industry

Consequently separators are manufactured with one two or several internal

fittings depending on their use and quick removal of these fluids from the vessel

DEFLECTOR PLATES

These are fitted in front of the inlet to the separator and can be net or

dish-shaped Their purpose is to absorb the impact of the incoming fluids and to

encourage the separation of gas and liquids They also slow the flow rate of the

liquids through the vessel

WEIRS

A weir is a metal wall which is fitted across the inside of the vessel normally to a

height of 50 of the overall height of the separator Its purpose is to assist the

process of three phase separation The inlet fluids (oil plus water) are given time

to separate in the liquid accumulation section The water level (interface) is

normally controlled at 50 of the height of the weir Oil floating on the wateroverflows the weir and accumulates in the small oil compartment where it is

drawn off under level control

CENTRIFUGAL DEVICES

These are used in both vertical and horizontal separators for gas-liquid

separation The device imparts a swirling motion to the fluids entering the vessel

Centrifugal force causes the heavier liquids to travel outwards towards the walls

of the vessel and the lighter gases to flow up the centre Centrifugal devices are

also known as cyclones

VORTEX BREAKERS

When liquid flows through a drain outlet a vortex (whirlpool) will form This can

be seen when we pull the plug from a sink or bath tub The same would happen

as water and oil flow from the separator This condition a vortex could allow gas

to flow down the centre of the whirlpool and enter the liquid phase causing

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pressurizing of tanks etc To stop this happening vortex breakers are fitted to all

liquid outlets Although they come in a number of different designs vortex

breakers all serve the same purpose - to prevent a whirlpool from forming

MIST OR DEMISTER PADS

The gas which is released from the fluids in the separator still contains droplets of

oil and water which coalesce and fall when the drops get large enough The

demister pad assists in this process Made from knitted wire and contained within

a sturdy frame it causes the gas to continually change its direction of flow

Because gas changes direction far easier than liquid the gas will flow around

each strand of wire whilst the liquid entrained in the gas stream will continue and

stick to the wire

COALESCING PLATES

There are several different forms of coalescing devices the most common of

which are coalescing plates These plates are mounted in the flow stream of the

fluids and assist in breaking down oil-water emulsions The fluid is forced to

follow a path that constantly changes direction This causes the water droplets to

gather together or coalesce and fall to the bottom of the separator The same

principle is used to separate gas and oil mixtures when the oil droplets are

induced to coalesce Simply stated every surface within the separator including

the separator walls assists with the coalescing process

STRAIGHTENlNG VANES

These are often fitted to horizontal separators to remove turbulence in the gas

stream after initial separation at the inlet deflector

FLOAT SHEILD

Internal floats are used as level controllers Any agitation of the liquid surface or

the effect of coalesced liquids falling on the float may cause control problems

Therefore a float shield is fitted to enclose the float creating an area of still liquid

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MEMBRANES

The gas contains 12 carbon dioxide and 22 ppm of hydrogen sulphide at 115oF

and 1100 psig This needs to be removed before the gas can be exported The

majority of carbon dioxide hydrogen sulphide and water is removed by means of

membranes

Membranes are thin semipermeable barriers that selectively separate some

compounds from others Currently the only commercially workable membranes

used for CO2 removal are polymer based for example cellulose acetate

polyimides polyamides polysulfone polycarbonates and polyetherimide The

membrane does not operate as a filter where small molecules are separated

from larger ones through a medium with pores rather it separates based on how

well different compounds dissolve into the membrane and diffuse through it The

membranes are manufactured in flat sheets consisting of an extremely thin

nonporous layer mounted on a much-thicker and highly porous layer of the same

material providing mechanical strength The flat sheets are combined into a

spiral-wound element (Figure below) Feed gas enters along the side of the

membrane and passes through the feed spacers As the gas travels between

membrane sheets CO2 H2S and H2O permeate through the membrane and are

collected in the permeate tube The driving force for transport is the high-feed

pressure and low-permeate pressures The gas on the feed side that does not

permeate leaves through the side of the element opposite the feed position Once

the membranes have been manufactured into elements six to 12 elements are

joined together and inserted into a tube Multiple tubes are mounted on skids in a

horizontal orientation

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Figure Membrane general Working

In high H2S applications most polymers have been shown to have very little

resistance to H2S plasticization (ldquosofteningrdquo of the membrane) and as a

consequence can only be used at very low H2S partial pressure limits Cellulose

acetate membranes in contrast have been shown to be applicable at extreme

H2S partial pressure conditions It is these membranes that have been utilized in

the testing to determine the limits of membrane performance in high H 2S

applications

The primary membranes used in Kadanwari facility are Cellulose acetate

Cellulose acetic acid and acetic anhydride are mixed together and reacted to

form cellulose acetate polymers This process is aided by the addition of a small

amount of sulfuric acid which is subsequently neutralized during processing

However the membranes are bought from UOP (vendor) and installed for use

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How membrane work

The basic principle of separation is selectivity of certain components of a mixture

for the membrane For example the cellulose acetate membrane has very high

selectivity for CO2 and H2S as compared to CH4 Therefore such type of

membrane can be used in gas sweetening process

The selectivity is directly related to the Permeability of gas which accounts that

which gas can pass across the membrane more easily In simple words

membranes being polymer materials are made of long chains of molecules The

different structure of polymer materials only allow selective molecules to pass

through them depending upon chemical and physical compatibility Thus

permeability depends upon choice of polymer

The permeability is determined by permeability coefficient (P) and is product of

solubility (S) and diffusivity (D)

P = S D

Solubility

The solubility is mainly determined by ease of condensation Heavy molecules

are more readily condensed Therefore higher molecular weighted molecules will

more easily condensed and therefore have greater solubility

Molecule Molecular weight

CH4 16

H2S 34

CO2 44

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Diffusivity

Diffusivity is ease of molecule to penetrate into some material It depends on size

of gas molecule Here size of molecule is not to be confused by molecular weight

it is the size of the structure Eg the size of O2 molecule is smaller than N2

Molecule Molecular Diameter (Ao)

CO2 33

H2S 36

Ch4 40

For cellulose acetate

DCO2DCH4 S CO2S CH4 P CO2P CH4

45 73 308

Chemical degradation

Cellulose acetate polymer is chemically degraded by a process called hydrolysis

which means breaking apart by the addition of water This is a chemical reaction

in which water is added to the cellulose acetate polymer causing the release of

acetic acid molecules This process proceeds stepwise until all the acetate

groups are released resulting in the reformation of cellulose Moreover alcohols

aromatic hydrocarbons or solvents with chlorine nitro benzene or similar

aromatic solvents will harm the membrane It will expand and lose plastification in

contact with them

Effect of Temperature

The permeation rates of all gases increases with increasing temperature

however membrane selectivity for CO2 over hydrocarbon decreases at higher

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temperature Consequently CO2 removal will improve as operating temperature

increases but hydro carbon recovery will decrease

Primary Membrane

The primary membranes comprise of two trains Each train consists of two

sections AB and CD each section consists of a 30 tube membrane skid (A and

C) followed by a 25 tube skid (B and D) The conditioned gas (after pre-

treatment) enters the primary membrane via the particulate filter adjacent to the

skid The gas is fed to the membranes through a common inlet manifold which

supplies primary membranes skids A and C A pressure control loop located

upstream of the manual inlet isolation valve is provided to maintain a constant

supply pressure to the membrane skid and to allow for preheating at the inlet

prior to skid start-up This pressure control loop can also be used during start-up

to control the pressurization of the pretreatment skid and associated pipes to the

primary membranes

The gas passes through membrane skid A the residual gas exiting the membrane

skid is sent to skid B and the permeate to common permeate discharge header An

identical arrangement is provide on the inlet to skid C as provided on skid A Theresidual gas from skid B combines with the residual gas from skid D in a common

discharge header and is then sent to the H2S polishing towers via the feed coolers

on the pre-treatment skid The permeate from skid B is sent to the common

permeate discharge header The permeate discharge header sends the gas to

either the recycle compressor or the vent header via a pressure control loop

Overpressure protection for the membranes is provided by a pressure safety valve

on the supply header to the membrane banks

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Secondary (Recycle) Membrane

The recycle membranes comprise of a single train with two skids each with four

banks of membrane tubes The conditioned gas from the discharge of the recycle

pre-treatment skid is routed to the first recycle membrane skid The gas passes

through the membranes the residual gas is fed to primary membrane (skid A) inlet

via feed gas cooler and permeate to the common permeate discharge header An

identical arrangement is provide on the inlet to skid B Permeate from the recycle

membrane skids A and B is routed to the vent header Some portion of permeate is

heated and sent for regeneration in Mem-Guard units Nitrogen purge can be

connected downstream of the inlet isolation valve on each skid to enable the

membrane tubes to be purged and left pressurized during prolonged shutdown

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Figure Flow Diagram of Recycle membrane unit

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ADVANTAGES OF MEMBRANE SYSTEMS

Membrane systems have major advantages over more-traditional methods of

acid gas removal

Lower capital cost Membrane systems are skid mounted and so the

scope cost and time taken for site preparation are minimal Installation

costs are significantly lower than alternative technologies especially for

remote areas Furthermore no additional facilities for solvent storage and

water treatment needed by other processes are required

Lower operating costs The only major operating cost for single-stage

membrane systems is membrane replacement This cost is significantly

lower than the solvent replacement and energy costs associated with

traditional technologies The improvements in membrane and

pretreatment design allow a longer useful membrane life which further

reduces operating costs The energy costs of multistage systems with

large recycle compressors are usually comparable to those for traditionaltechnologies

Deferred capital investment Often contracted sales-gas flow rates

increase over time as more wells are brought on-line With traditional

technologies the system design needs to take this later production into

account immediately and so the majority of the equipment is installed

before it is even needed The modular nature of membrane systems

means that only the membranes that are needed at start-up need be

installed The rest can be added either into existing tubes or in new skids

only when they are required

Operational simplicity and high reliability Because single-stage

membrane systems have no moving parts they have almost no

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unscheduled downtime and are extremely simple to operate They can

operate unattended for long periods of time The addition of a recycle

compressor adds some complexity to the system but still much less than

with a solvent- or adsorbent-based technology Multistage systems can be

operated at full capacity as single-stage systems when the recycle

compressor is down

Good weight and space efficiency Skid construction can be optimized

to the space available This space efficiency is especially important for

offshore environments where deck area is at a premium and is the

reason why so many new offshore developments have chosen to use

membranes for acid gas removal Figure 6 illustrates the space efficiency

of membrane systems The membrane unit in the lower left corner

replaced all the amine and glycol plant equipment shown in the rest of the

picture

Adaptability Because membrane area is dictated by the percentage of

acid gas removal rather than absolute acid gas removal small variations

in feed acid gas content hardly change the sales-gas acid gas

specification For example a system designed for 10 down to 3 acid

gas removal produces a 35 product from a 12 feed gas and a 5

product from a 15 feed gas

Design efficiency The membrane and pretreatment systems integrate a

number of operations such as dehydration CO2 and H2S removal dew-

point control and mercury removal Traditional acid gas removal

technologies require all of these operations as separate processes and

may also require additional dehydration because some technologies

saturate the product stream with water

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Power generation The permeate gas from membrane systems can be

used to provide fuel gas for power generation either for a recycle

compressor or other equipment

Ideal for debottlenecking Because expanding solvent- or adsorbent-

based acid gas removal plants without adding additional trains is difficult

an ideal solution is to use membranes for bulk acid gas removal and leave

the existing plant for final cleanup An additional advantage is that the

permeate gas from the membrane system can often be used as fuel for

the existing plant thus avoiding significant increase in hydrocarbon

losses

Environmentally friendly Membrane systems do not involve the

periodic removal and handling of spent solvents or adsorbents Permeate

gases can be flared used as fuel or re-injected into the well Items thatdo need disposal such as spent membrane elements can be incinerated

Ideal for remote locations Many of the factors mentioned above make

membrane systems a highly desirable technology for remote locations

where spare parts are rare and labor unskilled Furthermore solvents

storage and trucking water supply power generation or extensive

infrastructure are not required

Re-injection optimizations Since the permeate stream from the

membrane system can be operated at elevated pressures it is possible to

further pressurize by re-injection compression train

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Sorption

Sorption is a physical and chemical process by which one substance becomes

attached to another

It is of two main types

1 Absorption

2 Adsorption

Absorption

Absorption is a physical or chemical phenomenon or process in which atoms

molecules or ions enter some bulk phase ndash gas liquid or solid material This is a

different process from adsorption since molecules undergoing absorption are

taken up by the volume not by the surface (as in the case for adsorption)

Absorption process may be chemical (reactive) or physical (non-reactive)

Physical absorption

Physical absorption or non-reactive absorption is made between two phases ofmatter a liquid absorbs a gas or a solid absorbs a liquid

When a liquid solvent absorbs a gas mixture or part of it a mass of gas moves

into the liquid For example water may absorb oxygen from the air This mass

transfer takes place at the interface between the liquid and the gas at a rate

depending on both the gas and the liquid This type of absorption depends on the

solubility of gases the pressure and the temperature The rate and amount of

absorption also depend on the surface area of the interface and its duration in

time

When a solid absorbs a liquid mixture or part of it a mass of liquid moves into the

solid For example a clay pot used to store water may absorb some of the water

This mass transfer takes place at the interface between the solid and the liquid

at a rate depending on both the solid and the liquid

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Chemical absorption

Chemical absorption or reactive absorption is a chemical reaction between the

absorbed and the absorbing substances Sometimes it combines with physical

absorption This type of absorption depends upon the stoichiometry of the

reaction and the concentration of its reactants

Adsorption

Adsorption is the adhesion of atoms ions or molecules from a gas liquid or

dissolved solid to a surface This process creates a film of the adsorbate on the

surface of the adsorbent The binding to the surface is usually weak and

reversible Compounds with color and those that have taste or odor tend to bind

strongly Compounds that vibrate at frequencies in the visible spectrum are very

often are strongly adsorbed on activated carbon

The most common industrial adsorbents are activated carbon silica gel and

alumina because they present enormous surface areas per unit weight

Depending on the nature of attractive forces existing between the adsorbate and

adsorbent adsorption can be classified as

i) Physical adsorption

ii) Chemical adsorption

i) Physical adsorption (Physisorption)

In physical adsorption the forces of attraction between the molecules of the

adsorbate and the adsorbent are of the weak van der Waals type Since the

forces of attraction are weak the process of physisorption can be easily reversed

by heating or decreasing the pressure of the adsorbate (as in the case of gases)

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ii) Chemical adsorption (Chemisorption)

In chemisorption the forces of attraction between the adsorbate and the

adsorbent are very strong the molecules of adsorbate form chemical bonds with

the molecules of the adsorbent present in the surface

Adsorption is generally accompanied by release of energy that is most

adsorption processes are exothermic in nature Adsorption is a spontaneous

process therefore its free energy change is negative (∆Glt0) However the

entropy change associated with adsorption is generally negative because the

adsorbate molecules lose their translation freedom when they get attached to the

surface of the adsorbent Therefore in order for ∆G to be negative the enthalpy

change (∆H) must be sufficiently negative such that (∆G=∆H-T∆S) lt 0 This

explanation accounts for exothermic adsorption processes In cases where

endothermic adsorption occurs the entropy change ∆S is sufficiently positive

such that ∆G remains negative

Pre treatment

The main function of pretreatment skid is to provide membrane inlet specification

gas as mentioned by the vendor UOP It removes the contaminants that would

poison the membranes like dust solids (adsorbent particles) lube oil heavy

hydrocarbons etc It consists of

Feed Cooler

Feed Gas Scrubber

Filter Coalescer

Feed Gas Heater

Activated Carbon Guard Filter

Particle Filter

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The regeneration is carried out by heated permeate gas from the recycle

membranes at 450oF The vessel is depressurized to 20 psi and heated gas is

introduced from top The gas carries out the adsorbed contaminants and leaves

the vessel from bottom cleaning the adsorbent This contaminated gas is burnt in

the flare

UOP the vendor of Memguard unit has never disclosed that what substance

MG3 and MG5 exactly are But as mentioned by vendor that both care class of

aluminosilicates Therefore MG3 can be potassium aluminosilicate and MG5 can

be Calcium aluminosilicate These are molecular sieves adsorbents Molecular

sieves are a microporous material which can selectively adsorb gases andliquids They are synthetic zeolites (crystalline metal aluminosilicates) which

upon dehydration can efficiently and selectively remove water or other

solvents The selectivity of a molecular sieve is determined by its pore size

molecules with a critical diameter which is less than the pore size will be

efficiently adsorbed while larger molecules will be excluded

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3A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

The 3A molecular sieve adsorbent has a 3 angstrom (3A) pore size which means

that any molecule that is larger than the 3 angstrom pores will not be adsorbed

The 3A molecular sieve is the potassium type of A crystalline structure and is a

form of alkali Aluminosilicate For a 3A molecular sieve the sequence rate that

adsorption occurs is He Ne N and H2O

Due to the crystalline structure molecular sieves that have a 3 angstrom pore

size have a very high rate of adsorption and properties that promote a longer life

for products treated by the sieve The most common use for the 3A molecular

sieve is to remove water and moisture from materials that are in gas and liquid

form

5A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

These are molecular sieve adsorbents with a pore size of 5 angstrom (5A) 5A

molecular sieves are unable to adsorb any molecules or impurities that are

smaller than 5A It is calcium form of type A crystalline structure and is form of analkali-aluminosilicate that is most commonly used to separate isomerous alkanes

from normal alkanes and to co-adsorb moisture and water along with carbon

dioxide from gases In additional 5A molecular sieves are used for gaseous

pressure swing adsorption (PSA)mdashthat is to separate particular gases from other

gases

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of C3H8 to C22H46

Adsorption of Freon-12 (dichlorodifluoromethane)

Natural gas drying

Normal- and iso-paraffin separation

Separation of aromatic

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Inlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1096

MEHTANE 8593

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008

N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGEN 076

WATER 007

Outlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1098

MEHTANE 8608

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGENT 076

WATER 000

H2S polisher

The H2S polishing unit has been designed to treat 187 MMscfday of natural gas

containing up to 11 CO2 and 21 ppm H2S where the level of the CO2 and H2S

is reduced using a MemGuard Membrane separation unit The unit is situated

down-stream of the membrane unit and will further reduce the level of H2S in the

processed gas to a sales gas specification of 38 ppm

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This process uses three non-regenerable fixed bed absorber vessels using a low

temperature high activity absorbent The absorbent is a mixture of activated

metal oxides (mainly zinc oxide) The three towers can are generally operated in

parallel arrangement but on demand can be used in series (any of alternate

arrangements of A B C vessels) as shown in figure

The higher sales gas flow rate increased the catalyst consumption and

replacement frequency

ZnO + H2S =gt ZnS + H20

Routine samples are taken from the beds to provide a check on each bed

performance and to follow the saturation profile during the absorbent life After

the adsorbent has been fully utilized the adsorption vessels are recharged with

new adsorbent discarding the utilized one in a safe manner

109oF

1215 psig

Before H2S Polishing After H2S Polishing

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Figure

H2S Tower

Inlet pipe

4 Drums of 19mm

ceramic Balls

6 Micron mesh

5 Drums of 50mmceramic

1 Drums of19mm ceramic

01 Drums of6mm ceramic

112 drums of

Catalist ZnO

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Recycle Compressor

The permeate gas of the primary membrane unit carries recoverable amount of

CH4 It is fed to recycle membrane unit for further CH 4 recovery But the

permeate pressure from primary membranes which has been reduced to 12 psi

must be regenerated to 1200 psi for the gas to be fed again to the system For

this purpose we have employed recycle compressor The compressor is a four

stage centrifugal compressor It is driven by gas turbine of 31200 HP It has 25

MW producing capacity

Figure Recycle Compressor Process Flow Diagram

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Sales Gas Compressor

Gas from H2S polishing unit is sent to sales gas compressor where its pressure

is enhanced to 1100 psi so it may be injected to SNGPL high pressure trunk line

Sales gas compressor is single stage gas turbine driven

Figure Process Flow of Sales Gas Compressor

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Cooling Towers

A cooling tower is a heat rejection device which extracts waste heat to theatmosphere through the cooling of a water stream to a lower temperature Hot

water from the system enters the cooling tower and is distributed over the fill

(heat transfer surface) Air is induced or forced through the fill causing a small

portion of the water to evaporate This evaporation removes heat from the

remaining water which is collected in the cold water basin and returned to the

system to absorb more heat Each cooling tower line although operating under

the same basic principle of operation is arranged a little differently

Types

Natural draft mdash Utilizes buoyancy via a tall chimney Warm moist air naturally

rises due to the density differential compared to the dry cooler outside air Warm

moist air is less dense than drier air at the same pressure This moist air

buoyancy produces an upwards current of air through the tower

Mechanical draft mdash Uses power-driven fan motors to force or draw airthrough the tower

o Induced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a fan at the

discharge (at the top) which pulls air up through the tower The fan

induces hot moist air out the discharge This produces low entering

and high exiting air velocities reducing the possibility of

recirculation in which discharged air flows back into the air intake

o Forced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a blower type fan at

the intake The fan forces air into the tower creating high entering

and low exiting air velocities The low exiting velocity is much more

susceptible to recirculation This fanfill geometry is also known as

blow-through

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Forced Draft Cooling Tower Vs Induced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower have the ability to handle large water flow

rate than Forced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower is suitable for large cell sizes and fan sizes

as compared with Forced Draft Larger fan size may result in greater

efficiency and consequently lower power and sound level

Forced Draft Cooling Tower can be square or rectangular type only

however Induced Draft Cooling Towers can be round square or

rectangular type

Induced Draft Cooling Tower uses more compact ground area than Forced

Draft Cooling Tower equivalent capacity due to absence of fan on one

side

Fan equipment is warm exhaust air is less liable to icing up in winter

operation (Cold Countries)

Higher velocity in Forced Draft Cooling Tower cause drop in suspension

and cause additional static resistance to system

Configuration

There are two main configurations of factory assembled cooling towers crossflow

and counterflow In crossflow cooling towers the water flows vertically down the

fill as air flows horizontally across In counterflow cooling towers the water flows

vertically down the fill as air flows vertically up

Crossflow Configuration Counterflow Configuration

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Drift mdash Water droplets that are carried out of the cooling tower with the exhaust

air Drift droplets have the same concentration of impurities as the water entering

the tower The drift rate is typically reduced by employing baffle-like devices

called drift eliminators through which the air must travel after leaving the fill and

spray zones of the tower

Blow-out mdash Water droplets blown out of the cooling tower by wind generally at

the air inlet openings Water may also be lost in the absence of wind through

splashing or misting Devices such as wind screens louvers splash deflectors

and water diverters are used to limit these losses

Blow-down mdash The portion of the circulating water flow that is removed (usually

discharged to a drain) in order to maintain the amount of Total Dissolved Solids

(TDS) and other impurities at an acceptably low level Higher TDS concentration

in solution may result from greater cooling tower efficiency However the higher

the TDS concentration the greater the risk of scale biological growth and

corrosion

Make-up mdash The water that must be added to the circulating water system in

order to compensate for water losses such as evaporation drift loss blow-out

blow-down etc

Approach mdash The approach is the difference in temperature between the cooled-

water temperature and the entering-air wet bulb temperature

Range mdash The range is the temperature difference between the warm water inlet

and cooled water exit

Fill mdash Inside the tower fills are added to increase contact surface as well as

contact time between air and water to provide better heat transfer The efficiency

of the tower depends on the selection and amount of fill

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There are two types of fills that may be used

o Film type fill (causes water to spread into a thin film)

o Splash type fill (breaks up falling stream of water and interrupts its

vertical progress)

Important

Scale build up is controlled by adding chemicals to the cooling loop and diluting

the concentration by blow down and make-up Following chemicals are added to

the Cooling to control CorrosionSale and microbial growth

Corrosion Inhibitor To control corrosion in the Cooling system

Dispersant To kept ions in suspension to avoid settle down and buildup

Sodium hypo Chlorite To Control microbial Growth

Acid To control Alkalinity in the system

High Stress Polymer To run the system at higher conductivity It is a

multifunctional polymer for Zinc amp Phosphate stabilization in cooling tower

Fin Fan Cooler

Fin fan heat exchanger is simply a pressure vessel which cools a circulating fluid

within finned tubes by forcing ambient air over the exterior of the tubes A

common example of an air cooler is a carrsquos radiator Fin Fan Coolers are used in

any application where large quantities of heat need to be transferred This

includes chemical and petrochemical industries power stations waste-to-energy

facilities as well as steelworks

Fin Fan Cooler are used for two primary reasons

They increase plant efficiency

They are a green solution as compared to cooling towers and shell and

tube heat exchangers because they do not require an auxiliary water

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supply (water lost due to drift and evaporation plus no water treatment

chemicals are required)

Figure General Overview of Fin Fan Cooler

Produced Water

The produced water system receives liquid from the equipment Miano slug

catcher train 1 and 2 inlet separators and is fed to three phase separator where

water oil and gas is separated The gases produced are burnt in incinerator

whereas hydrocarbon liquid is stored to be sold Liquid from compressors

recycle inlet separator recycle feed scrubber high and low pressure slug

catchers is passed to degasser Separated water is injected down the earth

Incinerator

The term incinerate means to burn something until nothing is left but ashes An

incinerator is a unit or facility used to burn trash and other types of waste until it is

reduced to ash An incinerator is constructed of heavy well-insulated materials

so that it does not give off extreme amounts of external heat The high levels of

heat are kept inside the furnace or unit so that the waste is burned quickly and

efficiently If the heat were allowed to escape the waste would not burn as

completely or as rapidly

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Control System

The plant is controlled at CCR (Central Control Room) by PLCs (Programmable

Logic Controllers) through fiber optic control line All control parameters are

received at LER (Local Equipment Room) via two optic fiber control lines One

being primary and other secondary operating in redundancy ie if primary fails

control shifts to secondary These control parameters are sent to CCR via single

optic fiber cable

Safety System

Wellheads and Gas Processing Plant have their own Fire amp Gas detection

systems emergency shutdown (ESD) Plant has a fault tolerant controller It is

based on Triple Modular Redundant (TMR) architecture manufactured by

Triconex The TMR system is based on three isolated parallel control systems

integrated into one system The system operates on a two out of three voting

principle which provides high integrity error free uninterrupted operation with no

single point of failure The TMR receives inputs from Process Sensors Manual

Switches Fire amp Gas Detectors Packaged Equipment Control Systems and

Product Exporting Facilities The TMR carries out cause and effect processing on

the data received and where necessary produces output signals Outputs from

the TMR are hard wired directly to ESD shutdown and blow down valve

solenoids motor control instrumentelectrical interfaces to control electrical

drives package equipment logic control systems manifold area as well as

telecoms

The operator in central control room is able to accept alarms and once the fault

has been cleared reset the input All the control systems are centralized to a

single interface All the PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers) communicate with

the servers and servers communicate with the clients through Ethernet connectivity

Centralization eases the navigation of different systems at a common interface

Emergency Shutdown

The ESD system receives inputs from field mounted instrumentation on the process

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and utility equipment and initiates executive actions appropriate to the level of ESD

The system is an Active system which is in standby and will activate when in an

alarm or fault condition The Kadanwari Gas Process Facility ESD system is

comprised of five (5) levels The emergency severity decreases with increasing ESD

level number

ESD 1

This shutdown level is automatically initiated by fire major gas leak or a detected

toxic atmosphere in the process area of the plant or manually from CCR A level 1

shutdown will cause all production to cease close all emergency shutdown

valves stop the process and shutdown of the main power generation The

emergency vent valves to the stack will open and in addition all equipment of zone 1

certified will be isolated This is the highest level of ESD and will cause the following

to occur

All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close All slowdown Valves (BDVs) on the process facility will open

All Main Gas Driven Generators will be tripped

Emergency Diesel Generator will start

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close Upper Master Valve

(UMV) Close

ESD 2

This shutdown level is activated automatically if a major process or utility failure

occurs or manually from CCR All production to the plant from the wellhead is

stopped All emergency shutdown valves trip to their fail safe position

Venting shall be as specified This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

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All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valve Close Wing Valves Close and Upper Master Valve(UMV) Close

ESD 3

The level 3 shutdown isolates and stops a single process train only Production

continues via the other train This ESD level is initiated by process conditions or

operator at local panel This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

ESD 3A Train 1 production to cease

ESD 3B Train 2 production to cease

All online wellhead choke valves go to minimum flow ie (1O )

ESD 4

A level 4 shutdown shall cease all production from an entire field either

Kadanwari or Miano upstream of the associated slug catchers ESD 4K for

Kadanwari amp ESD 4M for Miano This ESD level is initiated automatically by slug

catcher abnormal process conditions This level of ESD will cause the following

to occur

All SDVs close isolating the relevant slug catcher and its upstream gas

production facility from the Kadanwari Gas Processing Plant

All Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close and Upper MasterValves (UMV) of the relevant gas production facility Close

A parallel timer is provided to close within 10 second if not closed in given

time SSSV seals the well

ESD 5

A level 5 shutdown represents equipment shutdown for the protection of the

individual equipment without any change in the process This level of ESD is for the

protection of various pieces of equipment and is initiated by its own inputs eg

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Wellhead

A wellhead is the component at the surface of an oil or gas well that provides the

structural and pressure-containing interface for the drilling and production

equipment Its function is to maintain surface control of the well It forms a seal to

prevent well fluids from leaking or blowing at the surface They are rated for

working pressure of 2000 psi to 15000 psi (or greater)

When the well has been drilled and it is ready to provide an interface with the

reservoir rock and a tubular channel for the well fluids The surface pressure

control is provided by a Christmas tree which is installed on top of the wellhead

with valves and choke equipment to control the flow of well fluids during

production

Christmas tree

A Christmas tree is an assembly of valves spools and fittings used for an oil

well gas well water injection well gas injection well condensate well and other

types of wells

The primary function of a tree is to control the flow usually oil or gas out of the

well When the well and facilities are ready to produce and receive oil or gas tree

valves are opened and the formation fluids are allowed to go through a flow line

This leads to a processing facility A tree often provides numerous additional

functions including chemical injection points well intervention means pressure

relief means monitoring points (such as pressure temperature corrosion

erosion sand detection flow rate flow composition valve and choke position

feedback) and connection points for devices such as down hole pressure andtemperature transducers (DHPT) On producing wells chemicals or alcohols or

oil distillates may be injected to preclude production problems (such as

blockages)

The control system attached to the tree controls the down-hole safety valve

(SCSSV) while the tree acts as an attachment and means of the control system

to the down-hole safety valve

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Figure 1

Well Head and Christmas Tree

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Master Valves

The two lower valves are called the master valves Master valves are normally in

the fully open position and are never opened or closed when the well is flowing

(except in an emergency) to prevent erosion of the valve sealing surfaces They

are gate type valves

1 Lower Master Valve (LMV)

2 Upper Master Valve (UMV)

The lower master valve will normally be manually operated while the upper

master valve is often hydraulically actuated allowing it to be used as a means of

remotely shutting in the well in the event of emergency

Wing Valve

A wing valve is normally used to shut in the well when flowing thus preserving

the master valves for positive shut off for maintenance purposes The wing

valve can be a gate valve or ball valve Hydraulic operated wing valves are

usually built to be fail safe closed meaning they require active hydraulic pressure

to stay open This feature means that if control fluid fails the well will

automatically shut itself in without operator action

In Kadanwari well sites there is only one manually operated wing valve On the

other hand at Miano well sites there are two wing valves one being operated

manually and other hydraulically

Production Wing Valve

The right hand valve is often called the flow wing valve or the production wing

valve because it provides flow path for hydrocarbons to production facility

Kill wing valve

The left hand valve is often called the kill wing valve It is primarily used for

injection of fluids such as corrosion inhibitors or methanol to prevent hydrate

formation It is typically manually operated It can kill the well temporarily be

injection brine solution which provides a pressure head to well and temporarily

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suspends it for maintenance of well head Also it is used to permanently kill the

well A chemical is injected down the well that seals the piping down the well and

kills the well permanently

Swab valve

The swab valve is used to gain access to the well for wire line operations

intervention and other work over procedure On top of it is a tree adapter

and cap that will mate with various equipment For such operations a

lubricator is assembled up onto the top of the tree and the wire or coil is lowered

through the lubricator through swab valve and into the well This valve is typically

manually operated

Choke

A choke holds back pressure by restricting the flow opening at the well head This

is done to make better use of the gas for natural gas lift and to control the bottom-

hole pressure for recovery reasons

CHECK VALVE

The check is introduced in production flow line to prevent any reverse flow from

the line into the well It has a hinged flap which lifts to permit normal flow but

closes to prevent reverse flow

TOP ADAPTOR

The top adaptor is a fitting on top of the swab valve with a threaded connection

During normal well operations a pressure gauge is fitted to monitor flowing and

shut in wellhead pressures However during well service operations the cap can

be removed to allow installation of lubricators for wire-line operations

SCSSSV (Surface Control Sub Surface Safety Valve)

A subsurface safety valve is essentially a shutdown valve installed at the upper

wellbore for emergency shutdown to protect the production tubing and wellhead

in case of overpressure Subsurface safety valves can offer a barrier against flow

in the event of a wellhead collapse or other disastrous event Purpose of asubsurface safety valve (SSSV) is to avoid the ultimate disaster which can result

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in release of reservoir fluids to the surroundings This makes SSSV a very

important component of a well completion

A subsurface safety valve is typically a uni-directional flapper valve directed in

such a way that the flappers open downwards when pressure is applied from an

upward direction The flapper can only open in the downward direction So even if

high pressure is applied by the well fluids from a

downward direction a safety valve can remain

closed This makes a subsurface safety valve fail-

safe To open the valve hydraulic signal is sent from

the surface well control panel This hydraulic

pressure is responsible for keeping the flappers of

SSSV open and loss of hydraulic pressure result in

closing of the valve Thus wellbore can be isolated in

case of system failure or damage to the surface

facilities

Types of Christmas tree

There are two types of Christmas Tree

1 Solid block

2 Conventional

The solid block Christmas Tree has a central solid unit holding several valves

in a pre-constructed block Their advantage is the reduction in potential leak

paths and their higher pressure rating (Fig 2)

The conventional Christmas Tree is built up from individual valves bolted

together to form an assembly (Fig 3)

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Figure 2

Figure 3

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Wellhead Control Panel

Wellhead control panel is key equipment in oil amp gas industry to protect oilfield

facilities and environment from emergency incidents such as wellhead fire which

is one of main control systems to ensure oilfield oil production and transportation

to be safely operation according to international standards and national

regulation Wellhead control panel is composed of hydraulic power unit tubing amp

fitting and instrument valve and electrical control devices Hydraulic power unit

supply hydraulic resource to open and close safety valves including master

valves wing valves and SCSSSV

Its performs

Local OnOff SSV

Remote control SSV through RTU( remote terminal unit)

High-Low pressure sense shut-down automatically

Fusible Plug Anti-fire Shut-down automatically

Function of showing system pressure

Relief Valve shall be installed on each hydraulic circuit to prevent high

pressure

Function of showing hydraulic level and level switch for alarm

Function of defending pressure impact of system

Function of system pressure monitoring (by pressure transmitter of control

panel)

Function of remote emergency shut-down (by magnetic valve of control

panel)

Function of OnOff SSV monitoring (by pressure switch of control loop of

control panel)

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Chemical Injection

Chemical injection systems are commonly used in production facilities to prevent

or eliminate a wide range of problems that might negatively affect the production

flow It is done for flow assurance protection of process equipment such as

pipelines or to optimize processes in production facilities

Typical flow assurance chemicals are

Wax inhibitors

Pour point depressants

Asphaltene inhibitors

Corrosion inhibitors

A corrosion inhibitor is a chemical compound that is added to liquid or gas to

decreases the corrosion rate of a material typically a metal or an alloy The

effectiveness of a corrosion inhibitor depends on fluid composition quantity of

water and flow regime Its common mechanism involves formation of a coating

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which prevents access of the corrosive substance to the metal The corrosive

agents are generally oxygen hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide

At our production site the major risk is corrosion of piping and equipment The

maximum allowable corrosion rate is approximately 02 mm per year and

corrosion rate without inhibitor could be approximately 11 mm per year so the

corrosion protection program is designed to achieve a target corrosion rate of

less than 01 mm per year which is achieved by an inhibitor system efficiency of

99 Inhibitor is injected into the well stream flow through an atomizing nozzle

located downstream of the respective wellhead coolers at the duplexcarbon steel

interface In normal operation as per NALCO standards chemical (brand name

EC1144B) at rate of frac12 Liter per MMSCFD of gas is being injected into the flow

line of miano15 flow lines made of carbon steel Moreover the composition can

vary depending upon the composition of well fluids and material of pipeline This

method of injection ensures even distribution of the chemical on the interior

surface of the pipeline The individual well sites are equipped with Chemical

Injection Packages comprising of a stainless steel storage tank and two

pneumatic motor driven pumps in parallel Instrument gas is used to drive the

pumps Normally one pump is running with the other standby

Water Conning

Water coning is a term used to describe the mechanism underlying the upward

movement of water into the perforations of a producing well Coning can seriously

impact the well productivity and influence the degree of depletion and the overall

recovery efficiency of the reservoir The specific problems of water coning are

listed below

Costly added water handling

Gas production from the original or secondary gas cap reduces pressure

Reduced efficiency of the depletion mechanism

The water is often corrosive and its disposal costly

The affected well may be abandoned early

Loss of the total field overall recovery

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Therefore conning has an important influence on operations recovery and

economics The phenomena is shown in picture below

Corrosion

Corrosion is referred as chemical deterioration of a metal Commonly this

means loss of electrons of metals reacting with water and oxygen

Weakening of iron due to oxidation of the iron atoms is a well-known

example of electrochemical corrosion This is commonly known as

rust Most structural alloys corrode merely from exposure to moisture

in the air but the process can be strongly affected by exposure to

certain substances Corrosion can be concentrated locally to form a pit

or crack or it can extend across a wide area to produce general

deterioration (uniform corrosion)

The following reaction takes place at the active sites

2Fe =gt 2Fe++ + 4e-

The free electrons travel through the metal path to the less active sites where

the following reaction takes place

O2 + 4e- + 2H20 =gt 4 OH-

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Recombination of these ions at the active surface produce the following

reaction which yields the iron-corrosion product ferrous hydroxide

2Fe + O2 + 2H2O =gt 2Fe (OH) 2

CORROSION PROTECTION SYSTEM

Coatings and painting

Painting and the application of enamel bitumen and PVC

coating are the most common anti-corrosion treatments They

work by providing a barrier of corrosion-resistant material

between the damaging environment and the structural material

Corrosion Inhibitors

Corrosion inhibitor is injected into the flow lines as mentioned in

detail on page 8

Cathodic Protection

Cathodic Protection (CP) is a technique used to control the corrosion of a

metal surface by making it the cathode of an electrochemical cell It

converts all of the anodic (active) sites on the metal surface to cathodic

(passive) sites by supplying electrical current (or free electrons) from an

alternate source It is accomplished in two ways

a) A simple method of protection connects protected metal to a more easily

corroded sacrificial metal to act as the anode The sacrificial metal then

corrodes instead of the protected metal The process is similar to a simple

DC cell in which the more active metal becomes the anode and corrodes

whereas the less active metal becomes the cathode and is protected

b) For larger structures galvanic anodes cannot economically deliver enough

current to provide protection Therefore impressed current cathodic

protection (ICCP) systems are used These consist of anodes connected

to a DC power source In remote areas power sources such as solar

panels may be used The output DC negative terminal is connected to the

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frequently to limit liquid holdup and minimize the slug volumes of liquid which can

be generated by the system

Coating

Pigs may be used to apply internal pipe coatings such as epoxy coating

materials in operating pipelines Pigs may also be used with corrosion inhibitors

to distribute and coat the entire internal wetted perimeter

Inspection

Pigs are being used more frequently as inspection tools Gauging or sizing pigs

are typically run following the completion of new construction or line repair to

determine if there are any internal obstacles bends or buckles in the pipe Pigs

can also be equipped with cameras to allow viewing of the pipe internals

Electronic intelligent or smart ldquopigsrdquo that use magnetic and ultrasonic systems

have been developed and refined that locate and measure internal and external

corrosion pitting dents buckles and any other anomalies in the pipe wall

Intelligent pigs

The accuracy of location and measurement of anomalies by the intelligent pigs

has continued to improve Initially the electronics and power systems were so

large that intelligent pigs could be used only in lines 30 in and greater in size

The continued sophistication and miniaturization of the electronic systems used

in the intelligent pigs has allowed the development of smaller pigs that can be

used in small-diameter pipelines Newly enacted DOT pipeline-integrity

regulations and rules acknowledge the effectiveness of the intelligent pigs and

incorporate their use in the pipeline-integrity testing process

Compressors

A gas compressor is a mechanical device that increases the pressure of a gas by

reducing its volume Gas pressure is increased by forcing gas molecules together

to reduce gas volume When volume is reduced gas pressure increases

All gases have large spaces among their molecules These spaces could be

enhanced further and decreased by doing some work Work done which is used

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for the enhancement of these spaces is called expansion and work done to

minimize these spaces is called compression All gases while expansion

produces cooling effect and while compression of gases raises there

temperature Compression is a term used to force gases to occupy smaller

volumes by increasing their pressure Volume of gases is interlinked with

temperature and pressure of the gas which is cleared by 2 laws govern gas

compressions

Boyles Law

Charles Law

The main types of compressor are listed below

Front End Compressor

The plant currently processes gas from a number of wells The flow and pressure

from some of these wells (currently K-10 K-11 amp K-12) has declined and they

cannot be fed directly into the Central Processing Facility To recover the

maximum gas reserves from these wells a Front End Compressor is employed

The compressor is a two stage double acting gas engine driven reciprocating

(PT) compressor Double acting means that gas is compressed on each end of

the piston It normal operates with a speed range of 600 to 900 RPM and isequipped with four compressor cylinders two for each stage Each cylinder is

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also equipped with a variable volume head end pocket

In case of compressor emergency shutdown the production chokes and the

Upper Master Valves on the on line wells will close and operator will be notified in

central control room Sweet gas from gas distribution network is used to operate the

gas engine driver of the compressor package The detailed scheme of working is

shown in figure (page 22 )

PT Reciprocating Compressor

The mechanical cycle of piston tube reciprocating compressor comprises four

strokes the expansion stroke the intake stroke the compression stroke and the

discharge stroke

Expansion Stroke

As the piston moves back on the expansion stroke the chamber volume

increases and the pressure drop As the pressure drops the discharge valve

closes since there is greater pressure in the discharge line than in the chamber

Intake Stroke

As the piston moves back during the intake stroke the pressure decreases until it

is less than the pressure in the inlet line This higher intake pressure opens the

inlet valve and gas rushes into the cylinder equalizing the pressure there with

the intake pressure The compression chamber is now at or near the intake

pressure

Compression Stroke

The piston now starts the compression stroke by moving forward decreasing the

chamber volume and increasing the pressure The increased pressure is now

higher than the intake pressure causing the intake valve to close

Discharge Stroke

The piston continues to move to the left during the discharge stroke This creates

an increase in chamber pressure until it is greater than the discharge pressure

When this happens the Discharge valve opens and the compressed air from the

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cylinder goes into the discharge line The compression cycle is then repeated

from the stage

Compressor Capacity

The capacity of the compressor depends upon cylinder displacement That

displacement is simply the volume that the piston displaces (moves) as it travels

from one end of the cylinder to the other Capacity and displacement is equal to

the cross-sectional area of the cylinder times the length of the stroke

Lubrication and Cooling

Lubricating oil is circulated through the system by a gear pump which is chain

driven from the engine crank shaft The oil pump is mounted on the engine front

housing

The pump operates between 30 - 40 psig

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A circulating pump deliver cooling water to the water jackets in the cylinder block

flowing around the cylinder liners and is directed into the cylinder heads Each

cylinder head has water cooled exhaust elbows which outlet the water into the

water cooled exhausts From the end of engine the water flows to compressor

1st and 2nd stage cylinders and compressor lube oil cooler (LOwater heat

exchanger) The water from the compressor cylinder and lube oil cooler returns

to engine water cooled exhaust

Figure Flow diagram of Front End Compressor

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Centrifugal Compressor

Centrifugal compressors are machines in which velocity and pressure given to air

or gas in a radial direction by one or more impellers diffuser combination In a

centrifugal compressor the mechanical energy is increased by centrifugal action

The gas enters the suction eye of a high speed rotary element called the impeller

which carries radial vanes integrally cast in it As the impeller rotates the blades

of the impeller force the gas outward from the center the impeller to the outer rim

of impeller the increase in velocity of the gas creates a flow pressure area at the

eye of the impeller The gas at the outer rim of the impeller is forced in to a

passage way called a diffuser where the velocity decreases in the pressure of the

gas

Inlet

The inlet to a centrifugal compressor is typically a simple pipe It may include

features such as a valve and both pressure and temperature instrumentation

Centrifugal impeller

The key component that makes a compressor centrifugal is the centrifugal

impeller shown above It is the impellers rotating set of vanes (or blades) that

gradually raises the energy of the working gas This is identical to an axial

compressor with the exception that the gases can reach higher velocities and

energy levels through the impellers increasing radius

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Diffuser

The next key component to the simple centrifugal compressor is the diffuser

Downstream of the impeller in the flow path it is the diffusers responsibility to

convert the kinetic energy (high velocity) of the gas into pressure by gradually

slowing (diffusing) the gas velocity

SEPERATORS

A well-stream is a mixture of gases hydrocarbon liquids water solids and

contaminants Due to variations in pressure and temperature gases evolve from

the liquids water vapor condenses and some of the well-stream changes to liquid

and free gas The separation of well-stream fluids takes place in a separator This

pressure vessel is manufactured in three forms

1 horizontal

2 vertical

3 spherical

To help separation the vessel is normally designed with a series of internal

fittings These fittings are built into the separator to ensure total phase separation

of the well-stream

In gas plants separators are given alternative names due to the function they

perform in the process system A scrubber does a similar job to a knockout drum

However the scrubber usually separates a stream containing high gas-to-liquid

ratios The knockout drum is used where a high degree of liquids are entrained in

the gas

Fluid flow from a well can include gas condensable liquid vapors water water

vapor crude oil and solids As well-stream fluids reach ground level where

pressure is lower than in the reservoir the capacity of the liquid to hold gas in

solution decreases and gas separates out of the oil

Separation depends upon the effect of gravity to separate liquids For adequate

separation one fluid must be lighter than the other fluid For example distillates

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(gasoline kerosene etc) and crude oil will not separate in a vessel because they

tend to dissolve in each other Because a separator basically depends upon

gravity to separate the fluids the ease with which separation takes place

depends upon the difference in density of the fluids

Droplets of liquid will separate from gas provided

a) The gas remains in the separator long enough

b) The gas flow remains constant to provoke separation

The difference in density between a gas and liquid will therefore determine the

maximum flow rate of liquid in the vessel

Figure Two phase horizontal separator

Gas bubbles in the liquid will break out in some oil field applications in 30 to 60

seconds Consequently the separator is designed so that the liquid remains in

the vessel for 30 to 60 seconds The length of time that a liquid remains in the

vessel is called its residence time Residence time differs widely from field to field

depending upon viscosity and API Gravity

Another important factor which must be considered is temperature Generally a

decrease in operating temperature will increase the liquid recovery in a separator

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as the gas condenses By reducing the pressure on the fluid flash separation

occurs resulting in a flow through the separator which is controlled by external

instrumentation

COALESCENCE

Another important principle in fluid separation is that of coalescence This means

the coming together of liquid droplets created by the force of gravity

A common example of coalescing occurs when drops of water form on the

windshield of a car as it is driven in fog As the tiny drops or water which make up

the fog strike the windshield they combine and eventually form a drop large

enough to run down the glass

Several of the internal devices of a separator such as deflector plates

straightening vanes and even the vessel walls are forms of coalescers In each

vessel drops of liquid adhere to the surface of the device and combine with other

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drops until the drop is large enough to fall out The effectiveness of separation

will also depend upon the total amount of coalescing surface area that is present

There are many different types of separators used in the Oil amp Gas industry

Consequently separators are manufactured with one two or several internal

fittings depending on their use and quick removal of these fluids from the vessel

DEFLECTOR PLATES

These are fitted in front of the inlet to the separator and can be net or

dish-shaped Their purpose is to absorb the impact of the incoming fluids and to

encourage the separation of gas and liquids They also slow the flow rate of the

liquids through the vessel

WEIRS

A weir is a metal wall which is fitted across the inside of the vessel normally to a

height of 50 of the overall height of the separator Its purpose is to assist the

process of three phase separation The inlet fluids (oil plus water) are given time

to separate in the liquid accumulation section The water level (interface) is

normally controlled at 50 of the height of the weir Oil floating on the wateroverflows the weir and accumulates in the small oil compartment where it is

drawn off under level control

CENTRIFUGAL DEVICES

These are used in both vertical and horizontal separators for gas-liquid

separation The device imparts a swirling motion to the fluids entering the vessel

Centrifugal force causes the heavier liquids to travel outwards towards the walls

of the vessel and the lighter gases to flow up the centre Centrifugal devices are

also known as cyclones

VORTEX BREAKERS

When liquid flows through a drain outlet a vortex (whirlpool) will form This can

be seen when we pull the plug from a sink or bath tub The same would happen

as water and oil flow from the separator This condition a vortex could allow gas

to flow down the centre of the whirlpool and enter the liquid phase causing

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pressurizing of tanks etc To stop this happening vortex breakers are fitted to all

liquid outlets Although they come in a number of different designs vortex

breakers all serve the same purpose - to prevent a whirlpool from forming

MIST OR DEMISTER PADS

The gas which is released from the fluids in the separator still contains droplets of

oil and water which coalesce and fall when the drops get large enough The

demister pad assists in this process Made from knitted wire and contained within

a sturdy frame it causes the gas to continually change its direction of flow

Because gas changes direction far easier than liquid the gas will flow around

each strand of wire whilst the liquid entrained in the gas stream will continue and

stick to the wire

COALESCING PLATES

There are several different forms of coalescing devices the most common of

which are coalescing plates These plates are mounted in the flow stream of the

fluids and assist in breaking down oil-water emulsions The fluid is forced to

follow a path that constantly changes direction This causes the water droplets to

gather together or coalesce and fall to the bottom of the separator The same

principle is used to separate gas and oil mixtures when the oil droplets are

induced to coalesce Simply stated every surface within the separator including

the separator walls assists with the coalescing process

STRAIGHTENlNG VANES

These are often fitted to horizontal separators to remove turbulence in the gas

stream after initial separation at the inlet deflector

FLOAT SHEILD

Internal floats are used as level controllers Any agitation of the liquid surface or

the effect of coalesced liquids falling on the float may cause control problems

Therefore a float shield is fitted to enclose the float creating an area of still liquid

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MEMBRANES

The gas contains 12 carbon dioxide and 22 ppm of hydrogen sulphide at 115oF

and 1100 psig This needs to be removed before the gas can be exported The

majority of carbon dioxide hydrogen sulphide and water is removed by means of

membranes

Membranes are thin semipermeable barriers that selectively separate some

compounds from others Currently the only commercially workable membranes

used for CO2 removal are polymer based for example cellulose acetate

polyimides polyamides polysulfone polycarbonates and polyetherimide The

membrane does not operate as a filter where small molecules are separated

from larger ones through a medium with pores rather it separates based on how

well different compounds dissolve into the membrane and diffuse through it The

membranes are manufactured in flat sheets consisting of an extremely thin

nonporous layer mounted on a much-thicker and highly porous layer of the same

material providing mechanical strength The flat sheets are combined into a

spiral-wound element (Figure below) Feed gas enters along the side of the

membrane and passes through the feed spacers As the gas travels between

membrane sheets CO2 H2S and H2O permeate through the membrane and are

collected in the permeate tube The driving force for transport is the high-feed

pressure and low-permeate pressures The gas on the feed side that does not

permeate leaves through the side of the element opposite the feed position Once

the membranes have been manufactured into elements six to 12 elements are

joined together and inserted into a tube Multiple tubes are mounted on skids in a

horizontal orientation

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Figure Membrane general Working

In high H2S applications most polymers have been shown to have very little

resistance to H2S plasticization (ldquosofteningrdquo of the membrane) and as a

consequence can only be used at very low H2S partial pressure limits Cellulose

acetate membranes in contrast have been shown to be applicable at extreme

H2S partial pressure conditions It is these membranes that have been utilized in

the testing to determine the limits of membrane performance in high H 2S

applications

The primary membranes used in Kadanwari facility are Cellulose acetate

Cellulose acetic acid and acetic anhydride are mixed together and reacted to

form cellulose acetate polymers This process is aided by the addition of a small

amount of sulfuric acid which is subsequently neutralized during processing

However the membranes are bought from UOP (vendor) and installed for use

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How membrane work

The basic principle of separation is selectivity of certain components of a mixture

for the membrane For example the cellulose acetate membrane has very high

selectivity for CO2 and H2S as compared to CH4 Therefore such type of

membrane can be used in gas sweetening process

The selectivity is directly related to the Permeability of gas which accounts that

which gas can pass across the membrane more easily In simple words

membranes being polymer materials are made of long chains of molecules The

different structure of polymer materials only allow selective molecules to pass

through them depending upon chemical and physical compatibility Thus

permeability depends upon choice of polymer

The permeability is determined by permeability coefficient (P) and is product of

solubility (S) and diffusivity (D)

P = S D

Solubility

The solubility is mainly determined by ease of condensation Heavy molecules

are more readily condensed Therefore higher molecular weighted molecules will

more easily condensed and therefore have greater solubility

Molecule Molecular weight

CH4 16

H2S 34

CO2 44

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Diffusivity

Diffusivity is ease of molecule to penetrate into some material It depends on size

of gas molecule Here size of molecule is not to be confused by molecular weight

it is the size of the structure Eg the size of O2 molecule is smaller than N2

Molecule Molecular Diameter (Ao)

CO2 33

H2S 36

Ch4 40

For cellulose acetate

DCO2DCH4 S CO2S CH4 P CO2P CH4

45 73 308

Chemical degradation

Cellulose acetate polymer is chemically degraded by a process called hydrolysis

which means breaking apart by the addition of water This is a chemical reaction

in which water is added to the cellulose acetate polymer causing the release of

acetic acid molecules This process proceeds stepwise until all the acetate

groups are released resulting in the reformation of cellulose Moreover alcohols

aromatic hydrocarbons or solvents with chlorine nitro benzene or similar

aromatic solvents will harm the membrane It will expand and lose plastification in

contact with them

Effect of Temperature

The permeation rates of all gases increases with increasing temperature

however membrane selectivity for CO2 over hydrocarbon decreases at higher

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temperature Consequently CO2 removal will improve as operating temperature

increases but hydro carbon recovery will decrease

Primary Membrane

The primary membranes comprise of two trains Each train consists of two

sections AB and CD each section consists of a 30 tube membrane skid (A and

C) followed by a 25 tube skid (B and D) The conditioned gas (after pre-

treatment) enters the primary membrane via the particulate filter adjacent to the

skid The gas is fed to the membranes through a common inlet manifold which

supplies primary membranes skids A and C A pressure control loop located

upstream of the manual inlet isolation valve is provided to maintain a constant

supply pressure to the membrane skid and to allow for preheating at the inlet

prior to skid start-up This pressure control loop can also be used during start-up

to control the pressurization of the pretreatment skid and associated pipes to the

primary membranes

The gas passes through membrane skid A the residual gas exiting the membrane

skid is sent to skid B and the permeate to common permeate discharge header An

identical arrangement is provide on the inlet to skid C as provided on skid A Theresidual gas from skid B combines with the residual gas from skid D in a common

discharge header and is then sent to the H2S polishing towers via the feed coolers

on the pre-treatment skid The permeate from skid B is sent to the common

permeate discharge header The permeate discharge header sends the gas to

either the recycle compressor or the vent header via a pressure control loop

Overpressure protection for the membranes is provided by a pressure safety valve

on the supply header to the membrane banks

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Secondary (Recycle) Membrane

The recycle membranes comprise of a single train with two skids each with four

banks of membrane tubes The conditioned gas from the discharge of the recycle

pre-treatment skid is routed to the first recycle membrane skid The gas passes

through the membranes the residual gas is fed to primary membrane (skid A) inlet

via feed gas cooler and permeate to the common permeate discharge header An

identical arrangement is provide on the inlet to skid B Permeate from the recycle

membrane skids A and B is routed to the vent header Some portion of permeate is

heated and sent for regeneration in Mem-Guard units Nitrogen purge can be

connected downstream of the inlet isolation valve on each skid to enable the

membrane tubes to be purged and left pressurized during prolonged shutdown

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Figure Flow Diagram of Recycle membrane unit

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ADVANTAGES OF MEMBRANE SYSTEMS

Membrane systems have major advantages over more-traditional methods of

acid gas removal

Lower capital cost Membrane systems are skid mounted and so the

scope cost and time taken for site preparation are minimal Installation

costs are significantly lower than alternative technologies especially for

remote areas Furthermore no additional facilities for solvent storage and

water treatment needed by other processes are required

Lower operating costs The only major operating cost for single-stage

membrane systems is membrane replacement This cost is significantly

lower than the solvent replacement and energy costs associated with

traditional technologies The improvements in membrane and

pretreatment design allow a longer useful membrane life which further

reduces operating costs The energy costs of multistage systems with

large recycle compressors are usually comparable to those for traditionaltechnologies

Deferred capital investment Often contracted sales-gas flow rates

increase over time as more wells are brought on-line With traditional

technologies the system design needs to take this later production into

account immediately and so the majority of the equipment is installed

before it is even needed The modular nature of membrane systems

means that only the membranes that are needed at start-up need be

installed The rest can be added either into existing tubes or in new skids

only when they are required

Operational simplicity and high reliability Because single-stage

membrane systems have no moving parts they have almost no

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unscheduled downtime and are extremely simple to operate They can

operate unattended for long periods of time The addition of a recycle

compressor adds some complexity to the system but still much less than

with a solvent- or adsorbent-based technology Multistage systems can be

operated at full capacity as single-stage systems when the recycle

compressor is down

Good weight and space efficiency Skid construction can be optimized

to the space available This space efficiency is especially important for

offshore environments where deck area is at a premium and is the

reason why so many new offshore developments have chosen to use

membranes for acid gas removal Figure 6 illustrates the space efficiency

of membrane systems The membrane unit in the lower left corner

replaced all the amine and glycol plant equipment shown in the rest of the

picture

Adaptability Because membrane area is dictated by the percentage of

acid gas removal rather than absolute acid gas removal small variations

in feed acid gas content hardly change the sales-gas acid gas

specification For example a system designed for 10 down to 3 acid

gas removal produces a 35 product from a 12 feed gas and a 5

product from a 15 feed gas

Design efficiency The membrane and pretreatment systems integrate a

number of operations such as dehydration CO2 and H2S removal dew-

point control and mercury removal Traditional acid gas removal

technologies require all of these operations as separate processes and

may also require additional dehydration because some technologies

saturate the product stream with water

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Power generation The permeate gas from membrane systems can be

used to provide fuel gas for power generation either for a recycle

compressor or other equipment

Ideal for debottlenecking Because expanding solvent- or adsorbent-

based acid gas removal plants without adding additional trains is difficult

an ideal solution is to use membranes for bulk acid gas removal and leave

the existing plant for final cleanup An additional advantage is that the

permeate gas from the membrane system can often be used as fuel for

the existing plant thus avoiding significant increase in hydrocarbon

losses

Environmentally friendly Membrane systems do not involve the

periodic removal and handling of spent solvents or adsorbents Permeate

gases can be flared used as fuel or re-injected into the well Items thatdo need disposal such as spent membrane elements can be incinerated

Ideal for remote locations Many of the factors mentioned above make

membrane systems a highly desirable technology for remote locations

where spare parts are rare and labor unskilled Furthermore solvents

storage and trucking water supply power generation or extensive

infrastructure are not required

Re-injection optimizations Since the permeate stream from the

membrane system can be operated at elevated pressures it is possible to

further pressurize by re-injection compression train

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Sorption

Sorption is a physical and chemical process by which one substance becomes

attached to another

It is of two main types

1 Absorption

2 Adsorption

Absorption

Absorption is a physical or chemical phenomenon or process in which atoms

molecules or ions enter some bulk phase ndash gas liquid or solid material This is a

different process from adsorption since molecules undergoing absorption are

taken up by the volume not by the surface (as in the case for adsorption)

Absorption process may be chemical (reactive) or physical (non-reactive)

Physical absorption

Physical absorption or non-reactive absorption is made between two phases ofmatter a liquid absorbs a gas or a solid absorbs a liquid

When a liquid solvent absorbs a gas mixture or part of it a mass of gas moves

into the liquid For example water may absorb oxygen from the air This mass

transfer takes place at the interface between the liquid and the gas at a rate

depending on both the gas and the liquid This type of absorption depends on the

solubility of gases the pressure and the temperature The rate and amount of

absorption also depend on the surface area of the interface and its duration in

time

When a solid absorbs a liquid mixture or part of it a mass of liquid moves into the

solid For example a clay pot used to store water may absorb some of the water

This mass transfer takes place at the interface between the solid and the liquid

at a rate depending on both the solid and the liquid

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Chemical absorption

Chemical absorption or reactive absorption is a chemical reaction between the

absorbed and the absorbing substances Sometimes it combines with physical

absorption This type of absorption depends upon the stoichiometry of the

reaction and the concentration of its reactants

Adsorption

Adsorption is the adhesion of atoms ions or molecules from a gas liquid or

dissolved solid to a surface This process creates a film of the adsorbate on the

surface of the adsorbent The binding to the surface is usually weak and

reversible Compounds with color and those that have taste or odor tend to bind

strongly Compounds that vibrate at frequencies in the visible spectrum are very

often are strongly adsorbed on activated carbon

The most common industrial adsorbents are activated carbon silica gel and

alumina because they present enormous surface areas per unit weight

Depending on the nature of attractive forces existing between the adsorbate and

adsorbent adsorption can be classified as

i) Physical adsorption

ii) Chemical adsorption

i) Physical adsorption (Physisorption)

In physical adsorption the forces of attraction between the molecules of the

adsorbate and the adsorbent are of the weak van der Waals type Since the

forces of attraction are weak the process of physisorption can be easily reversed

by heating or decreasing the pressure of the adsorbate (as in the case of gases)

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ii) Chemical adsorption (Chemisorption)

In chemisorption the forces of attraction between the adsorbate and the

adsorbent are very strong the molecules of adsorbate form chemical bonds with

the molecules of the adsorbent present in the surface

Adsorption is generally accompanied by release of energy that is most

adsorption processes are exothermic in nature Adsorption is a spontaneous

process therefore its free energy change is negative (∆Glt0) However the

entropy change associated with adsorption is generally negative because the

adsorbate molecules lose their translation freedom when they get attached to the

surface of the adsorbent Therefore in order for ∆G to be negative the enthalpy

change (∆H) must be sufficiently negative such that (∆G=∆H-T∆S) lt 0 This

explanation accounts for exothermic adsorption processes In cases where

endothermic adsorption occurs the entropy change ∆S is sufficiently positive

such that ∆G remains negative

Pre treatment

The main function of pretreatment skid is to provide membrane inlet specification

gas as mentioned by the vendor UOP It removes the contaminants that would

poison the membranes like dust solids (adsorbent particles) lube oil heavy

hydrocarbons etc It consists of

Feed Cooler

Feed Gas Scrubber

Filter Coalescer

Feed Gas Heater

Activated Carbon Guard Filter

Particle Filter

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The regeneration is carried out by heated permeate gas from the recycle

membranes at 450oF The vessel is depressurized to 20 psi and heated gas is

introduced from top The gas carries out the adsorbed contaminants and leaves

the vessel from bottom cleaning the adsorbent This contaminated gas is burnt in

the flare

UOP the vendor of Memguard unit has never disclosed that what substance

MG3 and MG5 exactly are But as mentioned by vendor that both care class of

aluminosilicates Therefore MG3 can be potassium aluminosilicate and MG5 can

be Calcium aluminosilicate These are molecular sieves adsorbents Molecular

sieves are a microporous material which can selectively adsorb gases andliquids They are synthetic zeolites (crystalline metal aluminosilicates) which

upon dehydration can efficiently and selectively remove water or other

solvents The selectivity of a molecular sieve is determined by its pore size

molecules with a critical diameter which is less than the pore size will be

efficiently adsorbed while larger molecules will be excluded

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3A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

The 3A molecular sieve adsorbent has a 3 angstrom (3A) pore size which means

that any molecule that is larger than the 3 angstrom pores will not be adsorbed

The 3A molecular sieve is the potassium type of A crystalline structure and is a

form of alkali Aluminosilicate For a 3A molecular sieve the sequence rate that

adsorption occurs is He Ne N and H2O

Due to the crystalline structure molecular sieves that have a 3 angstrom pore

size have a very high rate of adsorption and properties that promote a longer life

for products treated by the sieve The most common use for the 3A molecular

sieve is to remove water and moisture from materials that are in gas and liquid

form

5A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

These are molecular sieve adsorbents with a pore size of 5 angstrom (5A) 5A

molecular sieves are unable to adsorb any molecules or impurities that are

smaller than 5A It is calcium form of type A crystalline structure and is form of analkali-aluminosilicate that is most commonly used to separate isomerous alkanes

from normal alkanes and to co-adsorb moisture and water along with carbon

dioxide from gases In additional 5A molecular sieves are used for gaseous

pressure swing adsorption (PSA)mdashthat is to separate particular gases from other

gases

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of C3H8 to C22H46

Adsorption of Freon-12 (dichlorodifluoromethane)

Natural gas drying

Normal- and iso-paraffin separation

Separation of aromatic

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Inlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1096

MEHTANE 8593

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008

N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGEN 076

WATER 007

Outlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1098

MEHTANE 8608

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGENT 076

WATER 000

H2S polisher

The H2S polishing unit has been designed to treat 187 MMscfday of natural gas

containing up to 11 CO2 and 21 ppm H2S where the level of the CO2 and H2S

is reduced using a MemGuard Membrane separation unit The unit is situated

down-stream of the membrane unit and will further reduce the level of H2S in the

processed gas to a sales gas specification of 38 ppm

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This process uses three non-regenerable fixed bed absorber vessels using a low

temperature high activity absorbent The absorbent is a mixture of activated

metal oxides (mainly zinc oxide) The three towers can are generally operated in

parallel arrangement but on demand can be used in series (any of alternate

arrangements of A B C vessels) as shown in figure

The higher sales gas flow rate increased the catalyst consumption and

replacement frequency

ZnO + H2S =gt ZnS + H20

Routine samples are taken from the beds to provide a check on each bed

performance and to follow the saturation profile during the absorbent life After

the adsorbent has been fully utilized the adsorption vessels are recharged with

new adsorbent discarding the utilized one in a safe manner

109oF

1215 psig

Before H2S Polishing After H2S Polishing

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Figure

H2S Tower

Inlet pipe

4 Drums of 19mm

ceramic Balls

6 Micron mesh

5 Drums of 50mmceramic

1 Drums of19mm ceramic

01 Drums of6mm ceramic

112 drums of

Catalist ZnO

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Recycle Compressor

The permeate gas of the primary membrane unit carries recoverable amount of

CH4 It is fed to recycle membrane unit for further CH 4 recovery But the

permeate pressure from primary membranes which has been reduced to 12 psi

must be regenerated to 1200 psi for the gas to be fed again to the system For

this purpose we have employed recycle compressor The compressor is a four

stage centrifugal compressor It is driven by gas turbine of 31200 HP It has 25

MW producing capacity

Figure Recycle Compressor Process Flow Diagram

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Sales Gas Compressor

Gas from H2S polishing unit is sent to sales gas compressor where its pressure

is enhanced to 1100 psi so it may be injected to SNGPL high pressure trunk line

Sales gas compressor is single stage gas turbine driven

Figure Process Flow of Sales Gas Compressor

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Cooling Towers

A cooling tower is a heat rejection device which extracts waste heat to theatmosphere through the cooling of a water stream to a lower temperature Hot

water from the system enters the cooling tower and is distributed over the fill

(heat transfer surface) Air is induced or forced through the fill causing a small

portion of the water to evaporate This evaporation removes heat from the

remaining water which is collected in the cold water basin and returned to the

system to absorb more heat Each cooling tower line although operating under

the same basic principle of operation is arranged a little differently

Types

Natural draft mdash Utilizes buoyancy via a tall chimney Warm moist air naturally

rises due to the density differential compared to the dry cooler outside air Warm

moist air is less dense than drier air at the same pressure This moist air

buoyancy produces an upwards current of air through the tower

Mechanical draft mdash Uses power-driven fan motors to force or draw airthrough the tower

o Induced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a fan at the

discharge (at the top) which pulls air up through the tower The fan

induces hot moist air out the discharge This produces low entering

and high exiting air velocities reducing the possibility of

recirculation in which discharged air flows back into the air intake

o Forced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a blower type fan at

the intake The fan forces air into the tower creating high entering

and low exiting air velocities The low exiting velocity is much more

susceptible to recirculation This fanfill geometry is also known as

blow-through

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Forced Draft Cooling Tower Vs Induced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower have the ability to handle large water flow

rate than Forced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower is suitable for large cell sizes and fan sizes

as compared with Forced Draft Larger fan size may result in greater

efficiency and consequently lower power and sound level

Forced Draft Cooling Tower can be square or rectangular type only

however Induced Draft Cooling Towers can be round square or

rectangular type

Induced Draft Cooling Tower uses more compact ground area than Forced

Draft Cooling Tower equivalent capacity due to absence of fan on one

side

Fan equipment is warm exhaust air is less liable to icing up in winter

operation (Cold Countries)

Higher velocity in Forced Draft Cooling Tower cause drop in suspension

and cause additional static resistance to system

Configuration

There are two main configurations of factory assembled cooling towers crossflow

and counterflow In crossflow cooling towers the water flows vertically down the

fill as air flows horizontally across In counterflow cooling towers the water flows

vertically down the fill as air flows vertically up

Crossflow Configuration Counterflow Configuration

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Drift mdash Water droplets that are carried out of the cooling tower with the exhaust

air Drift droplets have the same concentration of impurities as the water entering

the tower The drift rate is typically reduced by employing baffle-like devices

called drift eliminators through which the air must travel after leaving the fill and

spray zones of the tower

Blow-out mdash Water droplets blown out of the cooling tower by wind generally at

the air inlet openings Water may also be lost in the absence of wind through

splashing or misting Devices such as wind screens louvers splash deflectors

and water diverters are used to limit these losses

Blow-down mdash The portion of the circulating water flow that is removed (usually

discharged to a drain) in order to maintain the amount of Total Dissolved Solids

(TDS) and other impurities at an acceptably low level Higher TDS concentration

in solution may result from greater cooling tower efficiency However the higher

the TDS concentration the greater the risk of scale biological growth and

corrosion

Make-up mdash The water that must be added to the circulating water system in

order to compensate for water losses such as evaporation drift loss blow-out

blow-down etc

Approach mdash The approach is the difference in temperature between the cooled-

water temperature and the entering-air wet bulb temperature

Range mdash The range is the temperature difference between the warm water inlet

and cooled water exit

Fill mdash Inside the tower fills are added to increase contact surface as well as

contact time between air and water to provide better heat transfer The efficiency

of the tower depends on the selection and amount of fill

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There are two types of fills that may be used

o Film type fill (causes water to spread into a thin film)

o Splash type fill (breaks up falling stream of water and interrupts its

vertical progress)

Important

Scale build up is controlled by adding chemicals to the cooling loop and diluting

the concentration by blow down and make-up Following chemicals are added to

the Cooling to control CorrosionSale and microbial growth

Corrosion Inhibitor To control corrosion in the Cooling system

Dispersant To kept ions in suspension to avoid settle down and buildup

Sodium hypo Chlorite To Control microbial Growth

Acid To control Alkalinity in the system

High Stress Polymer To run the system at higher conductivity It is a

multifunctional polymer for Zinc amp Phosphate stabilization in cooling tower

Fin Fan Cooler

Fin fan heat exchanger is simply a pressure vessel which cools a circulating fluid

within finned tubes by forcing ambient air over the exterior of the tubes A

common example of an air cooler is a carrsquos radiator Fin Fan Coolers are used in

any application where large quantities of heat need to be transferred This

includes chemical and petrochemical industries power stations waste-to-energy

facilities as well as steelworks

Fin Fan Cooler are used for two primary reasons

They increase plant efficiency

They are a green solution as compared to cooling towers and shell and

tube heat exchangers because they do not require an auxiliary water

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supply (water lost due to drift and evaporation plus no water treatment

chemicals are required)

Figure General Overview of Fin Fan Cooler

Produced Water

The produced water system receives liquid from the equipment Miano slug

catcher train 1 and 2 inlet separators and is fed to three phase separator where

water oil and gas is separated The gases produced are burnt in incinerator

whereas hydrocarbon liquid is stored to be sold Liquid from compressors

recycle inlet separator recycle feed scrubber high and low pressure slug

catchers is passed to degasser Separated water is injected down the earth

Incinerator

The term incinerate means to burn something until nothing is left but ashes An

incinerator is a unit or facility used to burn trash and other types of waste until it is

reduced to ash An incinerator is constructed of heavy well-insulated materials

so that it does not give off extreme amounts of external heat The high levels of

heat are kept inside the furnace or unit so that the waste is burned quickly and

efficiently If the heat were allowed to escape the waste would not burn as

completely or as rapidly

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Control System

The plant is controlled at CCR (Central Control Room) by PLCs (Programmable

Logic Controllers) through fiber optic control line All control parameters are

received at LER (Local Equipment Room) via two optic fiber control lines One

being primary and other secondary operating in redundancy ie if primary fails

control shifts to secondary These control parameters are sent to CCR via single

optic fiber cable

Safety System

Wellheads and Gas Processing Plant have their own Fire amp Gas detection

systems emergency shutdown (ESD) Plant has a fault tolerant controller It is

based on Triple Modular Redundant (TMR) architecture manufactured by

Triconex The TMR system is based on three isolated parallel control systems

integrated into one system The system operates on a two out of three voting

principle which provides high integrity error free uninterrupted operation with no

single point of failure The TMR receives inputs from Process Sensors Manual

Switches Fire amp Gas Detectors Packaged Equipment Control Systems and

Product Exporting Facilities The TMR carries out cause and effect processing on

the data received and where necessary produces output signals Outputs from

the TMR are hard wired directly to ESD shutdown and blow down valve

solenoids motor control instrumentelectrical interfaces to control electrical

drives package equipment logic control systems manifold area as well as

telecoms

The operator in central control room is able to accept alarms and once the fault

has been cleared reset the input All the control systems are centralized to a

single interface All the PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers) communicate with

the servers and servers communicate with the clients through Ethernet connectivity

Centralization eases the navigation of different systems at a common interface

Emergency Shutdown

The ESD system receives inputs from field mounted instrumentation on the process

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and utility equipment and initiates executive actions appropriate to the level of ESD

The system is an Active system which is in standby and will activate when in an

alarm or fault condition The Kadanwari Gas Process Facility ESD system is

comprised of five (5) levels The emergency severity decreases with increasing ESD

level number

ESD 1

This shutdown level is automatically initiated by fire major gas leak or a detected

toxic atmosphere in the process area of the plant or manually from CCR A level 1

shutdown will cause all production to cease close all emergency shutdown

valves stop the process and shutdown of the main power generation The

emergency vent valves to the stack will open and in addition all equipment of zone 1

certified will be isolated This is the highest level of ESD and will cause the following

to occur

All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close All slowdown Valves (BDVs) on the process facility will open

All Main Gas Driven Generators will be tripped

Emergency Diesel Generator will start

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close Upper Master Valve

(UMV) Close

ESD 2

This shutdown level is activated automatically if a major process or utility failure

occurs or manually from CCR All production to the plant from the wellhead is

stopped All emergency shutdown valves trip to their fail safe position

Venting shall be as specified This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

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All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valve Close Wing Valves Close and Upper Master Valve(UMV) Close

ESD 3

The level 3 shutdown isolates and stops a single process train only Production

continues via the other train This ESD level is initiated by process conditions or

operator at local panel This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

ESD 3A Train 1 production to cease

ESD 3B Train 2 production to cease

All online wellhead choke valves go to minimum flow ie (1O )

ESD 4

A level 4 shutdown shall cease all production from an entire field either

Kadanwari or Miano upstream of the associated slug catchers ESD 4K for

Kadanwari amp ESD 4M for Miano This ESD level is initiated automatically by slug

catcher abnormal process conditions This level of ESD will cause the following

to occur

All SDVs close isolating the relevant slug catcher and its upstream gas

production facility from the Kadanwari Gas Processing Plant

All Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close and Upper MasterValves (UMV) of the relevant gas production facility Close

A parallel timer is provided to close within 10 second if not closed in given

time SSSV seals the well

ESD 5

A level 5 shutdown represents equipment shutdown for the protection of the

individual equipment without any change in the process This level of ESD is for the

protection of various pieces of equipment and is initiated by its own inputs eg

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Figure 1

Well Head and Christmas Tree

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Master Valves

The two lower valves are called the master valves Master valves are normally in

the fully open position and are never opened or closed when the well is flowing

(except in an emergency) to prevent erosion of the valve sealing surfaces They

are gate type valves

1 Lower Master Valve (LMV)

2 Upper Master Valve (UMV)

The lower master valve will normally be manually operated while the upper

master valve is often hydraulically actuated allowing it to be used as a means of

remotely shutting in the well in the event of emergency

Wing Valve

A wing valve is normally used to shut in the well when flowing thus preserving

the master valves for positive shut off for maintenance purposes The wing

valve can be a gate valve or ball valve Hydraulic operated wing valves are

usually built to be fail safe closed meaning they require active hydraulic pressure

to stay open This feature means that if control fluid fails the well will

automatically shut itself in without operator action

In Kadanwari well sites there is only one manually operated wing valve On the

other hand at Miano well sites there are two wing valves one being operated

manually and other hydraulically

Production Wing Valve

The right hand valve is often called the flow wing valve or the production wing

valve because it provides flow path for hydrocarbons to production facility

Kill wing valve

The left hand valve is often called the kill wing valve It is primarily used for

injection of fluids such as corrosion inhibitors or methanol to prevent hydrate

formation It is typically manually operated It can kill the well temporarily be

injection brine solution which provides a pressure head to well and temporarily

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suspends it for maintenance of well head Also it is used to permanently kill the

well A chemical is injected down the well that seals the piping down the well and

kills the well permanently

Swab valve

The swab valve is used to gain access to the well for wire line operations

intervention and other work over procedure On top of it is a tree adapter

and cap that will mate with various equipment For such operations a

lubricator is assembled up onto the top of the tree and the wire or coil is lowered

through the lubricator through swab valve and into the well This valve is typically

manually operated

Choke

A choke holds back pressure by restricting the flow opening at the well head This

is done to make better use of the gas for natural gas lift and to control the bottom-

hole pressure for recovery reasons

CHECK VALVE

The check is introduced in production flow line to prevent any reverse flow from

the line into the well It has a hinged flap which lifts to permit normal flow but

closes to prevent reverse flow

TOP ADAPTOR

The top adaptor is a fitting on top of the swab valve with a threaded connection

During normal well operations a pressure gauge is fitted to monitor flowing and

shut in wellhead pressures However during well service operations the cap can

be removed to allow installation of lubricators for wire-line operations

SCSSSV (Surface Control Sub Surface Safety Valve)

A subsurface safety valve is essentially a shutdown valve installed at the upper

wellbore for emergency shutdown to protect the production tubing and wellhead

in case of overpressure Subsurface safety valves can offer a barrier against flow

in the event of a wellhead collapse or other disastrous event Purpose of asubsurface safety valve (SSSV) is to avoid the ultimate disaster which can result

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in release of reservoir fluids to the surroundings This makes SSSV a very

important component of a well completion

A subsurface safety valve is typically a uni-directional flapper valve directed in

such a way that the flappers open downwards when pressure is applied from an

upward direction The flapper can only open in the downward direction So even if

high pressure is applied by the well fluids from a

downward direction a safety valve can remain

closed This makes a subsurface safety valve fail-

safe To open the valve hydraulic signal is sent from

the surface well control panel This hydraulic

pressure is responsible for keeping the flappers of

SSSV open and loss of hydraulic pressure result in

closing of the valve Thus wellbore can be isolated in

case of system failure or damage to the surface

facilities

Types of Christmas tree

There are two types of Christmas Tree

1 Solid block

2 Conventional

The solid block Christmas Tree has a central solid unit holding several valves

in a pre-constructed block Their advantage is the reduction in potential leak

paths and their higher pressure rating (Fig 2)

The conventional Christmas Tree is built up from individual valves bolted

together to form an assembly (Fig 3)

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Figure 2

Figure 3

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Wellhead Control Panel

Wellhead control panel is key equipment in oil amp gas industry to protect oilfield

facilities and environment from emergency incidents such as wellhead fire which

is one of main control systems to ensure oilfield oil production and transportation

to be safely operation according to international standards and national

regulation Wellhead control panel is composed of hydraulic power unit tubing amp

fitting and instrument valve and electrical control devices Hydraulic power unit

supply hydraulic resource to open and close safety valves including master

valves wing valves and SCSSSV

Its performs

Local OnOff SSV

Remote control SSV through RTU( remote terminal unit)

High-Low pressure sense shut-down automatically

Fusible Plug Anti-fire Shut-down automatically

Function of showing system pressure

Relief Valve shall be installed on each hydraulic circuit to prevent high

pressure

Function of showing hydraulic level and level switch for alarm

Function of defending pressure impact of system

Function of system pressure monitoring (by pressure transmitter of control

panel)

Function of remote emergency shut-down (by magnetic valve of control

panel)

Function of OnOff SSV monitoring (by pressure switch of control loop of

control panel)

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Chemical Injection

Chemical injection systems are commonly used in production facilities to prevent

or eliminate a wide range of problems that might negatively affect the production

flow It is done for flow assurance protection of process equipment such as

pipelines or to optimize processes in production facilities

Typical flow assurance chemicals are

Wax inhibitors

Pour point depressants

Asphaltene inhibitors

Corrosion inhibitors

A corrosion inhibitor is a chemical compound that is added to liquid or gas to

decreases the corrosion rate of a material typically a metal or an alloy The

effectiveness of a corrosion inhibitor depends on fluid composition quantity of

water and flow regime Its common mechanism involves formation of a coating

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which prevents access of the corrosive substance to the metal The corrosive

agents are generally oxygen hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide

At our production site the major risk is corrosion of piping and equipment The

maximum allowable corrosion rate is approximately 02 mm per year and

corrosion rate without inhibitor could be approximately 11 mm per year so the

corrosion protection program is designed to achieve a target corrosion rate of

less than 01 mm per year which is achieved by an inhibitor system efficiency of

99 Inhibitor is injected into the well stream flow through an atomizing nozzle

located downstream of the respective wellhead coolers at the duplexcarbon steel

interface In normal operation as per NALCO standards chemical (brand name

EC1144B) at rate of frac12 Liter per MMSCFD of gas is being injected into the flow

line of miano15 flow lines made of carbon steel Moreover the composition can

vary depending upon the composition of well fluids and material of pipeline This

method of injection ensures even distribution of the chemical on the interior

surface of the pipeline The individual well sites are equipped with Chemical

Injection Packages comprising of a stainless steel storage tank and two

pneumatic motor driven pumps in parallel Instrument gas is used to drive the

pumps Normally one pump is running with the other standby

Water Conning

Water coning is a term used to describe the mechanism underlying the upward

movement of water into the perforations of a producing well Coning can seriously

impact the well productivity and influence the degree of depletion and the overall

recovery efficiency of the reservoir The specific problems of water coning are

listed below

Costly added water handling

Gas production from the original or secondary gas cap reduces pressure

Reduced efficiency of the depletion mechanism

The water is often corrosive and its disposal costly

The affected well may be abandoned early

Loss of the total field overall recovery

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Therefore conning has an important influence on operations recovery and

economics The phenomena is shown in picture below

Corrosion

Corrosion is referred as chemical deterioration of a metal Commonly this

means loss of electrons of metals reacting with water and oxygen

Weakening of iron due to oxidation of the iron atoms is a well-known

example of electrochemical corrosion This is commonly known as

rust Most structural alloys corrode merely from exposure to moisture

in the air but the process can be strongly affected by exposure to

certain substances Corrosion can be concentrated locally to form a pit

or crack or it can extend across a wide area to produce general

deterioration (uniform corrosion)

The following reaction takes place at the active sites

2Fe =gt 2Fe++ + 4e-

The free electrons travel through the metal path to the less active sites where

the following reaction takes place

O2 + 4e- + 2H20 =gt 4 OH-

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Recombination of these ions at the active surface produce the following

reaction which yields the iron-corrosion product ferrous hydroxide

2Fe + O2 + 2H2O =gt 2Fe (OH) 2

CORROSION PROTECTION SYSTEM

Coatings and painting

Painting and the application of enamel bitumen and PVC

coating are the most common anti-corrosion treatments They

work by providing a barrier of corrosion-resistant material

between the damaging environment and the structural material

Corrosion Inhibitors

Corrosion inhibitor is injected into the flow lines as mentioned in

detail on page 8

Cathodic Protection

Cathodic Protection (CP) is a technique used to control the corrosion of a

metal surface by making it the cathode of an electrochemical cell It

converts all of the anodic (active) sites on the metal surface to cathodic

(passive) sites by supplying electrical current (or free electrons) from an

alternate source It is accomplished in two ways

a) A simple method of protection connects protected metal to a more easily

corroded sacrificial metal to act as the anode The sacrificial metal then

corrodes instead of the protected metal The process is similar to a simple

DC cell in which the more active metal becomes the anode and corrodes

whereas the less active metal becomes the cathode and is protected

b) For larger structures galvanic anodes cannot economically deliver enough

current to provide protection Therefore impressed current cathodic

protection (ICCP) systems are used These consist of anodes connected

to a DC power source In remote areas power sources such as solar

panels may be used The output DC negative terminal is connected to the

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frequently to limit liquid holdup and minimize the slug volumes of liquid which can

be generated by the system

Coating

Pigs may be used to apply internal pipe coatings such as epoxy coating

materials in operating pipelines Pigs may also be used with corrosion inhibitors

to distribute and coat the entire internal wetted perimeter

Inspection

Pigs are being used more frequently as inspection tools Gauging or sizing pigs

are typically run following the completion of new construction or line repair to

determine if there are any internal obstacles bends or buckles in the pipe Pigs

can also be equipped with cameras to allow viewing of the pipe internals

Electronic intelligent or smart ldquopigsrdquo that use magnetic and ultrasonic systems

have been developed and refined that locate and measure internal and external

corrosion pitting dents buckles and any other anomalies in the pipe wall

Intelligent pigs

The accuracy of location and measurement of anomalies by the intelligent pigs

has continued to improve Initially the electronics and power systems were so

large that intelligent pigs could be used only in lines 30 in and greater in size

The continued sophistication and miniaturization of the electronic systems used

in the intelligent pigs has allowed the development of smaller pigs that can be

used in small-diameter pipelines Newly enacted DOT pipeline-integrity

regulations and rules acknowledge the effectiveness of the intelligent pigs and

incorporate their use in the pipeline-integrity testing process

Compressors

A gas compressor is a mechanical device that increases the pressure of a gas by

reducing its volume Gas pressure is increased by forcing gas molecules together

to reduce gas volume When volume is reduced gas pressure increases

All gases have large spaces among their molecules These spaces could be

enhanced further and decreased by doing some work Work done which is used

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for the enhancement of these spaces is called expansion and work done to

minimize these spaces is called compression All gases while expansion

produces cooling effect and while compression of gases raises there

temperature Compression is a term used to force gases to occupy smaller

volumes by increasing their pressure Volume of gases is interlinked with

temperature and pressure of the gas which is cleared by 2 laws govern gas

compressions

Boyles Law

Charles Law

The main types of compressor are listed below

Front End Compressor

The plant currently processes gas from a number of wells The flow and pressure

from some of these wells (currently K-10 K-11 amp K-12) has declined and they

cannot be fed directly into the Central Processing Facility To recover the

maximum gas reserves from these wells a Front End Compressor is employed

The compressor is a two stage double acting gas engine driven reciprocating

(PT) compressor Double acting means that gas is compressed on each end of

the piston It normal operates with a speed range of 600 to 900 RPM and isequipped with four compressor cylinders two for each stage Each cylinder is

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also equipped with a variable volume head end pocket

In case of compressor emergency shutdown the production chokes and the

Upper Master Valves on the on line wells will close and operator will be notified in

central control room Sweet gas from gas distribution network is used to operate the

gas engine driver of the compressor package The detailed scheme of working is

shown in figure (page 22 )

PT Reciprocating Compressor

The mechanical cycle of piston tube reciprocating compressor comprises four

strokes the expansion stroke the intake stroke the compression stroke and the

discharge stroke

Expansion Stroke

As the piston moves back on the expansion stroke the chamber volume

increases and the pressure drop As the pressure drops the discharge valve

closes since there is greater pressure in the discharge line than in the chamber

Intake Stroke

As the piston moves back during the intake stroke the pressure decreases until it

is less than the pressure in the inlet line This higher intake pressure opens the

inlet valve and gas rushes into the cylinder equalizing the pressure there with

the intake pressure The compression chamber is now at or near the intake

pressure

Compression Stroke

The piston now starts the compression stroke by moving forward decreasing the

chamber volume and increasing the pressure The increased pressure is now

higher than the intake pressure causing the intake valve to close

Discharge Stroke

The piston continues to move to the left during the discharge stroke This creates

an increase in chamber pressure until it is greater than the discharge pressure

When this happens the Discharge valve opens and the compressed air from the

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cylinder goes into the discharge line The compression cycle is then repeated

from the stage

Compressor Capacity

The capacity of the compressor depends upon cylinder displacement That

displacement is simply the volume that the piston displaces (moves) as it travels

from one end of the cylinder to the other Capacity and displacement is equal to

the cross-sectional area of the cylinder times the length of the stroke

Lubrication and Cooling

Lubricating oil is circulated through the system by a gear pump which is chain

driven from the engine crank shaft The oil pump is mounted on the engine front

housing

The pump operates between 30 - 40 psig

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A circulating pump deliver cooling water to the water jackets in the cylinder block

flowing around the cylinder liners and is directed into the cylinder heads Each

cylinder head has water cooled exhaust elbows which outlet the water into the

water cooled exhausts From the end of engine the water flows to compressor

1st and 2nd stage cylinders and compressor lube oil cooler (LOwater heat

exchanger) The water from the compressor cylinder and lube oil cooler returns

to engine water cooled exhaust

Figure Flow diagram of Front End Compressor

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Centrifugal Compressor

Centrifugal compressors are machines in which velocity and pressure given to air

or gas in a radial direction by one or more impellers diffuser combination In a

centrifugal compressor the mechanical energy is increased by centrifugal action

The gas enters the suction eye of a high speed rotary element called the impeller

which carries radial vanes integrally cast in it As the impeller rotates the blades

of the impeller force the gas outward from the center the impeller to the outer rim

of impeller the increase in velocity of the gas creates a flow pressure area at the

eye of the impeller The gas at the outer rim of the impeller is forced in to a

passage way called a diffuser where the velocity decreases in the pressure of the

gas

Inlet

The inlet to a centrifugal compressor is typically a simple pipe It may include

features such as a valve and both pressure and temperature instrumentation

Centrifugal impeller

The key component that makes a compressor centrifugal is the centrifugal

impeller shown above It is the impellers rotating set of vanes (or blades) that

gradually raises the energy of the working gas This is identical to an axial

compressor with the exception that the gases can reach higher velocities and

energy levels through the impellers increasing radius

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Diffuser

The next key component to the simple centrifugal compressor is the diffuser

Downstream of the impeller in the flow path it is the diffusers responsibility to

convert the kinetic energy (high velocity) of the gas into pressure by gradually

slowing (diffusing) the gas velocity

SEPERATORS

A well-stream is a mixture of gases hydrocarbon liquids water solids and

contaminants Due to variations in pressure and temperature gases evolve from

the liquids water vapor condenses and some of the well-stream changes to liquid

and free gas The separation of well-stream fluids takes place in a separator This

pressure vessel is manufactured in three forms

1 horizontal

2 vertical

3 spherical

To help separation the vessel is normally designed with a series of internal

fittings These fittings are built into the separator to ensure total phase separation

of the well-stream

In gas plants separators are given alternative names due to the function they

perform in the process system A scrubber does a similar job to a knockout drum

However the scrubber usually separates a stream containing high gas-to-liquid

ratios The knockout drum is used where a high degree of liquids are entrained in

the gas

Fluid flow from a well can include gas condensable liquid vapors water water

vapor crude oil and solids As well-stream fluids reach ground level where

pressure is lower than in the reservoir the capacity of the liquid to hold gas in

solution decreases and gas separates out of the oil

Separation depends upon the effect of gravity to separate liquids For adequate

separation one fluid must be lighter than the other fluid For example distillates

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(gasoline kerosene etc) and crude oil will not separate in a vessel because they

tend to dissolve in each other Because a separator basically depends upon

gravity to separate the fluids the ease with which separation takes place

depends upon the difference in density of the fluids

Droplets of liquid will separate from gas provided

a) The gas remains in the separator long enough

b) The gas flow remains constant to provoke separation

The difference in density between a gas and liquid will therefore determine the

maximum flow rate of liquid in the vessel

Figure Two phase horizontal separator

Gas bubbles in the liquid will break out in some oil field applications in 30 to 60

seconds Consequently the separator is designed so that the liquid remains in

the vessel for 30 to 60 seconds The length of time that a liquid remains in the

vessel is called its residence time Residence time differs widely from field to field

depending upon viscosity and API Gravity

Another important factor which must be considered is temperature Generally a

decrease in operating temperature will increase the liquid recovery in a separator

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as the gas condenses By reducing the pressure on the fluid flash separation

occurs resulting in a flow through the separator which is controlled by external

instrumentation

COALESCENCE

Another important principle in fluid separation is that of coalescence This means

the coming together of liquid droplets created by the force of gravity

A common example of coalescing occurs when drops of water form on the

windshield of a car as it is driven in fog As the tiny drops or water which make up

the fog strike the windshield they combine and eventually form a drop large

enough to run down the glass

Several of the internal devices of a separator such as deflector plates

straightening vanes and even the vessel walls are forms of coalescers In each

vessel drops of liquid adhere to the surface of the device and combine with other

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drops until the drop is large enough to fall out The effectiveness of separation

will also depend upon the total amount of coalescing surface area that is present

There are many different types of separators used in the Oil amp Gas industry

Consequently separators are manufactured with one two or several internal

fittings depending on their use and quick removal of these fluids from the vessel

DEFLECTOR PLATES

These are fitted in front of the inlet to the separator and can be net or

dish-shaped Their purpose is to absorb the impact of the incoming fluids and to

encourage the separation of gas and liquids They also slow the flow rate of the

liquids through the vessel

WEIRS

A weir is a metal wall which is fitted across the inside of the vessel normally to a

height of 50 of the overall height of the separator Its purpose is to assist the

process of three phase separation The inlet fluids (oil plus water) are given time

to separate in the liquid accumulation section The water level (interface) is

normally controlled at 50 of the height of the weir Oil floating on the wateroverflows the weir and accumulates in the small oil compartment where it is

drawn off under level control

CENTRIFUGAL DEVICES

These are used in both vertical and horizontal separators for gas-liquid

separation The device imparts a swirling motion to the fluids entering the vessel

Centrifugal force causes the heavier liquids to travel outwards towards the walls

of the vessel and the lighter gases to flow up the centre Centrifugal devices are

also known as cyclones

VORTEX BREAKERS

When liquid flows through a drain outlet a vortex (whirlpool) will form This can

be seen when we pull the plug from a sink or bath tub The same would happen

as water and oil flow from the separator This condition a vortex could allow gas

to flow down the centre of the whirlpool and enter the liquid phase causing

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pressurizing of tanks etc To stop this happening vortex breakers are fitted to all

liquid outlets Although they come in a number of different designs vortex

breakers all serve the same purpose - to prevent a whirlpool from forming

MIST OR DEMISTER PADS

The gas which is released from the fluids in the separator still contains droplets of

oil and water which coalesce and fall when the drops get large enough The

demister pad assists in this process Made from knitted wire and contained within

a sturdy frame it causes the gas to continually change its direction of flow

Because gas changes direction far easier than liquid the gas will flow around

each strand of wire whilst the liquid entrained in the gas stream will continue and

stick to the wire

COALESCING PLATES

There are several different forms of coalescing devices the most common of

which are coalescing plates These plates are mounted in the flow stream of the

fluids and assist in breaking down oil-water emulsions The fluid is forced to

follow a path that constantly changes direction This causes the water droplets to

gather together or coalesce and fall to the bottom of the separator The same

principle is used to separate gas and oil mixtures when the oil droplets are

induced to coalesce Simply stated every surface within the separator including

the separator walls assists with the coalescing process

STRAIGHTENlNG VANES

These are often fitted to horizontal separators to remove turbulence in the gas

stream after initial separation at the inlet deflector

FLOAT SHEILD

Internal floats are used as level controllers Any agitation of the liquid surface or

the effect of coalesced liquids falling on the float may cause control problems

Therefore a float shield is fitted to enclose the float creating an area of still liquid

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MEMBRANES

The gas contains 12 carbon dioxide and 22 ppm of hydrogen sulphide at 115oF

and 1100 psig This needs to be removed before the gas can be exported The

majority of carbon dioxide hydrogen sulphide and water is removed by means of

membranes

Membranes are thin semipermeable barriers that selectively separate some

compounds from others Currently the only commercially workable membranes

used for CO2 removal are polymer based for example cellulose acetate

polyimides polyamides polysulfone polycarbonates and polyetherimide The

membrane does not operate as a filter where small molecules are separated

from larger ones through a medium with pores rather it separates based on how

well different compounds dissolve into the membrane and diffuse through it The

membranes are manufactured in flat sheets consisting of an extremely thin

nonporous layer mounted on a much-thicker and highly porous layer of the same

material providing mechanical strength The flat sheets are combined into a

spiral-wound element (Figure below) Feed gas enters along the side of the

membrane and passes through the feed spacers As the gas travels between

membrane sheets CO2 H2S and H2O permeate through the membrane and are

collected in the permeate tube The driving force for transport is the high-feed

pressure and low-permeate pressures The gas on the feed side that does not

permeate leaves through the side of the element opposite the feed position Once

the membranes have been manufactured into elements six to 12 elements are

joined together and inserted into a tube Multiple tubes are mounted on skids in a

horizontal orientation

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Figure Membrane general Working

In high H2S applications most polymers have been shown to have very little

resistance to H2S plasticization (ldquosofteningrdquo of the membrane) and as a

consequence can only be used at very low H2S partial pressure limits Cellulose

acetate membranes in contrast have been shown to be applicable at extreme

H2S partial pressure conditions It is these membranes that have been utilized in

the testing to determine the limits of membrane performance in high H 2S

applications

The primary membranes used in Kadanwari facility are Cellulose acetate

Cellulose acetic acid and acetic anhydride are mixed together and reacted to

form cellulose acetate polymers This process is aided by the addition of a small

amount of sulfuric acid which is subsequently neutralized during processing

However the membranes are bought from UOP (vendor) and installed for use

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How membrane work

The basic principle of separation is selectivity of certain components of a mixture

for the membrane For example the cellulose acetate membrane has very high

selectivity for CO2 and H2S as compared to CH4 Therefore such type of

membrane can be used in gas sweetening process

The selectivity is directly related to the Permeability of gas which accounts that

which gas can pass across the membrane more easily In simple words

membranes being polymer materials are made of long chains of molecules The

different structure of polymer materials only allow selective molecules to pass

through them depending upon chemical and physical compatibility Thus

permeability depends upon choice of polymer

The permeability is determined by permeability coefficient (P) and is product of

solubility (S) and diffusivity (D)

P = S D

Solubility

The solubility is mainly determined by ease of condensation Heavy molecules

are more readily condensed Therefore higher molecular weighted molecules will

more easily condensed and therefore have greater solubility

Molecule Molecular weight

CH4 16

H2S 34

CO2 44

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Diffusivity

Diffusivity is ease of molecule to penetrate into some material It depends on size

of gas molecule Here size of molecule is not to be confused by molecular weight

it is the size of the structure Eg the size of O2 molecule is smaller than N2

Molecule Molecular Diameter (Ao)

CO2 33

H2S 36

Ch4 40

For cellulose acetate

DCO2DCH4 S CO2S CH4 P CO2P CH4

45 73 308

Chemical degradation

Cellulose acetate polymer is chemically degraded by a process called hydrolysis

which means breaking apart by the addition of water This is a chemical reaction

in which water is added to the cellulose acetate polymer causing the release of

acetic acid molecules This process proceeds stepwise until all the acetate

groups are released resulting in the reformation of cellulose Moreover alcohols

aromatic hydrocarbons or solvents with chlorine nitro benzene or similar

aromatic solvents will harm the membrane It will expand and lose plastification in

contact with them

Effect of Temperature

The permeation rates of all gases increases with increasing temperature

however membrane selectivity for CO2 over hydrocarbon decreases at higher

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temperature Consequently CO2 removal will improve as operating temperature

increases but hydro carbon recovery will decrease

Primary Membrane

The primary membranes comprise of two trains Each train consists of two

sections AB and CD each section consists of a 30 tube membrane skid (A and

C) followed by a 25 tube skid (B and D) The conditioned gas (after pre-

treatment) enters the primary membrane via the particulate filter adjacent to the

skid The gas is fed to the membranes through a common inlet manifold which

supplies primary membranes skids A and C A pressure control loop located

upstream of the manual inlet isolation valve is provided to maintain a constant

supply pressure to the membrane skid and to allow for preheating at the inlet

prior to skid start-up This pressure control loop can also be used during start-up

to control the pressurization of the pretreatment skid and associated pipes to the

primary membranes

The gas passes through membrane skid A the residual gas exiting the membrane

skid is sent to skid B and the permeate to common permeate discharge header An

identical arrangement is provide on the inlet to skid C as provided on skid A Theresidual gas from skid B combines with the residual gas from skid D in a common

discharge header and is then sent to the H2S polishing towers via the feed coolers

on the pre-treatment skid The permeate from skid B is sent to the common

permeate discharge header The permeate discharge header sends the gas to

either the recycle compressor or the vent header via a pressure control loop

Overpressure protection for the membranes is provided by a pressure safety valve

on the supply header to the membrane banks

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Secondary (Recycle) Membrane

The recycle membranes comprise of a single train with two skids each with four

banks of membrane tubes The conditioned gas from the discharge of the recycle

pre-treatment skid is routed to the first recycle membrane skid The gas passes

through the membranes the residual gas is fed to primary membrane (skid A) inlet

via feed gas cooler and permeate to the common permeate discharge header An

identical arrangement is provide on the inlet to skid B Permeate from the recycle

membrane skids A and B is routed to the vent header Some portion of permeate is

heated and sent for regeneration in Mem-Guard units Nitrogen purge can be

connected downstream of the inlet isolation valve on each skid to enable the

membrane tubes to be purged and left pressurized during prolonged shutdown

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Figure Flow Diagram of Recycle membrane unit

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ADVANTAGES OF MEMBRANE SYSTEMS

Membrane systems have major advantages over more-traditional methods of

acid gas removal

Lower capital cost Membrane systems are skid mounted and so the

scope cost and time taken for site preparation are minimal Installation

costs are significantly lower than alternative technologies especially for

remote areas Furthermore no additional facilities for solvent storage and

water treatment needed by other processes are required

Lower operating costs The only major operating cost for single-stage

membrane systems is membrane replacement This cost is significantly

lower than the solvent replacement and energy costs associated with

traditional technologies The improvements in membrane and

pretreatment design allow a longer useful membrane life which further

reduces operating costs The energy costs of multistage systems with

large recycle compressors are usually comparable to those for traditionaltechnologies

Deferred capital investment Often contracted sales-gas flow rates

increase over time as more wells are brought on-line With traditional

technologies the system design needs to take this later production into

account immediately and so the majority of the equipment is installed

before it is even needed The modular nature of membrane systems

means that only the membranes that are needed at start-up need be

installed The rest can be added either into existing tubes or in new skids

only when they are required

Operational simplicity and high reliability Because single-stage

membrane systems have no moving parts they have almost no

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unscheduled downtime and are extremely simple to operate They can

operate unattended for long periods of time The addition of a recycle

compressor adds some complexity to the system but still much less than

with a solvent- or adsorbent-based technology Multistage systems can be

operated at full capacity as single-stage systems when the recycle

compressor is down

Good weight and space efficiency Skid construction can be optimized

to the space available This space efficiency is especially important for

offshore environments where deck area is at a premium and is the

reason why so many new offshore developments have chosen to use

membranes for acid gas removal Figure 6 illustrates the space efficiency

of membrane systems The membrane unit in the lower left corner

replaced all the amine and glycol plant equipment shown in the rest of the

picture

Adaptability Because membrane area is dictated by the percentage of

acid gas removal rather than absolute acid gas removal small variations

in feed acid gas content hardly change the sales-gas acid gas

specification For example a system designed for 10 down to 3 acid

gas removal produces a 35 product from a 12 feed gas and a 5

product from a 15 feed gas

Design efficiency The membrane and pretreatment systems integrate a

number of operations such as dehydration CO2 and H2S removal dew-

point control and mercury removal Traditional acid gas removal

technologies require all of these operations as separate processes and

may also require additional dehydration because some technologies

saturate the product stream with water

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Power generation The permeate gas from membrane systems can be

used to provide fuel gas for power generation either for a recycle

compressor or other equipment

Ideal for debottlenecking Because expanding solvent- or adsorbent-

based acid gas removal plants without adding additional trains is difficult

an ideal solution is to use membranes for bulk acid gas removal and leave

the existing plant for final cleanup An additional advantage is that the

permeate gas from the membrane system can often be used as fuel for

the existing plant thus avoiding significant increase in hydrocarbon

losses

Environmentally friendly Membrane systems do not involve the

periodic removal and handling of spent solvents or adsorbents Permeate

gases can be flared used as fuel or re-injected into the well Items thatdo need disposal such as spent membrane elements can be incinerated

Ideal for remote locations Many of the factors mentioned above make

membrane systems a highly desirable technology for remote locations

where spare parts are rare and labor unskilled Furthermore solvents

storage and trucking water supply power generation or extensive

infrastructure are not required

Re-injection optimizations Since the permeate stream from the

membrane system can be operated at elevated pressures it is possible to

further pressurize by re-injection compression train

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Sorption

Sorption is a physical and chemical process by which one substance becomes

attached to another

It is of two main types

1 Absorption

2 Adsorption

Absorption

Absorption is a physical or chemical phenomenon or process in which atoms

molecules or ions enter some bulk phase ndash gas liquid or solid material This is a

different process from adsorption since molecules undergoing absorption are

taken up by the volume not by the surface (as in the case for adsorption)

Absorption process may be chemical (reactive) or physical (non-reactive)

Physical absorption

Physical absorption or non-reactive absorption is made between two phases ofmatter a liquid absorbs a gas or a solid absorbs a liquid

When a liquid solvent absorbs a gas mixture or part of it a mass of gas moves

into the liquid For example water may absorb oxygen from the air This mass

transfer takes place at the interface between the liquid and the gas at a rate

depending on both the gas and the liquid This type of absorption depends on the

solubility of gases the pressure and the temperature The rate and amount of

absorption also depend on the surface area of the interface and its duration in

time

When a solid absorbs a liquid mixture or part of it a mass of liquid moves into the

solid For example a clay pot used to store water may absorb some of the water

This mass transfer takes place at the interface between the solid and the liquid

at a rate depending on both the solid and the liquid

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Chemical absorption

Chemical absorption or reactive absorption is a chemical reaction between the

absorbed and the absorbing substances Sometimes it combines with physical

absorption This type of absorption depends upon the stoichiometry of the

reaction and the concentration of its reactants

Adsorption

Adsorption is the adhesion of atoms ions or molecules from a gas liquid or

dissolved solid to a surface This process creates a film of the adsorbate on the

surface of the adsorbent The binding to the surface is usually weak and

reversible Compounds with color and those that have taste or odor tend to bind

strongly Compounds that vibrate at frequencies in the visible spectrum are very

often are strongly adsorbed on activated carbon

The most common industrial adsorbents are activated carbon silica gel and

alumina because they present enormous surface areas per unit weight

Depending on the nature of attractive forces existing between the adsorbate and

adsorbent adsorption can be classified as

i) Physical adsorption

ii) Chemical adsorption

i) Physical adsorption (Physisorption)

In physical adsorption the forces of attraction between the molecules of the

adsorbate and the adsorbent are of the weak van der Waals type Since the

forces of attraction are weak the process of physisorption can be easily reversed

by heating or decreasing the pressure of the adsorbate (as in the case of gases)

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ii) Chemical adsorption (Chemisorption)

In chemisorption the forces of attraction between the adsorbate and the

adsorbent are very strong the molecules of adsorbate form chemical bonds with

the molecules of the adsorbent present in the surface

Adsorption is generally accompanied by release of energy that is most

adsorption processes are exothermic in nature Adsorption is a spontaneous

process therefore its free energy change is negative (∆Glt0) However the

entropy change associated with adsorption is generally negative because the

adsorbate molecules lose their translation freedom when they get attached to the

surface of the adsorbent Therefore in order for ∆G to be negative the enthalpy

change (∆H) must be sufficiently negative such that (∆G=∆H-T∆S) lt 0 This

explanation accounts for exothermic adsorption processes In cases where

endothermic adsorption occurs the entropy change ∆S is sufficiently positive

such that ∆G remains negative

Pre treatment

The main function of pretreatment skid is to provide membrane inlet specification

gas as mentioned by the vendor UOP It removes the contaminants that would

poison the membranes like dust solids (adsorbent particles) lube oil heavy

hydrocarbons etc It consists of

Feed Cooler

Feed Gas Scrubber

Filter Coalescer

Feed Gas Heater

Activated Carbon Guard Filter

Particle Filter

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The regeneration is carried out by heated permeate gas from the recycle

membranes at 450oF The vessel is depressurized to 20 psi and heated gas is

introduced from top The gas carries out the adsorbed contaminants and leaves

the vessel from bottom cleaning the adsorbent This contaminated gas is burnt in

the flare

UOP the vendor of Memguard unit has never disclosed that what substance

MG3 and MG5 exactly are But as mentioned by vendor that both care class of

aluminosilicates Therefore MG3 can be potassium aluminosilicate and MG5 can

be Calcium aluminosilicate These are molecular sieves adsorbents Molecular

sieves are a microporous material which can selectively adsorb gases andliquids They are synthetic zeolites (crystalline metal aluminosilicates) which

upon dehydration can efficiently and selectively remove water or other

solvents The selectivity of a molecular sieve is determined by its pore size

molecules with a critical diameter which is less than the pore size will be

efficiently adsorbed while larger molecules will be excluded

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3A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

The 3A molecular sieve adsorbent has a 3 angstrom (3A) pore size which means

that any molecule that is larger than the 3 angstrom pores will not be adsorbed

The 3A molecular sieve is the potassium type of A crystalline structure and is a

form of alkali Aluminosilicate For a 3A molecular sieve the sequence rate that

adsorption occurs is He Ne N and H2O

Due to the crystalline structure molecular sieves that have a 3 angstrom pore

size have a very high rate of adsorption and properties that promote a longer life

for products treated by the sieve The most common use for the 3A molecular

sieve is to remove water and moisture from materials that are in gas and liquid

form

5A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

These are molecular sieve adsorbents with a pore size of 5 angstrom (5A) 5A

molecular sieves are unable to adsorb any molecules or impurities that are

smaller than 5A It is calcium form of type A crystalline structure and is form of analkali-aluminosilicate that is most commonly used to separate isomerous alkanes

from normal alkanes and to co-adsorb moisture and water along with carbon

dioxide from gases In additional 5A molecular sieves are used for gaseous

pressure swing adsorption (PSA)mdashthat is to separate particular gases from other

gases

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of C3H8 to C22H46

Adsorption of Freon-12 (dichlorodifluoromethane)

Natural gas drying

Normal- and iso-paraffin separation

Separation of aromatic

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Inlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1096

MEHTANE 8593

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008

N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGEN 076

WATER 007

Outlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1098

MEHTANE 8608

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGENT 076

WATER 000

H2S polisher

The H2S polishing unit has been designed to treat 187 MMscfday of natural gas

containing up to 11 CO2 and 21 ppm H2S where the level of the CO2 and H2S

is reduced using a MemGuard Membrane separation unit The unit is situated

down-stream of the membrane unit and will further reduce the level of H2S in the

processed gas to a sales gas specification of 38 ppm

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This process uses three non-regenerable fixed bed absorber vessels using a low

temperature high activity absorbent The absorbent is a mixture of activated

metal oxides (mainly zinc oxide) The three towers can are generally operated in

parallel arrangement but on demand can be used in series (any of alternate

arrangements of A B C vessels) as shown in figure

The higher sales gas flow rate increased the catalyst consumption and

replacement frequency

ZnO + H2S =gt ZnS + H20

Routine samples are taken from the beds to provide a check on each bed

performance and to follow the saturation profile during the absorbent life After

the adsorbent has been fully utilized the adsorption vessels are recharged with

new adsorbent discarding the utilized one in a safe manner

109oF

1215 psig

Before H2S Polishing After H2S Polishing

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Figure

H2S Tower

Inlet pipe

4 Drums of 19mm

ceramic Balls

6 Micron mesh

5 Drums of 50mmceramic

1 Drums of19mm ceramic

01 Drums of6mm ceramic

112 drums of

Catalist ZnO

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Recycle Compressor

The permeate gas of the primary membrane unit carries recoverable amount of

CH4 It is fed to recycle membrane unit for further CH 4 recovery But the

permeate pressure from primary membranes which has been reduced to 12 psi

must be regenerated to 1200 psi for the gas to be fed again to the system For

this purpose we have employed recycle compressor The compressor is a four

stage centrifugal compressor It is driven by gas turbine of 31200 HP It has 25

MW producing capacity

Figure Recycle Compressor Process Flow Diagram

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Sales Gas Compressor

Gas from H2S polishing unit is sent to sales gas compressor where its pressure

is enhanced to 1100 psi so it may be injected to SNGPL high pressure trunk line

Sales gas compressor is single stage gas turbine driven

Figure Process Flow of Sales Gas Compressor

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Cooling Towers

A cooling tower is a heat rejection device which extracts waste heat to theatmosphere through the cooling of a water stream to a lower temperature Hot

water from the system enters the cooling tower and is distributed over the fill

(heat transfer surface) Air is induced or forced through the fill causing a small

portion of the water to evaporate This evaporation removes heat from the

remaining water which is collected in the cold water basin and returned to the

system to absorb more heat Each cooling tower line although operating under

the same basic principle of operation is arranged a little differently

Types

Natural draft mdash Utilizes buoyancy via a tall chimney Warm moist air naturally

rises due to the density differential compared to the dry cooler outside air Warm

moist air is less dense than drier air at the same pressure This moist air

buoyancy produces an upwards current of air through the tower

Mechanical draft mdash Uses power-driven fan motors to force or draw airthrough the tower

o Induced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a fan at the

discharge (at the top) which pulls air up through the tower The fan

induces hot moist air out the discharge This produces low entering

and high exiting air velocities reducing the possibility of

recirculation in which discharged air flows back into the air intake

o Forced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a blower type fan at

the intake The fan forces air into the tower creating high entering

and low exiting air velocities The low exiting velocity is much more

susceptible to recirculation This fanfill geometry is also known as

blow-through

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Forced Draft Cooling Tower Vs Induced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower have the ability to handle large water flow

rate than Forced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower is suitable for large cell sizes and fan sizes

as compared with Forced Draft Larger fan size may result in greater

efficiency and consequently lower power and sound level

Forced Draft Cooling Tower can be square or rectangular type only

however Induced Draft Cooling Towers can be round square or

rectangular type

Induced Draft Cooling Tower uses more compact ground area than Forced

Draft Cooling Tower equivalent capacity due to absence of fan on one

side

Fan equipment is warm exhaust air is less liable to icing up in winter

operation (Cold Countries)

Higher velocity in Forced Draft Cooling Tower cause drop in suspension

and cause additional static resistance to system

Configuration

There are two main configurations of factory assembled cooling towers crossflow

and counterflow In crossflow cooling towers the water flows vertically down the

fill as air flows horizontally across In counterflow cooling towers the water flows

vertically down the fill as air flows vertically up

Crossflow Configuration Counterflow Configuration

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Drift mdash Water droplets that are carried out of the cooling tower with the exhaust

air Drift droplets have the same concentration of impurities as the water entering

the tower The drift rate is typically reduced by employing baffle-like devices

called drift eliminators through which the air must travel after leaving the fill and

spray zones of the tower

Blow-out mdash Water droplets blown out of the cooling tower by wind generally at

the air inlet openings Water may also be lost in the absence of wind through

splashing or misting Devices such as wind screens louvers splash deflectors

and water diverters are used to limit these losses

Blow-down mdash The portion of the circulating water flow that is removed (usually

discharged to a drain) in order to maintain the amount of Total Dissolved Solids

(TDS) and other impurities at an acceptably low level Higher TDS concentration

in solution may result from greater cooling tower efficiency However the higher

the TDS concentration the greater the risk of scale biological growth and

corrosion

Make-up mdash The water that must be added to the circulating water system in

order to compensate for water losses such as evaporation drift loss blow-out

blow-down etc

Approach mdash The approach is the difference in temperature between the cooled-

water temperature and the entering-air wet bulb temperature

Range mdash The range is the temperature difference between the warm water inlet

and cooled water exit

Fill mdash Inside the tower fills are added to increase contact surface as well as

contact time between air and water to provide better heat transfer The efficiency

of the tower depends on the selection and amount of fill

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There are two types of fills that may be used

o Film type fill (causes water to spread into a thin film)

o Splash type fill (breaks up falling stream of water and interrupts its

vertical progress)

Important

Scale build up is controlled by adding chemicals to the cooling loop and diluting

the concentration by blow down and make-up Following chemicals are added to

the Cooling to control CorrosionSale and microbial growth

Corrosion Inhibitor To control corrosion in the Cooling system

Dispersant To kept ions in suspension to avoid settle down and buildup

Sodium hypo Chlorite To Control microbial Growth

Acid To control Alkalinity in the system

High Stress Polymer To run the system at higher conductivity It is a

multifunctional polymer for Zinc amp Phosphate stabilization in cooling tower

Fin Fan Cooler

Fin fan heat exchanger is simply a pressure vessel which cools a circulating fluid

within finned tubes by forcing ambient air over the exterior of the tubes A

common example of an air cooler is a carrsquos radiator Fin Fan Coolers are used in

any application where large quantities of heat need to be transferred This

includes chemical and petrochemical industries power stations waste-to-energy

facilities as well as steelworks

Fin Fan Cooler are used for two primary reasons

They increase plant efficiency

They are a green solution as compared to cooling towers and shell and

tube heat exchangers because they do not require an auxiliary water

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supply (water lost due to drift and evaporation plus no water treatment

chemicals are required)

Figure General Overview of Fin Fan Cooler

Produced Water

The produced water system receives liquid from the equipment Miano slug

catcher train 1 and 2 inlet separators and is fed to three phase separator where

water oil and gas is separated The gases produced are burnt in incinerator

whereas hydrocarbon liquid is stored to be sold Liquid from compressors

recycle inlet separator recycle feed scrubber high and low pressure slug

catchers is passed to degasser Separated water is injected down the earth

Incinerator

The term incinerate means to burn something until nothing is left but ashes An

incinerator is a unit or facility used to burn trash and other types of waste until it is

reduced to ash An incinerator is constructed of heavy well-insulated materials

so that it does not give off extreme amounts of external heat The high levels of

heat are kept inside the furnace or unit so that the waste is burned quickly and

efficiently If the heat were allowed to escape the waste would not burn as

completely or as rapidly

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Control System

The plant is controlled at CCR (Central Control Room) by PLCs (Programmable

Logic Controllers) through fiber optic control line All control parameters are

received at LER (Local Equipment Room) via two optic fiber control lines One

being primary and other secondary operating in redundancy ie if primary fails

control shifts to secondary These control parameters are sent to CCR via single

optic fiber cable

Safety System

Wellheads and Gas Processing Plant have their own Fire amp Gas detection

systems emergency shutdown (ESD) Plant has a fault tolerant controller It is

based on Triple Modular Redundant (TMR) architecture manufactured by

Triconex The TMR system is based on three isolated parallel control systems

integrated into one system The system operates on a two out of three voting

principle which provides high integrity error free uninterrupted operation with no

single point of failure The TMR receives inputs from Process Sensors Manual

Switches Fire amp Gas Detectors Packaged Equipment Control Systems and

Product Exporting Facilities The TMR carries out cause and effect processing on

the data received and where necessary produces output signals Outputs from

the TMR are hard wired directly to ESD shutdown and blow down valve

solenoids motor control instrumentelectrical interfaces to control electrical

drives package equipment logic control systems manifold area as well as

telecoms

The operator in central control room is able to accept alarms and once the fault

has been cleared reset the input All the control systems are centralized to a

single interface All the PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers) communicate with

the servers and servers communicate with the clients through Ethernet connectivity

Centralization eases the navigation of different systems at a common interface

Emergency Shutdown

The ESD system receives inputs from field mounted instrumentation on the process

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and utility equipment and initiates executive actions appropriate to the level of ESD

The system is an Active system which is in standby and will activate when in an

alarm or fault condition The Kadanwari Gas Process Facility ESD system is

comprised of five (5) levels The emergency severity decreases with increasing ESD

level number

ESD 1

This shutdown level is automatically initiated by fire major gas leak or a detected

toxic atmosphere in the process area of the plant or manually from CCR A level 1

shutdown will cause all production to cease close all emergency shutdown

valves stop the process and shutdown of the main power generation The

emergency vent valves to the stack will open and in addition all equipment of zone 1

certified will be isolated This is the highest level of ESD and will cause the following

to occur

All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close All slowdown Valves (BDVs) on the process facility will open

All Main Gas Driven Generators will be tripped

Emergency Diesel Generator will start

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close Upper Master Valve

(UMV) Close

ESD 2

This shutdown level is activated automatically if a major process or utility failure

occurs or manually from CCR All production to the plant from the wellhead is

stopped All emergency shutdown valves trip to their fail safe position

Venting shall be as specified This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

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All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valve Close Wing Valves Close and Upper Master Valve(UMV) Close

ESD 3

The level 3 shutdown isolates and stops a single process train only Production

continues via the other train This ESD level is initiated by process conditions or

operator at local panel This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

ESD 3A Train 1 production to cease

ESD 3B Train 2 production to cease

All online wellhead choke valves go to minimum flow ie (1O )

ESD 4

A level 4 shutdown shall cease all production from an entire field either

Kadanwari or Miano upstream of the associated slug catchers ESD 4K for

Kadanwari amp ESD 4M for Miano This ESD level is initiated automatically by slug

catcher abnormal process conditions This level of ESD will cause the following

to occur

All SDVs close isolating the relevant slug catcher and its upstream gas

production facility from the Kadanwari Gas Processing Plant

All Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close and Upper MasterValves (UMV) of the relevant gas production facility Close

A parallel timer is provided to close within 10 second if not closed in given

time SSSV seals the well

ESD 5

A level 5 shutdown represents equipment shutdown for the protection of the

individual equipment without any change in the process This level of ESD is for the

protection of various pieces of equipment and is initiated by its own inputs eg

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Master Valves

The two lower valves are called the master valves Master valves are normally in

the fully open position and are never opened or closed when the well is flowing

(except in an emergency) to prevent erosion of the valve sealing surfaces They

are gate type valves

1 Lower Master Valve (LMV)

2 Upper Master Valve (UMV)

The lower master valve will normally be manually operated while the upper

master valve is often hydraulically actuated allowing it to be used as a means of

remotely shutting in the well in the event of emergency

Wing Valve

A wing valve is normally used to shut in the well when flowing thus preserving

the master valves for positive shut off for maintenance purposes The wing

valve can be a gate valve or ball valve Hydraulic operated wing valves are

usually built to be fail safe closed meaning they require active hydraulic pressure

to stay open This feature means that if control fluid fails the well will

automatically shut itself in without operator action

In Kadanwari well sites there is only one manually operated wing valve On the

other hand at Miano well sites there are two wing valves one being operated

manually and other hydraulically

Production Wing Valve

The right hand valve is often called the flow wing valve or the production wing

valve because it provides flow path for hydrocarbons to production facility

Kill wing valve

The left hand valve is often called the kill wing valve It is primarily used for

injection of fluids such as corrosion inhibitors or methanol to prevent hydrate

formation It is typically manually operated It can kill the well temporarily be

injection brine solution which provides a pressure head to well and temporarily

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suspends it for maintenance of well head Also it is used to permanently kill the

well A chemical is injected down the well that seals the piping down the well and

kills the well permanently

Swab valve

The swab valve is used to gain access to the well for wire line operations

intervention and other work over procedure On top of it is a tree adapter

and cap that will mate with various equipment For such operations a

lubricator is assembled up onto the top of the tree and the wire or coil is lowered

through the lubricator through swab valve and into the well This valve is typically

manually operated

Choke

A choke holds back pressure by restricting the flow opening at the well head This

is done to make better use of the gas for natural gas lift and to control the bottom-

hole pressure for recovery reasons

CHECK VALVE

The check is introduced in production flow line to prevent any reverse flow from

the line into the well It has a hinged flap which lifts to permit normal flow but

closes to prevent reverse flow

TOP ADAPTOR

The top adaptor is a fitting on top of the swab valve with a threaded connection

During normal well operations a pressure gauge is fitted to monitor flowing and

shut in wellhead pressures However during well service operations the cap can

be removed to allow installation of lubricators for wire-line operations

SCSSSV (Surface Control Sub Surface Safety Valve)

A subsurface safety valve is essentially a shutdown valve installed at the upper

wellbore for emergency shutdown to protect the production tubing and wellhead

in case of overpressure Subsurface safety valves can offer a barrier against flow

in the event of a wellhead collapse or other disastrous event Purpose of asubsurface safety valve (SSSV) is to avoid the ultimate disaster which can result

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in release of reservoir fluids to the surroundings This makes SSSV a very

important component of a well completion

A subsurface safety valve is typically a uni-directional flapper valve directed in

such a way that the flappers open downwards when pressure is applied from an

upward direction The flapper can only open in the downward direction So even if

high pressure is applied by the well fluids from a

downward direction a safety valve can remain

closed This makes a subsurface safety valve fail-

safe To open the valve hydraulic signal is sent from

the surface well control panel This hydraulic

pressure is responsible for keeping the flappers of

SSSV open and loss of hydraulic pressure result in

closing of the valve Thus wellbore can be isolated in

case of system failure or damage to the surface

facilities

Types of Christmas tree

There are two types of Christmas Tree

1 Solid block

2 Conventional

The solid block Christmas Tree has a central solid unit holding several valves

in a pre-constructed block Their advantage is the reduction in potential leak

paths and their higher pressure rating (Fig 2)

The conventional Christmas Tree is built up from individual valves bolted

together to form an assembly (Fig 3)

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Figure 2

Figure 3

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Wellhead Control Panel

Wellhead control panel is key equipment in oil amp gas industry to protect oilfield

facilities and environment from emergency incidents such as wellhead fire which

is one of main control systems to ensure oilfield oil production and transportation

to be safely operation according to international standards and national

regulation Wellhead control panel is composed of hydraulic power unit tubing amp

fitting and instrument valve and electrical control devices Hydraulic power unit

supply hydraulic resource to open and close safety valves including master

valves wing valves and SCSSSV

Its performs

Local OnOff SSV

Remote control SSV through RTU( remote terminal unit)

High-Low pressure sense shut-down automatically

Fusible Plug Anti-fire Shut-down automatically

Function of showing system pressure

Relief Valve shall be installed on each hydraulic circuit to prevent high

pressure

Function of showing hydraulic level and level switch for alarm

Function of defending pressure impact of system

Function of system pressure monitoring (by pressure transmitter of control

panel)

Function of remote emergency shut-down (by magnetic valve of control

panel)

Function of OnOff SSV monitoring (by pressure switch of control loop of

control panel)

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Chemical Injection

Chemical injection systems are commonly used in production facilities to prevent

or eliminate a wide range of problems that might negatively affect the production

flow It is done for flow assurance protection of process equipment such as

pipelines or to optimize processes in production facilities

Typical flow assurance chemicals are

Wax inhibitors

Pour point depressants

Asphaltene inhibitors

Corrosion inhibitors

A corrosion inhibitor is a chemical compound that is added to liquid or gas to

decreases the corrosion rate of a material typically a metal or an alloy The

effectiveness of a corrosion inhibitor depends on fluid composition quantity of

water and flow regime Its common mechanism involves formation of a coating

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which prevents access of the corrosive substance to the metal The corrosive

agents are generally oxygen hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide

At our production site the major risk is corrosion of piping and equipment The

maximum allowable corrosion rate is approximately 02 mm per year and

corrosion rate without inhibitor could be approximately 11 mm per year so the

corrosion protection program is designed to achieve a target corrosion rate of

less than 01 mm per year which is achieved by an inhibitor system efficiency of

99 Inhibitor is injected into the well stream flow through an atomizing nozzle

located downstream of the respective wellhead coolers at the duplexcarbon steel

interface In normal operation as per NALCO standards chemical (brand name

EC1144B) at rate of frac12 Liter per MMSCFD of gas is being injected into the flow

line of miano15 flow lines made of carbon steel Moreover the composition can

vary depending upon the composition of well fluids and material of pipeline This

method of injection ensures even distribution of the chemical on the interior

surface of the pipeline The individual well sites are equipped with Chemical

Injection Packages comprising of a stainless steel storage tank and two

pneumatic motor driven pumps in parallel Instrument gas is used to drive the

pumps Normally one pump is running with the other standby

Water Conning

Water coning is a term used to describe the mechanism underlying the upward

movement of water into the perforations of a producing well Coning can seriously

impact the well productivity and influence the degree of depletion and the overall

recovery efficiency of the reservoir The specific problems of water coning are

listed below

Costly added water handling

Gas production from the original or secondary gas cap reduces pressure

Reduced efficiency of the depletion mechanism

The water is often corrosive and its disposal costly

The affected well may be abandoned early

Loss of the total field overall recovery

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Therefore conning has an important influence on operations recovery and

economics The phenomena is shown in picture below

Corrosion

Corrosion is referred as chemical deterioration of a metal Commonly this

means loss of electrons of metals reacting with water and oxygen

Weakening of iron due to oxidation of the iron atoms is a well-known

example of electrochemical corrosion This is commonly known as

rust Most structural alloys corrode merely from exposure to moisture

in the air but the process can be strongly affected by exposure to

certain substances Corrosion can be concentrated locally to form a pit

or crack or it can extend across a wide area to produce general

deterioration (uniform corrosion)

The following reaction takes place at the active sites

2Fe =gt 2Fe++ + 4e-

The free electrons travel through the metal path to the less active sites where

the following reaction takes place

O2 + 4e- + 2H20 =gt 4 OH-

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Recombination of these ions at the active surface produce the following

reaction which yields the iron-corrosion product ferrous hydroxide

2Fe + O2 + 2H2O =gt 2Fe (OH) 2

CORROSION PROTECTION SYSTEM

Coatings and painting

Painting and the application of enamel bitumen and PVC

coating are the most common anti-corrosion treatments They

work by providing a barrier of corrosion-resistant material

between the damaging environment and the structural material

Corrosion Inhibitors

Corrosion inhibitor is injected into the flow lines as mentioned in

detail on page 8

Cathodic Protection

Cathodic Protection (CP) is a technique used to control the corrosion of a

metal surface by making it the cathode of an electrochemical cell It

converts all of the anodic (active) sites on the metal surface to cathodic

(passive) sites by supplying electrical current (or free electrons) from an

alternate source It is accomplished in two ways

a) A simple method of protection connects protected metal to a more easily

corroded sacrificial metal to act as the anode The sacrificial metal then

corrodes instead of the protected metal The process is similar to a simple

DC cell in which the more active metal becomes the anode and corrodes

whereas the less active metal becomes the cathode and is protected

b) For larger structures galvanic anodes cannot economically deliver enough

current to provide protection Therefore impressed current cathodic

protection (ICCP) systems are used These consist of anodes connected

to a DC power source In remote areas power sources such as solar

panels may be used The output DC negative terminal is connected to the

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frequently to limit liquid holdup and minimize the slug volumes of liquid which can

be generated by the system

Coating

Pigs may be used to apply internal pipe coatings such as epoxy coating

materials in operating pipelines Pigs may also be used with corrosion inhibitors

to distribute and coat the entire internal wetted perimeter

Inspection

Pigs are being used more frequently as inspection tools Gauging or sizing pigs

are typically run following the completion of new construction or line repair to

determine if there are any internal obstacles bends or buckles in the pipe Pigs

can also be equipped with cameras to allow viewing of the pipe internals

Electronic intelligent or smart ldquopigsrdquo that use magnetic and ultrasonic systems

have been developed and refined that locate and measure internal and external

corrosion pitting dents buckles and any other anomalies in the pipe wall

Intelligent pigs

The accuracy of location and measurement of anomalies by the intelligent pigs

has continued to improve Initially the electronics and power systems were so

large that intelligent pigs could be used only in lines 30 in and greater in size

The continued sophistication and miniaturization of the electronic systems used

in the intelligent pigs has allowed the development of smaller pigs that can be

used in small-diameter pipelines Newly enacted DOT pipeline-integrity

regulations and rules acknowledge the effectiveness of the intelligent pigs and

incorporate their use in the pipeline-integrity testing process

Compressors

A gas compressor is a mechanical device that increases the pressure of a gas by

reducing its volume Gas pressure is increased by forcing gas molecules together

to reduce gas volume When volume is reduced gas pressure increases

All gases have large spaces among their molecules These spaces could be

enhanced further and decreased by doing some work Work done which is used

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for the enhancement of these spaces is called expansion and work done to

minimize these spaces is called compression All gases while expansion

produces cooling effect and while compression of gases raises there

temperature Compression is a term used to force gases to occupy smaller

volumes by increasing their pressure Volume of gases is interlinked with

temperature and pressure of the gas which is cleared by 2 laws govern gas

compressions

Boyles Law

Charles Law

The main types of compressor are listed below

Front End Compressor

The plant currently processes gas from a number of wells The flow and pressure

from some of these wells (currently K-10 K-11 amp K-12) has declined and they

cannot be fed directly into the Central Processing Facility To recover the

maximum gas reserves from these wells a Front End Compressor is employed

The compressor is a two stage double acting gas engine driven reciprocating

(PT) compressor Double acting means that gas is compressed on each end of

the piston It normal operates with a speed range of 600 to 900 RPM and isequipped with four compressor cylinders two for each stage Each cylinder is

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also equipped with a variable volume head end pocket

In case of compressor emergency shutdown the production chokes and the

Upper Master Valves on the on line wells will close and operator will be notified in

central control room Sweet gas from gas distribution network is used to operate the

gas engine driver of the compressor package The detailed scheme of working is

shown in figure (page 22 )

PT Reciprocating Compressor

The mechanical cycle of piston tube reciprocating compressor comprises four

strokes the expansion stroke the intake stroke the compression stroke and the

discharge stroke

Expansion Stroke

As the piston moves back on the expansion stroke the chamber volume

increases and the pressure drop As the pressure drops the discharge valve

closes since there is greater pressure in the discharge line than in the chamber

Intake Stroke

As the piston moves back during the intake stroke the pressure decreases until it

is less than the pressure in the inlet line This higher intake pressure opens the

inlet valve and gas rushes into the cylinder equalizing the pressure there with

the intake pressure The compression chamber is now at or near the intake

pressure

Compression Stroke

The piston now starts the compression stroke by moving forward decreasing the

chamber volume and increasing the pressure The increased pressure is now

higher than the intake pressure causing the intake valve to close

Discharge Stroke

The piston continues to move to the left during the discharge stroke This creates

an increase in chamber pressure until it is greater than the discharge pressure

When this happens the Discharge valve opens and the compressed air from the

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cylinder goes into the discharge line The compression cycle is then repeated

from the stage

Compressor Capacity

The capacity of the compressor depends upon cylinder displacement That

displacement is simply the volume that the piston displaces (moves) as it travels

from one end of the cylinder to the other Capacity and displacement is equal to

the cross-sectional area of the cylinder times the length of the stroke

Lubrication and Cooling

Lubricating oil is circulated through the system by a gear pump which is chain

driven from the engine crank shaft The oil pump is mounted on the engine front

housing

The pump operates between 30 - 40 psig

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A circulating pump deliver cooling water to the water jackets in the cylinder block

flowing around the cylinder liners and is directed into the cylinder heads Each

cylinder head has water cooled exhaust elbows which outlet the water into the

water cooled exhausts From the end of engine the water flows to compressor

1st and 2nd stage cylinders and compressor lube oil cooler (LOwater heat

exchanger) The water from the compressor cylinder and lube oil cooler returns

to engine water cooled exhaust

Figure Flow diagram of Front End Compressor

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Centrifugal Compressor

Centrifugal compressors are machines in which velocity and pressure given to air

or gas in a radial direction by one or more impellers diffuser combination In a

centrifugal compressor the mechanical energy is increased by centrifugal action

The gas enters the suction eye of a high speed rotary element called the impeller

which carries radial vanes integrally cast in it As the impeller rotates the blades

of the impeller force the gas outward from the center the impeller to the outer rim

of impeller the increase in velocity of the gas creates a flow pressure area at the

eye of the impeller The gas at the outer rim of the impeller is forced in to a

passage way called a diffuser where the velocity decreases in the pressure of the

gas

Inlet

The inlet to a centrifugal compressor is typically a simple pipe It may include

features such as a valve and both pressure and temperature instrumentation

Centrifugal impeller

The key component that makes a compressor centrifugal is the centrifugal

impeller shown above It is the impellers rotating set of vanes (or blades) that

gradually raises the energy of the working gas This is identical to an axial

compressor with the exception that the gases can reach higher velocities and

energy levels through the impellers increasing radius

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Diffuser

The next key component to the simple centrifugal compressor is the diffuser

Downstream of the impeller in the flow path it is the diffusers responsibility to

convert the kinetic energy (high velocity) of the gas into pressure by gradually

slowing (diffusing) the gas velocity

SEPERATORS

A well-stream is a mixture of gases hydrocarbon liquids water solids and

contaminants Due to variations in pressure and temperature gases evolve from

the liquids water vapor condenses and some of the well-stream changes to liquid

and free gas The separation of well-stream fluids takes place in a separator This

pressure vessel is manufactured in three forms

1 horizontal

2 vertical

3 spherical

To help separation the vessel is normally designed with a series of internal

fittings These fittings are built into the separator to ensure total phase separation

of the well-stream

In gas plants separators are given alternative names due to the function they

perform in the process system A scrubber does a similar job to a knockout drum

However the scrubber usually separates a stream containing high gas-to-liquid

ratios The knockout drum is used where a high degree of liquids are entrained in

the gas

Fluid flow from a well can include gas condensable liquid vapors water water

vapor crude oil and solids As well-stream fluids reach ground level where

pressure is lower than in the reservoir the capacity of the liquid to hold gas in

solution decreases and gas separates out of the oil

Separation depends upon the effect of gravity to separate liquids For adequate

separation one fluid must be lighter than the other fluid For example distillates

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(gasoline kerosene etc) and crude oil will not separate in a vessel because they

tend to dissolve in each other Because a separator basically depends upon

gravity to separate the fluids the ease with which separation takes place

depends upon the difference in density of the fluids

Droplets of liquid will separate from gas provided

a) The gas remains in the separator long enough

b) The gas flow remains constant to provoke separation

The difference in density between a gas and liquid will therefore determine the

maximum flow rate of liquid in the vessel

Figure Two phase horizontal separator

Gas bubbles in the liquid will break out in some oil field applications in 30 to 60

seconds Consequently the separator is designed so that the liquid remains in

the vessel for 30 to 60 seconds The length of time that a liquid remains in the

vessel is called its residence time Residence time differs widely from field to field

depending upon viscosity and API Gravity

Another important factor which must be considered is temperature Generally a

decrease in operating temperature will increase the liquid recovery in a separator

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as the gas condenses By reducing the pressure on the fluid flash separation

occurs resulting in a flow through the separator which is controlled by external

instrumentation

COALESCENCE

Another important principle in fluid separation is that of coalescence This means

the coming together of liquid droplets created by the force of gravity

A common example of coalescing occurs when drops of water form on the

windshield of a car as it is driven in fog As the tiny drops or water which make up

the fog strike the windshield they combine and eventually form a drop large

enough to run down the glass

Several of the internal devices of a separator such as deflector plates

straightening vanes and even the vessel walls are forms of coalescers In each

vessel drops of liquid adhere to the surface of the device and combine with other

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drops until the drop is large enough to fall out The effectiveness of separation

will also depend upon the total amount of coalescing surface area that is present

There are many different types of separators used in the Oil amp Gas industry

Consequently separators are manufactured with one two or several internal

fittings depending on their use and quick removal of these fluids from the vessel

DEFLECTOR PLATES

These are fitted in front of the inlet to the separator and can be net or

dish-shaped Their purpose is to absorb the impact of the incoming fluids and to

encourage the separation of gas and liquids They also slow the flow rate of the

liquids through the vessel

WEIRS

A weir is a metal wall which is fitted across the inside of the vessel normally to a

height of 50 of the overall height of the separator Its purpose is to assist the

process of three phase separation The inlet fluids (oil plus water) are given time

to separate in the liquid accumulation section The water level (interface) is

normally controlled at 50 of the height of the weir Oil floating on the wateroverflows the weir and accumulates in the small oil compartment where it is

drawn off under level control

CENTRIFUGAL DEVICES

These are used in both vertical and horizontal separators for gas-liquid

separation The device imparts a swirling motion to the fluids entering the vessel

Centrifugal force causes the heavier liquids to travel outwards towards the walls

of the vessel and the lighter gases to flow up the centre Centrifugal devices are

also known as cyclones

VORTEX BREAKERS

When liquid flows through a drain outlet a vortex (whirlpool) will form This can

be seen when we pull the plug from a sink or bath tub The same would happen

as water and oil flow from the separator This condition a vortex could allow gas

to flow down the centre of the whirlpool and enter the liquid phase causing

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pressurizing of tanks etc To stop this happening vortex breakers are fitted to all

liquid outlets Although they come in a number of different designs vortex

breakers all serve the same purpose - to prevent a whirlpool from forming

MIST OR DEMISTER PADS

The gas which is released from the fluids in the separator still contains droplets of

oil and water which coalesce and fall when the drops get large enough The

demister pad assists in this process Made from knitted wire and contained within

a sturdy frame it causes the gas to continually change its direction of flow

Because gas changes direction far easier than liquid the gas will flow around

each strand of wire whilst the liquid entrained in the gas stream will continue and

stick to the wire

COALESCING PLATES

There are several different forms of coalescing devices the most common of

which are coalescing plates These plates are mounted in the flow stream of the

fluids and assist in breaking down oil-water emulsions The fluid is forced to

follow a path that constantly changes direction This causes the water droplets to

gather together or coalesce and fall to the bottom of the separator The same

principle is used to separate gas and oil mixtures when the oil droplets are

induced to coalesce Simply stated every surface within the separator including

the separator walls assists with the coalescing process

STRAIGHTENlNG VANES

These are often fitted to horizontal separators to remove turbulence in the gas

stream after initial separation at the inlet deflector

FLOAT SHEILD

Internal floats are used as level controllers Any agitation of the liquid surface or

the effect of coalesced liquids falling on the float may cause control problems

Therefore a float shield is fitted to enclose the float creating an area of still liquid

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MEMBRANES

The gas contains 12 carbon dioxide and 22 ppm of hydrogen sulphide at 115oF

and 1100 psig This needs to be removed before the gas can be exported The

majority of carbon dioxide hydrogen sulphide and water is removed by means of

membranes

Membranes are thin semipermeable barriers that selectively separate some

compounds from others Currently the only commercially workable membranes

used for CO2 removal are polymer based for example cellulose acetate

polyimides polyamides polysulfone polycarbonates and polyetherimide The

membrane does not operate as a filter where small molecules are separated

from larger ones through a medium with pores rather it separates based on how

well different compounds dissolve into the membrane and diffuse through it The

membranes are manufactured in flat sheets consisting of an extremely thin

nonporous layer mounted on a much-thicker and highly porous layer of the same

material providing mechanical strength The flat sheets are combined into a

spiral-wound element (Figure below) Feed gas enters along the side of the

membrane and passes through the feed spacers As the gas travels between

membrane sheets CO2 H2S and H2O permeate through the membrane and are

collected in the permeate tube The driving force for transport is the high-feed

pressure and low-permeate pressures The gas on the feed side that does not

permeate leaves through the side of the element opposite the feed position Once

the membranes have been manufactured into elements six to 12 elements are

joined together and inserted into a tube Multiple tubes are mounted on skids in a

horizontal orientation

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Figure Membrane general Working

In high H2S applications most polymers have been shown to have very little

resistance to H2S plasticization (ldquosofteningrdquo of the membrane) and as a

consequence can only be used at very low H2S partial pressure limits Cellulose

acetate membranes in contrast have been shown to be applicable at extreme

H2S partial pressure conditions It is these membranes that have been utilized in

the testing to determine the limits of membrane performance in high H 2S

applications

The primary membranes used in Kadanwari facility are Cellulose acetate

Cellulose acetic acid and acetic anhydride are mixed together and reacted to

form cellulose acetate polymers This process is aided by the addition of a small

amount of sulfuric acid which is subsequently neutralized during processing

However the membranes are bought from UOP (vendor) and installed for use

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How membrane work

The basic principle of separation is selectivity of certain components of a mixture

for the membrane For example the cellulose acetate membrane has very high

selectivity for CO2 and H2S as compared to CH4 Therefore such type of

membrane can be used in gas sweetening process

The selectivity is directly related to the Permeability of gas which accounts that

which gas can pass across the membrane more easily In simple words

membranes being polymer materials are made of long chains of molecules The

different structure of polymer materials only allow selective molecules to pass

through them depending upon chemical and physical compatibility Thus

permeability depends upon choice of polymer

The permeability is determined by permeability coefficient (P) and is product of

solubility (S) and diffusivity (D)

P = S D

Solubility

The solubility is mainly determined by ease of condensation Heavy molecules

are more readily condensed Therefore higher molecular weighted molecules will

more easily condensed and therefore have greater solubility

Molecule Molecular weight

CH4 16

H2S 34

CO2 44

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Diffusivity

Diffusivity is ease of molecule to penetrate into some material It depends on size

of gas molecule Here size of molecule is not to be confused by molecular weight

it is the size of the structure Eg the size of O2 molecule is smaller than N2

Molecule Molecular Diameter (Ao)

CO2 33

H2S 36

Ch4 40

For cellulose acetate

DCO2DCH4 S CO2S CH4 P CO2P CH4

45 73 308

Chemical degradation

Cellulose acetate polymer is chemically degraded by a process called hydrolysis

which means breaking apart by the addition of water This is a chemical reaction

in which water is added to the cellulose acetate polymer causing the release of

acetic acid molecules This process proceeds stepwise until all the acetate

groups are released resulting in the reformation of cellulose Moreover alcohols

aromatic hydrocarbons or solvents with chlorine nitro benzene or similar

aromatic solvents will harm the membrane It will expand and lose plastification in

contact with them

Effect of Temperature

The permeation rates of all gases increases with increasing temperature

however membrane selectivity for CO2 over hydrocarbon decreases at higher

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temperature Consequently CO2 removal will improve as operating temperature

increases but hydro carbon recovery will decrease

Primary Membrane

The primary membranes comprise of two trains Each train consists of two

sections AB and CD each section consists of a 30 tube membrane skid (A and

C) followed by a 25 tube skid (B and D) The conditioned gas (after pre-

treatment) enters the primary membrane via the particulate filter adjacent to the

skid The gas is fed to the membranes through a common inlet manifold which

supplies primary membranes skids A and C A pressure control loop located

upstream of the manual inlet isolation valve is provided to maintain a constant

supply pressure to the membrane skid and to allow for preheating at the inlet

prior to skid start-up This pressure control loop can also be used during start-up

to control the pressurization of the pretreatment skid and associated pipes to the

primary membranes

The gas passes through membrane skid A the residual gas exiting the membrane

skid is sent to skid B and the permeate to common permeate discharge header An

identical arrangement is provide on the inlet to skid C as provided on skid A Theresidual gas from skid B combines with the residual gas from skid D in a common

discharge header and is then sent to the H2S polishing towers via the feed coolers

on the pre-treatment skid The permeate from skid B is sent to the common

permeate discharge header The permeate discharge header sends the gas to

either the recycle compressor or the vent header via a pressure control loop

Overpressure protection for the membranes is provided by a pressure safety valve

on the supply header to the membrane banks

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Secondary (Recycle) Membrane

The recycle membranes comprise of a single train with two skids each with four

banks of membrane tubes The conditioned gas from the discharge of the recycle

pre-treatment skid is routed to the first recycle membrane skid The gas passes

through the membranes the residual gas is fed to primary membrane (skid A) inlet

via feed gas cooler and permeate to the common permeate discharge header An

identical arrangement is provide on the inlet to skid B Permeate from the recycle

membrane skids A and B is routed to the vent header Some portion of permeate is

heated and sent for regeneration in Mem-Guard units Nitrogen purge can be

connected downstream of the inlet isolation valve on each skid to enable the

membrane tubes to be purged and left pressurized during prolonged shutdown

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Figure Flow Diagram of Recycle membrane unit

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ADVANTAGES OF MEMBRANE SYSTEMS

Membrane systems have major advantages over more-traditional methods of

acid gas removal

Lower capital cost Membrane systems are skid mounted and so the

scope cost and time taken for site preparation are minimal Installation

costs are significantly lower than alternative technologies especially for

remote areas Furthermore no additional facilities for solvent storage and

water treatment needed by other processes are required

Lower operating costs The only major operating cost for single-stage

membrane systems is membrane replacement This cost is significantly

lower than the solvent replacement and energy costs associated with

traditional technologies The improvements in membrane and

pretreatment design allow a longer useful membrane life which further

reduces operating costs The energy costs of multistage systems with

large recycle compressors are usually comparable to those for traditionaltechnologies

Deferred capital investment Often contracted sales-gas flow rates

increase over time as more wells are brought on-line With traditional

technologies the system design needs to take this later production into

account immediately and so the majority of the equipment is installed

before it is even needed The modular nature of membrane systems

means that only the membranes that are needed at start-up need be

installed The rest can be added either into existing tubes or in new skids

only when they are required

Operational simplicity and high reliability Because single-stage

membrane systems have no moving parts they have almost no

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unscheduled downtime and are extremely simple to operate They can

operate unattended for long periods of time The addition of a recycle

compressor adds some complexity to the system but still much less than

with a solvent- or adsorbent-based technology Multistage systems can be

operated at full capacity as single-stage systems when the recycle

compressor is down

Good weight and space efficiency Skid construction can be optimized

to the space available This space efficiency is especially important for

offshore environments where deck area is at a premium and is the

reason why so many new offshore developments have chosen to use

membranes for acid gas removal Figure 6 illustrates the space efficiency

of membrane systems The membrane unit in the lower left corner

replaced all the amine and glycol plant equipment shown in the rest of the

picture

Adaptability Because membrane area is dictated by the percentage of

acid gas removal rather than absolute acid gas removal small variations

in feed acid gas content hardly change the sales-gas acid gas

specification For example a system designed for 10 down to 3 acid

gas removal produces a 35 product from a 12 feed gas and a 5

product from a 15 feed gas

Design efficiency The membrane and pretreatment systems integrate a

number of operations such as dehydration CO2 and H2S removal dew-

point control and mercury removal Traditional acid gas removal

technologies require all of these operations as separate processes and

may also require additional dehydration because some technologies

saturate the product stream with water

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Power generation The permeate gas from membrane systems can be

used to provide fuel gas for power generation either for a recycle

compressor or other equipment

Ideal for debottlenecking Because expanding solvent- or adsorbent-

based acid gas removal plants without adding additional trains is difficult

an ideal solution is to use membranes for bulk acid gas removal and leave

the existing plant for final cleanup An additional advantage is that the

permeate gas from the membrane system can often be used as fuel for

the existing plant thus avoiding significant increase in hydrocarbon

losses

Environmentally friendly Membrane systems do not involve the

periodic removal and handling of spent solvents or adsorbents Permeate

gases can be flared used as fuel or re-injected into the well Items thatdo need disposal such as spent membrane elements can be incinerated

Ideal for remote locations Many of the factors mentioned above make

membrane systems a highly desirable technology for remote locations

where spare parts are rare and labor unskilled Furthermore solvents

storage and trucking water supply power generation or extensive

infrastructure are not required

Re-injection optimizations Since the permeate stream from the

membrane system can be operated at elevated pressures it is possible to

further pressurize by re-injection compression train

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Sorption

Sorption is a physical and chemical process by which one substance becomes

attached to another

It is of two main types

1 Absorption

2 Adsorption

Absorption

Absorption is a physical or chemical phenomenon or process in which atoms

molecules or ions enter some bulk phase ndash gas liquid or solid material This is a

different process from adsorption since molecules undergoing absorption are

taken up by the volume not by the surface (as in the case for adsorption)

Absorption process may be chemical (reactive) or physical (non-reactive)

Physical absorption

Physical absorption or non-reactive absorption is made between two phases ofmatter a liquid absorbs a gas or a solid absorbs a liquid

When a liquid solvent absorbs a gas mixture or part of it a mass of gas moves

into the liquid For example water may absorb oxygen from the air This mass

transfer takes place at the interface between the liquid and the gas at a rate

depending on both the gas and the liquid This type of absorption depends on the

solubility of gases the pressure and the temperature The rate and amount of

absorption also depend on the surface area of the interface and its duration in

time

When a solid absorbs a liquid mixture or part of it a mass of liquid moves into the

solid For example a clay pot used to store water may absorb some of the water

This mass transfer takes place at the interface between the solid and the liquid

at a rate depending on both the solid and the liquid

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Chemical absorption

Chemical absorption or reactive absorption is a chemical reaction between the

absorbed and the absorbing substances Sometimes it combines with physical

absorption This type of absorption depends upon the stoichiometry of the

reaction and the concentration of its reactants

Adsorption

Adsorption is the adhesion of atoms ions or molecules from a gas liquid or

dissolved solid to a surface This process creates a film of the adsorbate on the

surface of the adsorbent The binding to the surface is usually weak and

reversible Compounds with color and those that have taste or odor tend to bind

strongly Compounds that vibrate at frequencies in the visible spectrum are very

often are strongly adsorbed on activated carbon

The most common industrial adsorbents are activated carbon silica gel and

alumina because they present enormous surface areas per unit weight

Depending on the nature of attractive forces existing between the adsorbate and

adsorbent adsorption can be classified as

i) Physical adsorption

ii) Chemical adsorption

i) Physical adsorption (Physisorption)

In physical adsorption the forces of attraction between the molecules of the

adsorbate and the adsorbent are of the weak van der Waals type Since the

forces of attraction are weak the process of physisorption can be easily reversed

by heating or decreasing the pressure of the adsorbate (as in the case of gases)

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ii) Chemical adsorption (Chemisorption)

In chemisorption the forces of attraction between the adsorbate and the

adsorbent are very strong the molecules of adsorbate form chemical bonds with

the molecules of the adsorbent present in the surface

Adsorption is generally accompanied by release of energy that is most

adsorption processes are exothermic in nature Adsorption is a spontaneous

process therefore its free energy change is negative (∆Glt0) However the

entropy change associated with adsorption is generally negative because the

adsorbate molecules lose their translation freedom when they get attached to the

surface of the adsorbent Therefore in order for ∆G to be negative the enthalpy

change (∆H) must be sufficiently negative such that (∆G=∆H-T∆S) lt 0 This

explanation accounts for exothermic adsorption processes In cases where

endothermic adsorption occurs the entropy change ∆S is sufficiently positive

such that ∆G remains negative

Pre treatment

The main function of pretreatment skid is to provide membrane inlet specification

gas as mentioned by the vendor UOP It removes the contaminants that would

poison the membranes like dust solids (adsorbent particles) lube oil heavy

hydrocarbons etc It consists of

Feed Cooler

Feed Gas Scrubber

Filter Coalescer

Feed Gas Heater

Activated Carbon Guard Filter

Particle Filter

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The regeneration is carried out by heated permeate gas from the recycle

membranes at 450oF The vessel is depressurized to 20 psi and heated gas is

introduced from top The gas carries out the adsorbed contaminants and leaves

the vessel from bottom cleaning the adsorbent This contaminated gas is burnt in

the flare

UOP the vendor of Memguard unit has never disclosed that what substance

MG3 and MG5 exactly are But as mentioned by vendor that both care class of

aluminosilicates Therefore MG3 can be potassium aluminosilicate and MG5 can

be Calcium aluminosilicate These are molecular sieves adsorbents Molecular

sieves are a microporous material which can selectively adsorb gases andliquids They are synthetic zeolites (crystalline metal aluminosilicates) which

upon dehydration can efficiently and selectively remove water or other

solvents The selectivity of a molecular sieve is determined by its pore size

molecules with a critical diameter which is less than the pore size will be

efficiently adsorbed while larger molecules will be excluded

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3A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

The 3A molecular sieve adsorbent has a 3 angstrom (3A) pore size which means

that any molecule that is larger than the 3 angstrom pores will not be adsorbed

The 3A molecular sieve is the potassium type of A crystalline structure and is a

form of alkali Aluminosilicate For a 3A molecular sieve the sequence rate that

adsorption occurs is He Ne N and H2O

Due to the crystalline structure molecular sieves that have a 3 angstrom pore

size have a very high rate of adsorption and properties that promote a longer life

for products treated by the sieve The most common use for the 3A molecular

sieve is to remove water and moisture from materials that are in gas and liquid

form

5A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

These are molecular sieve adsorbents with a pore size of 5 angstrom (5A) 5A

molecular sieves are unable to adsorb any molecules or impurities that are

smaller than 5A It is calcium form of type A crystalline structure and is form of analkali-aluminosilicate that is most commonly used to separate isomerous alkanes

from normal alkanes and to co-adsorb moisture and water along with carbon

dioxide from gases In additional 5A molecular sieves are used for gaseous

pressure swing adsorption (PSA)mdashthat is to separate particular gases from other

gases

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of C3H8 to C22H46

Adsorption of Freon-12 (dichlorodifluoromethane)

Natural gas drying

Normal- and iso-paraffin separation

Separation of aromatic

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Inlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1096

MEHTANE 8593

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008

N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGEN 076

WATER 007

Outlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1098

MEHTANE 8608

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGENT 076

WATER 000

H2S polisher

The H2S polishing unit has been designed to treat 187 MMscfday of natural gas

containing up to 11 CO2 and 21 ppm H2S where the level of the CO2 and H2S

is reduced using a MemGuard Membrane separation unit The unit is situated

down-stream of the membrane unit and will further reduce the level of H2S in the

processed gas to a sales gas specification of 38 ppm

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This process uses three non-regenerable fixed bed absorber vessels using a low

temperature high activity absorbent The absorbent is a mixture of activated

metal oxides (mainly zinc oxide) The three towers can are generally operated in

parallel arrangement but on demand can be used in series (any of alternate

arrangements of A B C vessels) as shown in figure

The higher sales gas flow rate increased the catalyst consumption and

replacement frequency

ZnO + H2S =gt ZnS + H20

Routine samples are taken from the beds to provide a check on each bed

performance and to follow the saturation profile during the absorbent life After

the adsorbent has been fully utilized the adsorption vessels are recharged with

new adsorbent discarding the utilized one in a safe manner

109oF

1215 psig

Before H2S Polishing After H2S Polishing

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Figure

H2S Tower

Inlet pipe

4 Drums of 19mm

ceramic Balls

6 Micron mesh

5 Drums of 50mmceramic

1 Drums of19mm ceramic

01 Drums of6mm ceramic

112 drums of

Catalist ZnO

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Recycle Compressor

The permeate gas of the primary membrane unit carries recoverable amount of

CH4 It is fed to recycle membrane unit for further CH 4 recovery But the

permeate pressure from primary membranes which has been reduced to 12 psi

must be regenerated to 1200 psi for the gas to be fed again to the system For

this purpose we have employed recycle compressor The compressor is a four

stage centrifugal compressor It is driven by gas turbine of 31200 HP It has 25

MW producing capacity

Figure Recycle Compressor Process Flow Diagram

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Sales Gas Compressor

Gas from H2S polishing unit is sent to sales gas compressor where its pressure

is enhanced to 1100 psi so it may be injected to SNGPL high pressure trunk line

Sales gas compressor is single stage gas turbine driven

Figure Process Flow of Sales Gas Compressor

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Cooling Towers

A cooling tower is a heat rejection device which extracts waste heat to theatmosphere through the cooling of a water stream to a lower temperature Hot

water from the system enters the cooling tower and is distributed over the fill

(heat transfer surface) Air is induced or forced through the fill causing a small

portion of the water to evaporate This evaporation removes heat from the

remaining water which is collected in the cold water basin and returned to the

system to absorb more heat Each cooling tower line although operating under

the same basic principle of operation is arranged a little differently

Types

Natural draft mdash Utilizes buoyancy via a tall chimney Warm moist air naturally

rises due to the density differential compared to the dry cooler outside air Warm

moist air is less dense than drier air at the same pressure This moist air

buoyancy produces an upwards current of air through the tower

Mechanical draft mdash Uses power-driven fan motors to force or draw airthrough the tower

o Induced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a fan at the

discharge (at the top) which pulls air up through the tower The fan

induces hot moist air out the discharge This produces low entering

and high exiting air velocities reducing the possibility of

recirculation in which discharged air flows back into the air intake

o Forced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a blower type fan at

the intake The fan forces air into the tower creating high entering

and low exiting air velocities The low exiting velocity is much more

susceptible to recirculation This fanfill geometry is also known as

blow-through

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Forced Draft Cooling Tower Vs Induced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower have the ability to handle large water flow

rate than Forced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower is suitable for large cell sizes and fan sizes

as compared with Forced Draft Larger fan size may result in greater

efficiency and consequently lower power and sound level

Forced Draft Cooling Tower can be square or rectangular type only

however Induced Draft Cooling Towers can be round square or

rectangular type

Induced Draft Cooling Tower uses more compact ground area than Forced

Draft Cooling Tower equivalent capacity due to absence of fan on one

side

Fan equipment is warm exhaust air is less liable to icing up in winter

operation (Cold Countries)

Higher velocity in Forced Draft Cooling Tower cause drop in suspension

and cause additional static resistance to system

Configuration

There are two main configurations of factory assembled cooling towers crossflow

and counterflow In crossflow cooling towers the water flows vertically down the

fill as air flows horizontally across In counterflow cooling towers the water flows

vertically down the fill as air flows vertically up

Crossflow Configuration Counterflow Configuration

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Drift mdash Water droplets that are carried out of the cooling tower with the exhaust

air Drift droplets have the same concentration of impurities as the water entering

the tower The drift rate is typically reduced by employing baffle-like devices

called drift eliminators through which the air must travel after leaving the fill and

spray zones of the tower

Blow-out mdash Water droplets blown out of the cooling tower by wind generally at

the air inlet openings Water may also be lost in the absence of wind through

splashing or misting Devices such as wind screens louvers splash deflectors

and water diverters are used to limit these losses

Blow-down mdash The portion of the circulating water flow that is removed (usually

discharged to a drain) in order to maintain the amount of Total Dissolved Solids

(TDS) and other impurities at an acceptably low level Higher TDS concentration

in solution may result from greater cooling tower efficiency However the higher

the TDS concentration the greater the risk of scale biological growth and

corrosion

Make-up mdash The water that must be added to the circulating water system in

order to compensate for water losses such as evaporation drift loss blow-out

blow-down etc

Approach mdash The approach is the difference in temperature between the cooled-

water temperature and the entering-air wet bulb temperature

Range mdash The range is the temperature difference between the warm water inlet

and cooled water exit

Fill mdash Inside the tower fills are added to increase contact surface as well as

contact time between air and water to provide better heat transfer The efficiency

of the tower depends on the selection and amount of fill

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There are two types of fills that may be used

o Film type fill (causes water to spread into a thin film)

o Splash type fill (breaks up falling stream of water and interrupts its

vertical progress)

Important

Scale build up is controlled by adding chemicals to the cooling loop and diluting

the concentration by blow down and make-up Following chemicals are added to

the Cooling to control CorrosionSale and microbial growth

Corrosion Inhibitor To control corrosion in the Cooling system

Dispersant To kept ions in suspension to avoid settle down and buildup

Sodium hypo Chlorite To Control microbial Growth

Acid To control Alkalinity in the system

High Stress Polymer To run the system at higher conductivity It is a

multifunctional polymer for Zinc amp Phosphate stabilization in cooling tower

Fin Fan Cooler

Fin fan heat exchanger is simply a pressure vessel which cools a circulating fluid

within finned tubes by forcing ambient air over the exterior of the tubes A

common example of an air cooler is a carrsquos radiator Fin Fan Coolers are used in

any application where large quantities of heat need to be transferred This

includes chemical and petrochemical industries power stations waste-to-energy

facilities as well as steelworks

Fin Fan Cooler are used for two primary reasons

They increase plant efficiency

They are a green solution as compared to cooling towers and shell and

tube heat exchangers because they do not require an auxiliary water

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supply (water lost due to drift and evaporation plus no water treatment

chemicals are required)

Figure General Overview of Fin Fan Cooler

Produced Water

The produced water system receives liquid from the equipment Miano slug

catcher train 1 and 2 inlet separators and is fed to three phase separator where

water oil and gas is separated The gases produced are burnt in incinerator

whereas hydrocarbon liquid is stored to be sold Liquid from compressors

recycle inlet separator recycle feed scrubber high and low pressure slug

catchers is passed to degasser Separated water is injected down the earth

Incinerator

The term incinerate means to burn something until nothing is left but ashes An

incinerator is a unit or facility used to burn trash and other types of waste until it is

reduced to ash An incinerator is constructed of heavy well-insulated materials

so that it does not give off extreme amounts of external heat The high levels of

heat are kept inside the furnace or unit so that the waste is burned quickly and

efficiently If the heat were allowed to escape the waste would not burn as

completely or as rapidly

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Control System

The plant is controlled at CCR (Central Control Room) by PLCs (Programmable

Logic Controllers) through fiber optic control line All control parameters are

received at LER (Local Equipment Room) via two optic fiber control lines One

being primary and other secondary operating in redundancy ie if primary fails

control shifts to secondary These control parameters are sent to CCR via single

optic fiber cable

Safety System

Wellheads and Gas Processing Plant have their own Fire amp Gas detection

systems emergency shutdown (ESD) Plant has a fault tolerant controller It is

based on Triple Modular Redundant (TMR) architecture manufactured by

Triconex The TMR system is based on three isolated parallel control systems

integrated into one system The system operates on a two out of three voting

principle which provides high integrity error free uninterrupted operation with no

single point of failure The TMR receives inputs from Process Sensors Manual

Switches Fire amp Gas Detectors Packaged Equipment Control Systems and

Product Exporting Facilities The TMR carries out cause and effect processing on

the data received and where necessary produces output signals Outputs from

the TMR are hard wired directly to ESD shutdown and blow down valve

solenoids motor control instrumentelectrical interfaces to control electrical

drives package equipment logic control systems manifold area as well as

telecoms

The operator in central control room is able to accept alarms and once the fault

has been cleared reset the input All the control systems are centralized to a

single interface All the PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers) communicate with

the servers and servers communicate with the clients through Ethernet connectivity

Centralization eases the navigation of different systems at a common interface

Emergency Shutdown

The ESD system receives inputs from field mounted instrumentation on the process

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and utility equipment and initiates executive actions appropriate to the level of ESD

The system is an Active system which is in standby and will activate when in an

alarm or fault condition The Kadanwari Gas Process Facility ESD system is

comprised of five (5) levels The emergency severity decreases with increasing ESD

level number

ESD 1

This shutdown level is automatically initiated by fire major gas leak or a detected

toxic atmosphere in the process area of the plant or manually from CCR A level 1

shutdown will cause all production to cease close all emergency shutdown

valves stop the process and shutdown of the main power generation The

emergency vent valves to the stack will open and in addition all equipment of zone 1

certified will be isolated This is the highest level of ESD and will cause the following

to occur

All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close All slowdown Valves (BDVs) on the process facility will open

All Main Gas Driven Generators will be tripped

Emergency Diesel Generator will start

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close Upper Master Valve

(UMV) Close

ESD 2

This shutdown level is activated automatically if a major process or utility failure

occurs or manually from CCR All production to the plant from the wellhead is

stopped All emergency shutdown valves trip to their fail safe position

Venting shall be as specified This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

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All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valve Close Wing Valves Close and Upper Master Valve(UMV) Close

ESD 3

The level 3 shutdown isolates and stops a single process train only Production

continues via the other train This ESD level is initiated by process conditions or

operator at local panel This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

ESD 3A Train 1 production to cease

ESD 3B Train 2 production to cease

All online wellhead choke valves go to minimum flow ie (1O )

ESD 4

A level 4 shutdown shall cease all production from an entire field either

Kadanwari or Miano upstream of the associated slug catchers ESD 4K for

Kadanwari amp ESD 4M for Miano This ESD level is initiated automatically by slug

catcher abnormal process conditions This level of ESD will cause the following

to occur

All SDVs close isolating the relevant slug catcher and its upstream gas

production facility from the Kadanwari Gas Processing Plant

All Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close and Upper MasterValves (UMV) of the relevant gas production facility Close

A parallel timer is provided to close within 10 second if not closed in given

time SSSV seals the well

ESD 5

A level 5 shutdown represents equipment shutdown for the protection of the

individual equipment without any change in the process This level of ESD is for the

protection of various pieces of equipment and is initiated by its own inputs eg

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suspends it for maintenance of well head Also it is used to permanently kill the

well A chemical is injected down the well that seals the piping down the well and

kills the well permanently

Swab valve

The swab valve is used to gain access to the well for wire line operations

intervention and other work over procedure On top of it is a tree adapter

and cap that will mate with various equipment For such operations a

lubricator is assembled up onto the top of the tree and the wire or coil is lowered

through the lubricator through swab valve and into the well This valve is typically

manually operated

Choke

A choke holds back pressure by restricting the flow opening at the well head This

is done to make better use of the gas for natural gas lift and to control the bottom-

hole pressure for recovery reasons

CHECK VALVE

The check is introduced in production flow line to prevent any reverse flow from

the line into the well It has a hinged flap which lifts to permit normal flow but

closes to prevent reverse flow

TOP ADAPTOR

The top adaptor is a fitting on top of the swab valve with a threaded connection

During normal well operations a pressure gauge is fitted to monitor flowing and

shut in wellhead pressures However during well service operations the cap can

be removed to allow installation of lubricators for wire-line operations

SCSSSV (Surface Control Sub Surface Safety Valve)

A subsurface safety valve is essentially a shutdown valve installed at the upper

wellbore for emergency shutdown to protect the production tubing and wellhead

in case of overpressure Subsurface safety valves can offer a barrier against flow

in the event of a wellhead collapse or other disastrous event Purpose of asubsurface safety valve (SSSV) is to avoid the ultimate disaster which can result

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in release of reservoir fluids to the surroundings This makes SSSV a very

important component of a well completion

A subsurface safety valve is typically a uni-directional flapper valve directed in

such a way that the flappers open downwards when pressure is applied from an

upward direction The flapper can only open in the downward direction So even if

high pressure is applied by the well fluids from a

downward direction a safety valve can remain

closed This makes a subsurface safety valve fail-

safe To open the valve hydraulic signal is sent from

the surface well control panel This hydraulic

pressure is responsible for keeping the flappers of

SSSV open and loss of hydraulic pressure result in

closing of the valve Thus wellbore can be isolated in

case of system failure or damage to the surface

facilities

Types of Christmas tree

There are two types of Christmas Tree

1 Solid block

2 Conventional

The solid block Christmas Tree has a central solid unit holding several valves

in a pre-constructed block Their advantage is the reduction in potential leak

paths and their higher pressure rating (Fig 2)

The conventional Christmas Tree is built up from individual valves bolted

together to form an assembly (Fig 3)

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Figure 2

Figure 3

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Wellhead Control Panel

Wellhead control panel is key equipment in oil amp gas industry to protect oilfield

facilities and environment from emergency incidents such as wellhead fire which

is one of main control systems to ensure oilfield oil production and transportation

to be safely operation according to international standards and national

regulation Wellhead control panel is composed of hydraulic power unit tubing amp

fitting and instrument valve and electrical control devices Hydraulic power unit

supply hydraulic resource to open and close safety valves including master

valves wing valves and SCSSSV

Its performs

Local OnOff SSV

Remote control SSV through RTU( remote terminal unit)

High-Low pressure sense shut-down automatically

Fusible Plug Anti-fire Shut-down automatically

Function of showing system pressure

Relief Valve shall be installed on each hydraulic circuit to prevent high

pressure

Function of showing hydraulic level and level switch for alarm

Function of defending pressure impact of system

Function of system pressure monitoring (by pressure transmitter of control

panel)

Function of remote emergency shut-down (by magnetic valve of control

panel)

Function of OnOff SSV monitoring (by pressure switch of control loop of

control panel)

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Chemical Injection

Chemical injection systems are commonly used in production facilities to prevent

or eliminate a wide range of problems that might negatively affect the production

flow It is done for flow assurance protection of process equipment such as

pipelines or to optimize processes in production facilities

Typical flow assurance chemicals are

Wax inhibitors

Pour point depressants

Asphaltene inhibitors

Corrosion inhibitors

A corrosion inhibitor is a chemical compound that is added to liquid or gas to

decreases the corrosion rate of a material typically a metal or an alloy The

effectiveness of a corrosion inhibitor depends on fluid composition quantity of

water and flow regime Its common mechanism involves formation of a coating

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which prevents access of the corrosive substance to the metal The corrosive

agents are generally oxygen hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide

At our production site the major risk is corrosion of piping and equipment The

maximum allowable corrosion rate is approximately 02 mm per year and

corrosion rate without inhibitor could be approximately 11 mm per year so the

corrosion protection program is designed to achieve a target corrosion rate of

less than 01 mm per year which is achieved by an inhibitor system efficiency of

99 Inhibitor is injected into the well stream flow through an atomizing nozzle

located downstream of the respective wellhead coolers at the duplexcarbon steel

interface In normal operation as per NALCO standards chemical (brand name

EC1144B) at rate of frac12 Liter per MMSCFD of gas is being injected into the flow

line of miano15 flow lines made of carbon steel Moreover the composition can

vary depending upon the composition of well fluids and material of pipeline This

method of injection ensures even distribution of the chemical on the interior

surface of the pipeline The individual well sites are equipped with Chemical

Injection Packages comprising of a stainless steel storage tank and two

pneumatic motor driven pumps in parallel Instrument gas is used to drive the

pumps Normally one pump is running with the other standby

Water Conning

Water coning is a term used to describe the mechanism underlying the upward

movement of water into the perforations of a producing well Coning can seriously

impact the well productivity and influence the degree of depletion and the overall

recovery efficiency of the reservoir The specific problems of water coning are

listed below

Costly added water handling

Gas production from the original or secondary gas cap reduces pressure

Reduced efficiency of the depletion mechanism

The water is often corrosive and its disposal costly

The affected well may be abandoned early

Loss of the total field overall recovery

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Therefore conning has an important influence on operations recovery and

economics The phenomena is shown in picture below

Corrosion

Corrosion is referred as chemical deterioration of a metal Commonly this

means loss of electrons of metals reacting with water and oxygen

Weakening of iron due to oxidation of the iron atoms is a well-known

example of electrochemical corrosion This is commonly known as

rust Most structural alloys corrode merely from exposure to moisture

in the air but the process can be strongly affected by exposure to

certain substances Corrosion can be concentrated locally to form a pit

or crack or it can extend across a wide area to produce general

deterioration (uniform corrosion)

The following reaction takes place at the active sites

2Fe =gt 2Fe++ + 4e-

The free electrons travel through the metal path to the less active sites where

the following reaction takes place

O2 + 4e- + 2H20 =gt 4 OH-

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Recombination of these ions at the active surface produce the following

reaction which yields the iron-corrosion product ferrous hydroxide

2Fe + O2 + 2H2O =gt 2Fe (OH) 2

CORROSION PROTECTION SYSTEM

Coatings and painting

Painting and the application of enamel bitumen and PVC

coating are the most common anti-corrosion treatments They

work by providing a barrier of corrosion-resistant material

between the damaging environment and the structural material

Corrosion Inhibitors

Corrosion inhibitor is injected into the flow lines as mentioned in

detail on page 8

Cathodic Protection

Cathodic Protection (CP) is a technique used to control the corrosion of a

metal surface by making it the cathode of an electrochemical cell It

converts all of the anodic (active) sites on the metal surface to cathodic

(passive) sites by supplying electrical current (or free electrons) from an

alternate source It is accomplished in two ways

a) A simple method of protection connects protected metal to a more easily

corroded sacrificial metal to act as the anode The sacrificial metal then

corrodes instead of the protected metal The process is similar to a simple

DC cell in which the more active metal becomes the anode and corrodes

whereas the less active metal becomes the cathode and is protected

b) For larger structures galvanic anodes cannot economically deliver enough

current to provide protection Therefore impressed current cathodic

protection (ICCP) systems are used These consist of anodes connected

to a DC power source In remote areas power sources such as solar

panels may be used The output DC negative terminal is connected to the

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frequently to limit liquid holdup and minimize the slug volumes of liquid which can

be generated by the system

Coating

Pigs may be used to apply internal pipe coatings such as epoxy coating

materials in operating pipelines Pigs may also be used with corrosion inhibitors

to distribute and coat the entire internal wetted perimeter

Inspection

Pigs are being used more frequently as inspection tools Gauging or sizing pigs

are typically run following the completion of new construction or line repair to

determine if there are any internal obstacles bends or buckles in the pipe Pigs

can also be equipped with cameras to allow viewing of the pipe internals

Electronic intelligent or smart ldquopigsrdquo that use magnetic and ultrasonic systems

have been developed and refined that locate and measure internal and external

corrosion pitting dents buckles and any other anomalies in the pipe wall

Intelligent pigs

The accuracy of location and measurement of anomalies by the intelligent pigs

has continued to improve Initially the electronics and power systems were so

large that intelligent pigs could be used only in lines 30 in and greater in size

The continued sophistication and miniaturization of the electronic systems used

in the intelligent pigs has allowed the development of smaller pigs that can be

used in small-diameter pipelines Newly enacted DOT pipeline-integrity

regulations and rules acknowledge the effectiveness of the intelligent pigs and

incorporate their use in the pipeline-integrity testing process

Compressors

A gas compressor is a mechanical device that increases the pressure of a gas by

reducing its volume Gas pressure is increased by forcing gas molecules together

to reduce gas volume When volume is reduced gas pressure increases

All gases have large spaces among their molecules These spaces could be

enhanced further and decreased by doing some work Work done which is used

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for the enhancement of these spaces is called expansion and work done to

minimize these spaces is called compression All gases while expansion

produces cooling effect and while compression of gases raises there

temperature Compression is a term used to force gases to occupy smaller

volumes by increasing their pressure Volume of gases is interlinked with

temperature and pressure of the gas which is cleared by 2 laws govern gas

compressions

Boyles Law

Charles Law

The main types of compressor are listed below

Front End Compressor

The plant currently processes gas from a number of wells The flow and pressure

from some of these wells (currently K-10 K-11 amp K-12) has declined and they

cannot be fed directly into the Central Processing Facility To recover the

maximum gas reserves from these wells a Front End Compressor is employed

The compressor is a two stage double acting gas engine driven reciprocating

(PT) compressor Double acting means that gas is compressed on each end of

the piston It normal operates with a speed range of 600 to 900 RPM and isequipped with four compressor cylinders two for each stage Each cylinder is

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also equipped with a variable volume head end pocket

In case of compressor emergency shutdown the production chokes and the

Upper Master Valves on the on line wells will close and operator will be notified in

central control room Sweet gas from gas distribution network is used to operate the

gas engine driver of the compressor package The detailed scheme of working is

shown in figure (page 22 )

PT Reciprocating Compressor

The mechanical cycle of piston tube reciprocating compressor comprises four

strokes the expansion stroke the intake stroke the compression stroke and the

discharge stroke

Expansion Stroke

As the piston moves back on the expansion stroke the chamber volume

increases and the pressure drop As the pressure drops the discharge valve

closes since there is greater pressure in the discharge line than in the chamber

Intake Stroke

As the piston moves back during the intake stroke the pressure decreases until it

is less than the pressure in the inlet line This higher intake pressure opens the

inlet valve and gas rushes into the cylinder equalizing the pressure there with

the intake pressure The compression chamber is now at or near the intake

pressure

Compression Stroke

The piston now starts the compression stroke by moving forward decreasing the

chamber volume and increasing the pressure The increased pressure is now

higher than the intake pressure causing the intake valve to close

Discharge Stroke

The piston continues to move to the left during the discharge stroke This creates

an increase in chamber pressure until it is greater than the discharge pressure

When this happens the Discharge valve opens and the compressed air from the

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cylinder goes into the discharge line The compression cycle is then repeated

from the stage

Compressor Capacity

The capacity of the compressor depends upon cylinder displacement That

displacement is simply the volume that the piston displaces (moves) as it travels

from one end of the cylinder to the other Capacity and displacement is equal to

the cross-sectional area of the cylinder times the length of the stroke

Lubrication and Cooling

Lubricating oil is circulated through the system by a gear pump which is chain

driven from the engine crank shaft The oil pump is mounted on the engine front

housing

The pump operates between 30 - 40 psig

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A circulating pump deliver cooling water to the water jackets in the cylinder block

flowing around the cylinder liners and is directed into the cylinder heads Each

cylinder head has water cooled exhaust elbows which outlet the water into the

water cooled exhausts From the end of engine the water flows to compressor

1st and 2nd stage cylinders and compressor lube oil cooler (LOwater heat

exchanger) The water from the compressor cylinder and lube oil cooler returns

to engine water cooled exhaust

Figure Flow diagram of Front End Compressor

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Centrifugal Compressor

Centrifugal compressors are machines in which velocity and pressure given to air

or gas in a radial direction by one or more impellers diffuser combination In a

centrifugal compressor the mechanical energy is increased by centrifugal action

The gas enters the suction eye of a high speed rotary element called the impeller

which carries radial vanes integrally cast in it As the impeller rotates the blades

of the impeller force the gas outward from the center the impeller to the outer rim

of impeller the increase in velocity of the gas creates a flow pressure area at the

eye of the impeller The gas at the outer rim of the impeller is forced in to a

passage way called a diffuser where the velocity decreases in the pressure of the

gas

Inlet

The inlet to a centrifugal compressor is typically a simple pipe It may include

features such as a valve and both pressure and temperature instrumentation

Centrifugal impeller

The key component that makes a compressor centrifugal is the centrifugal

impeller shown above It is the impellers rotating set of vanes (or blades) that

gradually raises the energy of the working gas This is identical to an axial

compressor with the exception that the gases can reach higher velocities and

energy levels through the impellers increasing radius

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Diffuser

The next key component to the simple centrifugal compressor is the diffuser

Downstream of the impeller in the flow path it is the diffusers responsibility to

convert the kinetic energy (high velocity) of the gas into pressure by gradually

slowing (diffusing) the gas velocity

SEPERATORS

A well-stream is a mixture of gases hydrocarbon liquids water solids and

contaminants Due to variations in pressure and temperature gases evolve from

the liquids water vapor condenses and some of the well-stream changes to liquid

and free gas The separation of well-stream fluids takes place in a separator This

pressure vessel is manufactured in three forms

1 horizontal

2 vertical

3 spherical

To help separation the vessel is normally designed with a series of internal

fittings These fittings are built into the separator to ensure total phase separation

of the well-stream

In gas plants separators are given alternative names due to the function they

perform in the process system A scrubber does a similar job to a knockout drum

However the scrubber usually separates a stream containing high gas-to-liquid

ratios The knockout drum is used where a high degree of liquids are entrained in

the gas

Fluid flow from a well can include gas condensable liquid vapors water water

vapor crude oil and solids As well-stream fluids reach ground level where

pressure is lower than in the reservoir the capacity of the liquid to hold gas in

solution decreases and gas separates out of the oil

Separation depends upon the effect of gravity to separate liquids For adequate

separation one fluid must be lighter than the other fluid For example distillates

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(gasoline kerosene etc) and crude oil will not separate in a vessel because they

tend to dissolve in each other Because a separator basically depends upon

gravity to separate the fluids the ease with which separation takes place

depends upon the difference in density of the fluids

Droplets of liquid will separate from gas provided

a) The gas remains in the separator long enough

b) The gas flow remains constant to provoke separation

The difference in density between a gas and liquid will therefore determine the

maximum flow rate of liquid in the vessel

Figure Two phase horizontal separator

Gas bubbles in the liquid will break out in some oil field applications in 30 to 60

seconds Consequently the separator is designed so that the liquid remains in

the vessel for 30 to 60 seconds The length of time that a liquid remains in the

vessel is called its residence time Residence time differs widely from field to field

depending upon viscosity and API Gravity

Another important factor which must be considered is temperature Generally a

decrease in operating temperature will increase the liquid recovery in a separator

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as the gas condenses By reducing the pressure on the fluid flash separation

occurs resulting in a flow through the separator which is controlled by external

instrumentation

COALESCENCE

Another important principle in fluid separation is that of coalescence This means

the coming together of liquid droplets created by the force of gravity

A common example of coalescing occurs when drops of water form on the

windshield of a car as it is driven in fog As the tiny drops or water which make up

the fog strike the windshield they combine and eventually form a drop large

enough to run down the glass

Several of the internal devices of a separator such as deflector plates

straightening vanes and even the vessel walls are forms of coalescers In each

vessel drops of liquid adhere to the surface of the device and combine with other

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drops until the drop is large enough to fall out The effectiveness of separation

will also depend upon the total amount of coalescing surface area that is present

There are many different types of separators used in the Oil amp Gas industry

Consequently separators are manufactured with one two or several internal

fittings depending on their use and quick removal of these fluids from the vessel

DEFLECTOR PLATES

These are fitted in front of the inlet to the separator and can be net or

dish-shaped Their purpose is to absorb the impact of the incoming fluids and to

encourage the separation of gas and liquids They also slow the flow rate of the

liquids through the vessel

WEIRS

A weir is a metal wall which is fitted across the inside of the vessel normally to a

height of 50 of the overall height of the separator Its purpose is to assist the

process of three phase separation The inlet fluids (oil plus water) are given time

to separate in the liquid accumulation section The water level (interface) is

normally controlled at 50 of the height of the weir Oil floating on the wateroverflows the weir and accumulates in the small oil compartment where it is

drawn off under level control

CENTRIFUGAL DEVICES

These are used in both vertical and horizontal separators for gas-liquid

separation The device imparts a swirling motion to the fluids entering the vessel

Centrifugal force causes the heavier liquids to travel outwards towards the walls

of the vessel and the lighter gases to flow up the centre Centrifugal devices are

also known as cyclones

VORTEX BREAKERS

When liquid flows through a drain outlet a vortex (whirlpool) will form This can

be seen when we pull the plug from a sink or bath tub The same would happen

as water and oil flow from the separator This condition a vortex could allow gas

to flow down the centre of the whirlpool and enter the liquid phase causing

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pressurizing of tanks etc To stop this happening vortex breakers are fitted to all

liquid outlets Although they come in a number of different designs vortex

breakers all serve the same purpose - to prevent a whirlpool from forming

MIST OR DEMISTER PADS

The gas which is released from the fluids in the separator still contains droplets of

oil and water which coalesce and fall when the drops get large enough The

demister pad assists in this process Made from knitted wire and contained within

a sturdy frame it causes the gas to continually change its direction of flow

Because gas changes direction far easier than liquid the gas will flow around

each strand of wire whilst the liquid entrained in the gas stream will continue and

stick to the wire

COALESCING PLATES

There are several different forms of coalescing devices the most common of

which are coalescing plates These plates are mounted in the flow stream of the

fluids and assist in breaking down oil-water emulsions The fluid is forced to

follow a path that constantly changes direction This causes the water droplets to

gather together or coalesce and fall to the bottom of the separator The same

principle is used to separate gas and oil mixtures when the oil droplets are

induced to coalesce Simply stated every surface within the separator including

the separator walls assists with the coalescing process

STRAIGHTENlNG VANES

These are often fitted to horizontal separators to remove turbulence in the gas

stream after initial separation at the inlet deflector

FLOAT SHEILD

Internal floats are used as level controllers Any agitation of the liquid surface or

the effect of coalesced liquids falling on the float may cause control problems

Therefore a float shield is fitted to enclose the float creating an area of still liquid

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MEMBRANES

The gas contains 12 carbon dioxide and 22 ppm of hydrogen sulphide at 115oF

and 1100 psig This needs to be removed before the gas can be exported The

majority of carbon dioxide hydrogen sulphide and water is removed by means of

membranes

Membranes are thin semipermeable barriers that selectively separate some

compounds from others Currently the only commercially workable membranes

used for CO2 removal are polymer based for example cellulose acetate

polyimides polyamides polysulfone polycarbonates and polyetherimide The

membrane does not operate as a filter where small molecules are separated

from larger ones through a medium with pores rather it separates based on how

well different compounds dissolve into the membrane and diffuse through it The

membranes are manufactured in flat sheets consisting of an extremely thin

nonporous layer mounted on a much-thicker and highly porous layer of the same

material providing mechanical strength The flat sheets are combined into a

spiral-wound element (Figure below) Feed gas enters along the side of the

membrane and passes through the feed spacers As the gas travels between

membrane sheets CO2 H2S and H2O permeate through the membrane and are

collected in the permeate tube The driving force for transport is the high-feed

pressure and low-permeate pressures The gas on the feed side that does not

permeate leaves through the side of the element opposite the feed position Once

the membranes have been manufactured into elements six to 12 elements are

joined together and inserted into a tube Multiple tubes are mounted on skids in a

horizontal orientation

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Figure Membrane general Working

In high H2S applications most polymers have been shown to have very little

resistance to H2S plasticization (ldquosofteningrdquo of the membrane) and as a

consequence can only be used at very low H2S partial pressure limits Cellulose

acetate membranes in contrast have been shown to be applicable at extreme

H2S partial pressure conditions It is these membranes that have been utilized in

the testing to determine the limits of membrane performance in high H 2S

applications

The primary membranes used in Kadanwari facility are Cellulose acetate

Cellulose acetic acid and acetic anhydride are mixed together and reacted to

form cellulose acetate polymers This process is aided by the addition of a small

amount of sulfuric acid which is subsequently neutralized during processing

However the membranes are bought from UOP (vendor) and installed for use

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How membrane work

The basic principle of separation is selectivity of certain components of a mixture

for the membrane For example the cellulose acetate membrane has very high

selectivity for CO2 and H2S as compared to CH4 Therefore such type of

membrane can be used in gas sweetening process

The selectivity is directly related to the Permeability of gas which accounts that

which gas can pass across the membrane more easily In simple words

membranes being polymer materials are made of long chains of molecules The

different structure of polymer materials only allow selective molecules to pass

through them depending upon chemical and physical compatibility Thus

permeability depends upon choice of polymer

The permeability is determined by permeability coefficient (P) and is product of

solubility (S) and diffusivity (D)

P = S D

Solubility

The solubility is mainly determined by ease of condensation Heavy molecules

are more readily condensed Therefore higher molecular weighted molecules will

more easily condensed and therefore have greater solubility

Molecule Molecular weight

CH4 16

H2S 34

CO2 44

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Diffusivity

Diffusivity is ease of molecule to penetrate into some material It depends on size

of gas molecule Here size of molecule is not to be confused by molecular weight

it is the size of the structure Eg the size of O2 molecule is smaller than N2

Molecule Molecular Diameter (Ao)

CO2 33

H2S 36

Ch4 40

For cellulose acetate

DCO2DCH4 S CO2S CH4 P CO2P CH4

45 73 308

Chemical degradation

Cellulose acetate polymer is chemically degraded by a process called hydrolysis

which means breaking apart by the addition of water This is a chemical reaction

in which water is added to the cellulose acetate polymer causing the release of

acetic acid molecules This process proceeds stepwise until all the acetate

groups are released resulting in the reformation of cellulose Moreover alcohols

aromatic hydrocarbons or solvents with chlorine nitro benzene or similar

aromatic solvents will harm the membrane It will expand and lose plastification in

contact with them

Effect of Temperature

The permeation rates of all gases increases with increasing temperature

however membrane selectivity for CO2 over hydrocarbon decreases at higher

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temperature Consequently CO2 removal will improve as operating temperature

increases but hydro carbon recovery will decrease

Primary Membrane

The primary membranes comprise of two trains Each train consists of two

sections AB and CD each section consists of a 30 tube membrane skid (A and

C) followed by a 25 tube skid (B and D) The conditioned gas (after pre-

treatment) enters the primary membrane via the particulate filter adjacent to the

skid The gas is fed to the membranes through a common inlet manifold which

supplies primary membranes skids A and C A pressure control loop located

upstream of the manual inlet isolation valve is provided to maintain a constant

supply pressure to the membrane skid and to allow for preheating at the inlet

prior to skid start-up This pressure control loop can also be used during start-up

to control the pressurization of the pretreatment skid and associated pipes to the

primary membranes

The gas passes through membrane skid A the residual gas exiting the membrane

skid is sent to skid B and the permeate to common permeate discharge header An

identical arrangement is provide on the inlet to skid C as provided on skid A Theresidual gas from skid B combines with the residual gas from skid D in a common

discharge header and is then sent to the H2S polishing towers via the feed coolers

on the pre-treatment skid The permeate from skid B is sent to the common

permeate discharge header The permeate discharge header sends the gas to

either the recycle compressor or the vent header via a pressure control loop

Overpressure protection for the membranes is provided by a pressure safety valve

on the supply header to the membrane banks

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Secondary (Recycle) Membrane

The recycle membranes comprise of a single train with two skids each with four

banks of membrane tubes The conditioned gas from the discharge of the recycle

pre-treatment skid is routed to the first recycle membrane skid The gas passes

through the membranes the residual gas is fed to primary membrane (skid A) inlet

via feed gas cooler and permeate to the common permeate discharge header An

identical arrangement is provide on the inlet to skid B Permeate from the recycle

membrane skids A and B is routed to the vent header Some portion of permeate is

heated and sent for regeneration in Mem-Guard units Nitrogen purge can be

connected downstream of the inlet isolation valve on each skid to enable the

membrane tubes to be purged and left pressurized during prolonged shutdown

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Figure Flow Diagram of Recycle membrane unit

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ADVANTAGES OF MEMBRANE SYSTEMS

Membrane systems have major advantages over more-traditional methods of

acid gas removal

Lower capital cost Membrane systems are skid mounted and so the

scope cost and time taken for site preparation are minimal Installation

costs are significantly lower than alternative technologies especially for

remote areas Furthermore no additional facilities for solvent storage and

water treatment needed by other processes are required

Lower operating costs The only major operating cost for single-stage

membrane systems is membrane replacement This cost is significantly

lower than the solvent replacement and energy costs associated with

traditional technologies The improvements in membrane and

pretreatment design allow a longer useful membrane life which further

reduces operating costs The energy costs of multistage systems with

large recycle compressors are usually comparable to those for traditionaltechnologies

Deferred capital investment Often contracted sales-gas flow rates

increase over time as more wells are brought on-line With traditional

technologies the system design needs to take this later production into

account immediately and so the majority of the equipment is installed

before it is even needed The modular nature of membrane systems

means that only the membranes that are needed at start-up need be

installed The rest can be added either into existing tubes or in new skids

only when they are required

Operational simplicity and high reliability Because single-stage

membrane systems have no moving parts they have almost no

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unscheduled downtime and are extremely simple to operate They can

operate unattended for long periods of time The addition of a recycle

compressor adds some complexity to the system but still much less than

with a solvent- or adsorbent-based technology Multistage systems can be

operated at full capacity as single-stage systems when the recycle

compressor is down

Good weight and space efficiency Skid construction can be optimized

to the space available This space efficiency is especially important for

offshore environments where deck area is at a premium and is the

reason why so many new offshore developments have chosen to use

membranes for acid gas removal Figure 6 illustrates the space efficiency

of membrane systems The membrane unit in the lower left corner

replaced all the amine and glycol plant equipment shown in the rest of the

picture

Adaptability Because membrane area is dictated by the percentage of

acid gas removal rather than absolute acid gas removal small variations

in feed acid gas content hardly change the sales-gas acid gas

specification For example a system designed for 10 down to 3 acid

gas removal produces a 35 product from a 12 feed gas and a 5

product from a 15 feed gas

Design efficiency The membrane and pretreatment systems integrate a

number of operations such as dehydration CO2 and H2S removal dew-

point control and mercury removal Traditional acid gas removal

technologies require all of these operations as separate processes and

may also require additional dehydration because some technologies

saturate the product stream with water

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Power generation The permeate gas from membrane systems can be

used to provide fuel gas for power generation either for a recycle

compressor or other equipment

Ideal for debottlenecking Because expanding solvent- or adsorbent-

based acid gas removal plants without adding additional trains is difficult

an ideal solution is to use membranes for bulk acid gas removal and leave

the existing plant for final cleanup An additional advantage is that the

permeate gas from the membrane system can often be used as fuel for

the existing plant thus avoiding significant increase in hydrocarbon

losses

Environmentally friendly Membrane systems do not involve the

periodic removal and handling of spent solvents or adsorbents Permeate

gases can be flared used as fuel or re-injected into the well Items thatdo need disposal such as spent membrane elements can be incinerated

Ideal for remote locations Many of the factors mentioned above make

membrane systems a highly desirable technology for remote locations

where spare parts are rare and labor unskilled Furthermore solvents

storage and trucking water supply power generation or extensive

infrastructure are not required

Re-injection optimizations Since the permeate stream from the

membrane system can be operated at elevated pressures it is possible to

further pressurize by re-injection compression train

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Sorption

Sorption is a physical and chemical process by which one substance becomes

attached to another

It is of two main types

1 Absorption

2 Adsorption

Absorption

Absorption is a physical or chemical phenomenon or process in which atoms

molecules or ions enter some bulk phase ndash gas liquid or solid material This is a

different process from adsorption since molecules undergoing absorption are

taken up by the volume not by the surface (as in the case for adsorption)

Absorption process may be chemical (reactive) or physical (non-reactive)

Physical absorption

Physical absorption or non-reactive absorption is made between two phases ofmatter a liquid absorbs a gas or a solid absorbs a liquid

When a liquid solvent absorbs a gas mixture or part of it a mass of gas moves

into the liquid For example water may absorb oxygen from the air This mass

transfer takes place at the interface between the liquid and the gas at a rate

depending on both the gas and the liquid This type of absorption depends on the

solubility of gases the pressure and the temperature The rate and amount of

absorption also depend on the surface area of the interface and its duration in

time

When a solid absorbs a liquid mixture or part of it a mass of liquid moves into the

solid For example a clay pot used to store water may absorb some of the water

This mass transfer takes place at the interface between the solid and the liquid

at a rate depending on both the solid and the liquid

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Chemical absorption

Chemical absorption or reactive absorption is a chemical reaction between the

absorbed and the absorbing substances Sometimes it combines with physical

absorption This type of absorption depends upon the stoichiometry of the

reaction and the concentration of its reactants

Adsorption

Adsorption is the adhesion of atoms ions or molecules from a gas liquid or

dissolved solid to a surface This process creates a film of the adsorbate on the

surface of the adsorbent The binding to the surface is usually weak and

reversible Compounds with color and those that have taste or odor tend to bind

strongly Compounds that vibrate at frequencies in the visible spectrum are very

often are strongly adsorbed on activated carbon

The most common industrial adsorbents are activated carbon silica gel and

alumina because they present enormous surface areas per unit weight

Depending on the nature of attractive forces existing between the adsorbate and

adsorbent adsorption can be classified as

i) Physical adsorption

ii) Chemical adsorption

i) Physical adsorption (Physisorption)

In physical adsorption the forces of attraction between the molecules of the

adsorbate and the adsorbent are of the weak van der Waals type Since the

forces of attraction are weak the process of physisorption can be easily reversed

by heating or decreasing the pressure of the adsorbate (as in the case of gases)

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ii) Chemical adsorption (Chemisorption)

In chemisorption the forces of attraction between the adsorbate and the

adsorbent are very strong the molecules of adsorbate form chemical bonds with

the molecules of the adsorbent present in the surface

Adsorption is generally accompanied by release of energy that is most

adsorption processes are exothermic in nature Adsorption is a spontaneous

process therefore its free energy change is negative (∆Glt0) However the

entropy change associated with adsorption is generally negative because the

adsorbate molecules lose their translation freedom when they get attached to the

surface of the adsorbent Therefore in order for ∆G to be negative the enthalpy

change (∆H) must be sufficiently negative such that (∆G=∆H-T∆S) lt 0 This

explanation accounts for exothermic adsorption processes In cases where

endothermic adsorption occurs the entropy change ∆S is sufficiently positive

such that ∆G remains negative

Pre treatment

The main function of pretreatment skid is to provide membrane inlet specification

gas as mentioned by the vendor UOP It removes the contaminants that would

poison the membranes like dust solids (adsorbent particles) lube oil heavy

hydrocarbons etc It consists of

Feed Cooler

Feed Gas Scrubber

Filter Coalescer

Feed Gas Heater

Activated Carbon Guard Filter

Particle Filter

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The regeneration is carried out by heated permeate gas from the recycle

membranes at 450oF The vessel is depressurized to 20 psi and heated gas is

introduced from top The gas carries out the adsorbed contaminants and leaves

the vessel from bottom cleaning the adsorbent This contaminated gas is burnt in

the flare

UOP the vendor of Memguard unit has never disclosed that what substance

MG3 and MG5 exactly are But as mentioned by vendor that both care class of

aluminosilicates Therefore MG3 can be potassium aluminosilicate and MG5 can

be Calcium aluminosilicate These are molecular sieves adsorbents Molecular

sieves are a microporous material which can selectively adsorb gases andliquids They are synthetic zeolites (crystalline metal aluminosilicates) which

upon dehydration can efficiently and selectively remove water or other

solvents The selectivity of a molecular sieve is determined by its pore size

molecules with a critical diameter which is less than the pore size will be

efficiently adsorbed while larger molecules will be excluded

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3A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

The 3A molecular sieve adsorbent has a 3 angstrom (3A) pore size which means

that any molecule that is larger than the 3 angstrom pores will not be adsorbed

The 3A molecular sieve is the potassium type of A crystalline structure and is a

form of alkali Aluminosilicate For a 3A molecular sieve the sequence rate that

adsorption occurs is He Ne N and H2O

Due to the crystalline structure molecular sieves that have a 3 angstrom pore

size have a very high rate of adsorption and properties that promote a longer life

for products treated by the sieve The most common use for the 3A molecular

sieve is to remove water and moisture from materials that are in gas and liquid

form

5A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

These are molecular sieve adsorbents with a pore size of 5 angstrom (5A) 5A

molecular sieves are unable to adsorb any molecules or impurities that are

smaller than 5A It is calcium form of type A crystalline structure and is form of analkali-aluminosilicate that is most commonly used to separate isomerous alkanes

from normal alkanes and to co-adsorb moisture and water along with carbon

dioxide from gases In additional 5A molecular sieves are used for gaseous

pressure swing adsorption (PSA)mdashthat is to separate particular gases from other

gases

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of C3H8 to C22H46

Adsorption of Freon-12 (dichlorodifluoromethane)

Natural gas drying

Normal- and iso-paraffin separation

Separation of aromatic

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Inlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1096

MEHTANE 8593

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008

N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGEN 076

WATER 007

Outlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1098

MEHTANE 8608

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGENT 076

WATER 000

H2S polisher

The H2S polishing unit has been designed to treat 187 MMscfday of natural gas

containing up to 11 CO2 and 21 ppm H2S where the level of the CO2 and H2S

is reduced using a MemGuard Membrane separation unit The unit is situated

down-stream of the membrane unit and will further reduce the level of H2S in the

processed gas to a sales gas specification of 38 ppm

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This process uses three non-regenerable fixed bed absorber vessels using a low

temperature high activity absorbent The absorbent is a mixture of activated

metal oxides (mainly zinc oxide) The three towers can are generally operated in

parallel arrangement but on demand can be used in series (any of alternate

arrangements of A B C vessels) as shown in figure

The higher sales gas flow rate increased the catalyst consumption and

replacement frequency

ZnO + H2S =gt ZnS + H20

Routine samples are taken from the beds to provide a check on each bed

performance and to follow the saturation profile during the absorbent life After

the adsorbent has been fully utilized the adsorption vessels are recharged with

new adsorbent discarding the utilized one in a safe manner

109oF

1215 psig

Before H2S Polishing After H2S Polishing

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Figure

H2S Tower

Inlet pipe

4 Drums of 19mm

ceramic Balls

6 Micron mesh

5 Drums of 50mmceramic

1 Drums of19mm ceramic

01 Drums of6mm ceramic

112 drums of

Catalist ZnO

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Recycle Compressor

The permeate gas of the primary membrane unit carries recoverable amount of

CH4 It is fed to recycle membrane unit for further CH 4 recovery But the

permeate pressure from primary membranes which has been reduced to 12 psi

must be regenerated to 1200 psi for the gas to be fed again to the system For

this purpose we have employed recycle compressor The compressor is a four

stage centrifugal compressor It is driven by gas turbine of 31200 HP It has 25

MW producing capacity

Figure Recycle Compressor Process Flow Diagram

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Sales Gas Compressor

Gas from H2S polishing unit is sent to sales gas compressor where its pressure

is enhanced to 1100 psi so it may be injected to SNGPL high pressure trunk line

Sales gas compressor is single stage gas turbine driven

Figure Process Flow of Sales Gas Compressor

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Cooling Towers

A cooling tower is a heat rejection device which extracts waste heat to theatmosphere through the cooling of a water stream to a lower temperature Hot

water from the system enters the cooling tower and is distributed over the fill

(heat transfer surface) Air is induced or forced through the fill causing a small

portion of the water to evaporate This evaporation removes heat from the

remaining water which is collected in the cold water basin and returned to the

system to absorb more heat Each cooling tower line although operating under

the same basic principle of operation is arranged a little differently

Types

Natural draft mdash Utilizes buoyancy via a tall chimney Warm moist air naturally

rises due to the density differential compared to the dry cooler outside air Warm

moist air is less dense than drier air at the same pressure This moist air

buoyancy produces an upwards current of air through the tower

Mechanical draft mdash Uses power-driven fan motors to force or draw airthrough the tower

o Induced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a fan at the

discharge (at the top) which pulls air up through the tower The fan

induces hot moist air out the discharge This produces low entering

and high exiting air velocities reducing the possibility of

recirculation in which discharged air flows back into the air intake

o Forced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a blower type fan at

the intake The fan forces air into the tower creating high entering

and low exiting air velocities The low exiting velocity is much more

susceptible to recirculation This fanfill geometry is also known as

blow-through

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Forced Draft Cooling Tower Vs Induced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower have the ability to handle large water flow

rate than Forced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower is suitable for large cell sizes and fan sizes

as compared with Forced Draft Larger fan size may result in greater

efficiency and consequently lower power and sound level

Forced Draft Cooling Tower can be square or rectangular type only

however Induced Draft Cooling Towers can be round square or

rectangular type

Induced Draft Cooling Tower uses more compact ground area than Forced

Draft Cooling Tower equivalent capacity due to absence of fan on one

side

Fan equipment is warm exhaust air is less liable to icing up in winter

operation (Cold Countries)

Higher velocity in Forced Draft Cooling Tower cause drop in suspension

and cause additional static resistance to system

Configuration

There are two main configurations of factory assembled cooling towers crossflow

and counterflow In crossflow cooling towers the water flows vertically down the

fill as air flows horizontally across In counterflow cooling towers the water flows

vertically down the fill as air flows vertically up

Crossflow Configuration Counterflow Configuration

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Drift mdash Water droplets that are carried out of the cooling tower with the exhaust

air Drift droplets have the same concentration of impurities as the water entering

the tower The drift rate is typically reduced by employing baffle-like devices

called drift eliminators through which the air must travel after leaving the fill and

spray zones of the tower

Blow-out mdash Water droplets blown out of the cooling tower by wind generally at

the air inlet openings Water may also be lost in the absence of wind through

splashing or misting Devices such as wind screens louvers splash deflectors

and water diverters are used to limit these losses

Blow-down mdash The portion of the circulating water flow that is removed (usually

discharged to a drain) in order to maintain the amount of Total Dissolved Solids

(TDS) and other impurities at an acceptably low level Higher TDS concentration

in solution may result from greater cooling tower efficiency However the higher

the TDS concentration the greater the risk of scale biological growth and

corrosion

Make-up mdash The water that must be added to the circulating water system in

order to compensate for water losses such as evaporation drift loss blow-out

blow-down etc

Approach mdash The approach is the difference in temperature between the cooled-

water temperature and the entering-air wet bulb temperature

Range mdash The range is the temperature difference between the warm water inlet

and cooled water exit

Fill mdash Inside the tower fills are added to increase contact surface as well as

contact time between air and water to provide better heat transfer The efficiency

of the tower depends on the selection and amount of fill

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There are two types of fills that may be used

o Film type fill (causes water to spread into a thin film)

o Splash type fill (breaks up falling stream of water and interrupts its

vertical progress)

Important

Scale build up is controlled by adding chemicals to the cooling loop and diluting

the concentration by blow down and make-up Following chemicals are added to

the Cooling to control CorrosionSale and microbial growth

Corrosion Inhibitor To control corrosion in the Cooling system

Dispersant To kept ions in suspension to avoid settle down and buildup

Sodium hypo Chlorite To Control microbial Growth

Acid To control Alkalinity in the system

High Stress Polymer To run the system at higher conductivity It is a

multifunctional polymer for Zinc amp Phosphate stabilization in cooling tower

Fin Fan Cooler

Fin fan heat exchanger is simply a pressure vessel which cools a circulating fluid

within finned tubes by forcing ambient air over the exterior of the tubes A

common example of an air cooler is a carrsquos radiator Fin Fan Coolers are used in

any application where large quantities of heat need to be transferred This

includes chemical and petrochemical industries power stations waste-to-energy

facilities as well as steelworks

Fin Fan Cooler are used for two primary reasons

They increase plant efficiency

They are a green solution as compared to cooling towers and shell and

tube heat exchangers because they do not require an auxiliary water

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supply (water lost due to drift and evaporation plus no water treatment

chemicals are required)

Figure General Overview of Fin Fan Cooler

Produced Water

The produced water system receives liquid from the equipment Miano slug

catcher train 1 and 2 inlet separators and is fed to three phase separator where

water oil and gas is separated The gases produced are burnt in incinerator

whereas hydrocarbon liquid is stored to be sold Liquid from compressors

recycle inlet separator recycle feed scrubber high and low pressure slug

catchers is passed to degasser Separated water is injected down the earth

Incinerator

The term incinerate means to burn something until nothing is left but ashes An

incinerator is a unit or facility used to burn trash and other types of waste until it is

reduced to ash An incinerator is constructed of heavy well-insulated materials

so that it does not give off extreme amounts of external heat The high levels of

heat are kept inside the furnace or unit so that the waste is burned quickly and

efficiently If the heat were allowed to escape the waste would not burn as

completely or as rapidly

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Control System

The plant is controlled at CCR (Central Control Room) by PLCs (Programmable

Logic Controllers) through fiber optic control line All control parameters are

received at LER (Local Equipment Room) via two optic fiber control lines One

being primary and other secondary operating in redundancy ie if primary fails

control shifts to secondary These control parameters are sent to CCR via single

optic fiber cable

Safety System

Wellheads and Gas Processing Plant have their own Fire amp Gas detection

systems emergency shutdown (ESD) Plant has a fault tolerant controller It is

based on Triple Modular Redundant (TMR) architecture manufactured by

Triconex The TMR system is based on three isolated parallel control systems

integrated into one system The system operates on a two out of three voting

principle which provides high integrity error free uninterrupted operation with no

single point of failure The TMR receives inputs from Process Sensors Manual

Switches Fire amp Gas Detectors Packaged Equipment Control Systems and

Product Exporting Facilities The TMR carries out cause and effect processing on

the data received and where necessary produces output signals Outputs from

the TMR are hard wired directly to ESD shutdown and blow down valve

solenoids motor control instrumentelectrical interfaces to control electrical

drives package equipment logic control systems manifold area as well as

telecoms

The operator in central control room is able to accept alarms and once the fault

has been cleared reset the input All the control systems are centralized to a

single interface All the PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers) communicate with

the servers and servers communicate with the clients through Ethernet connectivity

Centralization eases the navigation of different systems at a common interface

Emergency Shutdown

The ESD system receives inputs from field mounted instrumentation on the process

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and utility equipment and initiates executive actions appropriate to the level of ESD

The system is an Active system which is in standby and will activate when in an

alarm or fault condition The Kadanwari Gas Process Facility ESD system is

comprised of five (5) levels The emergency severity decreases with increasing ESD

level number

ESD 1

This shutdown level is automatically initiated by fire major gas leak or a detected

toxic atmosphere in the process area of the plant or manually from CCR A level 1

shutdown will cause all production to cease close all emergency shutdown

valves stop the process and shutdown of the main power generation The

emergency vent valves to the stack will open and in addition all equipment of zone 1

certified will be isolated This is the highest level of ESD and will cause the following

to occur

All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close All slowdown Valves (BDVs) on the process facility will open

All Main Gas Driven Generators will be tripped

Emergency Diesel Generator will start

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close Upper Master Valve

(UMV) Close

ESD 2

This shutdown level is activated automatically if a major process or utility failure

occurs or manually from CCR All production to the plant from the wellhead is

stopped All emergency shutdown valves trip to their fail safe position

Venting shall be as specified This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

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All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valve Close Wing Valves Close and Upper Master Valve(UMV) Close

ESD 3

The level 3 shutdown isolates and stops a single process train only Production

continues via the other train This ESD level is initiated by process conditions or

operator at local panel This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

ESD 3A Train 1 production to cease

ESD 3B Train 2 production to cease

All online wellhead choke valves go to minimum flow ie (1O )

ESD 4

A level 4 shutdown shall cease all production from an entire field either

Kadanwari or Miano upstream of the associated slug catchers ESD 4K for

Kadanwari amp ESD 4M for Miano This ESD level is initiated automatically by slug

catcher abnormal process conditions This level of ESD will cause the following

to occur

All SDVs close isolating the relevant slug catcher and its upstream gas

production facility from the Kadanwari Gas Processing Plant

All Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close and Upper MasterValves (UMV) of the relevant gas production facility Close

A parallel timer is provided to close within 10 second if not closed in given

time SSSV seals the well

ESD 5

A level 5 shutdown represents equipment shutdown for the protection of the

individual equipment without any change in the process This level of ESD is for the

protection of various pieces of equipment and is initiated by its own inputs eg

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in release of reservoir fluids to the surroundings This makes SSSV a very

important component of a well completion

A subsurface safety valve is typically a uni-directional flapper valve directed in

such a way that the flappers open downwards when pressure is applied from an

upward direction The flapper can only open in the downward direction So even if

high pressure is applied by the well fluids from a

downward direction a safety valve can remain

closed This makes a subsurface safety valve fail-

safe To open the valve hydraulic signal is sent from

the surface well control panel This hydraulic

pressure is responsible for keeping the flappers of

SSSV open and loss of hydraulic pressure result in

closing of the valve Thus wellbore can be isolated in

case of system failure or damage to the surface

facilities

Types of Christmas tree

There are two types of Christmas Tree

1 Solid block

2 Conventional

The solid block Christmas Tree has a central solid unit holding several valves

in a pre-constructed block Their advantage is the reduction in potential leak

paths and their higher pressure rating (Fig 2)

The conventional Christmas Tree is built up from individual valves bolted

together to form an assembly (Fig 3)

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Figure 2

Figure 3

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Wellhead Control Panel

Wellhead control panel is key equipment in oil amp gas industry to protect oilfield

facilities and environment from emergency incidents such as wellhead fire which

is one of main control systems to ensure oilfield oil production and transportation

to be safely operation according to international standards and national

regulation Wellhead control panel is composed of hydraulic power unit tubing amp

fitting and instrument valve and electrical control devices Hydraulic power unit

supply hydraulic resource to open and close safety valves including master

valves wing valves and SCSSSV

Its performs

Local OnOff SSV

Remote control SSV through RTU( remote terminal unit)

High-Low pressure sense shut-down automatically

Fusible Plug Anti-fire Shut-down automatically

Function of showing system pressure

Relief Valve shall be installed on each hydraulic circuit to prevent high

pressure

Function of showing hydraulic level and level switch for alarm

Function of defending pressure impact of system

Function of system pressure monitoring (by pressure transmitter of control

panel)

Function of remote emergency shut-down (by magnetic valve of control

panel)

Function of OnOff SSV monitoring (by pressure switch of control loop of

control panel)

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Chemical Injection

Chemical injection systems are commonly used in production facilities to prevent

or eliminate a wide range of problems that might negatively affect the production

flow It is done for flow assurance protection of process equipment such as

pipelines or to optimize processes in production facilities

Typical flow assurance chemicals are

Wax inhibitors

Pour point depressants

Asphaltene inhibitors

Corrosion inhibitors

A corrosion inhibitor is a chemical compound that is added to liquid or gas to

decreases the corrosion rate of a material typically a metal or an alloy The

effectiveness of a corrosion inhibitor depends on fluid composition quantity of

water and flow regime Its common mechanism involves formation of a coating

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which prevents access of the corrosive substance to the metal The corrosive

agents are generally oxygen hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide

At our production site the major risk is corrosion of piping and equipment The

maximum allowable corrosion rate is approximately 02 mm per year and

corrosion rate without inhibitor could be approximately 11 mm per year so the

corrosion protection program is designed to achieve a target corrosion rate of

less than 01 mm per year which is achieved by an inhibitor system efficiency of

99 Inhibitor is injected into the well stream flow through an atomizing nozzle

located downstream of the respective wellhead coolers at the duplexcarbon steel

interface In normal operation as per NALCO standards chemical (brand name

EC1144B) at rate of frac12 Liter per MMSCFD of gas is being injected into the flow

line of miano15 flow lines made of carbon steel Moreover the composition can

vary depending upon the composition of well fluids and material of pipeline This

method of injection ensures even distribution of the chemical on the interior

surface of the pipeline The individual well sites are equipped with Chemical

Injection Packages comprising of a stainless steel storage tank and two

pneumatic motor driven pumps in parallel Instrument gas is used to drive the

pumps Normally one pump is running with the other standby

Water Conning

Water coning is a term used to describe the mechanism underlying the upward

movement of water into the perforations of a producing well Coning can seriously

impact the well productivity and influence the degree of depletion and the overall

recovery efficiency of the reservoir The specific problems of water coning are

listed below

Costly added water handling

Gas production from the original or secondary gas cap reduces pressure

Reduced efficiency of the depletion mechanism

The water is often corrosive and its disposal costly

The affected well may be abandoned early

Loss of the total field overall recovery

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Therefore conning has an important influence on operations recovery and

economics The phenomena is shown in picture below

Corrosion

Corrosion is referred as chemical deterioration of a metal Commonly this

means loss of electrons of metals reacting with water and oxygen

Weakening of iron due to oxidation of the iron atoms is a well-known

example of electrochemical corrosion This is commonly known as

rust Most structural alloys corrode merely from exposure to moisture

in the air but the process can be strongly affected by exposure to

certain substances Corrosion can be concentrated locally to form a pit

or crack or it can extend across a wide area to produce general

deterioration (uniform corrosion)

The following reaction takes place at the active sites

2Fe =gt 2Fe++ + 4e-

The free electrons travel through the metal path to the less active sites where

the following reaction takes place

O2 + 4e- + 2H20 =gt 4 OH-

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Recombination of these ions at the active surface produce the following

reaction which yields the iron-corrosion product ferrous hydroxide

2Fe + O2 + 2H2O =gt 2Fe (OH) 2

CORROSION PROTECTION SYSTEM

Coatings and painting

Painting and the application of enamel bitumen and PVC

coating are the most common anti-corrosion treatments They

work by providing a barrier of corrosion-resistant material

between the damaging environment and the structural material

Corrosion Inhibitors

Corrosion inhibitor is injected into the flow lines as mentioned in

detail on page 8

Cathodic Protection

Cathodic Protection (CP) is a technique used to control the corrosion of a

metal surface by making it the cathode of an electrochemical cell It

converts all of the anodic (active) sites on the metal surface to cathodic

(passive) sites by supplying electrical current (or free electrons) from an

alternate source It is accomplished in two ways

a) A simple method of protection connects protected metal to a more easily

corroded sacrificial metal to act as the anode The sacrificial metal then

corrodes instead of the protected metal The process is similar to a simple

DC cell in which the more active metal becomes the anode and corrodes

whereas the less active metal becomes the cathode and is protected

b) For larger structures galvanic anodes cannot economically deliver enough

current to provide protection Therefore impressed current cathodic

protection (ICCP) systems are used These consist of anodes connected

to a DC power source In remote areas power sources such as solar

panels may be used The output DC negative terminal is connected to the

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frequently to limit liquid holdup and minimize the slug volumes of liquid which can

be generated by the system

Coating

Pigs may be used to apply internal pipe coatings such as epoxy coating

materials in operating pipelines Pigs may also be used with corrosion inhibitors

to distribute and coat the entire internal wetted perimeter

Inspection

Pigs are being used more frequently as inspection tools Gauging or sizing pigs

are typically run following the completion of new construction or line repair to

determine if there are any internal obstacles bends or buckles in the pipe Pigs

can also be equipped with cameras to allow viewing of the pipe internals

Electronic intelligent or smart ldquopigsrdquo that use magnetic and ultrasonic systems

have been developed and refined that locate and measure internal and external

corrosion pitting dents buckles and any other anomalies in the pipe wall

Intelligent pigs

The accuracy of location and measurement of anomalies by the intelligent pigs

has continued to improve Initially the electronics and power systems were so

large that intelligent pigs could be used only in lines 30 in and greater in size

The continued sophistication and miniaturization of the electronic systems used

in the intelligent pigs has allowed the development of smaller pigs that can be

used in small-diameter pipelines Newly enacted DOT pipeline-integrity

regulations and rules acknowledge the effectiveness of the intelligent pigs and

incorporate their use in the pipeline-integrity testing process

Compressors

A gas compressor is a mechanical device that increases the pressure of a gas by

reducing its volume Gas pressure is increased by forcing gas molecules together

to reduce gas volume When volume is reduced gas pressure increases

All gases have large spaces among their molecules These spaces could be

enhanced further and decreased by doing some work Work done which is used

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for the enhancement of these spaces is called expansion and work done to

minimize these spaces is called compression All gases while expansion

produces cooling effect and while compression of gases raises there

temperature Compression is a term used to force gases to occupy smaller

volumes by increasing their pressure Volume of gases is interlinked with

temperature and pressure of the gas which is cleared by 2 laws govern gas

compressions

Boyles Law

Charles Law

The main types of compressor are listed below

Front End Compressor

The plant currently processes gas from a number of wells The flow and pressure

from some of these wells (currently K-10 K-11 amp K-12) has declined and they

cannot be fed directly into the Central Processing Facility To recover the

maximum gas reserves from these wells a Front End Compressor is employed

The compressor is a two stage double acting gas engine driven reciprocating

(PT) compressor Double acting means that gas is compressed on each end of

the piston It normal operates with a speed range of 600 to 900 RPM and isequipped with four compressor cylinders two for each stage Each cylinder is

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also equipped with a variable volume head end pocket

In case of compressor emergency shutdown the production chokes and the

Upper Master Valves on the on line wells will close and operator will be notified in

central control room Sweet gas from gas distribution network is used to operate the

gas engine driver of the compressor package The detailed scheme of working is

shown in figure (page 22 )

PT Reciprocating Compressor

The mechanical cycle of piston tube reciprocating compressor comprises four

strokes the expansion stroke the intake stroke the compression stroke and the

discharge stroke

Expansion Stroke

As the piston moves back on the expansion stroke the chamber volume

increases and the pressure drop As the pressure drops the discharge valve

closes since there is greater pressure in the discharge line than in the chamber

Intake Stroke

As the piston moves back during the intake stroke the pressure decreases until it

is less than the pressure in the inlet line This higher intake pressure opens the

inlet valve and gas rushes into the cylinder equalizing the pressure there with

the intake pressure The compression chamber is now at or near the intake

pressure

Compression Stroke

The piston now starts the compression stroke by moving forward decreasing the

chamber volume and increasing the pressure The increased pressure is now

higher than the intake pressure causing the intake valve to close

Discharge Stroke

The piston continues to move to the left during the discharge stroke This creates

an increase in chamber pressure until it is greater than the discharge pressure

When this happens the Discharge valve opens and the compressed air from the

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cylinder goes into the discharge line The compression cycle is then repeated

from the stage

Compressor Capacity

The capacity of the compressor depends upon cylinder displacement That

displacement is simply the volume that the piston displaces (moves) as it travels

from one end of the cylinder to the other Capacity and displacement is equal to

the cross-sectional area of the cylinder times the length of the stroke

Lubrication and Cooling

Lubricating oil is circulated through the system by a gear pump which is chain

driven from the engine crank shaft The oil pump is mounted on the engine front

housing

The pump operates between 30 - 40 psig

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A circulating pump deliver cooling water to the water jackets in the cylinder block

flowing around the cylinder liners and is directed into the cylinder heads Each

cylinder head has water cooled exhaust elbows which outlet the water into the

water cooled exhausts From the end of engine the water flows to compressor

1st and 2nd stage cylinders and compressor lube oil cooler (LOwater heat

exchanger) The water from the compressor cylinder and lube oil cooler returns

to engine water cooled exhaust

Figure Flow diagram of Front End Compressor

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Centrifugal Compressor

Centrifugal compressors are machines in which velocity and pressure given to air

or gas in a radial direction by one or more impellers diffuser combination In a

centrifugal compressor the mechanical energy is increased by centrifugal action

The gas enters the suction eye of a high speed rotary element called the impeller

which carries radial vanes integrally cast in it As the impeller rotates the blades

of the impeller force the gas outward from the center the impeller to the outer rim

of impeller the increase in velocity of the gas creates a flow pressure area at the

eye of the impeller The gas at the outer rim of the impeller is forced in to a

passage way called a diffuser where the velocity decreases in the pressure of the

gas

Inlet

The inlet to a centrifugal compressor is typically a simple pipe It may include

features such as a valve and both pressure and temperature instrumentation

Centrifugal impeller

The key component that makes a compressor centrifugal is the centrifugal

impeller shown above It is the impellers rotating set of vanes (or blades) that

gradually raises the energy of the working gas This is identical to an axial

compressor with the exception that the gases can reach higher velocities and

energy levels through the impellers increasing radius

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Diffuser

The next key component to the simple centrifugal compressor is the diffuser

Downstream of the impeller in the flow path it is the diffusers responsibility to

convert the kinetic energy (high velocity) of the gas into pressure by gradually

slowing (diffusing) the gas velocity

SEPERATORS

A well-stream is a mixture of gases hydrocarbon liquids water solids and

contaminants Due to variations in pressure and temperature gases evolve from

the liquids water vapor condenses and some of the well-stream changes to liquid

and free gas The separation of well-stream fluids takes place in a separator This

pressure vessel is manufactured in three forms

1 horizontal

2 vertical

3 spherical

To help separation the vessel is normally designed with a series of internal

fittings These fittings are built into the separator to ensure total phase separation

of the well-stream

In gas plants separators are given alternative names due to the function they

perform in the process system A scrubber does a similar job to a knockout drum

However the scrubber usually separates a stream containing high gas-to-liquid

ratios The knockout drum is used where a high degree of liquids are entrained in

the gas

Fluid flow from a well can include gas condensable liquid vapors water water

vapor crude oil and solids As well-stream fluids reach ground level where

pressure is lower than in the reservoir the capacity of the liquid to hold gas in

solution decreases and gas separates out of the oil

Separation depends upon the effect of gravity to separate liquids For adequate

separation one fluid must be lighter than the other fluid For example distillates

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(gasoline kerosene etc) and crude oil will not separate in a vessel because they

tend to dissolve in each other Because a separator basically depends upon

gravity to separate the fluids the ease with which separation takes place

depends upon the difference in density of the fluids

Droplets of liquid will separate from gas provided

a) The gas remains in the separator long enough

b) The gas flow remains constant to provoke separation

The difference in density between a gas and liquid will therefore determine the

maximum flow rate of liquid in the vessel

Figure Two phase horizontal separator

Gas bubbles in the liquid will break out in some oil field applications in 30 to 60

seconds Consequently the separator is designed so that the liquid remains in

the vessel for 30 to 60 seconds The length of time that a liquid remains in the

vessel is called its residence time Residence time differs widely from field to field

depending upon viscosity and API Gravity

Another important factor which must be considered is temperature Generally a

decrease in operating temperature will increase the liquid recovery in a separator

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as the gas condenses By reducing the pressure on the fluid flash separation

occurs resulting in a flow through the separator which is controlled by external

instrumentation

COALESCENCE

Another important principle in fluid separation is that of coalescence This means

the coming together of liquid droplets created by the force of gravity

A common example of coalescing occurs when drops of water form on the

windshield of a car as it is driven in fog As the tiny drops or water which make up

the fog strike the windshield they combine and eventually form a drop large

enough to run down the glass

Several of the internal devices of a separator such as deflector plates

straightening vanes and even the vessel walls are forms of coalescers In each

vessel drops of liquid adhere to the surface of the device and combine with other

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drops until the drop is large enough to fall out The effectiveness of separation

will also depend upon the total amount of coalescing surface area that is present

There are many different types of separators used in the Oil amp Gas industry

Consequently separators are manufactured with one two or several internal

fittings depending on their use and quick removal of these fluids from the vessel

DEFLECTOR PLATES

These are fitted in front of the inlet to the separator and can be net or

dish-shaped Their purpose is to absorb the impact of the incoming fluids and to

encourage the separation of gas and liquids They also slow the flow rate of the

liquids through the vessel

WEIRS

A weir is a metal wall which is fitted across the inside of the vessel normally to a

height of 50 of the overall height of the separator Its purpose is to assist the

process of three phase separation The inlet fluids (oil plus water) are given time

to separate in the liquid accumulation section The water level (interface) is

normally controlled at 50 of the height of the weir Oil floating on the wateroverflows the weir and accumulates in the small oil compartment where it is

drawn off under level control

CENTRIFUGAL DEVICES

These are used in both vertical and horizontal separators for gas-liquid

separation The device imparts a swirling motion to the fluids entering the vessel

Centrifugal force causes the heavier liquids to travel outwards towards the walls

of the vessel and the lighter gases to flow up the centre Centrifugal devices are

also known as cyclones

VORTEX BREAKERS

When liquid flows through a drain outlet a vortex (whirlpool) will form This can

be seen when we pull the plug from a sink or bath tub The same would happen

as water and oil flow from the separator This condition a vortex could allow gas

to flow down the centre of the whirlpool and enter the liquid phase causing

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pressurizing of tanks etc To stop this happening vortex breakers are fitted to all

liquid outlets Although they come in a number of different designs vortex

breakers all serve the same purpose - to prevent a whirlpool from forming

MIST OR DEMISTER PADS

The gas which is released from the fluids in the separator still contains droplets of

oil and water which coalesce and fall when the drops get large enough The

demister pad assists in this process Made from knitted wire and contained within

a sturdy frame it causes the gas to continually change its direction of flow

Because gas changes direction far easier than liquid the gas will flow around

each strand of wire whilst the liquid entrained in the gas stream will continue and

stick to the wire

COALESCING PLATES

There are several different forms of coalescing devices the most common of

which are coalescing plates These plates are mounted in the flow stream of the

fluids and assist in breaking down oil-water emulsions The fluid is forced to

follow a path that constantly changes direction This causes the water droplets to

gather together or coalesce and fall to the bottom of the separator The same

principle is used to separate gas and oil mixtures when the oil droplets are

induced to coalesce Simply stated every surface within the separator including

the separator walls assists with the coalescing process

STRAIGHTENlNG VANES

These are often fitted to horizontal separators to remove turbulence in the gas

stream after initial separation at the inlet deflector

FLOAT SHEILD

Internal floats are used as level controllers Any agitation of the liquid surface or

the effect of coalesced liquids falling on the float may cause control problems

Therefore a float shield is fitted to enclose the float creating an area of still liquid

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MEMBRANES

The gas contains 12 carbon dioxide and 22 ppm of hydrogen sulphide at 115oF

and 1100 psig This needs to be removed before the gas can be exported The

majority of carbon dioxide hydrogen sulphide and water is removed by means of

membranes

Membranes are thin semipermeable barriers that selectively separate some

compounds from others Currently the only commercially workable membranes

used for CO2 removal are polymer based for example cellulose acetate

polyimides polyamides polysulfone polycarbonates and polyetherimide The

membrane does not operate as a filter where small molecules are separated

from larger ones through a medium with pores rather it separates based on how

well different compounds dissolve into the membrane and diffuse through it The

membranes are manufactured in flat sheets consisting of an extremely thin

nonporous layer mounted on a much-thicker and highly porous layer of the same

material providing mechanical strength The flat sheets are combined into a

spiral-wound element (Figure below) Feed gas enters along the side of the

membrane and passes through the feed spacers As the gas travels between

membrane sheets CO2 H2S and H2O permeate through the membrane and are

collected in the permeate tube The driving force for transport is the high-feed

pressure and low-permeate pressures The gas on the feed side that does not

permeate leaves through the side of the element opposite the feed position Once

the membranes have been manufactured into elements six to 12 elements are

joined together and inserted into a tube Multiple tubes are mounted on skids in a

horizontal orientation

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Figure Membrane general Working

In high H2S applications most polymers have been shown to have very little

resistance to H2S plasticization (ldquosofteningrdquo of the membrane) and as a

consequence can only be used at very low H2S partial pressure limits Cellulose

acetate membranes in contrast have been shown to be applicable at extreme

H2S partial pressure conditions It is these membranes that have been utilized in

the testing to determine the limits of membrane performance in high H 2S

applications

The primary membranes used in Kadanwari facility are Cellulose acetate

Cellulose acetic acid and acetic anhydride are mixed together and reacted to

form cellulose acetate polymers This process is aided by the addition of a small

amount of sulfuric acid which is subsequently neutralized during processing

However the membranes are bought from UOP (vendor) and installed for use

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How membrane work

The basic principle of separation is selectivity of certain components of a mixture

for the membrane For example the cellulose acetate membrane has very high

selectivity for CO2 and H2S as compared to CH4 Therefore such type of

membrane can be used in gas sweetening process

The selectivity is directly related to the Permeability of gas which accounts that

which gas can pass across the membrane more easily In simple words

membranes being polymer materials are made of long chains of molecules The

different structure of polymer materials only allow selective molecules to pass

through them depending upon chemical and physical compatibility Thus

permeability depends upon choice of polymer

The permeability is determined by permeability coefficient (P) and is product of

solubility (S) and diffusivity (D)

P = S D

Solubility

The solubility is mainly determined by ease of condensation Heavy molecules

are more readily condensed Therefore higher molecular weighted molecules will

more easily condensed and therefore have greater solubility

Molecule Molecular weight

CH4 16

H2S 34

CO2 44

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Diffusivity

Diffusivity is ease of molecule to penetrate into some material It depends on size

of gas molecule Here size of molecule is not to be confused by molecular weight

it is the size of the structure Eg the size of O2 molecule is smaller than N2

Molecule Molecular Diameter (Ao)

CO2 33

H2S 36

Ch4 40

For cellulose acetate

DCO2DCH4 S CO2S CH4 P CO2P CH4

45 73 308

Chemical degradation

Cellulose acetate polymer is chemically degraded by a process called hydrolysis

which means breaking apart by the addition of water This is a chemical reaction

in which water is added to the cellulose acetate polymer causing the release of

acetic acid molecules This process proceeds stepwise until all the acetate

groups are released resulting in the reformation of cellulose Moreover alcohols

aromatic hydrocarbons or solvents with chlorine nitro benzene or similar

aromatic solvents will harm the membrane It will expand and lose plastification in

contact with them

Effect of Temperature

The permeation rates of all gases increases with increasing temperature

however membrane selectivity for CO2 over hydrocarbon decreases at higher

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temperature Consequently CO2 removal will improve as operating temperature

increases but hydro carbon recovery will decrease

Primary Membrane

The primary membranes comprise of two trains Each train consists of two

sections AB and CD each section consists of a 30 tube membrane skid (A and

C) followed by a 25 tube skid (B and D) The conditioned gas (after pre-

treatment) enters the primary membrane via the particulate filter adjacent to the

skid The gas is fed to the membranes through a common inlet manifold which

supplies primary membranes skids A and C A pressure control loop located

upstream of the manual inlet isolation valve is provided to maintain a constant

supply pressure to the membrane skid and to allow for preheating at the inlet

prior to skid start-up This pressure control loop can also be used during start-up

to control the pressurization of the pretreatment skid and associated pipes to the

primary membranes

The gas passes through membrane skid A the residual gas exiting the membrane

skid is sent to skid B and the permeate to common permeate discharge header An

identical arrangement is provide on the inlet to skid C as provided on skid A Theresidual gas from skid B combines with the residual gas from skid D in a common

discharge header and is then sent to the H2S polishing towers via the feed coolers

on the pre-treatment skid The permeate from skid B is sent to the common

permeate discharge header The permeate discharge header sends the gas to

either the recycle compressor or the vent header via a pressure control loop

Overpressure protection for the membranes is provided by a pressure safety valve

on the supply header to the membrane banks

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Secondary (Recycle) Membrane

The recycle membranes comprise of a single train with two skids each with four

banks of membrane tubes The conditioned gas from the discharge of the recycle

pre-treatment skid is routed to the first recycle membrane skid The gas passes

through the membranes the residual gas is fed to primary membrane (skid A) inlet

via feed gas cooler and permeate to the common permeate discharge header An

identical arrangement is provide on the inlet to skid B Permeate from the recycle

membrane skids A and B is routed to the vent header Some portion of permeate is

heated and sent for regeneration in Mem-Guard units Nitrogen purge can be

connected downstream of the inlet isolation valve on each skid to enable the

membrane tubes to be purged and left pressurized during prolonged shutdown

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Figure Flow Diagram of Recycle membrane unit

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ADVANTAGES OF MEMBRANE SYSTEMS

Membrane systems have major advantages over more-traditional methods of

acid gas removal

Lower capital cost Membrane systems are skid mounted and so the

scope cost and time taken for site preparation are minimal Installation

costs are significantly lower than alternative technologies especially for

remote areas Furthermore no additional facilities for solvent storage and

water treatment needed by other processes are required

Lower operating costs The only major operating cost for single-stage

membrane systems is membrane replacement This cost is significantly

lower than the solvent replacement and energy costs associated with

traditional technologies The improvements in membrane and

pretreatment design allow a longer useful membrane life which further

reduces operating costs The energy costs of multistage systems with

large recycle compressors are usually comparable to those for traditionaltechnologies

Deferred capital investment Often contracted sales-gas flow rates

increase over time as more wells are brought on-line With traditional

technologies the system design needs to take this later production into

account immediately and so the majority of the equipment is installed

before it is even needed The modular nature of membrane systems

means that only the membranes that are needed at start-up need be

installed The rest can be added either into existing tubes or in new skids

only when they are required

Operational simplicity and high reliability Because single-stage

membrane systems have no moving parts they have almost no

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unscheduled downtime and are extremely simple to operate They can

operate unattended for long periods of time The addition of a recycle

compressor adds some complexity to the system but still much less than

with a solvent- or adsorbent-based technology Multistage systems can be

operated at full capacity as single-stage systems when the recycle

compressor is down

Good weight and space efficiency Skid construction can be optimized

to the space available This space efficiency is especially important for

offshore environments where deck area is at a premium and is the

reason why so many new offshore developments have chosen to use

membranes for acid gas removal Figure 6 illustrates the space efficiency

of membrane systems The membrane unit in the lower left corner

replaced all the amine and glycol plant equipment shown in the rest of the

picture

Adaptability Because membrane area is dictated by the percentage of

acid gas removal rather than absolute acid gas removal small variations

in feed acid gas content hardly change the sales-gas acid gas

specification For example a system designed for 10 down to 3 acid

gas removal produces a 35 product from a 12 feed gas and a 5

product from a 15 feed gas

Design efficiency The membrane and pretreatment systems integrate a

number of operations such as dehydration CO2 and H2S removal dew-

point control and mercury removal Traditional acid gas removal

technologies require all of these operations as separate processes and

may also require additional dehydration because some technologies

saturate the product stream with water

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Power generation The permeate gas from membrane systems can be

used to provide fuel gas for power generation either for a recycle

compressor or other equipment

Ideal for debottlenecking Because expanding solvent- or adsorbent-

based acid gas removal plants without adding additional trains is difficult

an ideal solution is to use membranes for bulk acid gas removal and leave

the existing plant for final cleanup An additional advantage is that the

permeate gas from the membrane system can often be used as fuel for

the existing plant thus avoiding significant increase in hydrocarbon

losses

Environmentally friendly Membrane systems do not involve the

periodic removal and handling of spent solvents or adsorbents Permeate

gases can be flared used as fuel or re-injected into the well Items thatdo need disposal such as spent membrane elements can be incinerated

Ideal for remote locations Many of the factors mentioned above make

membrane systems a highly desirable technology for remote locations

where spare parts are rare and labor unskilled Furthermore solvents

storage and trucking water supply power generation or extensive

infrastructure are not required

Re-injection optimizations Since the permeate stream from the

membrane system can be operated at elevated pressures it is possible to

further pressurize by re-injection compression train

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Sorption

Sorption is a physical and chemical process by which one substance becomes

attached to another

It is of two main types

1 Absorption

2 Adsorption

Absorption

Absorption is a physical or chemical phenomenon or process in which atoms

molecules or ions enter some bulk phase ndash gas liquid or solid material This is a

different process from adsorption since molecules undergoing absorption are

taken up by the volume not by the surface (as in the case for adsorption)

Absorption process may be chemical (reactive) or physical (non-reactive)

Physical absorption

Physical absorption or non-reactive absorption is made between two phases ofmatter a liquid absorbs a gas or a solid absorbs a liquid

When a liquid solvent absorbs a gas mixture or part of it a mass of gas moves

into the liquid For example water may absorb oxygen from the air This mass

transfer takes place at the interface between the liquid and the gas at a rate

depending on both the gas and the liquid This type of absorption depends on the

solubility of gases the pressure and the temperature The rate and amount of

absorption also depend on the surface area of the interface and its duration in

time

When a solid absorbs a liquid mixture or part of it a mass of liquid moves into the

solid For example a clay pot used to store water may absorb some of the water

This mass transfer takes place at the interface between the solid and the liquid

at a rate depending on both the solid and the liquid

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Chemical absorption

Chemical absorption or reactive absorption is a chemical reaction between the

absorbed and the absorbing substances Sometimes it combines with physical

absorption This type of absorption depends upon the stoichiometry of the

reaction and the concentration of its reactants

Adsorption

Adsorption is the adhesion of atoms ions or molecules from a gas liquid or

dissolved solid to a surface This process creates a film of the adsorbate on the

surface of the adsorbent The binding to the surface is usually weak and

reversible Compounds with color and those that have taste or odor tend to bind

strongly Compounds that vibrate at frequencies in the visible spectrum are very

often are strongly adsorbed on activated carbon

The most common industrial adsorbents are activated carbon silica gel and

alumina because they present enormous surface areas per unit weight

Depending on the nature of attractive forces existing between the adsorbate and

adsorbent adsorption can be classified as

i) Physical adsorption

ii) Chemical adsorption

i) Physical adsorption (Physisorption)

In physical adsorption the forces of attraction between the molecules of the

adsorbate and the adsorbent are of the weak van der Waals type Since the

forces of attraction are weak the process of physisorption can be easily reversed

by heating or decreasing the pressure of the adsorbate (as in the case of gases)

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ii) Chemical adsorption (Chemisorption)

In chemisorption the forces of attraction between the adsorbate and the

adsorbent are very strong the molecules of adsorbate form chemical bonds with

the molecules of the adsorbent present in the surface

Adsorption is generally accompanied by release of energy that is most

adsorption processes are exothermic in nature Adsorption is a spontaneous

process therefore its free energy change is negative (∆Glt0) However the

entropy change associated with adsorption is generally negative because the

adsorbate molecules lose their translation freedom when they get attached to the

surface of the adsorbent Therefore in order for ∆G to be negative the enthalpy

change (∆H) must be sufficiently negative such that (∆G=∆H-T∆S) lt 0 This

explanation accounts for exothermic adsorption processes In cases where

endothermic adsorption occurs the entropy change ∆S is sufficiently positive

such that ∆G remains negative

Pre treatment

The main function of pretreatment skid is to provide membrane inlet specification

gas as mentioned by the vendor UOP It removes the contaminants that would

poison the membranes like dust solids (adsorbent particles) lube oil heavy

hydrocarbons etc It consists of

Feed Cooler

Feed Gas Scrubber

Filter Coalescer

Feed Gas Heater

Activated Carbon Guard Filter

Particle Filter

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The regeneration is carried out by heated permeate gas from the recycle

membranes at 450oF The vessel is depressurized to 20 psi and heated gas is

introduced from top The gas carries out the adsorbed contaminants and leaves

the vessel from bottom cleaning the adsorbent This contaminated gas is burnt in

the flare

UOP the vendor of Memguard unit has never disclosed that what substance

MG3 and MG5 exactly are But as mentioned by vendor that both care class of

aluminosilicates Therefore MG3 can be potassium aluminosilicate and MG5 can

be Calcium aluminosilicate These are molecular sieves adsorbents Molecular

sieves are a microporous material which can selectively adsorb gases andliquids They are synthetic zeolites (crystalline metal aluminosilicates) which

upon dehydration can efficiently and selectively remove water or other

solvents The selectivity of a molecular sieve is determined by its pore size

molecules with a critical diameter which is less than the pore size will be

efficiently adsorbed while larger molecules will be excluded

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3A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

The 3A molecular sieve adsorbent has a 3 angstrom (3A) pore size which means

that any molecule that is larger than the 3 angstrom pores will not be adsorbed

The 3A molecular sieve is the potassium type of A crystalline structure and is a

form of alkali Aluminosilicate For a 3A molecular sieve the sequence rate that

adsorption occurs is He Ne N and H2O

Due to the crystalline structure molecular sieves that have a 3 angstrom pore

size have a very high rate of adsorption and properties that promote a longer life

for products treated by the sieve The most common use for the 3A molecular

sieve is to remove water and moisture from materials that are in gas and liquid

form

5A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

These are molecular sieve adsorbents with a pore size of 5 angstrom (5A) 5A

molecular sieves are unable to adsorb any molecules or impurities that are

smaller than 5A It is calcium form of type A crystalline structure and is form of analkali-aluminosilicate that is most commonly used to separate isomerous alkanes

from normal alkanes and to co-adsorb moisture and water along with carbon

dioxide from gases In additional 5A molecular sieves are used for gaseous

pressure swing adsorption (PSA)mdashthat is to separate particular gases from other

gases

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of C3H8 to C22H46

Adsorption of Freon-12 (dichlorodifluoromethane)

Natural gas drying

Normal- and iso-paraffin separation

Separation of aromatic

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Inlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1096

MEHTANE 8593

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008

N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGEN 076

WATER 007

Outlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1098

MEHTANE 8608

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGENT 076

WATER 000

H2S polisher

The H2S polishing unit has been designed to treat 187 MMscfday of natural gas

containing up to 11 CO2 and 21 ppm H2S where the level of the CO2 and H2S

is reduced using a MemGuard Membrane separation unit The unit is situated

down-stream of the membrane unit and will further reduce the level of H2S in the

processed gas to a sales gas specification of 38 ppm

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This process uses three non-regenerable fixed bed absorber vessels using a low

temperature high activity absorbent The absorbent is a mixture of activated

metal oxides (mainly zinc oxide) The three towers can are generally operated in

parallel arrangement but on demand can be used in series (any of alternate

arrangements of A B C vessels) as shown in figure

The higher sales gas flow rate increased the catalyst consumption and

replacement frequency

ZnO + H2S =gt ZnS + H20

Routine samples are taken from the beds to provide a check on each bed

performance and to follow the saturation profile during the absorbent life After

the adsorbent has been fully utilized the adsorption vessels are recharged with

new adsorbent discarding the utilized one in a safe manner

109oF

1215 psig

Before H2S Polishing After H2S Polishing

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Figure

H2S Tower

Inlet pipe

4 Drums of 19mm

ceramic Balls

6 Micron mesh

5 Drums of 50mmceramic

1 Drums of19mm ceramic

01 Drums of6mm ceramic

112 drums of

Catalist ZnO

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Recycle Compressor

The permeate gas of the primary membrane unit carries recoverable amount of

CH4 It is fed to recycle membrane unit for further CH 4 recovery But the

permeate pressure from primary membranes which has been reduced to 12 psi

must be regenerated to 1200 psi for the gas to be fed again to the system For

this purpose we have employed recycle compressor The compressor is a four

stage centrifugal compressor It is driven by gas turbine of 31200 HP It has 25

MW producing capacity

Figure Recycle Compressor Process Flow Diagram

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Sales Gas Compressor

Gas from H2S polishing unit is sent to sales gas compressor where its pressure

is enhanced to 1100 psi so it may be injected to SNGPL high pressure trunk line

Sales gas compressor is single stage gas turbine driven

Figure Process Flow of Sales Gas Compressor

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Cooling Towers

A cooling tower is a heat rejection device which extracts waste heat to theatmosphere through the cooling of a water stream to a lower temperature Hot

water from the system enters the cooling tower and is distributed over the fill

(heat transfer surface) Air is induced or forced through the fill causing a small

portion of the water to evaporate This evaporation removes heat from the

remaining water which is collected in the cold water basin and returned to the

system to absorb more heat Each cooling tower line although operating under

the same basic principle of operation is arranged a little differently

Types

Natural draft mdash Utilizes buoyancy via a tall chimney Warm moist air naturally

rises due to the density differential compared to the dry cooler outside air Warm

moist air is less dense than drier air at the same pressure This moist air

buoyancy produces an upwards current of air through the tower

Mechanical draft mdash Uses power-driven fan motors to force or draw airthrough the tower

o Induced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a fan at the

discharge (at the top) which pulls air up through the tower The fan

induces hot moist air out the discharge This produces low entering

and high exiting air velocities reducing the possibility of

recirculation in which discharged air flows back into the air intake

o Forced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a blower type fan at

the intake The fan forces air into the tower creating high entering

and low exiting air velocities The low exiting velocity is much more

susceptible to recirculation This fanfill geometry is also known as

blow-through

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Forced Draft Cooling Tower Vs Induced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower have the ability to handle large water flow

rate than Forced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower is suitable for large cell sizes and fan sizes

as compared with Forced Draft Larger fan size may result in greater

efficiency and consequently lower power and sound level

Forced Draft Cooling Tower can be square or rectangular type only

however Induced Draft Cooling Towers can be round square or

rectangular type

Induced Draft Cooling Tower uses more compact ground area than Forced

Draft Cooling Tower equivalent capacity due to absence of fan on one

side

Fan equipment is warm exhaust air is less liable to icing up in winter

operation (Cold Countries)

Higher velocity in Forced Draft Cooling Tower cause drop in suspension

and cause additional static resistance to system

Configuration

There are two main configurations of factory assembled cooling towers crossflow

and counterflow In crossflow cooling towers the water flows vertically down the

fill as air flows horizontally across In counterflow cooling towers the water flows

vertically down the fill as air flows vertically up

Crossflow Configuration Counterflow Configuration

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Drift mdash Water droplets that are carried out of the cooling tower with the exhaust

air Drift droplets have the same concentration of impurities as the water entering

the tower The drift rate is typically reduced by employing baffle-like devices

called drift eliminators through which the air must travel after leaving the fill and

spray zones of the tower

Blow-out mdash Water droplets blown out of the cooling tower by wind generally at

the air inlet openings Water may also be lost in the absence of wind through

splashing or misting Devices such as wind screens louvers splash deflectors

and water diverters are used to limit these losses

Blow-down mdash The portion of the circulating water flow that is removed (usually

discharged to a drain) in order to maintain the amount of Total Dissolved Solids

(TDS) and other impurities at an acceptably low level Higher TDS concentration

in solution may result from greater cooling tower efficiency However the higher

the TDS concentration the greater the risk of scale biological growth and

corrosion

Make-up mdash The water that must be added to the circulating water system in

order to compensate for water losses such as evaporation drift loss blow-out

blow-down etc

Approach mdash The approach is the difference in temperature between the cooled-

water temperature and the entering-air wet bulb temperature

Range mdash The range is the temperature difference between the warm water inlet

and cooled water exit

Fill mdash Inside the tower fills are added to increase contact surface as well as

contact time between air and water to provide better heat transfer The efficiency

of the tower depends on the selection and amount of fill

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There are two types of fills that may be used

o Film type fill (causes water to spread into a thin film)

o Splash type fill (breaks up falling stream of water and interrupts its

vertical progress)

Important

Scale build up is controlled by adding chemicals to the cooling loop and diluting

the concentration by blow down and make-up Following chemicals are added to

the Cooling to control CorrosionSale and microbial growth

Corrosion Inhibitor To control corrosion in the Cooling system

Dispersant To kept ions in suspension to avoid settle down and buildup

Sodium hypo Chlorite To Control microbial Growth

Acid To control Alkalinity in the system

High Stress Polymer To run the system at higher conductivity It is a

multifunctional polymer for Zinc amp Phosphate stabilization in cooling tower

Fin Fan Cooler

Fin fan heat exchanger is simply a pressure vessel which cools a circulating fluid

within finned tubes by forcing ambient air over the exterior of the tubes A

common example of an air cooler is a carrsquos radiator Fin Fan Coolers are used in

any application where large quantities of heat need to be transferred This

includes chemical and petrochemical industries power stations waste-to-energy

facilities as well as steelworks

Fin Fan Cooler are used for two primary reasons

They increase plant efficiency

They are a green solution as compared to cooling towers and shell and

tube heat exchangers because they do not require an auxiliary water

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supply (water lost due to drift and evaporation plus no water treatment

chemicals are required)

Figure General Overview of Fin Fan Cooler

Produced Water

The produced water system receives liquid from the equipment Miano slug

catcher train 1 and 2 inlet separators and is fed to three phase separator where

water oil and gas is separated The gases produced are burnt in incinerator

whereas hydrocarbon liquid is stored to be sold Liquid from compressors

recycle inlet separator recycle feed scrubber high and low pressure slug

catchers is passed to degasser Separated water is injected down the earth

Incinerator

The term incinerate means to burn something until nothing is left but ashes An

incinerator is a unit or facility used to burn trash and other types of waste until it is

reduced to ash An incinerator is constructed of heavy well-insulated materials

so that it does not give off extreme amounts of external heat The high levels of

heat are kept inside the furnace or unit so that the waste is burned quickly and

efficiently If the heat were allowed to escape the waste would not burn as

completely or as rapidly

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Control System

The plant is controlled at CCR (Central Control Room) by PLCs (Programmable

Logic Controllers) through fiber optic control line All control parameters are

received at LER (Local Equipment Room) via two optic fiber control lines One

being primary and other secondary operating in redundancy ie if primary fails

control shifts to secondary These control parameters are sent to CCR via single

optic fiber cable

Safety System

Wellheads and Gas Processing Plant have their own Fire amp Gas detection

systems emergency shutdown (ESD) Plant has a fault tolerant controller It is

based on Triple Modular Redundant (TMR) architecture manufactured by

Triconex The TMR system is based on three isolated parallel control systems

integrated into one system The system operates on a two out of three voting

principle which provides high integrity error free uninterrupted operation with no

single point of failure The TMR receives inputs from Process Sensors Manual

Switches Fire amp Gas Detectors Packaged Equipment Control Systems and

Product Exporting Facilities The TMR carries out cause and effect processing on

the data received and where necessary produces output signals Outputs from

the TMR are hard wired directly to ESD shutdown and blow down valve

solenoids motor control instrumentelectrical interfaces to control electrical

drives package equipment logic control systems manifold area as well as

telecoms

The operator in central control room is able to accept alarms and once the fault

has been cleared reset the input All the control systems are centralized to a

single interface All the PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers) communicate with

the servers and servers communicate with the clients through Ethernet connectivity

Centralization eases the navigation of different systems at a common interface

Emergency Shutdown

The ESD system receives inputs from field mounted instrumentation on the process

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and utility equipment and initiates executive actions appropriate to the level of ESD

The system is an Active system which is in standby and will activate when in an

alarm or fault condition The Kadanwari Gas Process Facility ESD system is

comprised of five (5) levels The emergency severity decreases with increasing ESD

level number

ESD 1

This shutdown level is automatically initiated by fire major gas leak or a detected

toxic atmosphere in the process area of the plant or manually from CCR A level 1

shutdown will cause all production to cease close all emergency shutdown

valves stop the process and shutdown of the main power generation The

emergency vent valves to the stack will open and in addition all equipment of zone 1

certified will be isolated This is the highest level of ESD and will cause the following

to occur

All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close All slowdown Valves (BDVs) on the process facility will open

All Main Gas Driven Generators will be tripped

Emergency Diesel Generator will start

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close Upper Master Valve

(UMV) Close

ESD 2

This shutdown level is activated automatically if a major process or utility failure

occurs or manually from CCR All production to the plant from the wellhead is

stopped All emergency shutdown valves trip to their fail safe position

Venting shall be as specified This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

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All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valve Close Wing Valves Close and Upper Master Valve(UMV) Close

ESD 3

The level 3 shutdown isolates and stops a single process train only Production

continues via the other train This ESD level is initiated by process conditions or

operator at local panel This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

ESD 3A Train 1 production to cease

ESD 3B Train 2 production to cease

All online wellhead choke valves go to minimum flow ie (1O )

ESD 4

A level 4 shutdown shall cease all production from an entire field either

Kadanwari or Miano upstream of the associated slug catchers ESD 4K for

Kadanwari amp ESD 4M for Miano This ESD level is initiated automatically by slug

catcher abnormal process conditions This level of ESD will cause the following

to occur

All SDVs close isolating the relevant slug catcher and its upstream gas

production facility from the Kadanwari Gas Processing Plant

All Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close and Upper MasterValves (UMV) of the relevant gas production facility Close

A parallel timer is provided to close within 10 second if not closed in given

time SSSV seals the well

ESD 5

A level 5 shutdown represents equipment shutdown for the protection of the

individual equipment without any change in the process This level of ESD is for the

protection of various pieces of equipment and is initiated by its own inputs eg

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Figure 2

Figure 3

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Wellhead Control Panel

Wellhead control panel is key equipment in oil amp gas industry to protect oilfield

facilities and environment from emergency incidents such as wellhead fire which

is one of main control systems to ensure oilfield oil production and transportation

to be safely operation according to international standards and national

regulation Wellhead control panel is composed of hydraulic power unit tubing amp

fitting and instrument valve and electrical control devices Hydraulic power unit

supply hydraulic resource to open and close safety valves including master

valves wing valves and SCSSSV

Its performs

Local OnOff SSV

Remote control SSV through RTU( remote terminal unit)

High-Low pressure sense shut-down automatically

Fusible Plug Anti-fire Shut-down automatically

Function of showing system pressure

Relief Valve shall be installed on each hydraulic circuit to prevent high

pressure

Function of showing hydraulic level and level switch for alarm

Function of defending pressure impact of system

Function of system pressure monitoring (by pressure transmitter of control

panel)

Function of remote emergency shut-down (by magnetic valve of control

panel)

Function of OnOff SSV monitoring (by pressure switch of control loop of

control panel)

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Chemical Injection

Chemical injection systems are commonly used in production facilities to prevent

or eliminate a wide range of problems that might negatively affect the production

flow It is done for flow assurance protection of process equipment such as

pipelines or to optimize processes in production facilities

Typical flow assurance chemicals are

Wax inhibitors

Pour point depressants

Asphaltene inhibitors

Corrosion inhibitors

A corrosion inhibitor is a chemical compound that is added to liquid or gas to

decreases the corrosion rate of a material typically a metal or an alloy The

effectiveness of a corrosion inhibitor depends on fluid composition quantity of

water and flow regime Its common mechanism involves formation of a coating

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which prevents access of the corrosive substance to the metal The corrosive

agents are generally oxygen hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide

At our production site the major risk is corrosion of piping and equipment The

maximum allowable corrosion rate is approximately 02 mm per year and

corrosion rate without inhibitor could be approximately 11 mm per year so the

corrosion protection program is designed to achieve a target corrosion rate of

less than 01 mm per year which is achieved by an inhibitor system efficiency of

99 Inhibitor is injected into the well stream flow through an atomizing nozzle

located downstream of the respective wellhead coolers at the duplexcarbon steel

interface In normal operation as per NALCO standards chemical (brand name

EC1144B) at rate of frac12 Liter per MMSCFD of gas is being injected into the flow

line of miano15 flow lines made of carbon steel Moreover the composition can

vary depending upon the composition of well fluids and material of pipeline This

method of injection ensures even distribution of the chemical on the interior

surface of the pipeline The individual well sites are equipped with Chemical

Injection Packages comprising of a stainless steel storage tank and two

pneumatic motor driven pumps in parallel Instrument gas is used to drive the

pumps Normally one pump is running with the other standby

Water Conning

Water coning is a term used to describe the mechanism underlying the upward

movement of water into the perforations of a producing well Coning can seriously

impact the well productivity and influence the degree of depletion and the overall

recovery efficiency of the reservoir The specific problems of water coning are

listed below

Costly added water handling

Gas production from the original or secondary gas cap reduces pressure

Reduced efficiency of the depletion mechanism

The water is often corrosive and its disposal costly

The affected well may be abandoned early

Loss of the total field overall recovery

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Therefore conning has an important influence on operations recovery and

economics The phenomena is shown in picture below

Corrosion

Corrosion is referred as chemical deterioration of a metal Commonly this

means loss of electrons of metals reacting with water and oxygen

Weakening of iron due to oxidation of the iron atoms is a well-known

example of electrochemical corrosion This is commonly known as

rust Most structural alloys corrode merely from exposure to moisture

in the air but the process can be strongly affected by exposure to

certain substances Corrosion can be concentrated locally to form a pit

or crack or it can extend across a wide area to produce general

deterioration (uniform corrosion)

The following reaction takes place at the active sites

2Fe =gt 2Fe++ + 4e-

The free electrons travel through the metal path to the less active sites where

the following reaction takes place

O2 + 4e- + 2H20 =gt 4 OH-

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Recombination of these ions at the active surface produce the following

reaction which yields the iron-corrosion product ferrous hydroxide

2Fe + O2 + 2H2O =gt 2Fe (OH) 2

CORROSION PROTECTION SYSTEM

Coatings and painting

Painting and the application of enamel bitumen and PVC

coating are the most common anti-corrosion treatments They

work by providing a barrier of corrosion-resistant material

between the damaging environment and the structural material

Corrosion Inhibitors

Corrosion inhibitor is injected into the flow lines as mentioned in

detail on page 8

Cathodic Protection

Cathodic Protection (CP) is a technique used to control the corrosion of a

metal surface by making it the cathode of an electrochemical cell It

converts all of the anodic (active) sites on the metal surface to cathodic

(passive) sites by supplying electrical current (or free electrons) from an

alternate source It is accomplished in two ways

a) A simple method of protection connects protected metal to a more easily

corroded sacrificial metal to act as the anode The sacrificial metal then

corrodes instead of the protected metal The process is similar to a simple

DC cell in which the more active metal becomes the anode and corrodes

whereas the less active metal becomes the cathode and is protected

b) For larger structures galvanic anodes cannot economically deliver enough

current to provide protection Therefore impressed current cathodic

protection (ICCP) systems are used These consist of anodes connected

to a DC power source In remote areas power sources such as solar

panels may be used The output DC negative terminal is connected to the

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frequently to limit liquid holdup and minimize the slug volumes of liquid which can

be generated by the system

Coating

Pigs may be used to apply internal pipe coatings such as epoxy coating

materials in operating pipelines Pigs may also be used with corrosion inhibitors

to distribute and coat the entire internal wetted perimeter

Inspection

Pigs are being used more frequently as inspection tools Gauging or sizing pigs

are typically run following the completion of new construction or line repair to

determine if there are any internal obstacles bends or buckles in the pipe Pigs

can also be equipped with cameras to allow viewing of the pipe internals

Electronic intelligent or smart ldquopigsrdquo that use magnetic and ultrasonic systems

have been developed and refined that locate and measure internal and external

corrosion pitting dents buckles and any other anomalies in the pipe wall

Intelligent pigs

The accuracy of location and measurement of anomalies by the intelligent pigs

has continued to improve Initially the electronics and power systems were so

large that intelligent pigs could be used only in lines 30 in and greater in size

The continued sophistication and miniaturization of the electronic systems used

in the intelligent pigs has allowed the development of smaller pigs that can be

used in small-diameter pipelines Newly enacted DOT pipeline-integrity

regulations and rules acknowledge the effectiveness of the intelligent pigs and

incorporate their use in the pipeline-integrity testing process

Compressors

A gas compressor is a mechanical device that increases the pressure of a gas by

reducing its volume Gas pressure is increased by forcing gas molecules together

to reduce gas volume When volume is reduced gas pressure increases

All gases have large spaces among their molecules These spaces could be

enhanced further and decreased by doing some work Work done which is used

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for the enhancement of these spaces is called expansion and work done to

minimize these spaces is called compression All gases while expansion

produces cooling effect and while compression of gases raises there

temperature Compression is a term used to force gases to occupy smaller

volumes by increasing their pressure Volume of gases is interlinked with

temperature and pressure of the gas which is cleared by 2 laws govern gas

compressions

Boyles Law

Charles Law

The main types of compressor are listed below

Front End Compressor

The plant currently processes gas from a number of wells The flow and pressure

from some of these wells (currently K-10 K-11 amp K-12) has declined and they

cannot be fed directly into the Central Processing Facility To recover the

maximum gas reserves from these wells a Front End Compressor is employed

The compressor is a two stage double acting gas engine driven reciprocating

(PT) compressor Double acting means that gas is compressed on each end of

the piston It normal operates with a speed range of 600 to 900 RPM and isequipped with four compressor cylinders two for each stage Each cylinder is

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also equipped with a variable volume head end pocket

In case of compressor emergency shutdown the production chokes and the

Upper Master Valves on the on line wells will close and operator will be notified in

central control room Sweet gas from gas distribution network is used to operate the

gas engine driver of the compressor package The detailed scheme of working is

shown in figure (page 22 )

PT Reciprocating Compressor

The mechanical cycle of piston tube reciprocating compressor comprises four

strokes the expansion stroke the intake stroke the compression stroke and the

discharge stroke

Expansion Stroke

As the piston moves back on the expansion stroke the chamber volume

increases and the pressure drop As the pressure drops the discharge valve

closes since there is greater pressure in the discharge line than in the chamber

Intake Stroke

As the piston moves back during the intake stroke the pressure decreases until it

is less than the pressure in the inlet line This higher intake pressure opens the

inlet valve and gas rushes into the cylinder equalizing the pressure there with

the intake pressure The compression chamber is now at or near the intake

pressure

Compression Stroke

The piston now starts the compression stroke by moving forward decreasing the

chamber volume and increasing the pressure The increased pressure is now

higher than the intake pressure causing the intake valve to close

Discharge Stroke

The piston continues to move to the left during the discharge stroke This creates

an increase in chamber pressure until it is greater than the discharge pressure

When this happens the Discharge valve opens and the compressed air from the

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cylinder goes into the discharge line The compression cycle is then repeated

from the stage

Compressor Capacity

The capacity of the compressor depends upon cylinder displacement That

displacement is simply the volume that the piston displaces (moves) as it travels

from one end of the cylinder to the other Capacity and displacement is equal to

the cross-sectional area of the cylinder times the length of the stroke

Lubrication and Cooling

Lubricating oil is circulated through the system by a gear pump which is chain

driven from the engine crank shaft The oil pump is mounted on the engine front

housing

The pump operates between 30 - 40 psig

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A circulating pump deliver cooling water to the water jackets in the cylinder block

flowing around the cylinder liners and is directed into the cylinder heads Each

cylinder head has water cooled exhaust elbows which outlet the water into the

water cooled exhausts From the end of engine the water flows to compressor

1st and 2nd stage cylinders and compressor lube oil cooler (LOwater heat

exchanger) The water from the compressor cylinder and lube oil cooler returns

to engine water cooled exhaust

Figure Flow diagram of Front End Compressor

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Centrifugal Compressor

Centrifugal compressors are machines in which velocity and pressure given to air

or gas in a radial direction by one or more impellers diffuser combination In a

centrifugal compressor the mechanical energy is increased by centrifugal action

The gas enters the suction eye of a high speed rotary element called the impeller

which carries radial vanes integrally cast in it As the impeller rotates the blades

of the impeller force the gas outward from the center the impeller to the outer rim

of impeller the increase in velocity of the gas creates a flow pressure area at the

eye of the impeller The gas at the outer rim of the impeller is forced in to a

passage way called a diffuser where the velocity decreases in the pressure of the

gas

Inlet

The inlet to a centrifugal compressor is typically a simple pipe It may include

features such as a valve and both pressure and temperature instrumentation

Centrifugal impeller

The key component that makes a compressor centrifugal is the centrifugal

impeller shown above It is the impellers rotating set of vanes (or blades) that

gradually raises the energy of the working gas This is identical to an axial

compressor with the exception that the gases can reach higher velocities and

energy levels through the impellers increasing radius

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Diffuser

The next key component to the simple centrifugal compressor is the diffuser

Downstream of the impeller in the flow path it is the diffusers responsibility to

convert the kinetic energy (high velocity) of the gas into pressure by gradually

slowing (diffusing) the gas velocity

SEPERATORS

A well-stream is a mixture of gases hydrocarbon liquids water solids and

contaminants Due to variations in pressure and temperature gases evolve from

the liquids water vapor condenses and some of the well-stream changes to liquid

and free gas The separation of well-stream fluids takes place in a separator This

pressure vessel is manufactured in three forms

1 horizontal

2 vertical

3 spherical

To help separation the vessel is normally designed with a series of internal

fittings These fittings are built into the separator to ensure total phase separation

of the well-stream

In gas plants separators are given alternative names due to the function they

perform in the process system A scrubber does a similar job to a knockout drum

However the scrubber usually separates a stream containing high gas-to-liquid

ratios The knockout drum is used where a high degree of liquids are entrained in

the gas

Fluid flow from a well can include gas condensable liquid vapors water water

vapor crude oil and solids As well-stream fluids reach ground level where

pressure is lower than in the reservoir the capacity of the liquid to hold gas in

solution decreases and gas separates out of the oil

Separation depends upon the effect of gravity to separate liquids For adequate

separation one fluid must be lighter than the other fluid For example distillates

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(gasoline kerosene etc) and crude oil will not separate in a vessel because they

tend to dissolve in each other Because a separator basically depends upon

gravity to separate the fluids the ease with which separation takes place

depends upon the difference in density of the fluids

Droplets of liquid will separate from gas provided

a) The gas remains in the separator long enough

b) The gas flow remains constant to provoke separation

The difference in density between a gas and liquid will therefore determine the

maximum flow rate of liquid in the vessel

Figure Two phase horizontal separator

Gas bubbles in the liquid will break out in some oil field applications in 30 to 60

seconds Consequently the separator is designed so that the liquid remains in

the vessel for 30 to 60 seconds The length of time that a liquid remains in the

vessel is called its residence time Residence time differs widely from field to field

depending upon viscosity and API Gravity

Another important factor which must be considered is temperature Generally a

decrease in operating temperature will increase the liquid recovery in a separator

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as the gas condenses By reducing the pressure on the fluid flash separation

occurs resulting in a flow through the separator which is controlled by external

instrumentation

COALESCENCE

Another important principle in fluid separation is that of coalescence This means

the coming together of liquid droplets created by the force of gravity

A common example of coalescing occurs when drops of water form on the

windshield of a car as it is driven in fog As the tiny drops or water which make up

the fog strike the windshield they combine and eventually form a drop large

enough to run down the glass

Several of the internal devices of a separator such as deflector plates

straightening vanes and even the vessel walls are forms of coalescers In each

vessel drops of liquid adhere to the surface of the device and combine with other

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drops until the drop is large enough to fall out The effectiveness of separation

will also depend upon the total amount of coalescing surface area that is present

There are many different types of separators used in the Oil amp Gas industry

Consequently separators are manufactured with one two or several internal

fittings depending on their use and quick removal of these fluids from the vessel

DEFLECTOR PLATES

These are fitted in front of the inlet to the separator and can be net or

dish-shaped Their purpose is to absorb the impact of the incoming fluids and to

encourage the separation of gas and liquids They also slow the flow rate of the

liquids through the vessel

WEIRS

A weir is a metal wall which is fitted across the inside of the vessel normally to a

height of 50 of the overall height of the separator Its purpose is to assist the

process of three phase separation The inlet fluids (oil plus water) are given time

to separate in the liquid accumulation section The water level (interface) is

normally controlled at 50 of the height of the weir Oil floating on the wateroverflows the weir and accumulates in the small oil compartment where it is

drawn off under level control

CENTRIFUGAL DEVICES

These are used in both vertical and horizontal separators for gas-liquid

separation The device imparts a swirling motion to the fluids entering the vessel

Centrifugal force causes the heavier liquids to travel outwards towards the walls

of the vessel and the lighter gases to flow up the centre Centrifugal devices are

also known as cyclones

VORTEX BREAKERS

When liquid flows through a drain outlet a vortex (whirlpool) will form This can

be seen when we pull the plug from a sink or bath tub The same would happen

as water and oil flow from the separator This condition a vortex could allow gas

to flow down the centre of the whirlpool and enter the liquid phase causing

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pressurizing of tanks etc To stop this happening vortex breakers are fitted to all

liquid outlets Although they come in a number of different designs vortex

breakers all serve the same purpose - to prevent a whirlpool from forming

MIST OR DEMISTER PADS

The gas which is released from the fluids in the separator still contains droplets of

oil and water which coalesce and fall when the drops get large enough The

demister pad assists in this process Made from knitted wire and contained within

a sturdy frame it causes the gas to continually change its direction of flow

Because gas changes direction far easier than liquid the gas will flow around

each strand of wire whilst the liquid entrained in the gas stream will continue and

stick to the wire

COALESCING PLATES

There are several different forms of coalescing devices the most common of

which are coalescing plates These plates are mounted in the flow stream of the

fluids and assist in breaking down oil-water emulsions The fluid is forced to

follow a path that constantly changes direction This causes the water droplets to

gather together or coalesce and fall to the bottom of the separator The same

principle is used to separate gas and oil mixtures when the oil droplets are

induced to coalesce Simply stated every surface within the separator including

the separator walls assists with the coalescing process

STRAIGHTENlNG VANES

These are often fitted to horizontal separators to remove turbulence in the gas

stream after initial separation at the inlet deflector

FLOAT SHEILD

Internal floats are used as level controllers Any agitation of the liquid surface or

the effect of coalesced liquids falling on the float may cause control problems

Therefore a float shield is fitted to enclose the float creating an area of still liquid

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MEMBRANES

The gas contains 12 carbon dioxide and 22 ppm of hydrogen sulphide at 115oF

and 1100 psig This needs to be removed before the gas can be exported The

majority of carbon dioxide hydrogen sulphide and water is removed by means of

membranes

Membranes are thin semipermeable barriers that selectively separate some

compounds from others Currently the only commercially workable membranes

used for CO2 removal are polymer based for example cellulose acetate

polyimides polyamides polysulfone polycarbonates and polyetherimide The

membrane does not operate as a filter where small molecules are separated

from larger ones through a medium with pores rather it separates based on how

well different compounds dissolve into the membrane and diffuse through it The

membranes are manufactured in flat sheets consisting of an extremely thin

nonporous layer mounted on a much-thicker and highly porous layer of the same

material providing mechanical strength The flat sheets are combined into a

spiral-wound element (Figure below) Feed gas enters along the side of the

membrane and passes through the feed spacers As the gas travels between

membrane sheets CO2 H2S and H2O permeate through the membrane and are

collected in the permeate tube The driving force for transport is the high-feed

pressure and low-permeate pressures The gas on the feed side that does not

permeate leaves through the side of the element opposite the feed position Once

the membranes have been manufactured into elements six to 12 elements are

joined together and inserted into a tube Multiple tubes are mounted on skids in a

horizontal orientation

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Figure Membrane general Working

In high H2S applications most polymers have been shown to have very little

resistance to H2S plasticization (ldquosofteningrdquo of the membrane) and as a

consequence can only be used at very low H2S partial pressure limits Cellulose

acetate membranes in contrast have been shown to be applicable at extreme

H2S partial pressure conditions It is these membranes that have been utilized in

the testing to determine the limits of membrane performance in high H 2S

applications

The primary membranes used in Kadanwari facility are Cellulose acetate

Cellulose acetic acid and acetic anhydride are mixed together and reacted to

form cellulose acetate polymers This process is aided by the addition of a small

amount of sulfuric acid which is subsequently neutralized during processing

However the membranes are bought from UOP (vendor) and installed for use

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How membrane work

The basic principle of separation is selectivity of certain components of a mixture

for the membrane For example the cellulose acetate membrane has very high

selectivity for CO2 and H2S as compared to CH4 Therefore such type of

membrane can be used in gas sweetening process

The selectivity is directly related to the Permeability of gas which accounts that

which gas can pass across the membrane more easily In simple words

membranes being polymer materials are made of long chains of molecules The

different structure of polymer materials only allow selective molecules to pass

through them depending upon chemical and physical compatibility Thus

permeability depends upon choice of polymer

The permeability is determined by permeability coefficient (P) and is product of

solubility (S) and diffusivity (D)

P = S D

Solubility

The solubility is mainly determined by ease of condensation Heavy molecules

are more readily condensed Therefore higher molecular weighted molecules will

more easily condensed and therefore have greater solubility

Molecule Molecular weight

CH4 16

H2S 34

CO2 44

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Diffusivity

Diffusivity is ease of molecule to penetrate into some material It depends on size

of gas molecule Here size of molecule is not to be confused by molecular weight

it is the size of the structure Eg the size of O2 molecule is smaller than N2

Molecule Molecular Diameter (Ao)

CO2 33

H2S 36

Ch4 40

For cellulose acetate

DCO2DCH4 S CO2S CH4 P CO2P CH4

45 73 308

Chemical degradation

Cellulose acetate polymer is chemically degraded by a process called hydrolysis

which means breaking apart by the addition of water This is a chemical reaction

in which water is added to the cellulose acetate polymer causing the release of

acetic acid molecules This process proceeds stepwise until all the acetate

groups are released resulting in the reformation of cellulose Moreover alcohols

aromatic hydrocarbons or solvents with chlorine nitro benzene or similar

aromatic solvents will harm the membrane It will expand and lose plastification in

contact with them

Effect of Temperature

The permeation rates of all gases increases with increasing temperature

however membrane selectivity for CO2 over hydrocarbon decreases at higher

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temperature Consequently CO2 removal will improve as operating temperature

increases but hydro carbon recovery will decrease

Primary Membrane

The primary membranes comprise of two trains Each train consists of two

sections AB and CD each section consists of a 30 tube membrane skid (A and

C) followed by a 25 tube skid (B and D) The conditioned gas (after pre-

treatment) enters the primary membrane via the particulate filter adjacent to the

skid The gas is fed to the membranes through a common inlet manifold which

supplies primary membranes skids A and C A pressure control loop located

upstream of the manual inlet isolation valve is provided to maintain a constant

supply pressure to the membrane skid and to allow for preheating at the inlet

prior to skid start-up This pressure control loop can also be used during start-up

to control the pressurization of the pretreatment skid and associated pipes to the

primary membranes

The gas passes through membrane skid A the residual gas exiting the membrane

skid is sent to skid B and the permeate to common permeate discharge header An

identical arrangement is provide on the inlet to skid C as provided on skid A Theresidual gas from skid B combines with the residual gas from skid D in a common

discharge header and is then sent to the H2S polishing towers via the feed coolers

on the pre-treatment skid The permeate from skid B is sent to the common

permeate discharge header The permeate discharge header sends the gas to

either the recycle compressor or the vent header via a pressure control loop

Overpressure protection for the membranes is provided by a pressure safety valve

on the supply header to the membrane banks

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Secondary (Recycle) Membrane

The recycle membranes comprise of a single train with two skids each with four

banks of membrane tubes The conditioned gas from the discharge of the recycle

pre-treatment skid is routed to the first recycle membrane skid The gas passes

through the membranes the residual gas is fed to primary membrane (skid A) inlet

via feed gas cooler and permeate to the common permeate discharge header An

identical arrangement is provide on the inlet to skid B Permeate from the recycle

membrane skids A and B is routed to the vent header Some portion of permeate is

heated and sent for regeneration in Mem-Guard units Nitrogen purge can be

connected downstream of the inlet isolation valve on each skid to enable the

membrane tubes to be purged and left pressurized during prolonged shutdown

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Figure Flow Diagram of Recycle membrane unit

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ADVANTAGES OF MEMBRANE SYSTEMS

Membrane systems have major advantages over more-traditional methods of

acid gas removal

Lower capital cost Membrane systems are skid mounted and so the

scope cost and time taken for site preparation are minimal Installation

costs are significantly lower than alternative technologies especially for

remote areas Furthermore no additional facilities for solvent storage and

water treatment needed by other processes are required

Lower operating costs The only major operating cost for single-stage

membrane systems is membrane replacement This cost is significantly

lower than the solvent replacement and energy costs associated with

traditional technologies The improvements in membrane and

pretreatment design allow a longer useful membrane life which further

reduces operating costs The energy costs of multistage systems with

large recycle compressors are usually comparable to those for traditionaltechnologies

Deferred capital investment Often contracted sales-gas flow rates

increase over time as more wells are brought on-line With traditional

technologies the system design needs to take this later production into

account immediately and so the majority of the equipment is installed

before it is even needed The modular nature of membrane systems

means that only the membranes that are needed at start-up need be

installed The rest can be added either into existing tubes or in new skids

only when they are required

Operational simplicity and high reliability Because single-stage

membrane systems have no moving parts they have almost no

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unscheduled downtime and are extremely simple to operate They can

operate unattended for long periods of time The addition of a recycle

compressor adds some complexity to the system but still much less than

with a solvent- or adsorbent-based technology Multistage systems can be

operated at full capacity as single-stage systems when the recycle

compressor is down

Good weight and space efficiency Skid construction can be optimized

to the space available This space efficiency is especially important for

offshore environments where deck area is at a premium and is the

reason why so many new offshore developments have chosen to use

membranes for acid gas removal Figure 6 illustrates the space efficiency

of membrane systems The membrane unit in the lower left corner

replaced all the amine and glycol plant equipment shown in the rest of the

picture

Adaptability Because membrane area is dictated by the percentage of

acid gas removal rather than absolute acid gas removal small variations

in feed acid gas content hardly change the sales-gas acid gas

specification For example a system designed for 10 down to 3 acid

gas removal produces a 35 product from a 12 feed gas and a 5

product from a 15 feed gas

Design efficiency The membrane and pretreatment systems integrate a

number of operations such as dehydration CO2 and H2S removal dew-

point control and mercury removal Traditional acid gas removal

technologies require all of these operations as separate processes and

may also require additional dehydration because some technologies

saturate the product stream with water

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Power generation The permeate gas from membrane systems can be

used to provide fuel gas for power generation either for a recycle

compressor or other equipment

Ideal for debottlenecking Because expanding solvent- or adsorbent-

based acid gas removal plants without adding additional trains is difficult

an ideal solution is to use membranes for bulk acid gas removal and leave

the existing plant for final cleanup An additional advantage is that the

permeate gas from the membrane system can often be used as fuel for

the existing plant thus avoiding significant increase in hydrocarbon

losses

Environmentally friendly Membrane systems do not involve the

periodic removal and handling of spent solvents or adsorbents Permeate

gases can be flared used as fuel or re-injected into the well Items thatdo need disposal such as spent membrane elements can be incinerated

Ideal for remote locations Many of the factors mentioned above make

membrane systems a highly desirable technology for remote locations

where spare parts are rare and labor unskilled Furthermore solvents

storage and trucking water supply power generation or extensive

infrastructure are not required

Re-injection optimizations Since the permeate stream from the

membrane system can be operated at elevated pressures it is possible to

further pressurize by re-injection compression train

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Sorption

Sorption is a physical and chemical process by which one substance becomes

attached to another

It is of two main types

1 Absorption

2 Adsorption

Absorption

Absorption is a physical or chemical phenomenon or process in which atoms

molecules or ions enter some bulk phase ndash gas liquid or solid material This is a

different process from adsorption since molecules undergoing absorption are

taken up by the volume not by the surface (as in the case for adsorption)

Absorption process may be chemical (reactive) or physical (non-reactive)

Physical absorption

Physical absorption or non-reactive absorption is made between two phases ofmatter a liquid absorbs a gas or a solid absorbs a liquid

When a liquid solvent absorbs a gas mixture or part of it a mass of gas moves

into the liquid For example water may absorb oxygen from the air This mass

transfer takes place at the interface between the liquid and the gas at a rate

depending on both the gas and the liquid This type of absorption depends on the

solubility of gases the pressure and the temperature The rate and amount of

absorption also depend on the surface area of the interface and its duration in

time

When a solid absorbs a liquid mixture or part of it a mass of liquid moves into the

solid For example a clay pot used to store water may absorb some of the water

This mass transfer takes place at the interface between the solid and the liquid

at a rate depending on both the solid and the liquid

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Chemical absorption

Chemical absorption or reactive absorption is a chemical reaction between the

absorbed and the absorbing substances Sometimes it combines with physical

absorption This type of absorption depends upon the stoichiometry of the

reaction and the concentration of its reactants

Adsorption

Adsorption is the adhesion of atoms ions or molecules from a gas liquid or

dissolved solid to a surface This process creates a film of the adsorbate on the

surface of the adsorbent The binding to the surface is usually weak and

reversible Compounds with color and those that have taste or odor tend to bind

strongly Compounds that vibrate at frequencies in the visible spectrum are very

often are strongly adsorbed on activated carbon

The most common industrial adsorbents are activated carbon silica gel and

alumina because they present enormous surface areas per unit weight

Depending on the nature of attractive forces existing between the adsorbate and

adsorbent adsorption can be classified as

i) Physical adsorption

ii) Chemical adsorption

i) Physical adsorption (Physisorption)

In physical adsorption the forces of attraction between the molecules of the

adsorbate and the adsorbent are of the weak van der Waals type Since the

forces of attraction are weak the process of physisorption can be easily reversed

by heating or decreasing the pressure of the adsorbate (as in the case of gases)

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ii) Chemical adsorption (Chemisorption)

In chemisorption the forces of attraction between the adsorbate and the

adsorbent are very strong the molecules of adsorbate form chemical bonds with

the molecules of the adsorbent present in the surface

Adsorption is generally accompanied by release of energy that is most

adsorption processes are exothermic in nature Adsorption is a spontaneous

process therefore its free energy change is negative (∆Glt0) However the

entropy change associated with adsorption is generally negative because the

adsorbate molecules lose their translation freedom when they get attached to the

surface of the adsorbent Therefore in order for ∆G to be negative the enthalpy

change (∆H) must be sufficiently negative such that (∆G=∆H-T∆S) lt 0 This

explanation accounts for exothermic adsorption processes In cases where

endothermic adsorption occurs the entropy change ∆S is sufficiently positive

such that ∆G remains negative

Pre treatment

The main function of pretreatment skid is to provide membrane inlet specification

gas as mentioned by the vendor UOP It removes the contaminants that would

poison the membranes like dust solids (adsorbent particles) lube oil heavy

hydrocarbons etc It consists of

Feed Cooler

Feed Gas Scrubber

Filter Coalescer

Feed Gas Heater

Activated Carbon Guard Filter

Particle Filter

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The regeneration is carried out by heated permeate gas from the recycle

membranes at 450oF The vessel is depressurized to 20 psi and heated gas is

introduced from top The gas carries out the adsorbed contaminants and leaves

the vessel from bottom cleaning the adsorbent This contaminated gas is burnt in

the flare

UOP the vendor of Memguard unit has never disclosed that what substance

MG3 and MG5 exactly are But as mentioned by vendor that both care class of

aluminosilicates Therefore MG3 can be potassium aluminosilicate and MG5 can

be Calcium aluminosilicate These are molecular sieves adsorbents Molecular

sieves are a microporous material which can selectively adsorb gases andliquids They are synthetic zeolites (crystalline metal aluminosilicates) which

upon dehydration can efficiently and selectively remove water or other

solvents The selectivity of a molecular sieve is determined by its pore size

molecules with a critical diameter which is less than the pore size will be

efficiently adsorbed while larger molecules will be excluded

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3A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

The 3A molecular sieve adsorbent has a 3 angstrom (3A) pore size which means

that any molecule that is larger than the 3 angstrom pores will not be adsorbed

The 3A molecular sieve is the potassium type of A crystalline structure and is a

form of alkali Aluminosilicate For a 3A molecular sieve the sequence rate that

adsorption occurs is He Ne N and H2O

Due to the crystalline structure molecular sieves that have a 3 angstrom pore

size have a very high rate of adsorption and properties that promote a longer life

for products treated by the sieve The most common use for the 3A molecular

sieve is to remove water and moisture from materials that are in gas and liquid

form

5A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

These are molecular sieve adsorbents with a pore size of 5 angstrom (5A) 5A

molecular sieves are unable to adsorb any molecules or impurities that are

smaller than 5A It is calcium form of type A crystalline structure and is form of analkali-aluminosilicate that is most commonly used to separate isomerous alkanes

from normal alkanes and to co-adsorb moisture and water along with carbon

dioxide from gases In additional 5A molecular sieves are used for gaseous

pressure swing adsorption (PSA)mdashthat is to separate particular gases from other

gases

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of C3H8 to C22H46

Adsorption of Freon-12 (dichlorodifluoromethane)

Natural gas drying

Normal- and iso-paraffin separation

Separation of aromatic

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Inlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1096

MEHTANE 8593

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008

N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGEN 076

WATER 007

Outlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1098

MEHTANE 8608

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGENT 076

WATER 000

H2S polisher

The H2S polishing unit has been designed to treat 187 MMscfday of natural gas

containing up to 11 CO2 and 21 ppm H2S where the level of the CO2 and H2S

is reduced using a MemGuard Membrane separation unit The unit is situated

down-stream of the membrane unit and will further reduce the level of H2S in the

processed gas to a sales gas specification of 38 ppm

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This process uses three non-regenerable fixed bed absorber vessels using a low

temperature high activity absorbent The absorbent is a mixture of activated

metal oxides (mainly zinc oxide) The three towers can are generally operated in

parallel arrangement but on demand can be used in series (any of alternate

arrangements of A B C vessels) as shown in figure

The higher sales gas flow rate increased the catalyst consumption and

replacement frequency

ZnO + H2S =gt ZnS + H20

Routine samples are taken from the beds to provide a check on each bed

performance and to follow the saturation profile during the absorbent life After

the adsorbent has been fully utilized the adsorption vessels are recharged with

new adsorbent discarding the utilized one in a safe manner

109oF

1215 psig

Before H2S Polishing After H2S Polishing

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Figure

H2S Tower

Inlet pipe

4 Drums of 19mm

ceramic Balls

6 Micron mesh

5 Drums of 50mmceramic

1 Drums of19mm ceramic

01 Drums of6mm ceramic

112 drums of

Catalist ZnO

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Recycle Compressor

The permeate gas of the primary membrane unit carries recoverable amount of

CH4 It is fed to recycle membrane unit for further CH 4 recovery But the

permeate pressure from primary membranes which has been reduced to 12 psi

must be regenerated to 1200 psi for the gas to be fed again to the system For

this purpose we have employed recycle compressor The compressor is a four

stage centrifugal compressor It is driven by gas turbine of 31200 HP It has 25

MW producing capacity

Figure Recycle Compressor Process Flow Diagram

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Sales Gas Compressor

Gas from H2S polishing unit is sent to sales gas compressor where its pressure

is enhanced to 1100 psi so it may be injected to SNGPL high pressure trunk line

Sales gas compressor is single stage gas turbine driven

Figure Process Flow of Sales Gas Compressor

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Cooling Towers

A cooling tower is a heat rejection device which extracts waste heat to theatmosphere through the cooling of a water stream to a lower temperature Hot

water from the system enters the cooling tower and is distributed over the fill

(heat transfer surface) Air is induced or forced through the fill causing a small

portion of the water to evaporate This evaporation removes heat from the

remaining water which is collected in the cold water basin and returned to the

system to absorb more heat Each cooling tower line although operating under

the same basic principle of operation is arranged a little differently

Types

Natural draft mdash Utilizes buoyancy via a tall chimney Warm moist air naturally

rises due to the density differential compared to the dry cooler outside air Warm

moist air is less dense than drier air at the same pressure This moist air

buoyancy produces an upwards current of air through the tower

Mechanical draft mdash Uses power-driven fan motors to force or draw airthrough the tower

o Induced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a fan at the

discharge (at the top) which pulls air up through the tower The fan

induces hot moist air out the discharge This produces low entering

and high exiting air velocities reducing the possibility of

recirculation in which discharged air flows back into the air intake

o Forced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a blower type fan at

the intake The fan forces air into the tower creating high entering

and low exiting air velocities The low exiting velocity is much more

susceptible to recirculation This fanfill geometry is also known as

blow-through

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Forced Draft Cooling Tower Vs Induced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower have the ability to handle large water flow

rate than Forced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower is suitable for large cell sizes and fan sizes

as compared with Forced Draft Larger fan size may result in greater

efficiency and consequently lower power and sound level

Forced Draft Cooling Tower can be square or rectangular type only

however Induced Draft Cooling Towers can be round square or

rectangular type

Induced Draft Cooling Tower uses more compact ground area than Forced

Draft Cooling Tower equivalent capacity due to absence of fan on one

side

Fan equipment is warm exhaust air is less liable to icing up in winter

operation (Cold Countries)

Higher velocity in Forced Draft Cooling Tower cause drop in suspension

and cause additional static resistance to system

Configuration

There are two main configurations of factory assembled cooling towers crossflow

and counterflow In crossflow cooling towers the water flows vertically down the

fill as air flows horizontally across In counterflow cooling towers the water flows

vertically down the fill as air flows vertically up

Crossflow Configuration Counterflow Configuration

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Drift mdash Water droplets that are carried out of the cooling tower with the exhaust

air Drift droplets have the same concentration of impurities as the water entering

the tower The drift rate is typically reduced by employing baffle-like devices

called drift eliminators through which the air must travel after leaving the fill and

spray zones of the tower

Blow-out mdash Water droplets blown out of the cooling tower by wind generally at

the air inlet openings Water may also be lost in the absence of wind through

splashing or misting Devices such as wind screens louvers splash deflectors

and water diverters are used to limit these losses

Blow-down mdash The portion of the circulating water flow that is removed (usually

discharged to a drain) in order to maintain the amount of Total Dissolved Solids

(TDS) and other impurities at an acceptably low level Higher TDS concentration

in solution may result from greater cooling tower efficiency However the higher

the TDS concentration the greater the risk of scale biological growth and

corrosion

Make-up mdash The water that must be added to the circulating water system in

order to compensate for water losses such as evaporation drift loss blow-out

blow-down etc

Approach mdash The approach is the difference in temperature between the cooled-

water temperature and the entering-air wet bulb temperature

Range mdash The range is the temperature difference between the warm water inlet

and cooled water exit

Fill mdash Inside the tower fills are added to increase contact surface as well as

contact time between air and water to provide better heat transfer The efficiency

of the tower depends on the selection and amount of fill

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There are two types of fills that may be used

o Film type fill (causes water to spread into a thin film)

o Splash type fill (breaks up falling stream of water and interrupts its

vertical progress)

Important

Scale build up is controlled by adding chemicals to the cooling loop and diluting

the concentration by blow down and make-up Following chemicals are added to

the Cooling to control CorrosionSale and microbial growth

Corrosion Inhibitor To control corrosion in the Cooling system

Dispersant To kept ions in suspension to avoid settle down and buildup

Sodium hypo Chlorite To Control microbial Growth

Acid To control Alkalinity in the system

High Stress Polymer To run the system at higher conductivity It is a

multifunctional polymer for Zinc amp Phosphate stabilization in cooling tower

Fin Fan Cooler

Fin fan heat exchanger is simply a pressure vessel which cools a circulating fluid

within finned tubes by forcing ambient air over the exterior of the tubes A

common example of an air cooler is a carrsquos radiator Fin Fan Coolers are used in

any application where large quantities of heat need to be transferred This

includes chemical and petrochemical industries power stations waste-to-energy

facilities as well as steelworks

Fin Fan Cooler are used for two primary reasons

They increase plant efficiency

They are a green solution as compared to cooling towers and shell and

tube heat exchangers because they do not require an auxiliary water

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supply (water lost due to drift and evaporation plus no water treatment

chemicals are required)

Figure General Overview of Fin Fan Cooler

Produced Water

The produced water system receives liquid from the equipment Miano slug

catcher train 1 and 2 inlet separators and is fed to three phase separator where

water oil and gas is separated The gases produced are burnt in incinerator

whereas hydrocarbon liquid is stored to be sold Liquid from compressors

recycle inlet separator recycle feed scrubber high and low pressure slug

catchers is passed to degasser Separated water is injected down the earth

Incinerator

The term incinerate means to burn something until nothing is left but ashes An

incinerator is a unit or facility used to burn trash and other types of waste until it is

reduced to ash An incinerator is constructed of heavy well-insulated materials

so that it does not give off extreme amounts of external heat The high levels of

heat are kept inside the furnace or unit so that the waste is burned quickly and

efficiently If the heat were allowed to escape the waste would not burn as

completely or as rapidly

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Control System

The plant is controlled at CCR (Central Control Room) by PLCs (Programmable

Logic Controllers) through fiber optic control line All control parameters are

received at LER (Local Equipment Room) via two optic fiber control lines One

being primary and other secondary operating in redundancy ie if primary fails

control shifts to secondary These control parameters are sent to CCR via single

optic fiber cable

Safety System

Wellheads and Gas Processing Plant have their own Fire amp Gas detection

systems emergency shutdown (ESD) Plant has a fault tolerant controller It is

based on Triple Modular Redundant (TMR) architecture manufactured by

Triconex The TMR system is based on three isolated parallel control systems

integrated into one system The system operates on a two out of three voting

principle which provides high integrity error free uninterrupted operation with no

single point of failure The TMR receives inputs from Process Sensors Manual

Switches Fire amp Gas Detectors Packaged Equipment Control Systems and

Product Exporting Facilities The TMR carries out cause and effect processing on

the data received and where necessary produces output signals Outputs from

the TMR are hard wired directly to ESD shutdown and blow down valve

solenoids motor control instrumentelectrical interfaces to control electrical

drives package equipment logic control systems manifold area as well as

telecoms

The operator in central control room is able to accept alarms and once the fault

has been cleared reset the input All the control systems are centralized to a

single interface All the PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers) communicate with

the servers and servers communicate with the clients through Ethernet connectivity

Centralization eases the navigation of different systems at a common interface

Emergency Shutdown

The ESD system receives inputs from field mounted instrumentation on the process

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and utility equipment and initiates executive actions appropriate to the level of ESD

The system is an Active system which is in standby and will activate when in an

alarm or fault condition The Kadanwari Gas Process Facility ESD system is

comprised of five (5) levels The emergency severity decreases with increasing ESD

level number

ESD 1

This shutdown level is automatically initiated by fire major gas leak or a detected

toxic atmosphere in the process area of the plant or manually from CCR A level 1

shutdown will cause all production to cease close all emergency shutdown

valves stop the process and shutdown of the main power generation The

emergency vent valves to the stack will open and in addition all equipment of zone 1

certified will be isolated This is the highest level of ESD and will cause the following

to occur

All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close All slowdown Valves (BDVs) on the process facility will open

All Main Gas Driven Generators will be tripped

Emergency Diesel Generator will start

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close Upper Master Valve

(UMV) Close

ESD 2

This shutdown level is activated automatically if a major process or utility failure

occurs or manually from CCR All production to the plant from the wellhead is

stopped All emergency shutdown valves trip to their fail safe position

Venting shall be as specified This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

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All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valve Close Wing Valves Close and Upper Master Valve(UMV) Close

ESD 3

The level 3 shutdown isolates and stops a single process train only Production

continues via the other train This ESD level is initiated by process conditions or

operator at local panel This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

ESD 3A Train 1 production to cease

ESD 3B Train 2 production to cease

All online wellhead choke valves go to minimum flow ie (1O )

ESD 4

A level 4 shutdown shall cease all production from an entire field either

Kadanwari or Miano upstream of the associated slug catchers ESD 4K for

Kadanwari amp ESD 4M for Miano This ESD level is initiated automatically by slug

catcher abnormal process conditions This level of ESD will cause the following

to occur

All SDVs close isolating the relevant slug catcher and its upstream gas

production facility from the Kadanwari Gas Processing Plant

All Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close and Upper MasterValves (UMV) of the relevant gas production facility Close

A parallel timer is provided to close within 10 second if not closed in given

time SSSV seals the well

ESD 5

A level 5 shutdown represents equipment shutdown for the protection of the

individual equipment without any change in the process This level of ESD is for the

protection of various pieces of equipment and is initiated by its own inputs eg

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Wellhead Control Panel

Wellhead control panel is key equipment in oil amp gas industry to protect oilfield

facilities and environment from emergency incidents such as wellhead fire which

is one of main control systems to ensure oilfield oil production and transportation

to be safely operation according to international standards and national

regulation Wellhead control panel is composed of hydraulic power unit tubing amp

fitting and instrument valve and electrical control devices Hydraulic power unit

supply hydraulic resource to open and close safety valves including master

valves wing valves and SCSSSV

Its performs

Local OnOff SSV

Remote control SSV through RTU( remote terminal unit)

High-Low pressure sense shut-down automatically

Fusible Plug Anti-fire Shut-down automatically

Function of showing system pressure

Relief Valve shall be installed on each hydraulic circuit to prevent high

pressure

Function of showing hydraulic level and level switch for alarm

Function of defending pressure impact of system

Function of system pressure monitoring (by pressure transmitter of control

panel)

Function of remote emergency shut-down (by magnetic valve of control

panel)

Function of OnOff SSV monitoring (by pressure switch of control loop of

control panel)

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Chemical Injection

Chemical injection systems are commonly used in production facilities to prevent

or eliminate a wide range of problems that might negatively affect the production

flow It is done for flow assurance protection of process equipment such as

pipelines or to optimize processes in production facilities

Typical flow assurance chemicals are

Wax inhibitors

Pour point depressants

Asphaltene inhibitors

Corrosion inhibitors

A corrosion inhibitor is a chemical compound that is added to liquid or gas to

decreases the corrosion rate of a material typically a metal or an alloy The

effectiveness of a corrosion inhibitor depends on fluid composition quantity of

water and flow regime Its common mechanism involves formation of a coating

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which prevents access of the corrosive substance to the metal The corrosive

agents are generally oxygen hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide

At our production site the major risk is corrosion of piping and equipment The

maximum allowable corrosion rate is approximately 02 mm per year and

corrosion rate without inhibitor could be approximately 11 mm per year so the

corrosion protection program is designed to achieve a target corrosion rate of

less than 01 mm per year which is achieved by an inhibitor system efficiency of

99 Inhibitor is injected into the well stream flow through an atomizing nozzle

located downstream of the respective wellhead coolers at the duplexcarbon steel

interface In normal operation as per NALCO standards chemical (brand name

EC1144B) at rate of frac12 Liter per MMSCFD of gas is being injected into the flow

line of miano15 flow lines made of carbon steel Moreover the composition can

vary depending upon the composition of well fluids and material of pipeline This

method of injection ensures even distribution of the chemical on the interior

surface of the pipeline The individual well sites are equipped with Chemical

Injection Packages comprising of a stainless steel storage tank and two

pneumatic motor driven pumps in parallel Instrument gas is used to drive the

pumps Normally one pump is running with the other standby

Water Conning

Water coning is a term used to describe the mechanism underlying the upward

movement of water into the perforations of a producing well Coning can seriously

impact the well productivity and influence the degree of depletion and the overall

recovery efficiency of the reservoir The specific problems of water coning are

listed below

Costly added water handling

Gas production from the original or secondary gas cap reduces pressure

Reduced efficiency of the depletion mechanism

The water is often corrosive and its disposal costly

The affected well may be abandoned early

Loss of the total field overall recovery

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Therefore conning has an important influence on operations recovery and

economics The phenomena is shown in picture below

Corrosion

Corrosion is referred as chemical deterioration of a metal Commonly this

means loss of electrons of metals reacting with water and oxygen

Weakening of iron due to oxidation of the iron atoms is a well-known

example of electrochemical corrosion This is commonly known as

rust Most structural alloys corrode merely from exposure to moisture

in the air but the process can be strongly affected by exposure to

certain substances Corrosion can be concentrated locally to form a pit

or crack or it can extend across a wide area to produce general

deterioration (uniform corrosion)

The following reaction takes place at the active sites

2Fe =gt 2Fe++ + 4e-

The free electrons travel through the metal path to the less active sites where

the following reaction takes place

O2 + 4e- + 2H20 =gt 4 OH-

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Recombination of these ions at the active surface produce the following

reaction which yields the iron-corrosion product ferrous hydroxide

2Fe + O2 + 2H2O =gt 2Fe (OH) 2

CORROSION PROTECTION SYSTEM

Coatings and painting

Painting and the application of enamel bitumen and PVC

coating are the most common anti-corrosion treatments They

work by providing a barrier of corrosion-resistant material

between the damaging environment and the structural material

Corrosion Inhibitors

Corrosion inhibitor is injected into the flow lines as mentioned in

detail on page 8

Cathodic Protection

Cathodic Protection (CP) is a technique used to control the corrosion of a

metal surface by making it the cathode of an electrochemical cell It

converts all of the anodic (active) sites on the metal surface to cathodic

(passive) sites by supplying electrical current (or free electrons) from an

alternate source It is accomplished in two ways

a) A simple method of protection connects protected metal to a more easily

corroded sacrificial metal to act as the anode The sacrificial metal then

corrodes instead of the protected metal The process is similar to a simple

DC cell in which the more active metal becomes the anode and corrodes

whereas the less active metal becomes the cathode and is protected

b) For larger structures galvanic anodes cannot economically deliver enough

current to provide protection Therefore impressed current cathodic

protection (ICCP) systems are used These consist of anodes connected

to a DC power source In remote areas power sources such as solar

panels may be used The output DC negative terminal is connected to the

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frequently to limit liquid holdup and minimize the slug volumes of liquid which can

be generated by the system

Coating

Pigs may be used to apply internal pipe coatings such as epoxy coating

materials in operating pipelines Pigs may also be used with corrosion inhibitors

to distribute and coat the entire internal wetted perimeter

Inspection

Pigs are being used more frequently as inspection tools Gauging or sizing pigs

are typically run following the completion of new construction or line repair to

determine if there are any internal obstacles bends or buckles in the pipe Pigs

can also be equipped with cameras to allow viewing of the pipe internals

Electronic intelligent or smart ldquopigsrdquo that use magnetic and ultrasonic systems

have been developed and refined that locate and measure internal and external

corrosion pitting dents buckles and any other anomalies in the pipe wall

Intelligent pigs

The accuracy of location and measurement of anomalies by the intelligent pigs

has continued to improve Initially the electronics and power systems were so

large that intelligent pigs could be used only in lines 30 in and greater in size

The continued sophistication and miniaturization of the electronic systems used

in the intelligent pigs has allowed the development of smaller pigs that can be

used in small-diameter pipelines Newly enacted DOT pipeline-integrity

regulations and rules acknowledge the effectiveness of the intelligent pigs and

incorporate their use in the pipeline-integrity testing process

Compressors

A gas compressor is a mechanical device that increases the pressure of a gas by

reducing its volume Gas pressure is increased by forcing gas molecules together

to reduce gas volume When volume is reduced gas pressure increases

All gases have large spaces among their molecules These spaces could be

enhanced further and decreased by doing some work Work done which is used

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for the enhancement of these spaces is called expansion and work done to

minimize these spaces is called compression All gases while expansion

produces cooling effect and while compression of gases raises there

temperature Compression is a term used to force gases to occupy smaller

volumes by increasing their pressure Volume of gases is interlinked with

temperature and pressure of the gas which is cleared by 2 laws govern gas

compressions

Boyles Law

Charles Law

The main types of compressor are listed below

Front End Compressor

The plant currently processes gas from a number of wells The flow and pressure

from some of these wells (currently K-10 K-11 amp K-12) has declined and they

cannot be fed directly into the Central Processing Facility To recover the

maximum gas reserves from these wells a Front End Compressor is employed

The compressor is a two stage double acting gas engine driven reciprocating

(PT) compressor Double acting means that gas is compressed on each end of

the piston It normal operates with a speed range of 600 to 900 RPM and isequipped with four compressor cylinders two for each stage Each cylinder is

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also equipped with a variable volume head end pocket

In case of compressor emergency shutdown the production chokes and the

Upper Master Valves on the on line wells will close and operator will be notified in

central control room Sweet gas from gas distribution network is used to operate the

gas engine driver of the compressor package The detailed scheme of working is

shown in figure (page 22 )

PT Reciprocating Compressor

The mechanical cycle of piston tube reciprocating compressor comprises four

strokes the expansion stroke the intake stroke the compression stroke and the

discharge stroke

Expansion Stroke

As the piston moves back on the expansion stroke the chamber volume

increases and the pressure drop As the pressure drops the discharge valve

closes since there is greater pressure in the discharge line than in the chamber

Intake Stroke

As the piston moves back during the intake stroke the pressure decreases until it

is less than the pressure in the inlet line This higher intake pressure opens the

inlet valve and gas rushes into the cylinder equalizing the pressure there with

the intake pressure The compression chamber is now at or near the intake

pressure

Compression Stroke

The piston now starts the compression stroke by moving forward decreasing the

chamber volume and increasing the pressure The increased pressure is now

higher than the intake pressure causing the intake valve to close

Discharge Stroke

The piston continues to move to the left during the discharge stroke This creates

an increase in chamber pressure until it is greater than the discharge pressure

When this happens the Discharge valve opens and the compressed air from the

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cylinder goes into the discharge line The compression cycle is then repeated

from the stage

Compressor Capacity

The capacity of the compressor depends upon cylinder displacement That

displacement is simply the volume that the piston displaces (moves) as it travels

from one end of the cylinder to the other Capacity and displacement is equal to

the cross-sectional area of the cylinder times the length of the stroke

Lubrication and Cooling

Lubricating oil is circulated through the system by a gear pump which is chain

driven from the engine crank shaft The oil pump is mounted on the engine front

housing

The pump operates between 30 - 40 psig

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A circulating pump deliver cooling water to the water jackets in the cylinder block

flowing around the cylinder liners and is directed into the cylinder heads Each

cylinder head has water cooled exhaust elbows which outlet the water into the

water cooled exhausts From the end of engine the water flows to compressor

1st and 2nd stage cylinders and compressor lube oil cooler (LOwater heat

exchanger) The water from the compressor cylinder and lube oil cooler returns

to engine water cooled exhaust

Figure Flow diagram of Front End Compressor

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Centrifugal Compressor

Centrifugal compressors are machines in which velocity and pressure given to air

or gas in a radial direction by one or more impellers diffuser combination In a

centrifugal compressor the mechanical energy is increased by centrifugal action

The gas enters the suction eye of a high speed rotary element called the impeller

which carries radial vanes integrally cast in it As the impeller rotates the blades

of the impeller force the gas outward from the center the impeller to the outer rim

of impeller the increase in velocity of the gas creates a flow pressure area at the

eye of the impeller The gas at the outer rim of the impeller is forced in to a

passage way called a diffuser where the velocity decreases in the pressure of the

gas

Inlet

The inlet to a centrifugal compressor is typically a simple pipe It may include

features such as a valve and both pressure and temperature instrumentation

Centrifugal impeller

The key component that makes a compressor centrifugal is the centrifugal

impeller shown above It is the impellers rotating set of vanes (or blades) that

gradually raises the energy of the working gas This is identical to an axial

compressor with the exception that the gases can reach higher velocities and

energy levels through the impellers increasing radius

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Diffuser

The next key component to the simple centrifugal compressor is the diffuser

Downstream of the impeller in the flow path it is the diffusers responsibility to

convert the kinetic energy (high velocity) of the gas into pressure by gradually

slowing (diffusing) the gas velocity

SEPERATORS

A well-stream is a mixture of gases hydrocarbon liquids water solids and

contaminants Due to variations in pressure and temperature gases evolve from

the liquids water vapor condenses and some of the well-stream changes to liquid

and free gas The separation of well-stream fluids takes place in a separator This

pressure vessel is manufactured in three forms

1 horizontal

2 vertical

3 spherical

To help separation the vessel is normally designed with a series of internal

fittings These fittings are built into the separator to ensure total phase separation

of the well-stream

In gas plants separators are given alternative names due to the function they

perform in the process system A scrubber does a similar job to a knockout drum

However the scrubber usually separates a stream containing high gas-to-liquid

ratios The knockout drum is used where a high degree of liquids are entrained in

the gas

Fluid flow from a well can include gas condensable liquid vapors water water

vapor crude oil and solids As well-stream fluids reach ground level where

pressure is lower than in the reservoir the capacity of the liquid to hold gas in

solution decreases and gas separates out of the oil

Separation depends upon the effect of gravity to separate liquids For adequate

separation one fluid must be lighter than the other fluid For example distillates

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(gasoline kerosene etc) and crude oil will not separate in a vessel because they

tend to dissolve in each other Because a separator basically depends upon

gravity to separate the fluids the ease with which separation takes place

depends upon the difference in density of the fluids

Droplets of liquid will separate from gas provided

a) The gas remains in the separator long enough

b) The gas flow remains constant to provoke separation

The difference in density between a gas and liquid will therefore determine the

maximum flow rate of liquid in the vessel

Figure Two phase horizontal separator

Gas bubbles in the liquid will break out in some oil field applications in 30 to 60

seconds Consequently the separator is designed so that the liquid remains in

the vessel for 30 to 60 seconds The length of time that a liquid remains in the

vessel is called its residence time Residence time differs widely from field to field

depending upon viscosity and API Gravity

Another important factor which must be considered is temperature Generally a

decrease in operating temperature will increase the liquid recovery in a separator

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as the gas condenses By reducing the pressure on the fluid flash separation

occurs resulting in a flow through the separator which is controlled by external

instrumentation

COALESCENCE

Another important principle in fluid separation is that of coalescence This means

the coming together of liquid droplets created by the force of gravity

A common example of coalescing occurs when drops of water form on the

windshield of a car as it is driven in fog As the tiny drops or water which make up

the fog strike the windshield they combine and eventually form a drop large

enough to run down the glass

Several of the internal devices of a separator such as deflector plates

straightening vanes and even the vessel walls are forms of coalescers In each

vessel drops of liquid adhere to the surface of the device and combine with other

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drops until the drop is large enough to fall out The effectiveness of separation

will also depend upon the total amount of coalescing surface area that is present

There are many different types of separators used in the Oil amp Gas industry

Consequently separators are manufactured with one two or several internal

fittings depending on their use and quick removal of these fluids from the vessel

DEFLECTOR PLATES

These are fitted in front of the inlet to the separator and can be net or

dish-shaped Their purpose is to absorb the impact of the incoming fluids and to

encourage the separation of gas and liquids They also slow the flow rate of the

liquids through the vessel

WEIRS

A weir is a metal wall which is fitted across the inside of the vessel normally to a

height of 50 of the overall height of the separator Its purpose is to assist the

process of three phase separation The inlet fluids (oil plus water) are given time

to separate in the liquid accumulation section The water level (interface) is

normally controlled at 50 of the height of the weir Oil floating on the wateroverflows the weir and accumulates in the small oil compartment where it is

drawn off under level control

CENTRIFUGAL DEVICES

These are used in both vertical and horizontal separators for gas-liquid

separation The device imparts a swirling motion to the fluids entering the vessel

Centrifugal force causes the heavier liquids to travel outwards towards the walls

of the vessel and the lighter gases to flow up the centre Centrifugal devices are

also known as cyclones

VORTEX BREAKERS

When liquid flows through a drain outlet a vortex (whirlpool) will form This can

be seen when we pull the plug from a sink or bath tub The same would happen

as water and oil flow from the separator This condition a vortex could allow gas

to flow down the centre of the whirlpool and enter the liquid phase causing

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pressurizing of tanks etc To stop this happening vortex breakers are fitted to all

liquid outlets Although they come in a number of different designs vortex

breakers all serve the same purpose - to prevent a whirlpool from forming

MIST OR DEMISTER PADS

The gas which is released from the fluids in the separator still contains droplets of

oil and water which coalesce and fall when the drops get large enough The

demister pad assists in this process Made from knitted wire and contained within

a sturdy frame it causes the gas to continually change its direction of flow

Because gas changes direction far easier than liquid the gas will flow around

each strand of wire whilst the liquid entrained in the gas stream will continue and

stick to the wire

COALESCING PLATES

There are several different forms of coalescing devices the most common of

which are coalescing plates These plates are mounted in the flow stream of the

fluids and assist in breaking down oil-water emulsions The fluid is forced to

follow a path that constantly changes direction This causes the water droplets to

gather together or coalesce and fall to the bottom of the separator The same

principle is used to separate gas and oil mixtures when the oil droplets are

induced to coalesce Simply stated every surface within the separator including

the separator walls assists with the coalescing process

STRAIGHTENlNG VANES

These are often fitted to horizontal separators to remove turbulence in the gas

stream after initial separation at the inlet deflector

FLOAT SHEILD

Internal floats are used as level controllers Any agitation of the liquid surface or

the effect of coalesced liquids falling on the float may cause control problems

Therefore a float shield is fitted to enclose the float creating an area of still liquid

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MEMBRANES

The gas contains 12 carbon dioxide and 22 ppm of hydrogen sulphide at 115oF

and 1100 psig This needs to be removed before the gas can be exported The

majority of carbon dioxide hydrogen sulphide and water is removed by means of

membranes

Membranes are thin semipermeable barriers that selectively separate some

compounds from others Currently the only commercially workable membranes

used for CO2 removal are polymer based for example cellulose acetate

polyimides polyamides polysulfone polycarbonates and polyetherimide The

membrane does not operate as a filter where small molecules are separated

from larger ones through a medium with pores rather it separates based on how

well different compounds dissolve into the membrane and diffuse through it The

membranes are manufactured in flat sheets consisting of an extremely thin

nonporous layer mounted on a much-thicker and highly porous layer of the same

material providing mechanical strength The flat sheets are combined into a

spiral-wound element (Figure below) Feed gas enters along the side of the

membrane and passes through the feed spacers As the gas travels between

membrane sheets CO2 H2S and H2O permeate through the membrane and are

collected in the permeate tube The driving force for transport is the high-feed

pressure and low-permeate pressures The gas on the feed side that does not

permeate leaves through the side of the element opposite the feed position Once

the membranes have been manufactured into elements six to 12 elements are

joined together and inserted into a tube Multiple tubes are mounted on skids in a

horizontal orientation

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Figure Membrane general Working

In high H2S applications most polymers have been shown to have very little

resistance to H2S plasticization (ldquosofteningrdquo of the membrane) and as a

consequence can only be used at very low H2S partial pressure limits Cellulose

acetate membranes in contrast have been shown to be applicable at extreme

H2S partial pressure conditions It is these membranes that have been utilized in

the testing to determine the limits of membrane performance in high H 2S

applications

The primary membranes used in Kadanwari facility are Cellulose acetate

Cellulose acetic acid and acetic anhydride are mixed together and reacted to

form cellulose acetate polymers This process is aided by the addition of a small

amount of sulfuric acid which is subsequently neutralized during processing

However the membranes are bought from UOP (vendor) and installed for use

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How membrane work

The basic principle of separation is selectivity of certain components of a mixture

for the membrane For example the cellulose acetate membrane has very high

selectivity for CO2 and H2S as compared to CH4 Therefore such type of

membrane can be used in gas sweetening process

The selectivity is directly related to the Permeability of gas which accounts that

which gas can pass across the membrane more easily In simple words

membranes being polymer materials are made of long chains of molecules The

different structure of polymer materials only allow selective molecules to pass

through them depending upon chemical and physical compatibility Thus

permeability depends upon choice of polymer

The permeability is determined by permeability coefficient (P) and is product of

solubility (S) and diffusivity (D)

P = S D

Solubility

The solubility is mainly determined by ease of condensation Heavy molecules

are more readily condensed Therefore higher molecular weighted molecules will

more easily condensed and therefore have greater solubility

Molecule Molecular weight

CH4 16

H2S 34

CO2 44

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Diffusivity

Diffusivity is ease of molecule to penetrate into some material It depends on size

of gas molecule Here size of molecule is not to be confused by molecular weight

it is the size of the structure Eg the size of O2 molecule is smaller than N2

Molecule Molecular Diameter (Ao)

CO2 33

H2S 36

Ch4 40

For cellulose acetate

DCO2DCH4 S CO2S CH4 P CO2P CH4

45 73 308

Chemical degradation

Cellulose acetate polymer is chemically degraded by a process called hydrolysis

which means breaking apart by the addition of water This is a chemical reaction

in which water is added to the cellulose acetate polymer causing the release of

acetic acid molecules This process proceeds stepwise until all the acetate

groups are released resulting in the reformation of cellulose Moreover alcohols

aromatic hydrocarbons or solvents with chlorine nitro benzene or similar

aromatic solvents will harm the membrane It will expand and lose plastification in

contact with them

Effect of Temperature

The permeation rates of all gases increases with increasing temperature

however membrane selectivity for CO2 over hydrocarbon decreases at higher

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temperature Consequently CO2 removal will improve as operating temperature

increases but hydro carbon recovery will decrease

Primary Membrane

The primary membranes comprise of two trains Each train consists of two

sections AB and CD each section consists of a 30 tube membrane skid (A and

C) followed by a 25 tube skid (B and D) The conditioned gas (after pre-

treatment) enters the primary membrane via the particulate filter adjacent to the

skid The gas is fed to the membranes through a common inlet manifold which

supplies primary membranes skids A and C A pressure control loop located

upstream of the manual inlet isolation valve is provided to maintain a constant

supply pressure to the membrane skid and to allow for preheating at the inlet

prior to skid start-up This pressure control loop can also be used during start-up

to control the pressurization of the pretreatment skid and associated pipes to the

primary membranes

The gas passes through membrane skid A the residual gas exiting the membrane

skid is sent to skid B and the permeate to common permeate discharge header An

identical arrangement is provide on the inlet to skid C as provided on skid A Theresidual gas from skid B combines with the residual gas from skid D in a common

discharge header and is then sent to the H2S polishing towers via the feed coolers

on the pre-treatment skid The permeate from skid B is sent to the common

permeate discharge header The permeate discharge header sends the gas to

either the recycle compressor or the vent header via a pressure control loop

Overpressure protection for the membranes is provided by a pressure safety valve

on the supply header to the membrane banks

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Secondary (Recycle) Membrane

The recycle membranes comprise of a single train with two skids each with four

banks of membrane tubes The conditioned gas from the discharge of the recycle

pre-treatment skid is routed to the first recycle membrane skid The gas passes

through the membranes the residual gas is fed to primary membrane (skid A) inlet

via feed gas cooler and permeate to the common permeate discharge header An

identical arrangement is provide on the inlet to skid B Permeate from the recycle

membrane skids A and B is routed to the vent header Some portion of permeate is

heated and sent for regeneration in Mem-Guard units Nitrogen purge can be

connected downstream of the inlet isolation valve on each skid to enable the

membrane tubes to be purged and left pressurized during prolonged shutdown

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Figure Flow Diagram of Recycle membrane unit

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ADVANTAGES OF MEMBRANE SYSTEMS

Membrane systems have major advantages over more-traditional methods of

acid gas removal

Lower capital cost Membrane systems are skid mounted and so the

scope cost and time taken for site preparation are minimal Installation

costs are significantly lower than alternative technologies especially for

remote areas Furthermore no additional facilities for solvent storage and

water treatment needed by other processes are required

Lower operating costs The only major operating cost for single-stage

membrane systems is membrane replacement This cost is significantly

lower than the solvent replacement and energy costs associated with

traditional technologies The improvements in membrane and

pretreatment design allow a longer useful membrane life which further

reduces operating costs The energy costs of multistage systems with

large recycle compressors are usually comparable to those for traditionaltechnologies

Deferred capital investment Often contracted sales-gas flow rates

increase over time as more wells are brought on-line With traditional

technologies the system design needs to take this later production into

account immediately and so the majority of the equipment is installed

before it is even needed The modular nature of membrane systems

means that only the membranes that are needed at start-up need be

installed The rest can be added either into existing tubes or in new skids

only when they are required

Operational simplicity and high reliability Because single-stage

membrane systems have no moving parts they have almost no

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unscheduled downtime and are extremely simple to operate They can

operate unattended for long periods of time The addition of a recycle

compressor adds some complexity to the system but still much less than

with a solvent- or adsorbent-based technology Multistage systems can be

operated at full capacity as single-stage systems when the recycle

compressor is down

Good weight and space efficiency Skid construction can be optimized

to the space available This space efficiency is especially important for

offshore environments where deck area is at a premium and is the

reason why so many new offshore developments have chosen to use

membranes for acid gas removal Figure 6 illustrates the space efficiency

of membrane systems The membrane unit in the lower left corner

replaced all the amine and glycol plant equipment shown in the rest of the

picture

Adaptability Because membrane area is dictated by the percentage of

acid gas removal rather than absolute acid gas removal small variations

in feed acid gas content hardly change the sales-gas acid gas

specification For example a system designed for 10 down to 3 acid

gas removal produces a 35 product from a 12 feed gas and a 5

product from a 15 feed gas

Design efficiency The membrane and pretreatment systems integrate a

number of operations such as dehydration CO2 and H2S removal dew-

point control and mercury removal Traditional acid gas removal

technologies require all of these operations as separate processes and

may also require additional dehydration because some technologies

saturate the product stream with water

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Power generation The permeate gas from membrane systems can be

used to provide fuel gas for power generation either for a recycle

compressor or other equipment

Ideal for debottlenecking Because expanding solvent- or adsorbent-

based acid gas removal plants without adding additional trains is difficult

an ideal solution is to use membranes for bulk acid gas removal and leave

the existing plant for final cleanup An additional advantage is that the

permeate gas from the membrane system can often be used as fuel for

the existing plant thus avoiding significant increase in hydrocarbon

losses

Environmentally friendly Membrane systems do not involve the

periodic removal and handling of spent solvents or adsorbents Permeate

gases can be flared used as fuel or re-injected into the well Items thatdo need disposal such as spent membrane elements can be incinerated

Ideal for remote locations Many of the factors mentioned above make

membrane systems a highly desirable technology for remote locations

where spare parts are rare and labor unskilled Furthermore solvents

storage and trucking water supply power generation or extensive

infrastructure are not required

Re-injection optimizations Since the permeate stream from the

membrane system can be operated at elevated pressures it is possible to

further pressurize by re-injection compression train

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Sorption

Sorption is a physical and chemical process by which one substance becomes

attached to another

It is of two main types

1 Absorption

2 Adsorption

Absorption

Absorption is a physical or chemical phenomenon or process in which atoms

molecules or ions enter some bulk phase ndash gas liquid or solid material This is a

different process from adsorption since molecules undergoing absorption are

taken up by the volume not by the surface (as in the case for adsorption)

Absorption process may be chemical (reactive) or physical (non-reactive)

Physical absorption

Physical absorption or non-reactive absorption is made between two phases ofmatter a liquid absorbs a gas or a solid absorbs a liquid

When a liquid solvent absorbs a gas mixture or part of it a mass of gas moves

into the liquid For example water may absorb oxygen from the air This mass

transfer takes place at the interface between the liquid and the gas at a rate

depending on both the gas and the liquid This type of absorption depends on the

solubility of gases the pressure and the temperature The rate and amount of

absorption also depend on the surface area of the interface and its duration in

time

When a solid absorbs a liquid mixture or part of it a mass of liquid moves into the

solid For example a clay pot used to store water may absorb some of the water

This mass transfer takes place at the interface between the solid and the liquid

at a rate depending on both the solid and the liquid

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Chemical absorption

Chemical absorption or reactive absorption is a chemical reaction between the

absorbed and the absorbing substances Sometimes it combines with physical

absorption This type of absorption depends upon the stoichiometry of the

reaction and the concentration of its reactants

Adsorption

Adsorption is the adhesion of atoms ions or molecules from a gas liquid or

dissolved solid to a surface This process creates a film of the adsorbate on the

surface of the adsorbent The binding to the surface is usually weak and

reversible Compounds with color and those that have taste or odor tend to bind

strongly Compounds that vibrate at frequencies in the visible spectrum are very

often are strongly adsorbed on activated carbon

The most common industrial adsorbents are activated carbon silica gel and

alumina because they present enormous surface areas per unit weight

Depending on the nature of attractive forces existing between the adsorbate and

adsorbent adsorption can be classified as

i) Physical adsorption

ii) Chemical adsorption

i) Physical adsorption (Physisorption)

In physical adsorption the forces of attraction between the molecules of the

adsorbate and the adsorbent are of the weak van der Waals type Since the

forces of attraction are weak the process of physisorption can be easily reversed

by heating or decreasing the pressure of the adsorbate (as in the case of gases)

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ii) Chemical adsorption (Chemisorption)

In chemisorption the forces of attraction between the adsorbate and the

adsorbent are very strong the molecules of adsorbate form chemical bonds with

the molecules of the adsorbent present in the surface

Adsorption is generally accompanied by release of energy that is most

adsorption processes are exothermic in nature Adsorption is a spontaneous

process therefore its free energy change is negative (∆Glt0) However the

entropy change associated with adsorption is generally negative because the

adsorbate molecules lose their translation freedom when they get attached to the

surface of the adsorbent Therefore in order for ∆G to be negative the enthalpy

change (∆H) must be sufficiently negative such that (∆G=∆H-T∆S) lt 0 This

explanation accounts for exothermic adsorption processes In cases where

endothermic adsorption occurs the entropy change ∆S is sufficiently positive

such that ∆G remains negative

Pre treatment

The main function of pretreatment skid is to provide membrane inlet specification

gas as mentioned by the vendor UOP It removes the contaminants that would

poison the membranes like dust solids (adsorbent particles) lube oil heavy

hydrocarbons etc It consists of

Feed Cooler

Feed Gas Scrubber

Filter Coalescer

Feed Gas Heater

Activated Carbon Guard Filter

Particle Filter

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The regeneration is carried out by heated permeate gas from the recycle

membranes at 450oF The vessel is depressurized to 20 psi and heated gas is

introduced from top The gas carries out the adsorbed contaminants and leaves

the vessel from bottom cleaning the adsorbent This contaminated gas is burnt in

the flare

UOP the vendor of Memguard unit has never disclosed that what substance

MG3 and MG5 exactly are But as mentioned by vendor that both care class of

aluminosilicates Therefore MG3 can be potassium aluminosilicate and MG5 can

be Calcium aluminosilicate These are molecular sieves adsorbents Molecular

sieves are a microporous material which can selectively adsorb gases andliquids They are synthetic zeolites (crystalline metal aluminosilicates) which

upon dehydration can efficiently and selectively remove water or other

solvents The selectivity of a molecular sieve is determined by its pore size

molecules with a critical diameter which is less than the pore size will be

efficiently adsorbed while larger molecules will be excluded

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3A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

The 3A molecular sieve adsorbent has a 3 angstrom (3A) pore size which means

that any molecule that is larger than the 3 angstrom pores will not be adsorbed

The 3A molecular sieve is the potassium type of A crystalline structure and is a

form of alkali Aluminosilicate For a 3A molecular sieve the sequence rate that

adsorption occurs is He Ne N and H2O

Due to the crystalline structure molecular sieves that have a 3 angstrom pore

size have a very high rate of adsorption and properties that promote a longer life

for products treated by the sieve The most common use for the 3A molecular

sieve is to remove water and moisture from materials that are in gas and liquid

form

5A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

These are molecular sieve adsorbents with a pore size of 5 angstrom (5A) 5A

molecular sieves are unable to adsorb any molecules or impurities that are

smaller than 5A It is calcium form of type A crystalline structure and is form of analkali-aluminosilicate that is most commonly used to separate isomerous alkanes

from normal alkanes and to co-adsorb moisture and water along with carbon

dioxide from gases In additional 5A molecular sieves are used for gaseous

pressure swing adsorption (PSA)mdashthat is to separate particular gases from other

gases

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of C3H8 to C22H46

Adsorption of Freon-12 (dichlorodifluoromethane)

Natural gas drying

Normal- and iso-paraffin separation

Separation of aromatic

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Inlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1096

MEHTANE 8593

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008

N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGEN 076

WATER 007

Outlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1098

MEHTANE 8608

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGENT 076

WATER 000

H2S polisher

The H2S polishing unit has been designed to treat 187 MMscfday of natural gas

containing up to 11 CO2 and 21 ppm H2S where the level of the CO2 and H2S

is reduced using a MemGuard Membrane separation unit The unit is situated

down-stream of the membrane unit and will further reduce the level of H2S in the

processed gas to a sales gas specification of 38 ppm

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This process uses three non-regenerable fixed bed absorber vessels using a low

temperature high activity absorbent The absorbent is a mixture of activated

metal oxides (mainly zinc oxide) The three towers can are generally operated in

parallel arrangement but on demand can be used in series (any of alternate

arrangements of A B C vessels) as shown in figure

The higher sales gas flow rate increased the catalyst consumption and

replacement frequency

ZnO + H2S =gt ZnS + H20

Routine samples are taken from the beds to provide a check on each bed

performance and to follow the saturation profile during the absorbent life After

the adsorbent has been fully utilized the adsorption vessels are recharged with

new adsorbent discarding the utilized one in a safe manner

109oF

1215 psig

Before H2S Polishing After H2S Polishing

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Figure

H2S Tower

Inlet pipe

4 Drums of 19mm

ceramic Balls

6 Micron mesh

5 Drums of 50mmceramic

1 Drums of19mm ceramic

01 Drums of6mm ceramic

112 drums of

Catalist ZnO

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Recycle Compressor

The permeate gas of the primary membrane unit carries recoverable amount of

CH4 It is fed to recycle membrane unit for further CH 4 recovery But the

permeate pressure from primary membranes which has been reduced to 12 psi

must be regenerated to 1200 psi for the gas to be fed again to the system For

this purpose we have employed recycle compressor The compressor is a four

stage centrifugal compressor It is driven by gas turbine of 31200 HP It has 25

MW producing capacity

Figure Recycle Compressor Process Flow Diagram

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Sales Gas Compressor

Gas from H2S polishing unit is sent to sales gas compressor where its pressure

is enhanced to 1100 psi so it may be injected to SNGPL high pressure trunk line

Sales gas compressor is single stage gas turbine driven

Figure Process Flow of Sales Gas Compressor

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Cooling Towers

A cooling tower is a heat rejection device which extracts waste heat to theatmosphere through the cooling of a water stream to a lower temperature Hot

water from the system enters the cooling tower and is distributed over the fill

(heat transfer surface) Air is induced or forced through the fill causing a small

portion of the water to evaporate This evaporation removes heat from the

remaining water which is collected in the cold water basin and returned to the

system to absorb more heat Each cooling tower line although operating under

the same basic principle of operation is arranged a little differently

Types

Natural draft mdash Utilizes buoyancy via a tall chimney Warm moist air naturally

rises due to the density differential compared to the dry cooler outside air Warm

moist air is less dense than drier air at the same pressure This moist air

buoyancy produces an upwards current of air through the tower

Mechanical draft mdash Uses power-driven fan motors to force or draw airthrough the tower

o Induced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a fan at the

discharge (at the top) which pulls air up through the tower The fan

induces hot moist air out the discharge This produces low entering

and high exiting air velocities reducing the possibility of

recirculation in which discharged air flows back into the air intake

o Forced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a blower type fan at

the intake The fan forces air into the tower creating high entering

and low exiting air velocities The low exiting velocity is much more

susceptible to recirculation This fanfill geometry is also known as

blow-through

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Forced Draft Cooling Tower Vs Induced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower have the ability to handle large water flow

rate than Forced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower is suitable for large cell sizes and fan sizes

as compared with Forced Draft Larger fan size may result in greater

efficiency and consequently lower power and sound level

Forced Draft Cooling Tower can be square or rectangular type only

however Induced Draft Cooling Towers can be round square or

rectangular type

Induced Draft Cooling Tower uses more compact ground area than Forced

Draft Cooling Tower equivalent capacity due to absence of fan on one

side

Fan equipment is warm exhaust air is less liable to icing up in winter

operation (Cold Countries)

Higher velocity in Forced Draft Cooling Tower cause drop in suspension

and cause additional static resistance to system

Configuration

There are two main configurations of factory assembled cooling towers crossflow

and counterflow In crossflow cooling towers the water flows vertically down the

fill as air flows horizontally across In counterflow cooling towers the water flows

vertically down the fill as air flows vertically up

Crossflow Configuration Counterflow Configuration

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Drift mdash Water droplets that are carried out of the cooling tower with the exhaust

air Drift droplets have the same concentration of impurities as the water entering

the tower The drift rate is typically reduced by employing baffle-like devices

called drift eliminators through which the air must travel after leaving the fill and

spray zones of the tower

Blow-out mdash Water droplets blown out of the cooling tower by wind generally at

the air inlet openings Water may also be lost in the absence of wind through

splashing or misting Devices such as wind screens louvers splash deflectors

and water diverters are used to limit these losses

Blow-down mdash The portion of the circulating water flow that is removed (usually

discharged to a drain) in order to maintain the amount of Total Dissolved Solids

(TDS) and other impurities at an acceptably low level Higher TDS concentration

in solution may result from greater cooling tower efficiency However the higher

the TDS concentration the greater the risk of scale biological growth and

corrosion

Make-up mdash The water that must be added to the circulating water system in

order to compensate for water losses such as evaporation drift loss blow-out

blow-down etc

Approach mdash The approach is the difference in temperature between the cooled-

water temperature and the entering-air wet bulb temperature

Range mdash The range is the temperature difference between the warm water inlet

and cooled water exit

Fill mdash Inside the tower fills are added to increase contact surface as well as

contact time between air and water to provide better heat transfer The efficiency

of the tower depends on the selection and amount of fill

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There are two types of fills that may be used

o Film type fill (causes water to spread into a thin film)

o Splash type fill (breaks up falling stream of water and interrupts its

vertical progress)

Important

Scale build up is controlled by adding chemicals to the cooling loop and diluting

the concentration by blow down and make-up Following chemicals are added to

the Cooling to control CorrosionSale and microbial growth

Corrosion Inhibitor To control corrosion in the Cooling system

Dispersant To kept ions in suspension to avoid settle down and buildup

Sodium hypo Chlorite To Control microbial Growth

Acid To control Alkalinity in the system

High Stress Polymer To run the system at higher conductivity It is a

multifunctional polymer for Zinc amp Phosphate stabilization in cooling tower

Fin Fan Cooler

Fin fan heat exchanger is simply a pressure vessel which cools a circulating fluid

within finned tubes by forcing ambient air over the exterior of the tubes A

common example of an air cooler is a carrsquos radiator Fin Fan Coolers are used in

any application where large quantities of heat need to be transferred This

includes chemical and petrochemical industries power stations waste-to-energy

facilities as well as steelworks

Fin Fan Cooler are used for two primary reasons

They increase plant efficiency

They are a green solution as compared to cooling towers and shell and

tube heat exchangers because they do not require an auxiliary water

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supply (water lost due to drift and evaporation plus no water treatment

chemicals are required)

Figure General Overview of Fin Fan Cooler

Produced Water

The produced water system receives liquid from the equipment Miano slug

catcher train 1 and 2 inlet separators and is fed to three phase separator where

water oil and gas is separated The gases produced are burnt in incinerator

whereas hydrocarbon liquid is stored to be sold Liquid from compressors

recycle inlet separator recycle feed scrubber high and low pressure slug

catchers is passed to degasser Separated water is injected down the earth

Incinerator

The term incinerate means to burn something until nothing is left but ashes An

incinerator is a unit or facility used to burn trash and other types of waste until it is

reduced to ash An incinerator is constructed of heavy well-insulated materials

so that it does not give off extreme amounts of external heat The high levels of

heat are kept inside the furnace or unit so that the waste is burned quickly and

efficiently If the heat were allowed to escape the waste would not burn as

completely or as rapidly

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Control System

The plant is controlled at CCR (Central Control Room) by PLCs (Programmable

Logic Controllers) through fiber optic control line All control parameters are

received at LER (Local Equipment Room) via two optic fiber control lines One

being primary and other secondary operating in redundancy ie if primary fails

control shifts to secondary These control parameters are sent to CCR via single

optic fiber cable

Safety System

Wellheads and Gas Processing Plant have their own Fire amp Gas detection

systems emergency shutdown (ESD) Plant has a fault tolerant controller It is

based on Triple Modular Redundant (TMR) architecture manufactured by

Triconex The TMR system is based on three isolated parallel control systems

integrated into one system The system operates on a two out of three voting

principle which provides high integrity error free uninterrupted operation with no

single point of failure The TMR receives inputs from Process Sensors Manual

Switches Fire amp Gas Detectors Packaged Equipment Control Systems and

Product Exporting Facilities The TMR carries out cause and effect processing on

the data received and where necessary produces output signals Outputs from

the TMR are hard wired directly to ESD shutdown and blow down valve

solenoids motor control instrumentelectrical interfaces to control electrical

drives package equipment logic control systems manifold area as well as

telecoms

The operator in central control room is able to accept alarms and once the fault

has been cleared reset the input All the control systems are centralized to a

single interface All the PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers) communicate with

the servers and servers communicate with the clients through Ethernet connectivity

Centralization eases the navigation of different systems at a common interface

Emergency Shutdown

The ESD system receives inputs from field mounted instrumentation on the process

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and utility equipment and initiates executive actions appropriate to the level of ESD

The system is an Active system which is in standby and will activate when in an

alarm or fault condition The Kadanwari Gas Process Facility ESD system is

comprised of five (5) levels The emergency severity decreases with increasing ESD

level number

ESD 1

This shutdown level is automatically initiated by fire major gas leak or a detected

toxic atmosphere in the process area of the plant or manually from CCR A level 1

shutdown will cause all production to cease close all emergency shutdown

valves stop the process and shutdown of the main power generation The

emergency vent valves to the stack will open and in addition all equipment of zone 1

certified will be isolated This is the highest level of ESD and will cause the following

to occur

All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close All slowdown Valves (BDVs) on the process facility will open

All Main Gas Driven Generators will be tripped

Emergency Diesel Generator will start

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close Upper Master Valve

(UMV) Close

ESD 2

This shutdown level is activated automatically if a major process or utility failure

occurs or manually from CCR All production to the plant from the wellhead is

stopped All emergency shutdown valves trip to their fail safe position

Venting shall be as specified This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

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All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valve Close Wing Valves Close and Upper Master Valve(UMV) Close

ESD 3

The level 3 shutdown isolates and stops a single process train only Production

continues via the other train This ESD level is initiated by process conditions or

operator at local panel This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

ESD 3A Train 1 production to cease

ESD 3B Train 2 production to cease

All online wellhead choke valves go to minimum flow ie (1O )

ESD 4

A level 4 shutdown shall cease all production from an entire field either

Kadanwari or Miano upstream of the associated slug catchers ESD 4K for

Kadanwari amp ESD 4M for Miano This ESD level is initiated automatically by slug

catcher abnormal process conditions This level of ESD will cause the following

to occur

All SDVs close isolating the relevant slug catcher and its upstream gas

production facility from the Kadanwari Gas Processing Plant

All Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close and Upper MasterValves (UMV) of the relevant gas production facility Close

A parallel timer is provided to close within 10 second if not closed in given

time SSSV seals the well

ESD 5

A level 5 shutdown represents equipment shutdown for the protection of the

individual equipment without any change in the process This level of ESD is for the

protection of various pieces of equipment and is initiated by its own inputs eg

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Chemical Injection

Chemical injection systems are commonly used in production facilities to prevent

or eliminate a wide range of problems that might negatively affect the production

flow It is done for flow assurance protection of process equipment such as

pipelines or to optimize processes in production facilities

Typical flow assurance chemicals are

Wax inhibitors

Pour point depressants

Asphaltene inhibitors

Corrosion inhibitors

A corrosion inhibitor is a chemical compound that is added to liquid or gas to

decreases the corrosion rate of a material typically a metal or an alloy The

effectiveness of a corrosion inhibitor depends on fluid composition quantity of

water and flow regime Its common mechanism involves formation of a coating

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which prevents access of the corrosive substance to the metal The corrosive

agents are generally oxygen hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide

At our production site the major risk is corrosion of piping and equipment The

maximum allowable corrosion rate is approximately 02 mm per year and

corrosion rate without inhibitor could be approximately 11 mm per year so the

corrosion protection program is designed to achieve a target corrosion rate of

less than 01 mm per year which is achieved by an inhibitor system efficiency of

99 Inhibitor is injected into the well stream flow through an atomizing nozzle

located downstream of the respective wellhead coolers at the duplexcarbon steel

interface In normal operation as per NALCO standards chemical (brand name

EC1144B) at rate of frac12 Liter per MMSCFD of gas is being injected into the flow

line of miano15 flow lines made of carbon steel Moreover the composition can

vary depending upon the composition of well fluids and material of pipeline This

method of injection ensures even distribution of the chemical on the interior

surface of the pipeline The individual well sites are equipped with Chemical

Injection Packages comprising of a stainless steel storage tank and two

pneumatic motor driven pumps in parallel Instrument gas is used to drive the

pumps Normally one pump is running with the other standby

Water Conning

Water coning is a term used to describe the mechanism underlying the upward

movement of water into the perforations of a producing well Coning can seriously

impact the well productivity and influence the degree of depletion and the overall

recovery efficiency of the reservoir The specific problems of water coning are

listed below

Costly added water handling

Gas production from the original or secondary gas cap reduces pressure

Reduced efficiency of the depletion mechanism

The water is often corrosive and its disposal costly

The affected well may be abandoned early

Loss of the total field overall recovery

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Therefore conning has an important influence on operations recovery and

economics The phenomena is shown in picture below

Corrosion

Corrosion is referred as chemical deterioration of a metal Commonly this

means loss of electrons of metals reacting with water and oxygen

Weakening of iron due to oxidation of the iron atoms is a well-known

example of electrochemical corrosion This is commonly known as

rust Most structural alloys corrode merely from exposure to moisture

in the air but the process can be strongly affected by exposure to

certain substances Corrosion can be concentrated locally to form a pit

or crack or it can extend across a wide area to produce general

deterioration (uniform corrosion)

The following reaction takes place at the active sites

2Fe =gt 2Fe++ + 4e-

The free electrons travel through the metal path to the less active sites where

the following reaction takes place

O2 + 4e- + 2H20 =gt 4 OH-

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Recombination of these ions at the active surface produce the following

reaction which yields the iron-corrosion product ferrous hydroxide

2Fe + O2 + 2H2O =gt 2Fe (OH) 2

CORROSION PROTECTION SYSTEM

Coatings and painting

Painting and the application of enamel bitumen and PVC

coating are the most common anti-corrosion treatments They

work by providing a barrier of corrosion-resistant material

between the damaging environment and the structural material

Corrosion Inhibitors

Corrosion inhibitor is injected into the flow lines as mentioned in

detail on page 8

Cathodic Protection

Cathodic Protection (CP) is a technique used to control the corrosion of a

metal surface by making it the cathode of an electrochemical cell It

converts all of the anodic (active) sites on the metal surface to cathodic

(passive) sites by supplying electrical current (or free electrons) from an

alternate source It is accomplished in two ways

a) A simple method of protection connects protected metal to a more easily

corroded sacrificial metal to act as the anode The sacrificial metal then

corrodes instead of the protected metal The process is similar to a simple

DC cell in which the more active metal becomes the anode and corrodes

whereas the less active metal becomes the cathode and is protected

b) For larger structures galvanic anodes cannot economically deliver enough

current to provide protection Therefore impressed current cathodic

protection (ICCP) systems are used These consist of anodes connected

to a DC power source In remote areas power sources such as solar

panels may be used The output DC negative terminal is connected to the

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frequently to limit liquid holdup and minimize the slug volumes of liquid which can

be generated by the system

Coating

Pigs may be used to apply internal pipe coatings such as epoxy coating

materials in operating pipelines Pigs may also be used with corrosion inhibitors

to distribute and coat the entire internal wetted perimeter

Inspection

Pigs are being used more frequently as inspection tools Gauging or sizing pigs

are typically run following the completion of new construction or line repair to

determine if there are any internal obstacles bends or buckles in the pipe Pigs

can also be equipped with cameras to allow viewing of the pipe internals

Electronic intelligent or smart ldquopigsrdquo that use magnetic and ultrasonic systems

have been developed and refined that locate and measure internal and external

corrosion pitting dents buckles and any other anomalies in the pipe wall

Intelligent pigs

The accuracy of location and measurement of anomalies by the intelligent pigs

has continued to improve Initially the electronics and power systems were so

large that intelligent pigs could be used only in lines 30 in and greater in size

The continued sophistication and miniaturization of the electronic systems used

in the intelligent pigs has allowed the development of smaller pigs that can be

used in small-diameter pipelines Newly enacted DOT pipeline-integrity

regulations and rules acknowledge the effectiveness of the intelligent pigs and

incorporate their use in the pipeline-integrity testing process

Compressors

A gas compressor is a mechanical device that increases the pressure of a gas by

reducing its volume Gas pressure is increased by forcing gas molecules together

to reduce gas volume When volume is reduced gas pressure increases

All gases have large spaces among their molecules These spaces could be

enhanced further and decreased by doing some work Work done which is used

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for the enhancement of these spaces is called expansion and work done to

minimize these spaces is called compression All gases while expansion

produces cooling effect and while compression of gases raises there

temperature Compression is a term used to force gases to occupy smaller

volumes by increasing their pressure Volume of gases is interlinked with

temperature and pressure of the gas which is cleared by 2 laws govern gas

compressions

Boyles Law

Charles Law

The main types of compressor are listed below

Front End Compressor

The plant currently processes gas from a number of wells The flow and pressure

from some of these wells (currently K-10 K-11 amp K-12) has declined and they

cannot be fed directly into the Central Processing Facility To recover the

maximum gas reserves from these wells a Front End Compressor is employed

The compressor is a two stage double acting gas engine driven reciprocating

(PT) compressor Double acting means that gas is compressed on each end of

the piston It normal operates with a speed range of 600 to 900 RPM and isequipped with four compressor cylinders two for each stage Each cylinder is

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also equipped with a variable volume head end pocket

In case of compressor emergency shutdown the production chokes and the

Upper Master Valves on the on line wells will close and operator will be notified in

central control room Sweet gas from gas distribution network is used to operate the

gas engine driver of the compressor package The detailed scheme of working is

shown in figure (page 22 )

PT Reciprocating Compressor

The mechanical cycle of piston tube reciprocating compressor comprises four

strokes the expansion stroke the intake stroke the compression stroke and the

discharge stroke

Expansion Stroke

As the piston moves back on the expansion stroke the chamber volume

increases and the pressure drop As the pressure drops the discharge valve

closes since there is greater pressure in the discharge line than in the chamber

Intake Stroke

As the piston moves back during the intake stroke the pressure decreases until it

is less than the pressure in the inlet line This higher intake pressure opens the

inlet valve and gas rushes into the cylinder equalizing the pressure there with

the intake pressure The compression chamber is now at or near the intake

pressure

Compression Stroke

The piston now starts the compression stroke by moving forward decreasing the

chamber volume and increasing the pressure The increased pressure is now

higher than the intake pressure causing the intake valve to close

Discharge Stroke

The piston continues to move to the left during the discharge stroke This creates

an increase in chamber pressure until it is greater than the discharge pressure

When this happens the Discharge valve opens and the compressed air from the

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cylinder goes into the discharge line The compression cycle is then repeated

from the stage

Compressor Capacity

The capacity of the compressor depends upon cylinder displacement That

displacement is simply the volume that the piston displaces (moves) as it travels

from one end of the cylinder to the other Capacity and displacement is equal to

the cross-sectional area of the cylinder times the length of the stroke

Lubrication and Cooling

Lubricating oil is circulated through the system by a gear pump which is chain

driven from the engine crank shaft The oil pump is mounted on the engine front

housing

The pump operates between 30 - 40 psig

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A circulating pump deliver cooling water to the water jackets in the cylinder block

flowing around the cylinder liners and is directed into the cylinder heads Each

cylinder head has water cooled exhaust elbows which outlet the water into the

water cooled exhausts From the end of engine the water flows to compressor

1st and 2nd stage cylinders and compressor lube oil cooler (LOwater heat

exchanger) The water from the compressor cylinder and lube oil cooler returns

to engine water cooled exhaust

Figure Flow diagram of Front End Compressor

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Centrifugal Compressor

Centrifugal compressors are machines in which velocity and pressure given to air

or gas in a radial direction by one or more impellers diffuser combination In a

centrifugal compressor the mechanical energy is increased by centrifugal action

The gas enters the suction eye of a high speed rotary element called the impeller

which carries radial vanes integrally cast in it As the impeller rotates the blades

of the impeller force the gas outward from the center the impeller to the outer rim

of impeller the increase in velocity of the gas creates a flow pressure area at the

eye of the impeller The gas at the outer rim of the impeller is forced in to a

passage way called a diffuser where the velocity decreases in the pressure of the

gas

Inlet

The inlet to a centrifugal compressor is typically a simple pipe It may include

features such as a valve and both pressure and temperature instrumentation

Centrifugal impeller

The key component that makes a compressor centrifugal is the centrifugal

impeller shown above It is the impellers rotating set of vanes (or blades) that

gradually raises the energy of the working gas This is identical to an axial

compressor with the exception that the gases can reach higher velocities and

energy levels through the impellers increasing radius

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Diffuser

The next key component to the simple centrifugal compressor is the diffuser

Downstream of the impeller in the flow path it is the diffusers responsibility to

convert the kinetic energy (high velocity) of the gas into pressure by gradually

slowing (diffusing) the gas velocity

SEPERATORS

A well-stream is a mixture of gases hydrocarbon liquids water solids and

contaminants Due to variations in pressure and temperature gases evolve from

the liquids water vapor condenses and some of the well-stream changes to liquid

and free gas The separation of well-stream fluids takes place in a separator This

pressure vessel is manufactured in three forms

1 horizontal

2 vertical

3 spherical

To help separation the vessel is normally designed with a series of internal

fittings These fittings are built into the separator to ensure total phase separation

of the well-stream

In gas plants separators are given alternative names due to the function they

perform in the process system A scrubber does a similar job to a knockout drum

However the scrubber usually separates a stream containing high gas-to-liquid

ratios The knockout drum is used where a high degree of liquids are entrained in

the gas

Fluid flow from a well can include gas condensable liquid vapors water water

vapor crude oil and solids As well-stream fluids reach ground level where

pressure is lower than in the reservoir the capacity of the liquid to hold gas in

solution decreases and gas separates out of the oil

Separation depends upon the effect of gravity to separate liquids For adequate

separation one fluid must be lighter than the other fluid For example distillates

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(gasoline kerosene etc) and crude oil will not separate in a vessel because they

tend to dissolve in each other Because a separator basically depends upon

gravity to separate the fluids the ease with which separation takes place

depends upon the difference in density of the fluids

Droplets of liquid will separate from gas provided

a) The gas remains in the separator long enough

b) The gas flow remains constant to provoke separation

The difference in density between a gas and liquid will therefore determine the

maximum flow rate of liquid in the vessel

Figure Two phase horizontal separator

Gas bubbles in the liquid will break out in some oil field applications in 30 to 60

seconds Consequently the separator is designed so that the liquid remains in

the vessel for 30 to 60 seconds The length of time that a liquid remains in the

vessel is called its residence time Residence time differs widely from field to field

depending upon viscosity and API Gravity

Another important factor which must be considered is temperature Generally a

decrease in operating temperature will increase the liquid recovery in a separator

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as the gas condenses By reducing the pressure on the fluid flash separation

occurs resulting in a flow through the separator which is controlled by external

instrumentation

COALESCENCE

Another important principle in fluid separation is that of coalescence This means

the coming together of liquid droplets created by the force of gravity

A common example of coalescing occurs when drops of water form on the

windshield of a car as it is driven in fog As the tiny drops or water which make up

the fog strike the windshield they combine and eventually form a drop large

enough to run down the glass

Several of the internal devices of a separator such as deflector plates

straightening vanes and even the vessel walls are forms of coalescers In each

vessel drops of liquid adhere to the surface of the device and combine with other

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drops until the drop is large enough to fall out The effectiveness of separation

will also depend upon the total amount of coalescing surface area that is present

There are many different types of separators used in the Oil amp Gas industry

Consequently separators are manufactured with one two or several internal

fittings depending on their use and quick removal of these fluids from the vessel

DEFLECTOR PLATES

These are fitted in front of the inlet to the separator and can be net or

dish-shaped Their purpose is to absorb the impact of the incoming fluids and to

encourage the separation of gas and liquids They also slow the flow rate of the

liquids through the vessel

WEIRS

A weir is a metal wall which is fitted across the inside of the vessel normally to a

height of 50 of the overall height of the separator Its purpose is to assist the

process of three phase separation The inlet fluids (oil plus water) are given time

to separate in the liquid accumulation section The water level (interface) is

normally controlled at 50 of the height of the weir Oil floating on the wateroverflows the weir and accumulates in the small oil compartment where it is

drawn off under level control

CENTRIFUGAL DEVICES

These are used in both vertical and horizontal separators for gas-liquid

separation The device imparts a swirling motion to the fluids entering the vessel

Centrifugal force causes the heavier liquids to travel outwards towards the walls

of the vessel and the lighter gases to flow up the centre Centrifugal devices are

also known as cyclones

VORTEX BREAKERS

When liquid flows through a drain outlet a vortex (whirlpool) will form This can

be seen when we pull the plug from a sink or bath tub The same would happen

as water and oil flow from the separator This condition a vortex could allow gas

to flow down the centre of the whirlpool and enter the liquid phase causing

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pressurizing of tanks etc To stop this happening vortex breakers are fitted to all

liquid outlets Although they come in a number of different designs vortex

breakers all serve the same purpose - to prevent a whirlpool from forming

MIST OR DEMISTER PADS

The gas which is released from the fluids in the separator still contains droplets of

oil and water which coalesce and fall when the drops get large enough The

demister pad assists in this process Made from knitted wire and contained within

a sturdy frame it causes the gas to continually change its direction of flow

Because gas changes direction far easier than liquid the gas will flow around

each strand of wire whilst the liquid entrained in the gas stream will continue and

stick to the wire

COALESCING PLATES

There are several different forms of coalescing devices the most common of

which are coalescing plates These plates are mounted in the flow stream of the

fluids and assist in breaking down oil-water emulsions The fluid is forced to

follow a path that constantly changes direction This causes the water droplets to

gather together or coalesce and fall to the bottom of the separator The same

principle is used to separate gas and oil mixtures when the oil droplets are

induced to coalesce Simply stated every surface within the separator including

the separator walls assists with the coalescing process

STRAIGHTENlNG VANES

These are often fitted to horizontal separators to remove turbulence in the gas

stream after initial separation at the inlet deflector

FLOAT SHEILD

Internal floats are used as level controllers Any agitation of the liquid surface or

the effect of coalesced liquids falling on the float may cause control problems

Therefore a float shield is fitted to enclose the float creating an area of still liquid

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MEMBRANES

The gas contains 12 carbon dioxide and 22 ppm of hydrogen sulphide at 115oF

and 1100 psig This needs to be removed before the gas can be exported The

majority of carbon dioxide hydrogen sulphide and water is removed by means of

membranes

Membranes are thin semipermeable barriers that selectively separate some

compounds from others Currently the only commercially workable membranes

used for CO2 removal are polymer based for example cellulose acetate

polyimides polyamides polysulfone polycarbonates and polyetherimide The

membrane does not operate as a filter where small molecules are separated

from larger ones through a medium with pores rather it separates based on how

well different compounds dissolve into the membrane and diffuse through it The

membranes are manufactured in flat sheets consisting of an extremely thin

nonporous layer mounted on a much-thicker and highly porous layer of the same

material providing mechanical strength The flat sheets are combined into a

spiral-wound element (Figure below) Feed gas enters along the side of the

membrane and passes through the feed spacers As the gas travels between

membrane sheets CO2 H2S and H2O permeate through the membrane and are

collected in the permeate tube The driving force for transport is the high-feed

pressure and low-permeate pressures The gas on the feed side that does not

permeate leaves through the side of the element opposite the feed position Once

the membranes have been manufactured into elements six to 12 elements are

joined together and inserted into a tube Multiple tubes are mounted on skids in a

horizontal orientation

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Figure Membrane general Working

In high H2S applications most polymers have been shown to have very little

resistance to H2S plasticization (ldquosofteningrdquo of the membrane) and as a

consequence can only be used at very low H2S partial pressure limits Cellulose

acetate membranes in contrast have been shown to be applicable at extreme

H2S partial pressure conditions It is these membranes that have been utilized in

the testing to determine the limits of membrane performance in high H 2S

applications

The primary membranes used in Kadanwari facility are Cellulose acetate

Cellulose acetic acid and acetic anhydride are mixed together and reacted to

form cellulose acetate polymers This process is aided by the addition of a small

amount of sulfuric acid which is subsequently neutralized during processing

However the membranes are bought from UOP (vendor) and installed for use

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How membrane work

The basic principle of separation is selectivity of certain components of a mixture

for the membrane For example the cellulose acetate membrane has very high

selectivity for CO2 and H2S as compared to CH4 Therefore such type of

membrane can be used in gas sweetening process

The selectivity is directly related to the Permeability of gas which accounts that

which gas can pass across the membrane more easily In simple words

membranes being polymer materials are made of long chains of molecules The

different structure of polymer materials only allow selective molecules to pass

through them depending upon chemical and physical compatibility Thus

permeability depends upon choice of polymer

The permeability is determined by permeability coefficient (P) and is product of

solubility (S) and diffusivity (D)

P = S D

Solubility

The solubility is mainly determined by ease of condensation Heavy molecules

are more readily condensed Therefore higher molecular weighted molecules will

more easily condensed and therefore have greater solubility

Molecule Molecular weight

CH4 16

H2S 34

CO2 44

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Diffusivity

Diffusivity is ease of molecule to penetrate into some material It depends on size

of gas molecule Here size of molecule is not to be confused by molecular weight

it is the size of the structure Eg the size of O2 molecule is smaller than N2

Molecule Molecular Diameter (Ao)

CO2 33

H2S 36

Ch4 40

For cellulose acetate

DCO2DCH4 S CO2S CH4 P CO2P CH4

45 73 308

Chemical degradation

Cellulose acetate polymer is chemically degraded by a process called hydrolysis

which means breaking apart by the addition of water This is a chemical reaction

in which water is added to the cellulose acetate polymer causing the release of

acetic acid molecules This process proceeds stepwise until all the acetate

groups are released resulting in the reformation of cellulose Moreover alcohols

aromatic hydrocarbons or solvents with chlorine nitro benzene or similar

aromatic solvents will harm the membrane It will expand and lose plastification in

contact with them

Effect of Temperature

The permeation rates of all gases increases with increasing temperature

however membrane selectivity for CO2 over hydrocarbon decreases at higher

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temperature Consequently CO2 removal will improve as operating temperature

increases but hydro carbon recovery will decrease

Primary Membrane

The primary membranes comprise of two trains Each train consists of two

sections AB and CD each section consists of a 30 tube membrane skid (A and

C) followed by a 25 tube skid (B and D) The conditioned gas (after pre-

treatment) enters the primary membrane via the particulate filter adjacent to the

skid The gas is fed to the membranes through a common inlet manifold which

supplies primary membranes skids A and C A pressure control loop located

upstream of the manual inlet isolation valve is provided to maintain a constant

supply pressure to the membrane skid and to allow for preheating at the inlet

prior to skid start-up This pressure control loop can also be used during start-up

to control the pressurization of the pretreatment skid and associated pipes to the

primary membranes

The gas passes through membrane skid A the residual gas exiting the membrane

skid is sent to skid B and the permeate to common permeate discharge header An

identical arrangement is provide on the inlet to skid C as provided on skid A Theresidual gas from skid B combines with the residual gas from skid D in a common

discharge header and is then sent to the H2S polishing towers via the feed coolers

on the pre-treatment skid The permeate from skid B is sent to the common

permeate discharge header The permeate discharge header sends the gas to

either the recycle compressor or the vent header via a pressure control loop

Overpressure protection for the membranes is provided by a pressure safety valve

on the supply header to the membrane banks

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Secondary (Recycle) Membrane

The recycle membranes comprise of a single train with two skids each with four

banks of membrane tubes The conditioned gas from the discharge of the recycle

pre-treatment skid is routed to the first recycle membrane skid The gas passes

through the membranes the residual gas is fed to primary membrane (skid A) inlet

via feed gas cooler and permeate to the common permeate discharge header An

identical arrangement is provide on the inlet to skid B Permeate from the recycle

membrane skids A and B is routed to the vent header Some portion of permeate is

heated and sent for regeneration in Mem-Guard units Nitrogen purge can be

connected downstream of the inlet isolation valve on each skid to enable the

membrane tubes to be purged and left pressurized during prolonged shutdown

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Figure Flow Diagram of Recycle membrane unit

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ADVANTAGES OF MEMBRANE SYSTEMS

Membrane systems have major advantages over more-traditional methods of

acid gas removal

Lower capital cost Membrane systems are skid mounted and so the

scope cost and time taken for site preparation are minimal Installation

costs are significantly lower than alternative technologies especially for

remote areas Furthermore no additional facilities for solvent storage and

water treatment needed by other processes are required

Lower operating costs The only major operating cost for single-stage

membrane systems is membrane replacement This cost is significantly

lower than the solvent replacement and energy costs associated with

traditional technologies The improvements in membrane and

pretreatment design allow a longer useful membrane life which further

reduces operating costs The energy costs of multistage systems with

large recycle compressors are usually comparable to those for traditionaltechnologies

Deferred capital investment Often contracted sales-gas flow rates

increase over time as more wells are brought on-line With traditional

technologies the system design needs to take this later production into

account immediately and so the majority of the equipment is installed

before it is even needed The modular nature of membrane systems

means that only the membranes that are needed at start-up need be

installed The rest can be added either into existing tubes or in new skids

only when they are required

Operational simplicity and high reliability Because single-stage

membrane systems have no moving parts they have almost no

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unscheduled downtime and are extremely simple to operate They can

operate unattended for long periods of time The addition of a recycle

compressor adds some complexity to the system but still much less than

with a solvent- or adsorbent-based technology Multistage systems can be

operated at full capacity as single-stage systems when the recycle

compressor is down

Good weight and space efficiency Skid construction can be optimized

to the space available This space efficiency is especially important for

offshore environments where deck area is at a premium and is the

reason why so many new offshore developments have chosen to use

membranes for acid gas removal Figure 6 illustrates the space efficiency

of membrane systems The membrane unit in the lower left corner

replaced all the amine and glycol plant equipment shown in the rest of the

picture

Adaptability Because membrane area is dictated by the percentage of

acid gas removal rather than absolute acid gas removal small variations

in feed acid gas content hardly change the sales-gas acid gas

specification For example a system designed for 10 down to 3 acid

gas removal produces a 35 product from a 12 feed gas and a 5

product from a 15 feed gas

Design efficiency The membrane and pretreatment systems integrate a

number of operations such as dehydration CO2 and H2S removal dew-

point control and mercury removal Traditional acid gas removal

technologies require all of these operations as separate processes and

may also require additional dehydration because some technologies

saturate the product stream with water

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Power generation The permeate gas from membrane systems can be

used to provide fuel gas for power generation either for a recycle

compressor or other equipment

Ideal for debottlenecking Because expanding solvent- or adsorbent-

based acid gas removal plants without adding additional trains is difficult

an ideal solution is to use membranes for bulk acid gas removal and leave

the existing plant for final cleanup An additional advantage is that the

permeate gas from the membrane system can often be used as fuel for

the existing plant thus avoiding significant increase in hydrocarbon

losses

Environmentally friendly Membrane systems do not involve the

periodic removal and handling of spent solvents or adsorbents Permeate

gases can be flared used as fuel or re-injected into the well Items thatdo need disposal such as spent membrane elements can be incinerated

Ideal for remote locations Many of the factors mentioned above make

membrane systems a highly desirable technology for remote locations

where spare parts are rare and labor unskilled Furthermore solvents

storage and trucking water supply power generation or extensive

infrastructure are not required

Re-injection optimizations Since the permeate stream from the

membrane system can be operated at elevated pressures it is possible to

further pressurize by re-injection compression train

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Sorption

Sorption is a physical and chemical process by which one substance becomes

attached to another

It is of two main types

1 Absorption

2 Adsorption

Absorption

Absorption is a physical or chemical phenomenon or process in which atoms

molecules or ions enter some bulk phase ndash gas liquid or solid material This is a

different process from adsorption since molecules undergoing absorption are

taken up by the volume not by the surface (as in the case for adsorption)

Absorption process may be chemical (reactive) or physical (non-reactive)

Physical absorption

Physical absorption or non-reactive absorption is made between two phases ofmatter a liquid absorbs a gas or a solid absorbs a liquid

When a liquid solvent absorbs a gas mixture or part of it a mass of gas moves

into the liquid For example water may absorb oxygen from the air This mass

transfer takes place at the interface between the liquid and the gas at a rate

depending on both the gas and the liquid This type of absorption depends on the

solubility of gases the pressure and the temperature The rate and amount of

absorption also depend on the surface area of the interface and its duration in

time

When a solid absorbs a liquid mixture or part of it a mass of liquid moves into the

solid For example a clay pot used to store water may absorb some of the water

This mass transfer takes place at the interface between the solid and the liquid

at a rate depending on both the solid and the liquid

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Chemical absorption

Chemical absorption or reactive absorption is a chemical reaction between the

absorbed and the absorbing substances Sometimes it combines with physical

absorption This type of absorption depends upon the stoichiometry of the

reaction and the concentration of its reactants

Adsorption

Adsorption is the adhesion of atoms ions or molecules from a gas liquid or

dissolved solid to a surface This process creates a film of the adsorbate on the

surface of the adsorbent The binding to the surface is usually weak and

reversible Compounds with color and those that have taste or odor tend to bind

strongly Compounds that vibrate at frequencies in the visible spectrum are very

often are strongly adsorbed on activated carbon

The most common industrial adsorbents are activated carbon silica gel and

alumina because they present enormous surface areas per unit weight

Depending on the nature of attractive forces existing between the adsorbate and

adsorbent adsorption can be classified as

i) Physical adsorption

ii) Chemical adsorption

i) Physical adsorption (Physisorption)

In physical adsorption the forces of attraction between the molecules of the

adsorbate and the adsorbent are of the weak van der Waals type Since the

forces of attraction are weak the process of physisorption can be easily reversed

by heating or decreasing the pressure of the adsorbate (as in the case of gases)

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ii) Chemical adsorption (Chemisorption)

In chemisorption the forces of attraction between the adsorbate and the

adsorbent are very strong the molecules of adsorbate form chemical bonds with

the molecules of the adsorbent present in the surface

Adsorption is generally accompanied by release of energy that is most

adsorption processes are exothermic in nature Adsorption is a spontaneous

process therefore its free energy change is negative (∆Glt0) However the

entropy change associated with adsorption is generally negative because the

adsorbate molecules lose their translation freedom when they get attached to the

surface of the adsorbent Therefore in order for ∆G to be negative the enthalpy

change (∆H) must be sufficiently negative such that (∆G=∆H-T∆S) lt 0 This

explanation accounts for exothermic adsorption processes In cases where

endothermic adsorption occurs the entropy change ∆S is sufficiently positive

such that ∆G remains negative

Pre treatment

The main function of pretreatment skid is to provide membrane inlet specification

gas as mentioned by the vendor UOP It removes the contaminants that would

poison the membranes like dust solids (adsorbent particles) lube oil heavy

hydrocarbons etc It consists of

Feed Cooler

Feed Gas Scrubber

Filter Coalescer

Feed Gas Heater

Activated Carbon Guard Filter

Particle Filter

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The regeneration is carried out by heated permeate gas from the recycle

membranes at 450oF The vessel is depressurized to 20 psi and heated gas is

introduced from top The gas carries out the adsorbed contaminants and leaves

the vessel from bottom cleaning the adsorbent This contaminated gas is burnt in

the flare

UOP the vendor of Memguard unit has never disclosed that what substance

MG3 and MG5 exactly are But as mentioned by vendor that both care class of

aluminosilicates Therefore MG3 can be potassium aluminosilicate and MG5 can

be Calcium aluminosilicate These are molecular sieves adsorbents Molecular

sieves are a microporous material which can selectively adsorb gases andliquids They are synthetic zeolites (crystalline metal aluminosilicates) which

upon dehydration can efficiently and selectively remove water or other

solvents The selectivity of a molecular sieve is determined by its pore size

molecules with a critical diameter which is less than the pore size will be

efficiently adsorbed while larger molecules will be excluded

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3A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

The 3A molecular sieve adsorbent has a 3 angstrom (3A) pore size which means

that any molecule that is larger than the 3 angstrom pores will not be adsorbed

The 3A molecular sieve is the potassium type of A crystalline structure and is a

form of alkali Aluminosilicate For a 3A molecular sieve the sequence rate that

adsorption occurs is He Ne N and H2O

Due to the crystalline structure molecular sieves that have a 3 angstrom pore

size have a very high rate of adsorption and properties that promote a longer life

for products treated by the sieve The most common use for the 3A molecular

sieve is to remove water and moisture from materials that are in gas and liquid

form

5A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

These are molecular sieve adsorbents with a pore size of 5 angstrom (5A) 5A

molecular sieves are unable to adsorb any molecules or impurities that are

smaller than 5A It is calcium form of type A crystalline structure and is form of analkali-aluminosilicate that is most commonly used to separate isomerous alkanes

from normal alkanes and to co-adsorb moisture and water along with carbon

dioxide from gases In additional 5A molecular sieves are used for gaseous

pressure swing adsorption (PSA)mdashthat is to separate particular gases from other

gases

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of C3H8 to C22H46

Adsorption of Freon-12 (dichlorodifluoromethane)

Natural gas drying

Normal- and iso-paraffin separation

Separation of aromatic

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Inlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1096

MEHTANE 8593

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008

N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGEN 076

WATER 007

Outlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1098

MEHTANE 8608

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGENT 076

WATER 000

H2S polisher

The H2S polishing unit has been designed to treat 187 MMscfday of natural gas

containing up to 11 CO2 and 21 ppm H2S where the level of the CO2 and H2S

is reduced using a MemGuard Membrane separation unit The unit is situated

down-stream of the membrane unit and will further reduce the level of H2S in the

processed gas to a sales gas specification of 38 ppm

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This process uses three non-regenerable fixed bed absorber vessels using a low

temperature high activity absorbent The absorbent is a mixture of activated

metal oxides (mainly zinc oxide) The three towers can are generally operated in

parallel arrangement but on demand can be used in series (any of alternate

arrangements of A B C vessels) as shown in figure

The higher sales gas flow rate increased the catalyst consumption and

replacement frequency

ZnO + H2S =gt ZnS + H20

Routine samples are taken from the beds to provide a check on each bed

performance and to follow the saturation profile during the absorbent life After

the adsorbent has been fully utilized the adsorption vessels are recharged with

new adsorbent discarding the utilized one in a safe manner

109oF

1215 psig

Before H2S Polishing After H2S Polishing

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Figure

H2S Tower

Inlet pipe

4 Drums of 19mm

ceramic Balls

6 Micron mesh

5 Drums of 50mmceramic

1 Drums of19mm ceramic

01 Drums of6mm ceramic

112 drums of

Catalist ZnO

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Recycle Compressor

The permeate gas of the primary membrane unit carries recoverable amount of

CH4 It is fed to recycle membrane unit for further CH 4 recovery But the

permeate pressure from primary membranes which has been reduced to 12 psi

must be regenerated to 1200 psi for the gas to be fed again to the system For

this purpose we have employed recycle compressor The compressor is a four

stage centrifugal compressor It is driven by gas turbine of 31200 HP It has 25

MW producing capacity

Figure Recycle Compressor Process Flow Diagram

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Sales Gas Compressor

Gas from H2S polishing unit is sent to sales gas compressor where its pressure

is enhanced to 1100 psi so it may be injected to SNGPL high pressure trunk line

Sales gas compressor is single stage gas turbine driven

Figure Process Flow of Sales Gas Compressor

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Cooling Towers

A cooling tower is a heat rejection device which extracts waste heat to theatmosphere through the cooling of a water stream to a lower temperature Hot

water from the system enters the cooling tower and is distributed over the fill

(heat transfer surface) Air is induced or forced through the fill causing a small

portion of the water to evaporate This evaporation removes heat from the

remaining water which is collected in the cold water basin and returned to the

system to absorb more heat Each cooling tower line although operating under

the same basic principle of operation is arranged a little differently

Types

Natural draft mdash Utilizes buoyancy via a tall chimney Warm moist air naturally

rises due to the density differential compared to the dry cooler outside air Warm

moist air is less dense than drier air at the same pressure This moist air

buoyancy produces an upwards current of air through the tower

Mechanical draft mdash Uses power-driven fan motors to force or draw airthrough the tower

o Induced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a fan at the

discharge (at the top) which pulls air up through the tower The fan

induces hot moist air out the discharge This produces low entering

and high exiting air velocities reducing the possibility of

recirculation in which discharged air flows back into the air intake

o Forced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a blower type fan at

the intake The fan forces air into the tower creating high entering

and low exiting air velocities The low exiting velocity is much more

susceptible to recirculation This fanfill geometry is also known as

blow-through

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Forced Draft Cooling Tower Vs Induced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower have the ability to handle large water flow

rate than Forced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower is suitable for large cell sizes and fan sizes

as compared with Forced Draft Larger fan size may result in greater

efficiency and consequently lower power and sound level

Forced Draft Cooling Tower can be square or rectangular type only

however Induced Draft Cooling Towers can be round square or

rectangular type

Induced Draft Cooling Tower uses more compact ground area than Forced

Draft Cooling Tower equivalent capacity due to absence of fan on one

side

Fan equipment is warm exhaust air is less liable to icing up in winter

operation (Cold Countries)

Higher velocity in Forced Draft Cooling Tower cause drop in suspension

and cause additional static resistance to system

Configuration

There are two main configurations of factory assembled cooling towers crossflow

and counterflow In crossflow cooling towers the water flows vertically down the

fill as air flows horizontally across In counterflow cooling towers the water flows

vertically down the fill as air flows vertically up

Crossflow Configuration Counterflow Configuration

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Drift mdash Water droplets that are carried out of the cooling tower with the exhaust

air Drift droplets have the same concentration of impurities as the water entering

the tower The drift rate is typically reduced by employing baffle-like devices

called drift eliminators through which the air must travel after leaving the fill and

spray zones of the tower

Blow-out mdash Water droplets blown out of the cooling tower by wind generally at

the air inlet openings Water may also be lost in the absence of wind through

splashing or misting Devices such as wind screens louvers splash deflectors

and water diverters are used to limit these losses

Blow-down mdash The portion of the circulating water flow that is removed (usually

discharged to a drain) in order to maintain the amount of Total Dissolved Solids

(TDS) and other impurities at an acceptably low level Higher TDS concentration

in solution may result from greater cooling tower efficiency However the higher

the TDS concentration the greater the risk of scale biological growth and

corrosion

Make-up mdash The water that must be added to the circulating water system in

order to compensate for water losses such as evaporation drift loss blow-out

blow-down etc

Approach mdash The approach is the difference in temperature between the cooled-

water temperature and the entering-air wet bulb temperature

Range mdash The range is the temperature difference between the warm water inlet

and cooled water exit

Fill mdash Inside the tower fills are added to increase contact surface as well as

contact time between air and water to provide better heat transfer The efficiency

of the tower depends on the selection and amount of fill

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There are two types of fills that may be used

o Film type fill (causes water to spread into a thin film)

o Splash type fill (breaks up falling stream of water and interrupts its

vertical progress)

Important

Scale build up is controlled by adding chemicals to the cooling loop and diluting

the concentration by blow down and make-up Following chemicals are added to

the Cooling to control CorrosionSale and microbial growth

Corrosion Inhibitor To control corrosion in the Cooling system

Dispersant To kept ions in suspension to avoid settle down and buildup

Sodium hypo Chlorite To Control microbial Growth

Acid To control Alkalinity in the system

High Stress Polymer To run the system at higher conductivity It is a

multifunctional polymer for Zinc amp Phosphate stabilization in cooling tower

Fin Fan Cooler

Fin fan heat exchanger is simply a pressure vessel which cools a circulating fluid

within finned tubes by forcing ambient air over the exterior of the tubes A

common example of an air cooler is a carrsquos radiator Fin Fan Coolers are used in

any application where large quantities of heat need to be transferred This

includes chemical and petrochemical industries power stations waste-to-energy

facilities as well as steelworks

Fin Fan Cooler are used for two primary reasons

They increase plant efficiency

They are a green solution as compared to cooling towers and shell and

tube heat exchangers because they do not require an auxiliary water

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supply (water lost due to drift and evaporation plus no water treatment

chemicals are required)

Figure General Overview of Fin Fan Cooler

Produced Water

The produced water system receives liquid from the equipment Miano slug

catcher train 1 and 2 inlet separators and is fed to three phase separator where

water oil and gas is separated The gases produced are burnt in incinerator

whereas hydrocarbon liquid is stored to be sold Liquid from compressors

recycle inlet separator recycle feed scrubber high and low pressure slug

catchers is passed to degasser Separated water is injected down the earth

Incinerator

The term incinerate means to burn something until nothing is left but ashes An

incinerator is a unit or facility used to burn trash and other types of waste until it is

reduced to ash An incinerator is constructed of heavy well-insulated materials

so that it does not give off extreme amounts of external heat The high levels of

heat are kept inside the furnace or unit so that the waste is burned quickly and

efficiently If the heat were allowed to escape the waste would not burn as

completely or as rapidly

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Control System

The plant is controlled at CCR (Central Control Room) by PLCs (Programmable

Logic Controllers) through fiber optic control line All control parameters are

received at LER (Local Equipment Room) via two optic fiber control lines One

being primary and other secondary operating in redundancy ie if primary fails

control shifts to secondary These control parameters are sent to CCR via single

optic fiber cable

Safety System

Wellheads and Gas Processing Plant have their own Fire amp Gas detection

systems emergency shutdown (ESD) Plant has a fault tolerant controller It is

based on Triple Modular Redundant (TMR) architecture manufactured by

Triconex The TMR system is based on three isolated parallel control systems

integrated into one system The system operates on a two out of three voting

principle which provides high integrity error free uninterrupted operation with no

single point of failure The TMR receives inputs from Process Sensors Manual

Switches Fire amp Gas Detectors Packaged Equipment Control Systems and

Product Exporting Facilities The TMR carries out cause and effect processing on

the data received and where necessary produces output signals Outputs from

the TMR are hard wired directly to ESD shutdown and blow down valve

solenoids motor control instrumentelectrical interfaces to control electrical

drives package equipment logic control systems manifold area as well as

telecoms

The operator in central control room is able to accept alarms and once the fault

has been cleared reset the input All the control systems are centralized to a

single interface All the PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers) communicate with

the servers and servers communicate with the clients through Ethernet connectivity

Centralization eases the navigation of different systems at a common interface

Emergency Shutdown

The ESD system receives inputs from field mounted instrumentation on the process

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and utility equipment and initiates executive actions appropriate to the level of ESD

The system is an Active system which is in standby and will activate when in an

alarm or fault condition The Kadanwari Gas Process Facility ESD system is

comprised of five (5) levels The emergency severity decreases with increasing ESD

level number

ESD 1

This shutdown level is automatically initiated by fire major gas leak or a detected

toxic atmosphere in the process area of the plant or manually from CCR A level 1

shutdown will cause all production to cease close all emergency shutdown

valves stop the process and shutdown of the main power generation The

emergency vent valves to the stack will open and in addition all equipment of zone 1

certified will be isolated This is the highest level of ESD and will cause the following

to occur

All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close All slowdown Valves (BDVs) on the process facility will open

All Main Gas Driven Generators will be tripped

Emergency Diesel Generator will start

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close Upper Master Valve

(UMV) Close

ESD 2

This shutdown level is activated automatically if a major process or utility failure

occurs or manually from CCR All production to the plant from the wellhead is

stopped All emergency shutdown valves trip to their fail safe position

Venting shall be as specified This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

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All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valve Close Wing Valves Close and Upper Master Valve(UMV) Close

ESD 3

The level 3 shutdown isolates and stops a single process train only Production

continues via the other train This ESD level is initiated by process conditions or

operator at local panel This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

ESD 3A Train 1 production to cease

ESD 3B Train 2 production to cease

All online wellhead choke valves go to minimum flow ie (1O )

ESD 4

A level 4 shutdown shall cease all production from an entire field either

Kadanwari or Miano upstream of the associated slug catchers ESD 4K for

Kadanwari amp ESD 4M for Miano This ESD level is initiated automatically by slug

catcher abnormal process conditions This level of ESD will cause the following

to occur

All SDVs close isolating the relevant slug catcher and its upstream gas

production facility from the Kadanwari Gas Processing Plant

All Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close and Upper MasterValves (UMV) of the relevant gas production facility Close

A parallel timer is provided to close within 10 second if not closed in given

time SSSV seals the well

ESD 5

A level 5 shutdown represents equipment shutdown for the protection of the

individual equipment without any change in the process This level of ESD is for the

protection of various pieces of equipment and is initiated by its own inputs eg

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which prevents access of the corrosive substance to the metal The corrosive

agents are generally oxygen hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide

At our production site the major risk is corrosion of piping and equipment The

maximum allowable corrosion rate is approximately 02 mm per year and

corrosion rate without inhibitor could be approximately 11 mm per year so the

corrosion protection program is designed to achieve a target corrosion rate of

less than 01 mm per year which is achieved by an inhibitor system efficiency of

99 Inhibitor is injected into the well stream flow through an atomizing nozzle

located downstream of the respective wellhead coolers at the duplexcarbon steel

interface In normal operation as per NALCO standards chemical (brand name

EC1144B) at rate of frac12 Liter per MMSCFD of gas is being injected into the flow

line of miano15 flow lines made of carbon steel Moreover the composition can

vary depending upon the composition of well fluids and material of pipeline This

method of injection ensures even distribution of the chemical on the interior

surface of the pipeline The individual well sites are equipped with Chemical

Injection Packages comprising of a stainless steel storage tank and two

pneumatic motor driven pumps in parallel Instrument gas is used to drive the

pumps Normally one pump is running with the other standby

Water Conning

Water coning is a term used to describe the mechanism underlying the upward

movement of water into the perforations of a producing well Coning can seriously

impact the well productivity and influence the degree of depletion and the overall

recovery efficiency of the reservoir The specific problems of water coning are

listed below

Costly added water handling

Gas production from the original or secondary gas cap reduces pressure

Reduced efficiency of the depletion mechanism

The water is often corrosive and its disposal costly

The affected well may be abandoned early

Loss of the total field overall recovery

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Therefore conning has an important influence on operations recovery and

economics The phenomena is shown in picture below

Corrosion

Corrosion is referred as chemical deterioration of a metal Commonly this

means loss of electrons of metals reacting with water and oxygen

Weakening of iron due to oxidation of the iron atoms is a well-known

example of electrochemical corrosion This is commonly known as

rust Most structural alloys corrode merely from exposure to moisture

in the air but the process can be strongly affected by exposure to

certain substances Corrosion can be concentrated locally to form a pit

or crack or it can extend across a wide area to produce general

deterioration (uniform corrosion)

The following reaction takes place at the active sites

2Fe =gt 2Fe++ + 4e-

The free electrons travel through the metal path to the less active sites where

the following reaction takes place

O2 + 4e- + 2H20 =gt 4 OH-

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Recombination of these ions at the active surface produce the following

reaction which yields the iron-corrosion product ferrous hydroxide

2Fe + O2 + 2H2O =gt 2Fe (OH) 2

CORROSION PROTECTION SYSTEM

Coatings and painting

Painting and the application of enamel bitumen and PVC

coating are the most common anti-corrosion treatments They

work by providing a barrier of corrosion-resistant material

between the damaging environment and the structural material

Corrosion Inhibitors

Corrosion inhibitor is injected into the flow lines as mentioned in

detail on page 8

Cathodic Protection

Cathodic Protection (CP) is a technique used to control the corrosion of a

metal surface by making it the cathode of an electrochemical cell It

converts all of the anodic (active) sites on the metal surface to cathodic

(passive) sites by supplying electrical current (or free electrons) from an

alternate source It is accomplished in two ways

a) A simple method of protection connects protected metal to a more easily

corroded sacrificial metal to act as the anode The sacrificial metal then

corrodes instead of the protected metal The process is similar to a simple

DC cell in which the more active metal becomes the anode and corrodes

whereas the less active metal becomes the cathode and is protected

b) For larger structures galvanic anodes cannot economically deliver enough

current to provide protection Therefore impressed current cathodic

protection (ICCP) systems are used These consist of anodes connected

to a DC power source In remote areas power sources such as solar

panels may be used The output DC negative terminal is connected to the

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frequently to limit liquid holdup and minimize the slug volumes of liquid which can

be generated by the system

Coating

Pigs may be used to apply internal pipe coatings such as epoxy coating

materials in operating pipelines Pigs may also be used with corrosion inhibitors

to distribute and coat the entire internal wetted perimeter

Inspection

Pigs are being used more frequently as inspection tools Gauging or sizing pigs

are typically run following the completion of new construction or line repair to

determine if there are any internal obstacles bends or buckles in the pipe Pigs

can also be equipped with cameras to allow viewing of the pipe internals

Electronic intelligent or smart ldquopigsrdquo that use magnetic and ultrasonic systems

have been developed and refined that locate and measure internal and external

corrosion pitting dents buckles and any other anomalies in the pipe wall

Intelligent pigs

The accuracy of location and measurement of anomalies by the intelligent pigs

has continued to improve Initially the electronics and power systems were so

large that intelligent pigs could be used only in lines 30 in and greater in size

The continued sophistication and miniaturization of the electronic systems used

in the intelligent pigs has allowed the development of smaller pigs that can be

used in small-diameter pipelines Newly enacted DOT pipeline-integrity

regulations and rules acknowledge the effectiveness of the intelligent pigs and

incorporate their use in the pipeline-integrity testing process

Compressors

A gas compressor is a mechanical device that increases the pressure of a gas by

reducing its volume Gas pressure is increased by forcing gas molecules together

to reduce gas volume When volume is reduced gas pressure increases

All gases have large spaces among their molecules These spaces could be

enhanced further and decreased by doing some work Work done which is used

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for the enhancement of these spaces is called expansion and work done to

minimize these spaces is called compression All gases while expansion

produces cooling effect and while compression of gases raises there

temperature Compression is a term used to force gases to occupy smaller

volumes by increasing their pressure Volume of gases is interlinked with

temperature and pressure of the gas which is cleared by 2 laws govern gas

compressions

Boyles Law

Charles Law

The main types of compressor are listed below

Front End Compressor

The plant currently processes gas from a number of wells The flow and pressure

from some of these wells (currently K-10 K-11 amp K-12) has declined and they

cannot be fed directly into the Central Processing Facility To recover the

maximum gas reserves from these wells a Front End Compressor is employed

The compressor is a two stage double acting gas engine driven reciprocating

(PT) compressor Double acting means that gas is compressed on each end of

the piston It normal operates with a speed range of 600 to 900 RPM and isequipped with four compressor cylinders two for each stage Each cylinder is

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also equipped with a variable volume head end pocket

In case of compressor emergency shutdown the production chokes and the

Upper Master Valves on the on line wells will close and operator will be notified in

central control room Sweet gas from gas distribution network is used to operate the

gas engine driver of the compressor package The detailed scheme of working is

shown in figure (page 22 )

PT Reciprocating Compressor

The mechanical cycle of piston tube reciprocating compressor comprises four

strokes the expansion stroke the intake stroke the compression stroke and the

discharge stroke

Expansion Stroke

As the piston moves back on the expansion stroke the chamber volume

increases and the pressure drop As the pressure drops the discharge valve

closes since there is greater pressure in the discharge line than in the chamber

Intake Stroke

As the piston moves back during the intake stroke the pressure decreases until it

is less than the pressure in the inlet line This higher intake pressure opens the

inlet valve and gas rushes into the cylinder equalizing the pressure there with

the intake pressure The compression chamber is now at or near the intake

pressure

Compression Stroke

The piston now starts the compression stroke by moving forward decreasing the

chamber volume and increasing the pressure The increased pressure is now

higher than the intake pressure causing the intake valve to close

Discharge Stroke

The piston continues to move to the left during the discharge stroke This creates

an increase in chamber pressure until it is greater than the discharge pressure

When this happens the Discharge valve opens and the compressed air from the

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cylinder goes into the discharge line The compression cycle is then repeated

from the stage

Compressor Capacity

The capacity of the compressor depends upon cylinder displacement That

displacement is simply the volume that the piston displaces (moves) as it travels

from one end of the cylinder to the other Capacity and displacement is equal to

the cross-sectional area of the cylinder times the length of the stroke

Lubrication and Cooling

Lubricating oil is circulated through the system by a gear pump which is chain

driven from the engine crank shaft The oil pump is mounted on the engine front

housing

The pump operates between 30 - 40 psig

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A circulating pump deliver cooling water to the water jackets in the cylinder block

flowing around the cylinder liners and is directed into the cylinder heads Each

cylinder head has water cooled exhaust elbows which outlet the water into the

water cooled exhausts From the end of engine the water flows to compressor

1st and 2nd stage cylinders and compressor lube oil cooler (LOwater heat

exchanger) The water from the compressor cylinder and lube oil cooler returns

to engine water cooled exhaust

Figure Flow diagram of Front End Compressor

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Centrifugal Compressor

Centrifugal compressors are machines in which velocity and pressure given to air

or gas in a radial direction by one or more impellers diffuser combination In a

centrifugal compressor the mechanical energy is increased by centrifugal action

The gas enters the suction eye of a high speed rotary element called the impeller

which carries radial vanes integrally cast in it As the impeller rotates the blades

of the impeller force the gas outward from the center the impeller to the outer rim

of impeller the increase in velocity of the gas creates a flow pressure area at the

eye of the impeller The gas at the outer rim of the impeller is forced in to a

passage way called a diffuser where the velocity decreases in the pressure of the

gas

Inlet

The inlet to a centrifugal compressor is typically a simple pipe It may include

features such as a valve and both pressure and temperature instrumentation

Centrifugal impeller

The key component that makes a compressor centrifugal is the centrifugal

impeller shown above It is the impellers rotating set of vanes (or blades) that

gradually raises the energy of the working gas This is identical to an axial

compressor with the exception that the gases can reach higher velocities and

energy levels through the impellers increasing radius

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Diffuser

The next key component to the simple centrifugal compressor is the diffuser

Downstream of the impeller in the flow path it is the diffusers responsibility to

convert the kinetic energy (high velocity) of the gas into pressure by gradually

slowing (diffusing) the gas velocity

SEPERATORS

A well-stream is a mixture of gases hydrocarbon liquids water solids and

contaminants Due to variations in pressure and temperature gases evolve from

the liquids water vapor condenses and some of the well-stream changes to liquid

and free gas The separation of well-stream fluids takes place in a separator This

pressure vessel is manufactured in three forms

1 horizontal

2 vertical

3 spherical

To help separation the vessel is normally designed with a series of internal

fittings These fittings are built into the separator to ensure total phase separation

of the well-stream

In gas plants separators are given alternative names due to the function they

perform in the process system A scrubber does a similar job to a knockout drum

However the scrubber usually separates a stream containing high gas-to-liquid

ratios The knockout drum is used where a high degree of liquids are entrained in

the gas

Fluid flow from a well can include gas condensable liquid vapors water water

vapor crude oil and solids As well-stream fluids reach ground level where

pressure is lower than in the reservoir the capacity of the liquid to hold gas in

solution decreases and gas separates out of the oil

Separation depends upon the effect of gravity to separate liquids For adequate

separation one fluid must be lighter than the other fluid For example distillates

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(gasoline kerosene etc) and crude oil will not separate in a vessel because they

tend to dissolve in each other Because a separator basically depends upon

gravity to separate the fluids the ease with which separation takes place

depends upon the difference in density of the fluids

Droplets of liquid will separate from gas provided

a) The gas remains in the separator long enough

b) The gas flow remains constant to provoke separation

The difference in density between a gas and liquid will therefore determine the

maximum flow rate of liquid in the vessel

Figure Two phase horizontal separator

Gas bubbles in the liquid will break out in some oil field applications in 30 to 60

seconds Consequently the separator is designed so that the liquid remains in

the vessel for 30 to 60 seconds The length of time that a liquid remains in the

vessel is called its residence time Residence time differs widely from field to field

depending upon viscosity and API Gravity

Another important factor which must be considered is temperature Generally a

decrease in operating temperature will increase the liquid recovery in a separator

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as the gas condenses By reducing the pressure on the fluid flash separation

occurs resulting in a flow through the separator which is controlled by external

instrumentation

COALESCENCE

Another important principle in fluid separation is that of coalescence This means

the coming together of liquid droplets created by the force of gravity

A common example of coalescing occurs when drops of water form on the

windshield of a car as it is driven in fog As the tiny drops or water which make up

the fog strike the windshield they combine and eventually form a drop large

enough to run down the glass

Several of the internal devices of a separator such as deflector plates

straightening vanes and even the vessel walls are forms of coalescers In each

vessel drops of liquid adhere to the surface of the device and combine with other

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drops until the drop is large enough to fall out The effectiveness of separation

will also depend upon the total amount of coalescing surface area that is present

There are many different types of separators used in the Oil amp Gas industry

Consequently separators are manufactured with one two or several internal

fittings depending on their use and quick removal of these fluids from the vessel

DEFLECTOR PLATES

These are fitted in front of the inlet to the separator and can be net or

dish-shaped Their purpose is to absorb the impact of the incoming fluids and to

encourage the separation of gas and liquids They also slow the flow rate of the

liquids through the vessel

WEIRS

A weir is a metal wall which is fitted across the inside of the vessel normally to a

height of 50 of the overall height of the separator Its purpose is to assist the

process of three phase separation The inlet fluids (oil plus water) are given time

to separate in the liquid accumulation section The water level (interface) is

normally controlled at 50 of the height of the weir Oil floating on the wateroverflows the weir and accumulates in the small oil compartment where it is

drawn off under level control

CENTRIFUGAL DEVICES

These are used in both vertical and horizontal separators for gas-liquid

separation The device imparts a swirling motion to the fluids entering the vessel

Centrifugal force causes the heavier liquids to travel outwards towards the walls

of the vessel and the lighter gases to flow up the centre Centrifugal devices are

also known as cyclones

VORTEX BREAKERS

When liquid flows through a drain outlet a vortex (whirlpool) will form This can

be seen when we pull the plug from a sink or bath tub The same would happen

as water and oil flow from the separator This condition a vortex could allow gas

to flow down the centre of the whirlpool and enter the liquid phase causing

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pressurizing of tanks etc To stop this happening vortex breakers are fitted to all

liquid outlets Although they come in a number of different designs vortex

breakers all serve the same purpose - to prevent a whirlpool from forming

MIST OR DEMISTER PADS

The gas which is released from the fluids in the separator still contains droplets of

oil and water which coalesce and fall when the drops get large enough The

demister pad assists in this process Made from knitted wire and contained within

a sturdy frame it causes the gas to continually change its direction of flow

Because gas changes direction far easier than liquid the gas will flow around

each strand of wire whilst the liquid entrained in the gas stream will continue and

stick to the wire

COALESCING PLATES

There are several different forms of coalescing devices the most common of

which are coalescing plates These plates are mounted in the flow stream of the

fluids and assist in breaking down oil-water emulsions The fluid is forced to

follow a path that constantly changes direction This causes the water droplets to

gather together or coalesce and fall to the bottom of the separator The same

principle is used to separate gas and oil mixtures when the oil droplets are

induced to coalesce Simply stated every surface within the separator including

the separator walls assists with the coalescing process

STRAIGHTENlNG VANES

These are often fitted to horizontal separators to remove turbulence in the gas

stream after initial separation at the inlet deflector

FLOAT SHEILD

Internal floats are used as level controllers Any agitation of the liquid surface or

the effect of coalesced liquids falling on the float may cause control problems

Therefore a float shield is fitted to enclose the float creating an area of still liquid

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MEMBRANES

The gas contains 12 carbon dioxide and 22 ppm of hydrogen sulphide at 115oF

and 1100 psig This needs to be removed before the gas can be exported The

majority of carbon dioxide hydrogen sulphide and water is removed by means of

membranes

Membranes are thin semipermeable barriers that selectively separate some

compounds from others Currently the only commercially workable membranes

used for CO2 removal are polymer based for example cellulose acetate

polyimides polyamides polysulfone polycarbonates and polyetherimide The

membrane does not operate as a filter where small molecules are separated

from larger ones through a medium with pores rather it separates based on how

well different compounds dissolve into the membrane and diffuse through it The

membranes are manufactured in flat sheets consisting of an extremely thin

nonporous layer mounted on a much-thicker and highly porous layer of the same

material providing mechanical strength The flat sheets are combined into a

spiral-wound element (Figure below) Feed gas enters along the side of the

membrane and passes through the feed spacers As the gas travels between

membrane sheets CO2 H2S and H2O permeate through the membrane and are

collected in the permeate tube The driving force for transport is the high-feed

pressure and low-permeate pressures The gas on the feed side that does not

permeate leaves through the side of the element opposite the feed position Once

the membranes have been manufactured into elements six to 12 elements are

joined together and inserted into a tube Multiple tubes are mounted on skids in a

horizontal orientation

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Figure Membrane general Working

In high H2S applications most polymers have been shown to have very little

resistance to H2S plasticization (ldquosofteningrdquo of the membrane) and as a

consequence can only be used at very low H2S partial pressure limits Cellulose

acetate membranes in contrast have been shown to be applicable at extreme

H2S partial pressure conditions It is these membranes that have been utilized in

the testing to determine the limits of membrane performance in high H 2S

applications

The primary membranes used in Kadanwari facility are Cellulose acetate

Cellulose acetic acid and acetic anhydride are mixed together and reacted to

form cellulose acetate polymers This process is aided by the addition of a small

amount of sulfuric acid which is subsequently neutralized during processing

However the membranes are bought from UOP (vendor) and installed for use

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How membrane work

The basic principle of separation is selectivity of certain components of a mixture

for the membrane For example the cellulose acetate membrane has very high

selectivity for CO2 and H2S as compared to CH4 Therefore such type of

membrane can be used in gas sweetening process

The selectivity is directly related to the Permeability of gas which accounts that

which gas can pass across the membrane more easily In simple words

membranes being polymer materials are made of long chains of molecules The

different structure of polymer materials only allow selective molecules to pass

through them depending upon chemical and physical compatibility Thus

permeability depends upon choice of polymer

The permeability is determined by permeability coefficient (P) and is product of

solubility (S) and diffusivity (D)

P = S D

Solubility

The solubility is mainly determined by ease of condensation Heavy molecules

are more readily condensed Therefore higher molecular weighted molecules will

more easily condensed and therefore have greater solubility

Molecule Molecular weight

CH4 16

H2S 34

CO2 44

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Diffusivity

Diffusivity is ease of molecule to penetrate into some material It depends on size

of gas molecule Here size of molecule is not to be confused by molecular weight

it is the size of the structure Eg the size of O2 molecule is smaller than N2

Molecule Molecular Diameter (Ao)

CO2 33

H2S 36

Ch4 40

For cellulose acetate

DCO2DCH4 S CO2S CH4 P CO2P CH4

45 73 308

Chemical degradation

Cellulose acetate polymer is chemically degraded by a process called hydrolysis

which means breaking apart by the addition of water This is a chemical reaction

in which water is added to the cellulose acetate polymer causing the release of

acetic acid molecules This process proceeds stepwise until all the acetate

groups are released resulting in the reformation of cellulose Moreover alcohols

aromatic hydrocarbons or solvents with chlorine nitro benzene or similar

aromatic solvents will harm the membrane It will expand and lose plastification in

contact with them

Effect of Temperature

The permeation rates of all gases increases with increasing temperature

however membrane selectivity for CO2 over hydrocarbon decreases at higher

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temperature Consequently CO2 removal will improve as operating temperature

increases but hydro carbon recovery will decrease

Primary Membrane

The primary membranes comprise of two trains Each train consists of two

sections AB and CD each section consists of a 30 tube membrane skid (A and

C) followed by a 25 tube skid (B and D) The conditioned gas (after pre-

treatment) enters the primary membrane via the particulate filter adjacent to the

skid The gas is fed to the membranes through a common inlet manifold which

supplies primary membranes skids A and C A pressure control loop located

upstream of the manual inlet isolation valve is provided to maintain a constant

supply pressure to the membrane skid and to allow for preheating at the inlet

prior to skid start-up This pressure control loop can also be used during start-up

to control the pressurization of the pretreatment skid and associated pipes to the

primary membranes

The gas passes through membrane skid A the residual gas exiting the membrane

skid is sent to skid B and the permeate to common permeate discharge header An

identical arrangement is provide on the inlet to skid C as provided on skid A Theresidual gas from skid B combines with the residual gas from skid D in a common

discharge header and is then sent to the H2S polishing towers via the feed coolers

on the pre-treatment skid The permeate from skid B is sent to the common

permeate discharge header The permeate discharge header sends the gas to

either the recycle compressor or the vent header via a pressure control loop

Overpressure protection for the membranes is provided by a pressure safety valve

on the supply header to the membrane banks

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Secondary (Recycle) Membrane

The recycle membranes comprise of a single train with two skids each with four

banks of membrane tubes The conditioned gas from the discharge of the recycle

pre-treatment skid is routed to the first recycle membrane skid The gas passes

through the membranes the residual gas is fed to primary membrane (skid A) inlet

via feed gas cooler and permeate to the common permeate discharge header An

identical arrangement is provide on the inlet to skid B Permeate from the recycle

membrane skids A and B is routed to the vent header Some portion of permeate is

heated and sent for regeneration in Mem-Guard units Nitrogen purge can be

connected downstream of the inlet isolation valve on each skid to enable the

membrane tubes to be purged and left pressurized during prolonged shutdown

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Figure Flow Diagram of Recycle membrane unit

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ADVANTAGES OF MEMBRANE SYSTEMS

Membrane systems have major advantages over more-traditional methods of

acid gas removal

Lower capital cost Membrane systems are skid mounted and so the

scope cost and time taken for site preparation are minimal Installation

costs are significantly lower than alternative technologies especially for

remote areas Furthermore no additional facilities for solvent storage and

water treatment needed by other processes are required

Lower operating costs The only major operating cost for single-stage

membrane systems is membrane replacement This cost is significantly

lower than the solvent replacement and energy costs associated with

traditional technologies The improvements in membrane and

pretreatment design allow a longer useful membrane life which further

reduces operating costs The energy costs of multistage systems with

large recycle compressors are usually comparable to those for traditionaltechnologies

Deferred capital investment Often contracted sales-gas flow rates

increase over time as more wells are brought on-line With traditional

technologies the system design needs to take this later production into

account immediately and so the majority of the equipment is installed

before it is even needed The modular nature of membrane systems

means that only the membranes that are needed at start-up need be

installed The rest can be added either into existing tubes or in new skids

only when they are required

Operational simplicity and high reliability Because single-stage

membrane systems have no moving parts they have almost no

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unscheduled downtime and are extremely simple to operate They can

operate unattended for long periods of time The addition of a recycle

compressor adds some complexity to the system but still much less than

with a solvent- or adsorbent-based technology Multistage systems can be

operated at full capacity as single-stage systems when the recycle

compressor is down

Good weight and space efficiency Skid construction can be optimized

to the space available This space efficiency is especially important for

offshore environments where deck area is at a premium and is the

reason why so many new offshore developments have chosen to use

membranes for acid gas removal Figure 6 illustrates the space efficiency

of membrane systems The membrane unit in the lower left corner

replaced all the amine and glycol plant equipment shown in the rest of the

picture

Adaptability Because membrane area is dictated by the percentage of

acid gas removal rather than absolute acid gas removal small variations

in feed acid gas content hardly change the sales-gas acid gas

specification For example a system designed for 10 down to 3 acid

gas removal produces a 35 product from a 12 feed gas and a 5

product from a 15 feed gas

Design efficiency The membrane and pretreatment systems integrate a

number of operations such as dehydration CO2 and H2S removal dew-

point control and mercury removal Traditional acid gas removal

technologies require all of these operations as separate processes and

may also require additional dehydration because some technologies

saturate the product stream with water

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Power generation The permeate gas from membrane systems can be

used to provide fuel gas for power generation either for a recycle

compressor or other equipment

Ideal for debottlenecking Because expanding solvent- or adsorbent-

based acid gas removal plants without adding additional trains is difficult

an ideal solution is to use membranes for bulk acid gas removal and leave

the existing plant for final cleanup An additional advantage is that the

permeate gas from the membrane system can often be used as fuel for

the existing plant thus avoiding significant increase in hydrocarbon

losses

Environmentally friendly Membrane systems do not involve the

periodic removal and handling of spent solvents or adsorbents Permeate

gases can be flared used as fuel or re-injected into the well Items thatdo need disposal such as spent membrane elements can be incinerated

Ideal for remote locations Many of the factors mentioned above make

membrane systems a highly desirable technology for remote locations

where spare parts are rare and labor unskilled Furthermore solvents

storage and trucking water supply power generation or extensive

infrastructure are not required

Re-injection optimizations Since the permeate stream from the

membrane system can be operated at elevated pressures it is possible to

further pressurize by re-injection compression train

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Sorption

Sorption is a physical and chemical process by which one substance becomes

attached to another

It is of two main types

1 Absorption

2 Adsorption

Absorption

Absorption is a physical or chemical phenomenon or process in which atoms

molecules or ions enter some bulk phase ndash gas liquid or solid material This is a

different process from adsorption since molecules undergoing absorption are

taken up by the volume not by the surface (as in the case for adsorption)

Absorption process may be chemical (reactive) or physical (non-reactive)

Physical absorption

Physical absorption or non-reactive absorption is made between two phases ofmatter a liquid absorbs a gas or a solid absorbs a liquid

When a liquid solvent absorbs a gas mixture or part of it a mass of gas moves

into the liquid For example water may absorb oxygen from the air This mass

transfer takes place at the interface between the liquid and the gas at a rate

depending on both the gas and the liquid This type of absorption depends on the

solubility of gases the pressure and the temperature The rate and amount of

absorption also depend on the surface area of the interface and its duration in

time

When a solid absorbs a liquid mixture or part of it a mass of liquid moves into the

solid For example a clay pot used to store water may absorb some of the water

This mass transfer takes place at the interface between the solid and the liquid

at a rate depending on both the solid and the liquid

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Chemical absorption

Chemical absorption or reactive absorption is a chemical reaction between the

absorbed and the absorbing substances Sometimes it combines with physical

absorption This type of absorption depends upon the stoichiometry of the

reaction and the concentration of its reactants

Adsorption

Adsorption is the adhesion of atoms ions or molecules from a gas liquid or

dissolved solid to a surface This process creates a film of the adsorbate on the

surface of the adsorbent The binding to the surface is usually weak and

reversible Compounds with color and those that have taste or odor tend to bind

strongly Compounds that vibrate at frequencies in the visible spectrum are very

often are strongly adsorbed on activated carbon

The most common industrial adsorbents are activated carbon silica gel and

alumina because they present enormous surface areas per unit weight

Depending on the nature of attractive forces existing between the adsorbate and

adsorbent adsorption can be classified as

i) Physical adsorption

ii) Chemical adsorption

i) Physical adsorption (Physisorption)

In physical adsorption the forces of attraction between the molecules of the

adsorbate and the adsorbent are of the weak van der Waals type Since the

forces of attraction are weak the process of physisorption can be easily reversed

by heating or decreasing the pressure of the adsorbate (as in the case of gases)

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ii) Chemical adsorption (Chemisorption)

In chemisorption the forces of attraction between the adsorbate and the

adsorbent are very strong the molecules of adsorbate form chemical bonds with

the molecules of the adsorbent present in the surface

Adsorption is generally accompanied by release of energy that is most

adsorption processes are exothermic in nature Adsorption is a spontaneous

process therefore its free energy change is negative (∆Glt0) However the

entropy change associated with adsorption is generally negative because the

adsorbate molecules lose their translation freedom when they get attached to the

surface of the adsorbent Therefore in order for ∆G to be negative the enthalpy

change (∆H) must be sufficiently negative such that (∆G=∆H-T∆S) lt 0 This

explanation accounts for exothermic adsorption processes In cases where

endothermic adsorption occurs the entropy change ∆S is sufficiently positive

such that ∆G remains negative

Pre treatment

The main function of pretreatment skid is to provide membrane inlet specification

gas as mentioned by the vendor UOP It removes the contaminants that would

poison the membranes like dust solids (adsorbent particles) lube oil heavy

hydrocarbons etc It consists of

Feed Cooler

Feed Gas Scrubber

Filter Coalescer

Feed Gas Heater

Activated Carbon Guard Filter

Particle Filter

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The regeneration is carried out by heated permeate gas from the recycle

membranes at 450oF The vessel is depressurized to 20 psi and heated gas is

introduced from top The gas carries out the adsorbed contaminants and leaves

the vessel from bottom cleaning the adsorbent This contaminated gas is burnt in

the flare

UOP the vendor of Memguard unit has never disclosed that what substance

MG3 and MG5 exactly are But as mentioned by vendor that both care class of

aluminosilicates Therefore MG3 can be potassium aluminosilicate and MG5 can

be Calcium aluminosilicate These are molecular sieves adsorbents Molecular

sieves are a microporous material which can selectively adsorb gases andliquids They are synthetic zeolites (crystalline metal aluminosilicates) which

upon dehydration can efficiently and selectively remove water or other

solvents The selectivity of a molecular sieve is determined by its pore size

molecules with a critical diameter which is less than the pore size will be

efficiently adsorbed while larger molecules will be excluded

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3A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

The 3A molecular sieve adsorbent has a 3 angstrom (3A) pore size which means

that any molecule that is larger than the 3 angstrom pores will not be adsorbed

The 3A molecular sieve is the potassium type of A crystalline structure and is a

form of alkali Aluminosilicate For a 3A molecular sieve the sequence rate that

adsorption occurs is He Ne N and H2O

Due to the crystalline structure molecular sieves that have a 3 angstrom pore

size have a very high rate of adsorption and properties that promote a longer life

for products treated by the sieve The most common use for the 3A molecular

sieve is to remove water and moisture from materials that are in gas and liquid

form

5A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

These are molecular sieve adsorbents with a pore size of 5 angstrom (5A) 5A

molecular sieves are unable to adsorb any molecules or impurities that are

smaller than 5A It is calcium form of type A crystalline structure and is form of analkali-aluminosilicate that is most commonly used to separate isomerous alkanes

from normal alkanes and to co-adsorb moisture and water along with carbon

dioxide from gases In additional 5A molecular sieves are used for gaseous

pressure swing adsorption (PSA)mdashthat is to separate particular gases from other

gases

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of C3H8 to C22H46

Adsorption of Freon-12 (dichlorodifluoromethane)

Natural gas drying

Normal- and iso-paraffin separation

Separation of aromatic

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Inlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1096

MEHTANE 8593

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008

N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGEN 076

WATER 007

Outlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1098

MEHTANE 8608

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGENT 076

WATER 000

H2S polisher

The H2S polishing unit has been designed to treat 187 MMscfday of natural gas

containing up to 11 CO2 and 21 ppm H2S where the level of the CO2 and H2S

is reduced using a MemGuard Membrane separation unit The unit is situated

down-stream of the membrane unit and will further reduce the level of H2S in the

processed gas to a sales gas specification of 38 ppm

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This process uses three non-regenerable fixed bed absorber vessels using a low

temperature high activity absorbent The absorbent is a mixture of activated

metal oxides (mainly zinc oxide) The three towers can are generally operated in

parallel arrangement but on demand can be used in series (any of alternate

arrangements of A B C vessels) as shown in figure

The higher sales gas flow rate increased the catalyst consumption and

replacement frequency

ZnO + H2S =gt ZnS + H20

Routine samples are taken from the beds to provide a check on each bed

performance and to follow the saturation profile during the absorbent life After

the adsorbent has been fully utilized the adsorption vessels are recharged with

new adsorbent discarding the utilized one in a safe manner

109oF

1215 psig

Before H2S Polishing After H2S Polishing

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Figure

H2S Tower

Inlet pipe

4 Drums of 19mm

ceramic Balls

6 Micron mesh

5 Drums of 50mmceramic

1 Drums of19mm ceramic

01 Drums of6mm ceramic

112 drums of

Catalist ZnO

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Recycle Compressor

The permeate gas of the primary membrane unit carries recoverable amount of

CH4 It is fed to recycle membrane unit for further CH 4 recovery But the

permeate pressure from primary membranes which has been reduced to 12 psi

must be regenerated to 1200 psi for the gas to be fed again to the system For

this purpose we have employed recycle compressor The compressor is a four

stage centrifugal compressor It is driven by gas turbine of 31200 HP It has 25

MW producing capacity

Figure Recycle Compressor Process Flow Diagram

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Sales Gas Compressor

Gas from H2S polishing unit is sent to sales gas compressor where its pressure

is enhanced to 1100 psi so it may be injected to SNGPL high pressure trunk line

Sales gas compressor is single stage gas turbine driven

Figure Process Flow of Sales Gas Compressor

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Cooling Towers

A cooling tower is a heat rejection device which extracts waste heat to theatmosphere through the cooling of a water stream to a lower temperature Hot

water from the system enters the cooling tower and is distributed over the fill

(heat transfer surface) Air is induced or forced through the fill causing a small

portion of the water to evaporate This evaporation removes heat from the

remaining water which is collected in the cold water basin and returned to the

system to absorb more heat Each cooling tower line although operating under

the same basic principle of operation is arranged a little differently

Types

Natural draft mdash Utilizes buoyancy via a tall chimney Warm moist air naturally

rises due to the density differential compared to the dry cooler outside air Warm

moist air is less dense than drier air at the same pressure This moist air

buoyancy produces an upwards current of air through the tower

Mechanical draft mdash Uses power-driven fan motors to force or draw airthrough the tower

o Induced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a fan at the

discharge (at the top) which pulls air up through the tower The fan

induces hot moist air out the discharge This produces low entering

and high exiting air velocities reducing the possibility of

recirculation in which discharged air flows back into the air intake

o Forced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a blower type fan at

the intake The fan forces air into the tower creating high entering

and low exiting air velocities The low exiting velocity is much more

susceptible to recirculation This fanfill geometry is also known as

blow-through

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Forced Draft Cooling Tower Vs Induced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower have the ability to handle large water flow

rate than Forced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower is suitable for large cell sizes and fan sizes

as compared with Forced Draft Larger fan size may result in greater

efficiency and consequently lower power and sound level

Forced Draft Cooling Tower can be square or rectangular type only

however Induced Draft Cooling Towers can be round square or

rectangular type

Induced Draft Cooling Tower uses more compact ground area than Forced

Draft Cooling Tower equivalent capacity due to absence of fan on one

side

Fan equipment is warm exhaust air is less liable to icing up in winter

operation (Cold Countries)

Higher velocity in Forced Draft Cooling Tower cause drop in suspension

and cause additional static resistance to system

Configuration

There are two main configurations of factory assembled cooling towers crossflow

and counterflow In crossflow cooling towers the water flows vertically down the

fill as air flows horizontally across In counterflow cooling towers the water flows

vertically down the fill as air flows vertically up

Crossflow Configuration Counterflow Configuration

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Drift mdash Water droplets that are carried out of the cooling tower with the exhaust

air Drift droplets have the same concentration of impurities as the water entering

the tower The drift rate is typically reduced by employing baffle-like devices

called drift eliminators through which the air must travel after leaving the fill and

spray zones of the tower

Blow-out mdash Water droplets blown out of the cooling tower by wind generally at

the air inlet openings Water may also be lost in the absence of wind through

splashing or misting Devices such as wind screens louvers splash deflectors

and water diverters are used to limit these losses

Blow-down mdash The portion of the circulating water flow that is removed (usually

discharged to a drain) in order to maintain the amount of Total Dissolved Solids

(TDS) and other impurities at an acceptably low level Higher TDS concentration

in solution may result from greater cooling tower efficiency However the higher

the TDS concentration the greater the risk of scale biological growth and

corrosion

Make-up mdash The water that must be added to the circulating water system in

order to compensate for water losses such as evaporation drift loss blow-out

blow-down etc

Approach mdash The approach is the difference in temperature between the cooled-

water temperature and the entering-air wet bulb temperature

Range mdash The range is the temperature difference between the warm water inlet

and cooled water exit

Fill mdash Inside the tower fills are added to increase contact surface as well as

contact time between air and water to provide better heat transfer The efficiency

of the tower depends on the selection and amount of fill

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There are two types of fills that may be used

o Film type fill (causes water to spread into a thin film)

o Splash type fill (breaks up falling stream of water and interrupts its

vertical progress)

Important

Scale build up is controlled by adding chemicals to the cooling loop and diluting

the concentration by blow down and make-up Following chemicals are added to

the Cooling to control CorrosionSale and microbial growth

Corrosion Inhibitor To control corrosion in the Cooling system

Dispersant To kept ions in suspension to avoid settle down and buildup

Sodium hypo Chlorite To Control microbial Growth

Acid To control Alkalinity in the system

High Stress Polymer To run the system at higher conductivity It is a

multifunctional polymer for Zinc amp Phosphate stabilization in cooling tower

Fin Fan Cooler

Fin fan heat exchanger is simply a pressure vessel which cools a circulating fluid

within finned tubes by forcing ambient air over the exterior of the tubes A

common example of an air cooler is a carrsquos radiator Fin Fan Coolers are used in

any application where large quantities of heat need to be transferred This

includes chemical and petrochemical industries power stations waste-to-energy

facilities as well as steelworks

Fin Fan Cooler are used for two primary reasons

They increase plant efficiency

They are a green solution as compared to cooling towers and shell and

tube heat exchangers because they do not require an auxiliary water

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supply (water lost due to drift and evaporation plus no water treatment

chemicals are required)

Figure General Overview of Fin Fan Cooler

Produced Water

The produced water system receives liquid from the equipment Miano slug

catcher train 1 and 2 inlet separators and is fed to three phase separator where

water oil and gas is separated The gases produced are burnt in incinerator

whereas hydrocarbon liquid is stored to be sold Liquid from compressors

recycle inlet separator recycle feed scrubber high and low pressure slug

catchers is passed to degasser Separated water is injected down the earth

Incinerator

The term incinerate means to burn something until nothing is left but ashes An

incinerator is a unit or facility used to burn trash and other types of waste until it is

reduced to ash An incinerator is constructed of heavy well-insulated materials

so that it does not give off extreme amounts of external heat The high levels of

heat are kept inside the furnace or unit so that the waste is burned quickly and

efficiently If the heat were allowed to escape the waste would not burn as

completely or as rapidly

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Control System

The plant is controlled at CCR (Central Control Room) by PLCs (Programmable

Logic Controllers) through fiber optic control line All control parameters are

received at LER (Local Equipment Room) via two optic fiber control lines One

being primary and other secondary operating in redundancy ie if primary fails

control shifts to secondary These control parameters are sent to CCR via single

optic fiber cable

Safety System

Wellheads and Gas Processing Plant have their own Fire amp Gas detection

systems emergency shutdown (ESD) Plant has a fault tolerant controller It is

based on Triple Modular Redundant (TMR) architecture manufactured by

Triconex The TMR system is based on three isolated parallel control systems

integrated into one system The system operates on a two out of three voting

principle which provides high integrity error free uninterrupted operation with no

single point of failure The TMR receives inputs from Process Sensors Manual

Switches Fire amp Gas Detectors Packaged Equipment Control Systems and

Product Exporting Facilities The TMR carries out cause and effect processing on

the data received and where necessary produces output signals Outputs from

the TMR are hard wired directly to ESD shutdown and blow down valve

solenoids motor control instrumentelectrical interfaces to control electrical

drives package equipment logic control systems manifold area as well as

telecoms

The operator in central control room is able to accept alarms and once the fault

has been cleared reset the input All the control systems are centralized to a

single interface All the PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers) communicate with

the servers and servers communicate with the clients through Ethernet connectivity

Centralization eases the navigation of different systems at a common interface

Emergency Shutdown

The ESD system receives inputs from field mounted instrumentation on the process

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and utility equipment and initiates executive actions appropriate to the level of ESD

The system is an Active system which is in standby and will activate when in an

alarm or fault condition The Kadanwari Gas Process Facility ESD system is

comprised of five (5) levels The emergency severity decreases with increasing ESD

level number

ESD 1

This shutdown level is automatically initiated by fire major gas leak or a detected

toxic atmosphere in the process area of the plant or manually from CCR A level 1

shutdown will cause all production to cease close all emergency shutdown

valves stop the process and shutdown of the main power generation The

emergency vent valves to the stack will open and in addition all equipment of zone 1

certified will be isolated This is the highest level of ESD and will cause the following

to occur

All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close All slowdown Valves (BDVs) on the process facility will open

All Main Gas Driven Generators will be tripped

Emergency Diesel Generator will start

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close Upper Master Valve

(UMV) Close

ESD 2

This shutdown level is activated automatically if a major process or utility failure

occurs or manually from CCR All production to the plant from the wellhead is

stopped All emergency shutdown valves trip to their fail safe position

Venting shall be as specified This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

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All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valve Close Wing Valves Close and Upper Master Valve(UMV) Close

ESD 3

The level 3 shutdown isolates and stops a single process train only Production

continues via the other train This ESD level is initiated by process conditions or

operator at local panel This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

ESD 3A Train 1 production to cease

ESD 3B Train 2 production to cease

All online wellhead choke valves go to minimum flow ie (1O )

ESD 4

A level 4 shutdown shall cease all production from an entire field either

Kadanwari or Miano upstream of the associated slug catchers ESD 4K for

Kadanwari amp ESD 4M for Miano This ESD level is initiated automatically by slug

catcher abnormal process conditions This level of ESD will cause the following

to occur

All SDVs close isolating the relevant slug catcher and its upstream gas

production facility from the Kadanwari Gas Processing Plant

All Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close and Upper MasterValves (UMV) of the relevant gas production facility Close

A parallel timer is provided to close within 10 second if not closed in given

time SSSV seals the well

ESD 5

A level 5 shutdown represents equipment shutdown for the protection of the

individual equipment without any change in the process This level of ESD is for the

protection of various pieces of equipment and is initiated by its own inputs eg

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Therefore conning has an important influence on operations recovery and

economics The phenomena is shown in picture below

Corrosion

Corrosion is referred as chemical deterioration of a metal Commonly this

means loss of electrons of metals reacting with water and oxygen

Weakening of iron due to oxidation of the iron atoms is a well-known

example of electrochemical corrosion This is commonly known as

rust Most structural alloys corrode merely from exposure to moisture

in the air but the process can be strongly affected by exposure to

certain substances Corrosion can be concentrated locally to form a pit

or crack or it can extend across a wide area to produce general

deterioration (uniform corrosion)

The following reaction takes place at the active sites

2Fe =gt 2Fe++ + 4e-

The free electrons travel through the metal path to the less active sites where

the following reaction takes place

O2 + 4e- + 2H20 =gt 4 OH-

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Recombination of these ions at the active surface produce the following

reaction which yields the iron-corrosion product ferrous hydroxide

2Fe + O2 + 2H2O =gt 2Fe (OH) 2

CORROSION PROTECTION SYSTEM

Coatings and painting

Painting and the application of enamel bitumen and PVC

coating are the most common anti-corrosion treatments They

work by providing a barrier of corrosion-resistant material

between the damaging environment and the structural material

Corrosion Inhibitors

Corrosion inhibitor is injected into the flow lines as mentioned in

detail on page 8

Cathodic Protection

Cathodic Protection (CP) is a technique used to control the corrosion of a

metal surface by making it the cathode of an electrochemical cell It

converts all of the anodic (active) sites on the metal surface to cathodic

(passive) sites by supplying electrical current (or free electrons) from an

alternate source It is accomplished in two ways

a) A simple method of protection connects protected metal to a more easily

corroded sacrificial metal to act as the anode The sacrificial metal then

corrodes instead of the protected metal The process is similar to a simple

DC cell in which the more active metal becomes the anode and corrodes

whereas the less active metal becomes the cathode and is protected

b) For larger structures galvanic anodes cannot economically deliver enough

current to provide protection Therefore impressed current cathodic

protection (ICCP) systems are used These consist of anodes connected

to a DC power source In remote areas power sources such as solar

panels may be used The output DC negative terminal is connected to the

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frequently to limit liquid holdup and minimize the slug volumes of liquid which can

be generated by the system

Coating

Pigs may be used to apply internal pipe coatings such as epoxy coating

materials in operating pipelines Pigs may also be used with corrosion inhibitors

to distribute and coat the entire internal wetted perimeter

Inspection

Pigs are being used more frequently as inspection tools Gauging or sizing pigs

are typically run following the completion of new construction or line repair to

determine if there are any internal obstacles bends or buckles in the pipe Pigs

can also be equipped with cameras to allow viewing of the pipe internals

Electronic intelligent or smart ldquopigsrdquo that use magnetic and ultrasonic systems

have been developed and refined that locate and measure internal and external

corrosion pitting dents buckles and any other anomalies in the pipe wall

Intelligent pigs

The accuracy of location and measurement of anomalies by the intelligent pigs

has continued to improve Initially the electronics and power systems were so

large that intelligent pigs could be used only in lines 30 in and greater in size

The continued sophistication and miniaturization of the electronic systems used

in the intelligent pigs has allowed the development of smaller pigs that can be

used in small-diameter pipelines Newly enacted DOT pipeline-integrity

regulations and rules acknowledge the effectiveness of the intelligent pigs and

incorporate their use in the pipeline-integrity testing process

Compressors

A gas compressor is a mechanical device that increases the pressure of a gas by

reducing its volume Gas pressure is increased by forcing gas molecules together

to reduce gas volume When volume is reduced gas pressure increases

All gases have large spaces among their molecules These spaces could be

enhanced further and decreased by doing some work Work done which is used

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for the enhancement of these spaces is called expansion and work done to

minimize these spaces is called compression All gases while expansion

produces cooling effect and while compression of gases raises there

temperature Compression is a term used to force gases to occupy smaller

volumes by increasing their pressure Volume of gases is interlinked with

temperature and pressure of the gas which is cleared by 2 laws govern gas

compressions

Boyles Law

Charles Law

The main types of compressor are listed below

Front End Compressor

The plant currently processes gas from a number of wells The flow and pressure

from some of these wells (currently K-10 K-11 amp K-12) has declined and they

cannot be fed directly into the Central Processing Facility To recover the

maximum gas reserves from these wells a Front End Compressor is employed

The compressor is a two stage double acting gas engine driven reciprocating

(PT) compressor Double acting means that gas is compressed on each end of

the piston It normal operates with a speed range of 600 to 900 RPM and isequipped with four compressor cylinders two for each stage Each cylinder is

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also equipped with a variable volume head end pocket

In case of compressor emergency shutdown the production chokes and the

Upper Master Valves on the on line wells will close and operator will be notified in

central control room Sweet gas from gas distribution network is used to operate the

gas engine driver of the compressor package The detailed scheme of working is

shown in figure (page 22 )

PT Reciprocating Compressor

The mechanical cycle of piston tube reciprocating compressor comprises four

strokes the expansion stroke the intake stroke the compression stroke and the

discharge stroke

Expansion Stroke

As the piston moves back on the expansion stroke the chamber volume

increases and the pressure drop As the pressure drops the discharge valve

closes since there is greater pressure in the discharge line than in the chamber

Intake Stroke

As the piston moves back during the intake stroke the pressure decreases until it

is less than the pressure in the inlet line This higher intake pressure opens the

inlet valve and gas rushes into the cylinder equalizing the pressure there with

the intake pressure The compression chamber is now at or near the intake

pressure

Compression Stroke

The piston now starts the compression stroke by moving forward decreasing the

chamber volume and increasing the pressure The increased pressure is now

higher than the intake pressure causing the intake valve to close

Discharge Stroke

The piston continues to move to the left during the discharge stroke This creates

an increase in chamber pressure until it is greater than the discharge pressure

When this happens the Discharge valve opens and the compressed air from the

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cylinder goes into the discharge line The compression cycle is then repeated

from the stage

Compressor Capacity

The capacity of the compressor depends upon cylinder displacement That

displacement is simply the volume that the piston displaces (moves) as it travels

from one end of the cylinder to the other Capacity and displacement is equal to

the cross-sectional area of the cylinder times the length of the stroke

Lubrication and Cooling

Lubricating oil is circulated through the system by a gear pump which is chain

driven from the engine crank shaft The oil pump is mounted on the engine front

housing

The pump operates between 30 - 40 psig

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A circulating pump deliver cooling water to the water jackets in the cylinder block

flowing around the cylinder liners and is directed into the cylinder heads Each

cylinder head has water cooled exhaust elbows which outlet the water into the

water cooled exhausts From the end of engine the water flows to compressor

1st and 2nd stage cylinders and compressor lube oil cooler (LOwater heat

exchanger) The water from the compressor cylinder and lube oil cooler returns

to engine water cooled exhaust

Figure Flow diagram of Front End Compressor

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Centrifugal Compressor

Centrifugal compressors are machines in which velocity and pressure given to air

or gas in a radial direction by one or more impellers diffuser combination In a

centrifugal compressor the mechanical energy is increased by centrifugal action

The gas enters the suction eye of a high speed rotary element called the impeller

which carries radial vanes integrally cast in it As the impeller rotates the blades

of the impeller force the gas outward from the center the impeller to the outer rim

of impeller the increase in velocity of the gas creates a flow pressure area at the

eye of the impeller The gas at the outer rim of the impeller is forced in to a

passage way called a diffuser where the velocity decreases in the pressure of the

gas

Inlet

The inlet to a centrifugal compressor is typically a simple pipe It may include

features such as a valve and both pressure and temperature instrumentation

Centrifugal impeller

The key component that makes a compressor centrifugal is the centrifugal

impeller shown above It is the impellers rotating set of vanes (or blades) that

gradually raises the energy of the working gas This is identical to an axial

compressor with the exception that the gases can reach higher velocities and

energy levels through the impellers increasing radius

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Diffuser

The next key component to the simple centrifugal compressor is the diffuser

Downstream of the impeller in the flow path it is the diffusers responsibility to

convert the kinetic energy (high velocity) of the gas into pressure by gradually

slowing (diffusing) the gas velocity

SEPERATORS

A well-stream is a mixture of gases hydrocarbon liquids water solids and

contaminants Due to variations in pressure and temperature gases evolve from

the liquids water vapor condenses and some of the well-stream changes to liquid

and free gas The separation of well-stream fluids takes place in a separator This

pressure vessel is manufactured in three forms

1 horizontal

2 vertical

3 spherical

To help separation the vessel is normally designed with a series of internal

fittings These fittings are built into the separator to ensure total phase separation

of the well-stream

In gas plants separators are given alternative names due to the function they

perform in the process system A scrubber does a similar job to a knockout drum

However the scrubber usually separates a stream containing high gas-to-liquid

ratios The knockout drum is used where a high degree of liquids are entrained in

the gas

Fluid flow from a well can include gas condensable liquid vapors water water

vapor crude oil and solids As well-stream fluids reach ground level where

pressure is lower than in the reservoir the capacity of the liquid to hold gas in

solution decreases and gas separates out of the oil

Separation depends upon the effect of gravity to separate liquids For adequate

separation one fluid must be lighter than the other fluid For example distillates

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(gasoline kerosene etc) and crude oil will not separate in a vessel because they

tend to dissolve in each other Because a separator basically depends upon

gravity to separate the fluids the ease with which separation takes place

depends upon the difference in density of the fluids

Droplets of liquid will separate from gas provided

a) The gas remains in the separator long enough

b) The gas flow remains constant to provoke separation

The difference in density between a gas and liquid will therefore determine the

maximum flow rate of liquid in the vessel

Figure Two phase horizontal separator

Gas bubbles in the liquid will break out in some oil field applications in 30 to 60

seconds Consequently the separator is designed so that the liquid remains in

the vessel for 30 to 60 seconds The length of time that a liquid remains in the

vessel is called its residence time Residence time differs widely from field to field

depending upon viscosity and API Gravity

Another important factor which must be considered is temperature Generally a

decrease in operating temperature will increase the liquid recovery in a separator

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as the gas condenses By reducing the pressure on the fluid flash separation

occurs resulting in a flow through the separator which is controlled by external

instrumentation

COALESCENCE

Another important principle in fluid separation is that of coalescence This means

the coming together of liquid droplets created by the force of gravity

A common example of coalescing occurs when drops of water form on the

windshield of a car as it is driven in fog As the tiny drops or water which make up

the fog strike the windshield they combine and eventually form a drop large

enough to run down the glass

Several of the internal devices of a separator such as deflector plates

straightening vanes and even the vessel walls are forms of coalescers In each

vessel drops of liquid adhere to the surface of the device and combine with other

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drops until the drop is large enough to fall out The effectiveness of separation

will also depend upon the total amount of coalescing surface area that is present

There are many different types of separators used in the Oil amp Gas industry

Consequently separators are manufactured with one two or several internal

fittings depending on their use and quick removal of these fluids from the vessel

DEFLECTOR PLATES

These are fitted in front of the inlet to the separator and can be net or

dish-shaped Their purpose is to absorb the impact of the incoming fluids and to

encourage the separation of gas and liquids They also slow the flow rate of the

liquids through the vessel

WEIRS

A weir is a metal wall which is fitted across the inside of the vessel normally to a

height of 50 of the overall height of the separator Its purpose is to assist the

process of three phase separation The inlet fluids (oil plus water) are given time

to separate in the liquid accumulation section The water level (interface) is

normally controlled at 50 of the height of the weir Oil floating on the wateroverflows the weir and accumulates in the small oil compartment where it is

drawn off under level control

CENTRIFUGAL DEVICES

These are used in both vertical and horizontal separators for gas-liquid

separation The device imparts a swirling motion to the fluids entering the vessel

Centrifugal force causes the heavier liquids to travel outwards towards the walls

of the vessel and the lighter gases to flow up the centre Centrifugal devices are

also known as cyclones

VORTEX BREAKERS

When liquid flows through a drain outlet a vortex (whirlpool) will form This can

be seen when we pull the plug from a sink or bath tub The same would happen

as water and oil flow from the separator This condition a vortex could allow gas

to flow down the centre of the whirlpool and enter the liquid phase causing

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pressurizing of tanks etc To stop this happening vortex breakers are fitted to all

liquid outlets Although they come in a number of different designs vortex

breakers all serve the same purpose - to prevent a whirlpool from forming

MIST OR DEMISTER PADS

The gas which is released from the fluids in the separator still contains droplets of

oil and water which coalesce and fall when the drops get large enough The

demister pad assists in this process Made from knitted wire and contained within

a sturdy frame it causes the gas to continually change its direction of flow

Because gas changes direction far easier than liquid the gas will flow around

each strand of wire whilst the liquid entrained in the gas stream will continue and

stick to the wire

COALESCING PLATES

There are several different forms of coalescing devices the most common of

which are coalescing plates These plates are mounted in the flow stream of the

fluids and assist in breaking down oil-water emulsions The fluid is forced to

follow a path that constantly changes direction This causes the water droplets to

gather together or coalesce and fall to the bottom of the separator The same

principle is used to separate gas and oil mixtures when the oil droplets are

induced to coalesce Simply stated every surface within the separator including

the separator walls assists with the coalescing process

STRAIGHTENlNG VANES

These are often fitted to horizontal separators to remove turbulence in the gas

stream after initial separation at the inlet deflector

FLOAT SHEILD

Internal floats are used as level controllers Any agitation of the liquid surface or

the effect of coalesced liquids falling on the float may cause control problems

Therefore a float shield is fitted to enclose the float creating an area of still liquid

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MEMBRANES

The gas contains 12 carbon dioxide and 22 ppm of hydrogen sulphide at 115oF

and 1100 psig This needs to be removed before the gas can be exported The

majority of carbon dioxide hydrogen sulphide and water is removed by means of

membranes

Membranes are thin semipermeable barriers that selectively separate some

compounds from others Currently the only commercially workable membranes

used for CO2 removal are polymer based for example cellulose acetate

polyimides polyamides polysulfone polycarbonates and polyetherimide The

membrane does not operate as a filter where small molecules are separated

from larger ones through a medium with pores rather it separates based on how

well different compounds dissolve into the membrane and diffuse through it The

membranes are manufactured in flat sheets consisting of an extremely thin

nonporous layer mounted on a much-thicker and highly porous layer of the same

material providing mechanical strength The flat sheets are combined into a

spiral-wound element (Figure below) Feed gas enters along the side of the

membrane and passes through the feed spacers As the gas travels between

membrane sheets CO2 H2S and H2O permeate through the membrane and are

collected in the permeate tube The driving force for transport is the high-feed

pressure and low-permeate pressures The gas on the feed side that does not

permeate leaves through the side of the element opposite the feed position Once

the membranes have been manufactured into elements six to 12 elements are

joined together and inserted into a tube Multiple tubes are mounted on skids in a

horizontal orientation

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Figure Membrane general Working

In high H2S applications most polymers have been shown to have very little

resistance to H2S plasticization (ldquosofteningrdquo of the membrane) and as a

consequence can only be used at very low H2S partial pressure limits Cellulose

acetate membranes in contrast have been shown to be applicable at extreme

H2S partial pressure conditions It is these membranes that have been utilized in

the testing to determine the limits of membrane performance in high H 2S

applications

The primary membranes used in Kadanwari facility are Cellulose acetate

Cellulose acetic acid and acetic anhydride are mixed together and reacted to

form cellulose acetate polymers This process is aided by the addition of a small

amount of sulfuric acid which is subsequently neutralized during processing

However the membranes are bought from UOP (vendor) and installed for use

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How membrane work

The basic principle of separation is selectivity of certain components of a mixture

for the membrane For example the cellulose acetate membrane has very high

selectivity for CO2 and H2S as compared to CH4 Therefore such type of

membrane can be used in gas sweetening process

The selectivity is directly related to the Permeability of gas which accounts that

which gas can pass across the membrane more easily In simple words

membranes being polymer materials are made of long chains of molecules The

different structure of polymer materials only allow selective molecules to pass

through them depending upon chemical and physical compatibility Thus

permeability depends upon choice of polymer

The permeability is determined by permeability coefficient (P) and is product of

solubility (S) and diffusivity (D)

P = S D

Solubility

The solubility is mainly determined by ease of condensation Heavy molecules

are more readily condensed Therefore higher molecular weighted molecules will

more easily condensed and therefore have greater solubility

Molecule Molecular weight

CH4 16

H2S 34

CO2 44

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Diffusivity

Diffusivity is ease of molecule to penetrate into some material It depends on size

of gas molecule Here size of molecule is not to be confused by molecular weight

it is the size of the structure Eg the size of O2 molecule is smaller than N2

Molecule Molecular Diameter (Ao)

CO2 33

H2S 36

Ch4 40

For cellulose acetate

DCO2DCH4 S CO2S CH4 P CO2P CH4

45 73 308

Chemical degradation

Cellulose acetate polymer is chemically degraded by a process called hydrolysis

which means breaking apart by the addition of water This is a chemical reaction

in which water is added to the cellulose acetate polymer causing the release of

acetic acid molecules This process proceeds stepwise until all the acetate

groups are released resulting in the reformation of cellulose Moreover alcohols

aromatic hydrocarbons or solvents with chlorine nitro benzene or similar

aromatic solvents will harm the membrane It will expand and lose plastification in

contact with them

Effect of Temperature

The permeation rates of all gases increases with increasing temperature

however membrane selectivity for CO2 over hydrocarbon decreases at higher

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temperature Consequently CO2 removal will improve as operating temperature

increases but hydro carbon recovery will decrease

Primary Membrane

The primary membranes comprise of two trains Each train consists of two

sections AB and CD each section consists of a 30 tube membrane skid (A and

C) followed by a 25 tube skid (B and D) The conditioned gas (after pre-

treatment) enters the primary membrane via the particulate filter adjacent to the

skid The gas is fed to the membranes through a common inlet manifold which

supplies primary membranes skids A and C A pressure control loop located

upstream of the manual inlet isolation valve is provided to maintain a constant

supply pressure to the membrane skid and to allow for preheating at the inlet

prior to skid start-up This pressure control loop can also be used during start-up

to control the pressurization of the pretreatment skid and associated pipes to the

primary membranes

The gas passes through membrane skid A the residual gas exiting the membrane

skid is sent to skid B and the permeate to common permeate discharge header An

identical arrangement is provide on the inlet to skid C as provided on skid A Theresidual gas from skid B combines with the residual gas from skid D in a common

discharge header and is then sent to the H2S polishing towers via the feed coolers

on the pre-treatment skid The permeate from skid B is sent to the common

permeate discharge header The permeate discharge header sends the gas to

either the recycle compressor or the vent header via a pressure control loop

Overpressure protection for the membranes is provided by a pressure safety valve

on the supply header to the membrane banks

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Secondary (Recycle) Membrane

The recycle membranes comprise of a single train with two skids each with four

banks of membrane tubes The conditioned gas from the discharge of the recycle

pre-treatment skid is routed to the first recycle membrane skid The gas passes

through the membranes the residual gas is fed to primary membrane (skid A) inlet

via feed gas cooler and permeate to the common permeate discharge header An

identical arrangement is provide on the inlet to skid B Permeate from the recycle

membrane skids A and B is routed to the vent header Some portion of permeate is

heated and sent for regeneration in Mem-Guard units Nitrogen purge can be

connected downstream of the inlet isolation valve on each skid to enable the

membrane tubes to be purged and left pressurized during prolonged shutdown

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Figure Flow Diagram of Recycle membrane unit

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ADVANTAGES OF MEMBRANE SYSTEMS

Membrane systems have major advantages over more-traditional methods of

acid gas removal

Lower capital cost Membrane systems are skid mounted and so the

scope cost and time taken for site preparation are minimal Installation

costs are significantly lower than alternative technologies especially for

remote areas Furthermore no additional facilities for solvent storage and

water treatment needed by other processes are required

Lower operating costs The only major operating cost for single-stage

membrane systems is membrane replacement This cost is significantly

lower than the solvent replacement and energy costs associated with

traditional technologies The improvements in membrane and

pretreatment design allow a longer useful membrane life which further

reduces operating costs The energy costs of multistage systems with

large recycle compressors are usually comparable to those for traditionaltechnologies

Deferred capital investment Often contracted sales-gas flow rates

increase over time as more wells are brought on-line With traditional

technologies the system design needs to take this later production into

account immediately and so the majority of the equipment is installed

before it is even needed The modular nature of membrane systems

means that only the membranes that are needed at start-up need be

installed The rest can be added either into existing tubes or in new skids

only when they are required

Operational simplicity and high reliability Because single-stage

membrane systems have no moving parts they have almost no

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unscheduled downtime and are extremely simple to operate They can

operate unattended for long periods of time The addition of a recycle

compressor adds some complexity to the system but still much less than

with a solvent- or adsorbent-based technology Multistage systems can be

operated at full capacity as single-stage systems when the recycle

compressor is down

Good weight and space efficiency Skid construction can be optimized

to the space available This space efficiency is especially important for

offshore environments where deck area is at a premium and is the

reason why so many new offshore developments have chosen to use

membranes for acid gas removal Figure 6 illustrates the space efficiency

of membrane systems The membrane unit in the lower left corner

replaced all the amine and glycol plant equipment shown in the rest of the

picture

Adaptability Because membrane area is dictated by the percentage of

acid gas removal rather than absolute acid gas removal small variations

in feed acid gas content hardly change the sales-gas acid gas

specification For example a system designed for 10 down to 3 acid

gas removal produces a 35 product from a 12 feed gas and a 5

product from a 15 feed gas

Design efficiency The membrane and pretreatment systems integrate a

number of operations such as dehydration CO2 and H2S removal dew-

point control and mercury removal Traditional acid gas removal

technologies require all of these operations as separate processes and

may also require additional dehydration because some technologies

saturate the product stream with water

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Power generation The permeate gas from membrane systems can be

used to provide fuel gas for power generation either for a recycle

compressor or other equipment

Ideal for debottlenecking Because expanding solvent- or adsorbent-

based acid gas removal plants without adding additional trains is difficult

an ideal solution is to use membranes for bulk acid gas removal and leave

the existing plant for final cleanup An additional advantage is that the

permeate gas from the membrane system can often be used as fuel for

the existing plant thus avoiding significant increase in hydrocarbon

losses

Environmentally friendly Membrane systems do not involve the

periodic removal and handling of spent solvents or adsorbents Permeate

gases can be flared used as fuel or re-injected into the well Items thatdo need disposal such as spent membrane elements can be incinerated

Ideal for remote locations Many of the factors mentioned above make

membrane systems a highly desirable technology for remote locations

where spare parts are rare and labor unskilled Furthermore solvents

storage and trucking water supply power generation or extensive

infrastructure are not required

Re-injection optimizations Since the permeate stream from the

membrane system can be operated at elevated pressures it is possible to

further pressurize by re-injection compression train

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Sorption

Sorption is a physical and chemical process by which one substance becomes

attached to another

It is of two main types

1 Absorption

2 Adsorption

Absorption

Absorption is a physical or chemical phenomenon or process in which atoms

molecules or ions enter some bulk phase ndash gas liquid or solid material This is a

different process from adsorption since molecules undergoing absorption are

taken up by the volume not by the surface (as in the case for adsorption)

Absorption process may be chemical (reactive) or physical (non-reactive)

Physical absorption

Physical absorption or non-reactive absorption is made between two phases ofmatter a liquid absorbs a gas or a solid absorbs a liquid

When a liquid solvent absorbs a gas mixture or part of it a mass of gas moves

into the liquid For example water may absorb oxygen from the air This mass

transfer takes place at the interface between the liquid and the gas at a rate

depending on both the gas and the liquid This type of absorption depends on the

solubility of gases the pressure and the temperature The rate and amount of

absorption also depend on the surface area of the interface and its duration in

time

When a solid absorbs a liquid mixture or part of it a mass of liquid moves into the

solid For example a clay pot used to store water may absorb some of the water

This mass transfer takes place at the interface between the solid and the liquid

at a rate depending on both the solid and the liquid

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Chemical absorption

Chemical absorption or reactive absorption is a chemical reaction between the

absorbed and the absorbing substances Sometimes it combines with physical

absorption This type of absorption depends upon the stoichiometry of the

reaction and the concentration of its reactants

Adsorption

Adsorption is the adhesion of atoms ions or molecules from a gas liquid or

dissolved solid to a surface This process creates a film of the adsorbate on the

surface of the adsorbent The binding to the surface is usually weak and

reversible Compounds with color and those that have taste or odor tend to bind

strongly Compounds that vibrate at frequencies in the visible spectrum are very

often are strongly adsorbed on activated carbon

The most common industrial adsorbents are activated carbon silica gel and

alumina because they present enormous surface areas per unit weight

Depending on the nature of attractive forces existing between the adsorbate and

adsorbent adsorption can be classified as

i) Physical adsorption

ii) Chemical adsorption

i) Physical adsorption (Physisorption)

In physical adsorption the forces of attraction between the molecules of the

adsorbate and the adsorbent are of the weak van der Waals type Since the

forces of attraction are weak the process of physisorption can be easily reversed

by heating or decreasing the pressure of the adsorbate (as in the case of gases)

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ii) Chemical adsorption (Chemisorption)

In chemisorption the forces of attraction between the adsorbate and the

adsorbent are very strong the molecules of adsorbate form chemical bonds with

the molecules of the adsorbent present in the surface

Adsorption is generally accompanied by release of energy that is most

adsorption processes are exothermic in nature Adsorption is a spontaneous

process therefore its free energy change is negative (∆Glt0) However the

entropy change associated with adsorption is generally negative because the

adsorbate molecules lose their translation freedom when they get attached to the

surface of the adsorbent Therefore in order for ∆G to be negative the enthalpy

change (∆H) must be sufficiently negative such that (∆G=∆H-T∆S) lt 0 This

explanation accounts for exothermic adsorption processes In cases where

endothermic adsorption occurs the entropy change ∆S is sufficiently positive

such that ∆G remains negative

Pre treatment

The main function of pretreatment skid is to provide membrane inlet specification

gas as mentioned by the vendor UOP It removes the contaminants that would

poison the membranes like dust solids (adsorbent particles) lube oil heavy

hydrocarbons etc It consists of

Feed Cooler

Feed Gas Scrubber

Filter Coalescer

Feed Gas Heater

Activated Carbon Guard Filter

Particle Filter

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The regeneration is carried out by heated permeate gas from the recycle

membranes at 450oF The vessel is depressurized to 20 psi and heated gas is

introduced from top The gas carries out the adsorbed contaminants and leaves

the vessel from bottom cleaning the adsorbent This contaminated gas is burnt in

the flare

UOP the vendor of Memguard unit has never disclosed that what substance

MG3 and MG5 exactly are But as mentioned by vendor that both care class of

aluminosilicates Therefore MG3 can be potassium aluminosilicate and MG5 can

be Calcium aluminosilicate These are molecular sieves adsorbents Molecular

sieves are a microporous material which can selectively adsorb gases andliquids They are synthetic zeolites (crystalline metal aluminosilicates) which

upon dehydration can efficiently and selectively remove water or other

solvents The selectivity of a molecular sieve is determined by its pore size

molecules with a critical diameter which is less than the pore size will be

efficiently adsorbed while larger molecules will be excluded

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3A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

The 3A molecular sieve adsorbent has a 3 angstrom (3A) pore size which means

that any molecule that is larger than the 3 angstrom pores will not be adsorbed

The 3A molecular sieve is the potassium type of A crystalline structure and is a

form of alkali Aluminosilicate For a 3A molecular sieve the sequence rate that

adsorption occurs is He Ne N and H2O

Due to the crystalline structure molecular sieves that have a 3 angstrom pore

size have a very high rate of adsorption and properties that promote a longer life

for products treated by the sieve The most common use for the 3A molecular

sieve is to remove water and moisture from materials that are in gas and liquid

form

5A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

These are molecular sieve adsorbents with a pore size of 5 angstrom (5A) 5A

molecular sieves are unable to adsorb any molecules or impurities that are

smaller than 5A It is calcium form of type A crystalline structure and is form of analkali-aluminosilicate that is most commonly used to separate isomerous alkanes

from normal alkanes and to co-adsorb moisture and water along with carbon

dioxide from gases In additional 5A molecular sieves are used for gaseous

pressure swing adsorption (PSA)mdashthat is to separate particular gases from other

gases

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of C3H8 to C22H46

Adsorption of Freon-12 (dichlorodifluoromethane)

Natural gas drying

Normal- and iso-paraffin separation

Separation of aromatic

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Inlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1096

MEHTANE 8593

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008

N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGEN 076

WATER 007

Outlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1098

MEHTANE 8608

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGENT 076

WATER 000

H2S polisher

The H2S polishing unit has been designed to treat 187 MMscfday of natural gas

containing up to 11 CO2 and 21 ppm H2S where the level of the CO2 and H2S

is reduced using a MemGuard Membrane separation unit The unit is situated

down-stream of the membrane unit and will further reduce the level of H2S in the

processed gas to a sales gas specification of 38 ppm

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This process uses three non-regenerable fixed bed absorber vessels using a low

temperature high activity absorbent The absorbent is a mixture of activated

metal oxides (mainly zinc oxide) The three towers can are generally operated in

parallel arrangement but on demand can be used in series (any of alternate

arrangements of A B C vessels) as shown in figure

The higher sales gas flow rate increased the catalyst consumption and

replacement frequency

ZnO + H2S =gt ZnS + H20

Routine samples are taken from the beds to provide a check on each bed

performance and to follow the saturation profile during the absorbent life After

the adsorbent has been fully utilized the adsorption vessels are recharged with

new adsorbent discarding the utilized one in a safe manner

109oF

1215 psig

Before H2S Polishing After H2S Polishing

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Figure

H2S Tower

Inlet pipe

4 Drums of 19mm

ceramic Balls

6 Micron mesh

5 Drums of 50mmceramic

1 Drums of19mm ceramic

01 Drums of6mm ceramic

112 drums of

Catalist ZnO

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Recycle Compressor

The permeate gas of the primary membrane unit carries recoverable amount of

CH4 It is fed to recycle membrane unit for further CH 4 recovery But the

permeate pressure from primary membranes which has been reduced to 12 psi

must be regenerated to 1200 psi for the gas to be fed again to the system For

this purpose we have employed recycle compressor The compressor is a four

stage centrifugal compressor It is driven by gas turbine of 31200 HP It has 25

MW producing capacity

Figure Recycle Compressor Process Flow Diagram

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Sales Gas Compressor

Gas from H2S polishing unit is sent to sales gas compressor where its pressure

is enhanced to 1100 psi so it may be injected to SNGPL high pressure trunk line

Sales gas compressor is single stage gas turbine driven

Figure Process Flow of Sales Gas Compressor

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Cooling Towers

A cooling tower is a heat rejection device which extracts waste heat to theatmosphere through the cooling of a water stream to a lower temperature Hot

water from the system enters the cooling tower and is distributed over the fill

(heat transfer surface) Air is induced or forced through the fill causing a small

portion of the water to evaporate This evaporation removes heat from the

remaining water which is collected in the cold water basin and returned to the

system to absorb more heat Each cooling tower line although operating under

the same basic principle of operation is arranged a little differently

Types

Natural draft mdash Utilizes buoyancy via a tall chimney Warm moist air naturally

rises due to the density differential compared to the dry cooler outside air Warm

moist air is less dense than drier air at the same pressure This moist air

buoyancy produces an upwards current of air through the tower

Mechanical draft mdash Uses power-driven fan motors to force or draw airthrough the tower

o Induced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a fan at the

discharge (at the top) which pulls air up through the tower The fan

induces hot moist air out the discharge This produces low entering

and high exiting air velocities reducing the possibility of

recirculation in which discharged air flows back into the air intake

o Forced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a blower type fan at

the intake The fan forces air into the tower creating high entering

and low exiting air velocities The low exiting velocity is much more

susceptible to recirculation This fanfill geometry is also known as

blow-through

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Forced Draft Cooling Tower Vs Induced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower have the ability to handle large water flow

rate than Forced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower is suitable for large cell sizes and fan sizes

as compared with Forced Draft Larger fan size may result in greater

efficiency and consequently lower power and sound level

Forced Draft Cooling Tower can be square or rectangular type only

however Induced Draft Cooling Towers can be round square or

rectangular type

Induced Draft Cooling Tower uses more compact ground area than Forced

Draft Cooling Tower equivalent capacity due to absence of fan on one

side

Fan equipment is warm exhaust air is less liable to icing up in winter

operation (Cold Countries)

Higher velocity in Forced Draft Cooling Tower cause drop in suspension

and cause additional static resistance to system

Configuration

There are two main configurations of factory assembled cooling towers crossflow

and counterflow In crossflow cooling towers the water flows vertically down the

fill as air flows horizontally across In counterflow cooling towers the water flows

vertically down the fill as air flows vertically up

Crossflow Configuration Counterflow Configuration

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Drift mdash Water droplets that are carried out of the cooling tower with the exhaust

air Drift droplets have the same concentration of impurities as the water entering

the tower The drift rate is typically reduced by employing baffle-like devices

called drift eliminators through which the air must travel after leaving the fill and

spray zones of the tower

Blow-out mdash Water droplets blown out of the cooling tower by wind generally at

the air inlet openings Water may also be lost in the absence of wind through

splashing or misting Devices such as wind screens louvers splash deflectors

and water diverters are used to limit these losses

Blow-down mdash The portion of the circulating water flow that is removed (usually

discharged to a drain) in order to maintain the amount of Total Dissolved Solids

(TDS) and other impurities at an acceptably low level Higher TDS concentration

in solution may result from greater cooling tower efficiency However the higher

the TDS concentration the greater the risk of scale biological growth and

corrosion

Make-up mdash The water that must be added to the circulating water system in

order to compensate for water losses such as evaporation drift loss blow-out

blow-down etc

Approach mdash The approach is the difference in temperature between the cooled-

water temperature and the entering-air wet bulb temperature

Range mdash The range is the temperature difference between the warm water inlet

and cooled water exit

Fill mdash Inside the tower fills are added to increase contact surface as well as

contact time between air and water to provide better heat transfer The efficiency

of the tower depends on the selection and amount of fill

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There are two types of fills that may be used

o Film type fill (causes water to spread into a thin film)

o Splash type fill (breaks up falling stream of water and interrupts its

vertical progress)

Important

Scale build up is controlled by adding chemicals to the cooling loop and diluting

the concentration by blow down and make-up Following chemicals are added to

the Cooling to control CorrosionSale and microbial growth

Corrosion Inhibitor To control corrosion in the Cooling system

Dispersant To kept ions in suspension to avoid settle down and buildup

Sodium hypo Chlorite To Control microbial Growth

Acid To control Alkalinity in the system

High Stress Polymer To run the system at higher conductivity It is a

multifunctional polymer for Zinc amp Phosphate stabilization in cooling tower

Fin Fan Cooler

Fin fan heat exchanger is simply a pressure vessel which cools a circulating fluid

within finned tubes by forcing ambient air over the exterior of the tubes A

common example of an air cooler is a carrsquos radiator Fin Fan Coolers are used in

any application where large quantities of heat need to be transferred This

includes chemical and petrochemical industries power stations waste-to-energy

facilities as well as steelworks

Fin Fan Cooler are used for two primary reasons

They increase plant efficiency

They are a green solution as compared to cooling towers and shell and

tube heat exchangers because they do not require an auxiliary water

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supply (water lost due to drift and evaporation plus no water treatment

chemicals are required)

Figure General Overview of Fin Fan Cooler

Produced Water

The produced water system receives liquid from the equipment Miano slug

catcher train 1 and 2 inlet separators and is fed to three phase separator where

water oil and gas is separated The gases produced are burnt in incinerator

whereas hydrocarbon liquid is stored to be sold Liquid from compressors

recycle inlet separator recycle feed scrubber high and low pressure slug

catchers is passed to degasser Separated water is injected down the earth

Incinerator

The term incinerate means to burn something until nothing is left but ashes An

incinerator is a unit or facility used to burn trash and other types of waste until it is

reduced to ash An incinerator is constructed of heavy well-insulated materials

so that it does not give off extreme amounts of external heat The high levels of

heat are kept inside the furnace or unit so that the waste is burned quickly and

efficiently If the heat were allowed to escape the waste would not burn as

completely or as rapidly

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Control System

The plant is controlled at CCR (Central Control Room) by PLCs (Programmable

Logic Controllers) through fiber optic control line All control parameters are

received at LER (Local Equipment Room) via two optic fiber control lines One

being primary and other secondary operating in redundancy ie if primary fails

control shifts to secondary These control parameters are sent to CCR via single

optic fiber cable

Safety System

Wellheads and Gas Processing Plant have their own Fire amp Gas detection

systems emergency shutdown (ESD) Plant has a fault tolerant controller It is

based on Triple Modular Redundant (TMR) architecture manufactured by

Triconex The TMR system is based on three isolated parallel control systems

integrated into one system The system operates on a two out of three voting

principle which provides high integrity error free uninterrupted operation with no

single point of failure The TMR receives inputs from Process Sensors Manual

Switches Fire amp Gas Detectors Packaged Equipment Control Systems and

Product Exporting Facilities The TMR carries out cause and effect processing on

the data received and where necessary produces output signals Outputs from

the TMR are hard wired directly to ESD shutdown and blow down valve

solenoids motor control instrumentelectrical interfaces to control electrical

drives package equipment logic control systems manifold area as well as

telecoms

The operator in central control room is able to accept alarms and once the fault

has been cleared reset the input All the control systems are centralized to a

single interface All the PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers) communicate with

the servers and servers communicate with the clients through Ethernet connectivity

Centralization eases the navigation of different systems at a common interface

Emergency Shutdown

The ESD system receives inputs from field mounted instrumentation on the process

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and utility equipment and initiates executive actions appropriate to the level of ESD

The system is an Active system which is in standby and will activate when in an

alarm or fault condition The Kadanwari Gas Process Facility ESD system is

comprised of five (5) levels The emergency severity decreases with increasing ESD

level number

ESD 1

This shutdown level is automatically initiated by fire major gas leak or a detected

toxic atmosphere in the process area of the plant or manually from CCR A level 1

shutdown will cause all production to cease close all emergency shutdown

valves stop the process and shutdown of the main power generation The

emergency vent valves to the stack will open and in addition all equipment of zone 1

certified will be isolated This is the highest level of ESD and will cause the following

to occur

All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close All slowdown Valves (BDVs) on the process facility will open

All Main Gas Driven Generators will be tripped

Emergency Diesel Generator will start

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close Upper Master Valve

(UMV) Close

ESD 2

This shutdown level is activated automatically if a major process or utility failure

occurs or manually from CCR All production to the plant from the wellhead is

stopped All emergency shutdown valves trip to their fail safe position

Venting shall be as specified This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

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All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valve Close Wing Valves Close and Upper Master Valve(UMV) Close

ESD 3

The level 3 shutdown isolates and stops a single process train only Production

continues via the other train This ESD level is initiated by process conditions or

operator at local panel This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

ESD 3A Train 1 production to cease

ESD 3B Train 2 production to cease

All online wellhead choke valves go to minimum flow ie (1O )

ESD 4

A level 4 shutdown shall cease all production from an entire field either

Kadanwari or Miano upstream of the associated slug catchers ESD 4K for

Kadanwari amp ESD 4M for Miano This ESD level is initiated automatically by slug

catcher abnormal process conditions This level of ESD will cause the following

to occur

All SDVs close isolating the relevant slug catcher and its upstream gas

production facility from the Kadanwari Gas Processing Plant

All Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close and Upper MasterValves (UMV) of the relevant gas production facility Close

A parallel timer is provided to close within 10 second if not closed in given

time SSSV seals the well

ESD 5

A level 5 shutdown represents equipment shutdown for the protection of the

individual equipment without any change in the process This level of ESD is for the

protection of various pieces of equipment and is initiated by its own inputs eg

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Recombination of these ions at the active surface produce the following

reaction which yields the iron-corrosion product ferrous hydroxide

2Fe + O2 + 2H2O =gt 2Fe (OH) 2

CORROSION PROTECTION SYSTEM

Coatings and painting

Painting and the application of enamel bitumen and PVC

coating are the most common anti-corrosion treatments They

work by providing a barrier of corrosion-resistant material

between the damaging environment and the structural material

Corrosion Inhibitors

Corrosion inhibitor is injected into the flow lines as mentioned in

detail on page 8

Cathodic Protection

Cathodic Protection (CP) is a technique used to control the corrosion of a

metal surface by making it the cathode of an electrochemical cell It

converts all of the anodic (active) sites on the metal surface to cathodic

(passive) sites by supplying electrical current (or free electrons) from an

alternate source It is accomplished in two ways

a) A simple method of protection connects protected metal to a more easily

corroded sacrificial metal to act as the anode The sacrificial metal then

corrodes instead of the protected metal The process is similar to a simple

DC cell in which the more active metal becomes the anode and corrodes

whereas the less active metal becomes the cathode and is protected

b) For larger structures galvanic anodes cannot economically deliver enough

current to provide protection Therefore impressed current cathodic

protection (ICCP) systems are used These consist of anodes connected

to a DC power source In remote areas power sources such as solar

panels may be used The output DC negative terminal is connected to the

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frequently to limit liquid holdup and minimize the slug volumes of liquid which can

be generated by the system

Coating

Pigs may be used to apply internal pipe coatings such as epoxy coating

materials in operating pipelines Pigs may also be used with corrosion inhibitors

to distribute and coat the entire internal wetted perimeter

Inspection

Pigs are being used more frequently as inspection tools Gauging or sizing pigs

are typically run following the completion of new construction or line repair to

determine if there are any internal obstacles bends or buckles in the pipe Pigs

can also be equipped with cameras to allow viewing of the pipe internals

Electronic intelligent or smart ldquopigsrdquo that use magnetic and ultrasonic systems

have been developed and refined that locate and measure internal and external

corrosion pitting dents buckles and any other anomalies in the pipe wall

Intelligent pigs

The accuracy of location and measurement of anomalies by the intelligent pigs

has continued to improve Initially the electronics and power systems were so

large that intelligent pigs could be used only in lines 30 in and greater in size

The continued sophistication and miniaturization of the electronic systems used

in the intelligent pigs has allowed the development of smaller pigs that can be

used in small-diameter pipelines Newly enacted DOT pipeline-integrity

regulations and rules acknowledge the effectiveness of the intelligent pigs and

incorporate their use in the pipeline-integrity testing process

Compressors

A gas compressor is a mechanical device that increases the pressure of a gas by

reducing its volume Gas pressure is increased by forcing gas molecules together

to reduce gas volume When volume is reduced gas pressure increases

All gases have large spaces among their molecules These spaces could be

enhanced further and decreased by doing some work Work done which is used

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for the enhancement of these spaces is called expansion and work done to

minimize these spaces is called compression All gases while expansion

produces cooling effect and while compression of gases raises there

temperature Compression is a term used to force gases to occupy smaller

volumes by increasing their pressure Volume of gases is interlinked with

temperature and pressure of the gas which is cleared by 2 laws govern gas

compressions

Boyles Law

Charles Law

The main types of compressor are listed below

Front End Compressor

The plant currently processes gas from a number of wells The flow and pressure

from some of these wells (currently K-10 K-11 amp K-12) has declined and they

cannot be fed directly into the Central Processing Facility To recover the

maximum gas reserves from these wells a Front End Compressor is employed

The compressor is a two stage double acting gas engine driven reciprocating

(PT) compressor Double acting means that gas is compressed on each end of

the piston It normal operates with a speed range of 600 to 900 RPM and isequipped with four compressor cylinders two for each stage Each cylinder is

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also equipped with a variable volume head end pocket

In case of compressor emergency shutdown the production chokes and the

Upper Master Valves on the on line wells will close and operator will be notified in

central control room Sweet gas from gas distribution network is used to operate the

gas engine driver of the compressor package The detailed scheme of working is

shown in figure (page 22 )

PT Reciprocating Compressor

The mechanical cycle of piston tube reciprocating compressor comprises four

strokes the expansion stroke the intake stroke the compression stroke and the

discharge stroke

Expansion Stroke

As the piston moves back on the expansion stroke the chamber volume

increases and the pressure drop As the pressure drops the discharge valve

closes since there is greater pressure in the discharge line than in the chamber

Intake Stroke

As the piston moves back during the intake stroke the pressure decreases until it

is less than the pressure in the inlet line This higher intake pressure opens the

inlet valve and gas rushes into the cylinder equalizing the pressure there with

the intake pressure The compression chamber is now at or near the intake

pressure

Compression Stroke

The piston now starts the compression stroke by moving forward decreasing the

chamber volume and increasing the pressure The increased pressure is now

higher than the intake pressure causing the intake valve to close

Discharge Stroke

The piston continues to move to the left during the discharge stroke This creates

an increase in chamber pressure until it is greater than the discharge pressure

When this happens the Discharge valve opens and the compressed air from the

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cylinder goes into the discharge line The compression cycle is then repeated

from the stage

Compressor Capacity

The capacity of the compressor depends upon cylinder displacement That

displacement is simply the volume that the piston displaces (moves) as it travels

from one end of the cylinder to the other Capacity and displacement is equal to

the cross-sectional area of the cylinder times the length of the stroke

Lubrication and Cooling

Lubricating oil is circulated through the system by a gear pump which is chain

driven from the engine crank shaft The oil pump is mounted on the engine front

housing

The pump operates between 30 - 40 psig

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A circulating pump deliver cooling water to the water jackets in the cylinder block

flowing around the cylinder liners and is directed into the cylinder heads Each

cylinder head has water cooled exhaust elbows which outlet the water into the

water cooled exhausts From the end of engine the water flows to compressor

1st and 2nd stage cylinders and compressor lube oil cooler (LOwater heat

exchanger) The water from the compressor cylinder and lube oil cooler returns

to engine water cooled exhaust

Figure Flow diagram of Front End Compressor

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Centrifugal Compressor

Centrifugal compressors are machines in which velocity and pressure given to air

or gas in a radial direction by one or more impellers diffuser combination In a

centrifugal compressor the mechanical energy is increased by centrifugal action

The gas enters the suction eye of a high speed rotary element called the impeller

which carries radial vanes integrally cast in it As the impeller rotates the blades

of the impeller force the gas outward from the center the impeller to the outer rim

of impeller the increase in velocity of the gas creates a flow pressure area at the

eye of the impeller The gas at the outer rim of the impeller is forced in to a

passage way called a diffuser where the velocity decreases in the pressure of the

gas

Inlet

The inlet to a centrifugal compressor is typically a simple pipe It may include

features such as a valve and both pressure and temperature instrumentation

Centrifugal impeller

The key component that makes a compressor centrifugal is the centrifugal

impeller shown above It is the impellers rotating set of vanes (or blades) that

gradually raises the energy of the working gas This is identical to an axial

compressor with the exception that the gases can reach higher velocities and

energy levels through the impellers increasing radius

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Diffuser

The next key component to the simple centrifugal compressor is the diffuser

Downstream of the impeller in the flow path it is the diffusers responsibility to

convert the kinetic energy (high velocity) of the gas into pressure by gradually

slowing (diffusing) the gas velocity

SEPERATORS

A well-stream is a mixture of gases hydrocarbon liquids water solids and

contaminants Due to variations in pressure and temperature gases evolve from

the liquids water vapor condenses and some of the well-stream changes to liquid

and free gas The separation of well-stream fluids takes place in a separator This

pressure vessel is manufactured in three forms

1 horizontal

2 vertical

3 spherical

To help separation the vessel is normally designed with a series of internal

fittings These fittings are built into the separator to ensure total phase separation

of the well-stream

In gas plants separators are given alternative names due to the function they

perform in the process system A scrubber does a similar job to a knockout drum

However the scrubber usually separates a stream containing high gas-to-liquid

ratios The knockout drum is used where a high degree of liquids are entrained in

the gas

Fluid flow from a well can include gas condensable liquid vapors water water

vapor crude oil and solids As well-stream fluids reach ground level where

pressure is lower than in the reservoir the capacity of the liquid to hold gas in

solution decreases and gas separates out of the oil

Separation depends upon the effect of gravity to separate liquids For adequate

separation one fluid must be lighter than the other fluid For example distillates

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(gasoline kerosene etc) and crude oil will not separate in a vessel because they

tend to dissolve in each other Because a separator basically depends upon

gravity to separate the fluids the ease with which separation takes place

depends upon the difference in density of the fluids

Droplets of liquid will separate from gas provided

a) The gas remains in the separator long enough

b) The gas flow remains constant to provoke separation

The difference in density between a gas and liquid will therefore determine the

maximum flow rate of liquid in the vessel

Figure Two phase horizontal separator

Gas bubbles in the liquid will break out in some oil field applications in 30 to 60

seconds Consequently the separator is designed so that the liquid remains in

the vessel for 30 to 60 seconds The length of time that a liquid remains in the

vessel is called its residence time Residence time differs widely from field to field

depending upon viscosity and API Gravity

Another important factor which must be considered is temperature Generally a

decrease in operating temperature will increase the liquid recovery in a separator

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as the gas condenses By reducing the pressure on the fluid flash separation

occurs resulting in a flow through the separator which is controlled by external

instrumentation

COALESCENCE

Another important principle in fluid separation is that of coalescence This means

the coming together of liquid droplets created by the force of gravity

A common example of coalescing occurs when drops of water form on the

windshield of a car as it is driven in fog As the tiny drops or water which make up

the fog strike the windshield they combine and eventually form a drop large

enough to run down the glass

Several of the internal devices of a separator such as deflector plates

straightening vanes and even the vessel walls are forms of coalescers In each

vessel drops of liquid adhere to the surface of the device and combine with other

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drops until the drop is large enough to fall out The effectiveness of separation

will also depend upon the total amount of coalescing surface area that is present

There are many different types of separators used in the Oil amp Gas industry

Consequently separators are manufactured with one two or several internal

fittings depending on their use and quick removal of these fluids from the vessel

DEFLECTOR PLATES

These are fitted in front of the inlet to the separator and can be net or

dish-shaped Their purpose is to absorb the impact of the incoming fluids and to

encourage the separation of gas and liquids They also slow the flow rate of the

liquids through the vessel

WEIRS

A weir is a metal wall which is fitted across the inside of the vessel normally to a

height of 50 of the overall height of the separator Its purpose is to assist the

process of three phase separation The inlet fluids (oil plus water) are given time

to separate in the liquid accumulation section The water level (interface) is

normally controlled at 50 of the height of the weir Oil floating on the wateroverflows the weir and accumulates in the small oil compartment where it is

drawn off under level control

CENTRIFUGAL DEVICES

These are used in both vertical and horizontal separators for gas-liquid

separation The device imparts a swirling motion to the fluids entering the vessel

Centrifugal force causes the heavier liquids to travel outwards towards the walls

of the vessel and the lighter gases to flow up the centre Centrifugal devices are

also known as cyclones

VORTEX BREAKERS

When liquid flows through a drain outlet a vortex (whirlpool) will form This can

be seen when we pull the plug from a sink or bath tub The same would happen

as water and oil flow from the separator This condition a vortex could allow gas

to flow down the centre of the whirlpool and enter the liquid phase causing

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pressurizing of tanks etc To stop this happening vortex breakers are fitted to all

liquid outlets Although they come in a number of different designs vortex

breakers all serve the same purpose - to prevent a whirlpool from forming

MIST OR DEMISTER PADS

The gas which is released from the fluids in the separator still contains droplets of

oil and water which coalesce and fall when the drops get large enough The

demister pad assists in this process Made from knitted wire and contained within

a sturdy frame it causes the gas to continually change its direction of flow

Because gas changes direction far easier than liquid the gas will flow around

each strand of wire whilst the liquid entrained in the gas stream will continue and

stick to the wire

COALESCING PLATES

There are several different forms of coalescing devices the most common of

which are coalescing plates These plates are mounted in the flow stream of the

fluids and assist in breaking down oil-water emulsions The fluid is forced to

follow a path that constantly changes direction This causes the water droplets to

gather together or coalesce and fall to the bottom of the separator The same

principle is used to separate gas and oil mixtures when the oil droplets are

induced to coalesce Simply stated every surface within the separator including

the separator walls assists with the coalescing process

STRAIGHTENlNG VANES

These are often fitted to horizontal separators to remove turbulence in the gas

stream after initial separation at the inlet deflector

FLOAT SHEILD

Internal floats are used as level controllers Any agitation of the liquid surface or

the effect of coalesced liquids falling on the float may cause control problems

Therefore a float shield is fitted to enclose the float creating an area of still liquid

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MEMBRANES

The gas contains 12 carbon dioxide and 22 ppm of hydrogen sulphide at 115oF

and 1100 psig This needs to be removed before the gas can be exported The

majority of carbon dioxide hydrogen sulphide and water is removed by means of

membranes

Membranes are thin semipermeable barriers that selectively separate some

compounds from others Currently the only commercially workable membranes

used for CO2 removal are polymer based for example cellulose acetate

polyimides polyamides polysulfone polycarbonates and polyetherimide The

membrane does not operate as a filter where small molecules are separated

from larger ones through a medium with pores rather it separates based on how

well different compounds dissolve into the membrane and diffuse through it The

membranes are manufactured in flat sheets consisting of an extremely thin

nonporous layer mounted on a much-thicker and highly porous layer of the same

material providing mechanical strength The flat sheets are combined into a

spiral-wound element (Figure below) Feed gas enters along the side of the

membrane and passes through the feed spacers As the gas travels between

membrane sheets CO2 H2S and H2O permeate through the membrane and are

collected in the permeate tube The driving force for transport is the high-feed

pressure and low-permeate pressures The gas on the feed side that does not

permeate leaves through the side of the element opposite the feed position Once

the membranes have been manufactured into elements six to 12 elements are

joined together and inserted into a tube Multiple tubes are mounted on skids in a

horizontal orientation

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Figure Membrane general Working

In high H2S applications most polymers have been shown to have very little

resistance to H2S plasticization (ldquosofteningrdquo of the membrane) and as a

consequence can only be used at very low H2S partial pressure limits Cellulose

acetate membranes in contrast have been shown to be applicable at extreme

H2S partial pressure conditions It is these membranes that have been utilized in

the testing to determine the limits of membrane performance in high H 2S

applications

The primary membranes used in Kadanwari facility are Cellulose acetate

Cellulose acetic acid and acetic anhydride are mixed together and reacted to

form cellulose acetate polymers This process is aided by the addition of a small

amount of sulfuric acid which is subsequently neutralized during processing

However the membranes are bought from UOP (vendor) and installed for use

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How membrane work

The basic principle of separation is selectivity of certain components of a mixture

for the membrane For example the cellulose acetate membrane has very high

selectivity for CO2 and H2S as compared to CH4 Therefore such type of

membrane can be used in gas sweetening process

The selectivity is directly related to the Permeability of gas which accounts that

which gas can pass across the membrane more easily In simple words

membranes being polymer materials are made of long chains of molecules The

different structure of polymer materials only allow selective molecules to pass

through them depending upon chemical and physical compatibility Thus

permeability depends upon choice of polymer

The permeability is determined by permeability coefficient (P) and is product of

solubility (S) and diffusivity (D)

P = S D

Solubility

The solubility is mainly determined by ease of condensation Heavy molecules

are more readily condensed Therefore higher molecular weighted molecules will

more easily condensed and therefore have greater solubility

Molecule Molecular weight

CH4 16

H2S 34

CO2 44

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Diffusivity

Diffusivity is ease of molecule to penetrate into some material It depends on size

of gas molecule Here size of molecule is not to be confused by molecular weight

it is the size of the structure Eg the size of O2 molecule is smaller than N2

Molecule Molecular Diameter (Ao)

CO2 33

H2S 36

Ch4 40

For cellulose acetate

DCO2DCH4 S CO2S CH4 P CO2P CH4

45 73 308

Chemical degradation

Cellulose acetate polymer is chemically degraded by a process called hydrolysis

which means breaking apart by the addition of water This is a chemical reaction

in which water is added to the cellulose acetate polymer causing the release of

acetic acid molecules This process proceeds stepwise until all the acetate

groups are released resulting in the reformation of cellulose Moreover alcohols

aromatic hydrocarbons or solvents with chlorine nitro benzene or similar

aromatic solvents will harm the membrane It will expand and lose plastification in

contact with them

Effect of Temperature

The permeation rates of all gases increases with increasing temperature

however membrane selectivity for CO2 over hydrocarbon decreases at higher

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temperature Consequently CO2 removal will improve as operating temperature

increases but hydro carbon recovery will decrease

Primary Membrane

The primary membranes comprise of two trains Each train consists of two

sections AB and CD each section consists of a 30 tube membrane skid (A and

C) followed by a 25 tube skid (B and D) The conditioned gas (after pre-

treatment) enters the primary membrane via the particulate filter adjacent to the

skid The gas is fed to the membranes through a common inlet manifold which

supplies primary membranes skids A and C A pressure control loop located

upstream of the manual inlet isolation valve is provided to maintain a constant

supply pressure to the membrane skid and to allow for preheating at the inlet

prior to skid start-up This pressure control loop can also be used during start-up

to control the pressurization of the pretreatment skid and associated pipes to the

primary membranes

The gas passes through membrane skid A the residual gas exiting the membrane

skid is sent to skid B and the permeate to common permeate discharge header An

identical arrangement is provide on the inlet to skid C as provided on skid A Theresidual gas from skid B combines with the residual gas from skid D in a common

discharge header and is then sent to the H2S polishing towers via the feed coolers

on the pre-treatment skid The permeate from skid B is sent to the common

permeate discharge header The permeate discharge header sends the gas to

either the recycle compressor or the vent header via a pressure control loop

Overpressure protection for the membranes is provided by a pressure safety valve

on the supply header to the membrane banks

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Secondary (Recycle) Membrane

The recycle membranes comprise of a single train with two skids each with four

banks of membrane tubes The conditioned gas from the discharge of the recycle

pre-treatment skid is routed to the first recycle membrane skid The gas passes

through the membranes the residual gas is fed to primary membrane (skid A) inlet

via feed gas cooler and permeate to the common permeate discharge header An

identical arrangement is provide on the inlet to skid B Permeate from the recycle

membrane skids A and B is routed to the vent header Some portion of permeate is

heated and sent for regeneration in Mem-Guard units Nitrogen purge can be

connected downstream of the inlet isolation valve on each skid to enable the

membrane tubes to be purged and left pressurized during prolonged shutdown

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Figure Flow Diagram of Recycle membrane unit

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ADVANTAGES OF MEMBRANE SYSTEMS

Membrane systems have major advantages over more-traditional methods of

acid gas removal

Lower capital cost Membrane systems are skid mounted and so the

scope cost and time taken for site preparation are minimal Installation

costs are significantly lower than alternative technologies especially for

remote areas Furthermore no additional facilities for solvent storage and

water treatment needed by other processes are required

Lower operating costs The only major operating cost for single-stage

membrane systems is membrane replacement This cost is significantly

lower than the solvent replacement and energy costs associated with

traditional technologies The improvements in membrane and

pretreatment design allow a longer useful membrane life which further

reduces operating costs The energy costs of multistage systems with

large recycle compressors are usually comparable to those for traditionaltechnologies

Deferred capital investment Often contracted sales-gas flow rates

increase over time as more wells are brought on-line With traditional

technologies the system design needs to take this later production into

account immediately and so the majority of the equipment is installed

before it is even needed The modular nature of membrane systems

means that only the membranes that are needed at start-up need be

installed The rest can be added either into existing tubes or in new skids

only when they are required

Operational simplicity and high reliability Because single-stage

membrane systems have no moving parts they have almost no

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unscheduled downtime and are extremely simple to operate They can

operate unattended for long periods of time The addition of a recycle

compressor adds some complexity to the system but still much less than

with a solvent- or adsorbent-based technology Multistage systems can be

operated at full capacity as single-stage systems when the recycle

compressor is down

Good weight and space efficiency Skid construction can be optimized

to the space available This space efficiency is especially important for

offshore environments where deck area is at a premium and is the

reason why so many new offshore developments have chosen to use

membranes for acid gas removal Figure 6 illustrates the space efficiency

of membrane systems The membrane unit in the lower left corner

replaced all the amine and glycol plant equipment shown in the rest of the

picture

Adaptability Because membrane area is dictated by the percentage of

acid gas removal rather than absolute acid gas removal small variations

in feed acid gas content hardly change the sales-gas acid gas

specification For example a system designed for 10 down to 3 acid

gas removal produces a 35 product from a 12 feed gas and a 5

product from a 15 feed gas

Design efficiency The membrane and pretreatment systems integrate a

number of operations such as dehydration CO2 and H2S removal dew-

point control and mercury removal Traditional acid gas removal

technologies require all of these operations as separate processes and

may also require additional dehydration because some technologies

saturate the product stream with water

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Power generation The permeate gas from membrane systems can be

used to provide fuel gas for power generation either for a recycle

compressor or other equipment

Ideal for debottlenecking Because expanding solvent- or adsorbent-

based acid gas removal plants without adding additional trains is difficult

an ideal solution is to use membranes for bulk acid gas removal and leave

the existing plant for final cleanup An additional advantage is that the

permeate gas from the membrane system can often be used as fuel for

the existing plant thus avoiding significant increase in hydrocarbon

losses

Environmentally friendly Membrane systems do not involve the

periodic removal and handling of spent solvents or adsorbents Permeate

gases can be flared used as fuel or re-injected into the well Items thatdo need disposal such as spent membrane elements can be incinerated

Ideal for remote locations Many of the factors mentioned above make

membrane systems a highly desirable technology for remote locations

where spare parts are rare and labor unskilled Furthermore solvents

storage and trucking water supply power generation or extensive

infrastructure are not required

Re-injection optimizations Since the permeate stream from the

membrane system can be operated at elevated pressures it is possible to

further pressurize by re-injection compression train

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Sorption

Sorption is a physical and chemical process by which one substance becomes

attached to another

It is of two main types

1 Absorption

2 Adsorption

Absorption

Absorption is a physical or chemical phenomenon or process in which atoms

molecules or ions enter some bulk phase ndash gas liquid or solid material This is a

different process from adsorption since molecules undergoing absorption are

taken up by the volume not by the surface (as in the case for adsorption)

Absorption process may be chemical (reactive) or physical (non-reactive)

Physical absorption

Physical absorption or non-reactive absorption is made between two phases ofmatter a liquid absorbs a gas or a solid absorbs a liquid

When a liquid solvent absorbs a gas mixture or part of it a mass of gas moves

into the liquid For example water may absorb oxygen from the air This mass

transfer takes place at the interface between the liquid and the gas at a rate

depending on both the gas and the liquid This type of absorption depends on the

solubility of gases the pressure and the temperature The rate and amount of

absorption also depend on the surface area of the interface and its duration in

time

When a solid absorbs a liquid mixture or part of it a mass of liquid moves into the

solid For example a clay pot used to store water may absorb some of the water

This mass transfer takes place at the interface between the solid and the liquid

at a rate depending on both the solid and the liquid

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Chemical absorption

Chemical absorption or reactive absorption is a chemical reaction between the

absorbed and the absorbing substances Sometimes it combines with physical

absorption This type of absorption depends upon the stoichiometry of the

reaction and the concentration of its reactants

Adsorption

Adsorption is the adhesion of atoms ions or molecules from a gas liquid or

dissolved solid to a surface This process creates a film of the adsorbate on the

surface of the adsorbent The binding to the surface is usually weak and

reversible Compounds with color and those that have taste or odor tend to bind

strongly Compounds that vibrate at frequencies in the visible spectrum are very

often are strongly adsorbed on activated carbon

The most common industrial adsorbents are activated carbon silica gel and

alumina because they present enormous surface areas per unit weight

Depending on the nature of attractive forces existing between the adsorbate and

adsorbent adsorption can be classified as

i) Physical adsorption

ii) Chemical adsorption

i) Physical adsorption (Physisorption)

In physical adsorption the forces of attraction between the molecules of the

adsorbate and the adsorbent are of the weak van der Waals type Since the

forces of attraction are weak the process of physisorption can be easily reversed

by heating or decreasing the pressure of the adsorbate (as in the case of gases)

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ii) Chemical adsorption (Chemisorption)

In chemisorption the forces of attraction between the adsorbate and the

adsorbent are very strong the molecules of adsorbate form chemical bonds with

the molecules of the adsorbent present in the surface

Adsorption is generally accompanied by release of energy that is most

adsorption processes are exothermic in nature Adsorption is a spontaneous

process therefore its free energy change is negative (∆Glt0) However the

entropy change associated with adsorption is generally negative because the

adsorbate molecules lose their translation freedom when they get attached to the

surface of the adsorbent Therefore in order for ∆G to be negative the enthalpy

change (∆H) must be sufficiently negative such that (∆G=∆H-T∆S) lt 0 This

explanation accounts for exothermic adsorption processes In cases where

endothermic adsorption occurs the entropy change ∆S is sufficiently positive

such that ∆G remains negative

Pre treatment

The main function of pretreatment skid is to provide membrane inlet specification

gas as mentioned by the vendor UOP It removes the contaminants that would

poison the membranes like dust solids (adsorbent particles) lube oil heavy

hydrocarbons etc It consists of

Feed Cooler

Feed Gas Scrubber

Filter Coalescer

Feed Gas Heater

Activated Carbon Guard Filter

Particle Filter

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The regeneration is carried out by heated permeate gas from the recycle

membranes at 450oF The vessel is depressurized to 20 psi and heated gas is

introduced from top The gas carries out the adsorbed contaminants and leaves

the vessel from bottom cleaning the adsorbent This contaminated gas is burnt in

the flare

UOP the vendor of Memguard unit has never disclosed that what substance

MG3 and MG5 exactly are But as mentioned by vendor that both care class of

aluminosilicates Therefore MG3 can be potassium aluminosilicate and MG5 can

be Calcium aluminosilicate These are molecular sieves adsorbents Molecular

sieves are a microporous material which can selectively adsorb gases andliquids They are synthetic zeolites (crystalline metal aluminosilicates) which

upon dehydration can efficiently and selectively remove water or other

solvents The selectivity of a molecular sieve is determined by its pore size

molecules with a critical diameter which is less than the pore size will be

efficiently adsorbed while larger molecules will be excluded

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3A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

The 3A molecular sieve adsorbent has a 3 angstrom (3A) pore size which means

that any molecule that is larger than the 3 angstrom pores will not be adsorbed

The 3A molecular sieve is the potassium type of A crystalline structure and is a

form of alkali Aluminosilicate For a 3A molecular sieve the sequence rate that

adsorption occurs is He Ne N and H2O

Due to the crystalline structure molecular sieves that have a 3 angstrom pore

size have a very high rate of adsorption and properties that promote a longer life

for products treated by the sieve The most common use for the 3A molecular

sieve is to remove water and moisture from materials that are in gas and liquid

form

5A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

These are molecular sieve adsorbents with a pore size of 5 angstrom (5A) 5A

molecular sieves are unable to adsorb any molecules or impurities that are

smaller than 5A It is calcium form of type A crystalline structure and is form of analkali-aluminosilicate that is most commonly used to separate isomerous alkanes

from normal alkanes and to co-adsorb moisture and water along with carbon

dioxide from gases In additional 5A molecular sieves are used for gaseous

pressure swing adsorption (PSA)mdashthat is to separate particular gases from other

gases

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of C3H8 to C22H46

Adsorption of Freon-12 (dichlorodifluoromethane)

Natural gas drying

Normal- and iso-paraffin separation

Separation of aromatic

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Inlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1096

MEHTANE 8593

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008

N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGEN 076

WATER 007

Outlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1098

MEHTANE 8608

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGENT 076

WATER 000

H2S polisher

The H2S polishing unit has been designed to treat 187 MMscfday of natural gas

containing up to 11 CO2 and 21 ppm H2S where the level of the CO2 and H2S

is reduced using a MemGuard Membrane separation unit The unit is situated

down-stream of the membrane unit and will further reduce the level of H2S in the

processed gas to a sales gas specification of 38 ppm

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This process uses three non-regenerable fixed bed absorber vessels using a low

temperature high activity absorbent The absorbent is a mixture of activated

metal oxides (mainly zinc oxide) The three towers can are generally operated in

parallel arrangement but on demand can be used in series (any of alternate

arrangements of A B C vessels) as shown in figure

The higher sales gas flow rate increased the catalyst consumption and

replacement frequency

ZnO + H2S =gt ZnS + H20

Routine samples are taken from the beds to provide a check on each bed

performance and to follow the saturation profile during the absorbent life After

the adsorbent has been fully utilized the adsorption vessels are recharged with

new adsorbent discarding the utilized one in a safe manner

109oF

1215 psig

Before H2S Polishing After H2S Polishing

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Figure

H2S Tower

Inlet pipe

4 Drums of 19mm

ceramic Balls

6 Micron mesh

5 Drums of 50mmceramic

1 Drums of19mm ceramic

01 Drums of6mm ceramic

112 drums of

Catalist ZnO

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Recycle Compressor

The permeate gas of the primary membrane unit carries recoverable amount of

CH4 It is fed to recycle membrane unit for further CH 4 recovery But the

permeate pressure from primary membranes which has been reduced to 12 psi

must be regenerated to 1200 psi for the gas to be fed again to the system For

this purpose we have employed recycle compressor The compressor is a four

stage centrifugal compressor It is driven by gas turbine of 31200 HP It has 25

MW producing capacity

Figure Recycle Compressor Process Flow Diagram

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Sales Gas Compressor

Gas from H2S polishing unit is sent to sales gas compressor where its pressure

is enhanced to 1100 psi so it may be injected to SNGPL high pressure trunk line

Sales gas compressor is single stage gas turbine driven

Figure Process Flow of Sales Gas Compressor

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Cooling Towers

A cooling tower is a heat rejection device which extracts waste heat to theatmosphere through the cooling of a water stream to a lower temperature Hot

water from the system enters the cooling tower and is distributed over the fill

(heat transfer surface) Air is induced or forced through the fill causing a small

portion of the water to evaporate This evaporation removes heat from the

remaining water which is collected in the cold water basin and returned to the

system to absorb more heat Each cooling tower line although operating under

the same basic principle of operation is arranged a little differently

Types

Natural draft mdash Utilizes buoyancy via a tall chimney Warm moist air naturally

rises due to the density differential compared to the dry cooler outside air Warm

moist air is less dense than drier air at the same pressure This moist air

buoyancy produces an upwards current of air through the tower

Mechanical draft mdash Uses power-driven fan motors to force or draw airthrough the tower

o Induced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a fan at the

discharge (at the top) which pulls air up through the tower The fan

induces hot moist air out the discharge This produces low entering

and high exiting air velocities reducing the possibility of

recirculation in which discharged air flows back into the air intake

o Forced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a blower type fan at

the intake The fan forces air into the tower creating high entering

and low exiting air velocities The low exiting velocity is much more

susceptible to recirculation This fanfill geometry is also known as

blow-through

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Forced Draft Cooling Tower Vs Induced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower have the ability to handle large water flow

rate than Forced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower is suitable for large cell sizes and fan sizes

as compared with Forced Draft Larger fan size may result in greater

efficiency and consequently lower power and sound level

Forced Draft Cooling Tower can be square or rectangular type only

however Induced Draft Cooling Towers can be round square or

rectangular type

Induced Draft Cooling Tower uses more compact ground area than Forced

Draft Cooling Tower equivalent capacity due to absence of fan on one

side

Fan equipment is warm exhaust air is less liable to icing up in winter

operation (Cold Countries)

Higher velocity in Forced Draft Cooling Tower cause drop in suspension

and cause additional static resistance to system

Configuration

There are two main configurations of factory assembled cooling towers crossflow

and counterflow In crossflow cooling towers the water flows vertically down the

fill as air flows horizontally across In counterflow cooling towers the water flows

vertically down the fill as air flows vertically up

Crossflow Configuration Counterflow Configuration

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Drift mdash Water droplets that are carried out of the cooling tower with the exhaust

air Drift droplets have the same concentration of impurities as the water entering

the tower The drift rate is typically reduced by employing baffle-like devices

called drift eliminators through which the air must travel after leaving the fill and

spray zones of the tower

Blow-out mdash Water droplets blown out of the cooling tower by wind generally at

the air inlet openings Water may also be lost in the absence of wind through

splashing or misting Devices such as wind screens louvers splash deflectors

and water diverters are used to limit these losses

Blow-down mdash The portion of the circulating water flow that is removed (usually

discharged to a drain) in order to maintain the amount of Total Dissolved Solids

(TDS) and other impurities at an acceptably low level Higher TDS concentration

in solution may result from greater cooling tower efficiency However the higher

the TDS concentration the greater the risk of scale biological growth and

corrosion

Make-up mdash The water that must be added to the circulating water system in

order to compensate for water losses such as evaporation drift loss blow-out

blow-down etc

Approach mdash The approach is the difference in temperature between the cooled-

water temperature and the entering-air wet bulb temperature

Range mdash The range is the temperature difference between the warm water inlet

and cooled water exit

Fill mdash Inside the tower fills are added to increase contact surface as well as

contact time between air and water to provide better heat transfer The efficiency

of the tower depends on the selection and amount of fill

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There are two types of fills that may be used

o Film type fill (causes water to spread into a thin film)

o Splash type fill (breaks up falling stream of water and interrupts its

vertical progress)

Important

Scale build up is controlled by adding chemicals to the cooling loop and diluting

the concentration by blow down and make-up Following chemicals are added to

the Cooling to control CorrosionSale and microbial growth

Corrosion Inhibitor To control corrosion in the Cooling system

Dispersant To kept ions in suspension to avoid settle down and buildup

Sodium hypo Chlorite To Control microbial Growth

Acid To control Alkalinity in the system

High Stress Polymer To run the system at higher conductivity It is a

multifunctional polymer for Zinc amp Phosphate stabilization in cooling tower

Fin Fan Cooler

Fin fan heat exchanger is simply a pressure vessel which cools a circulating fluid

within finned tubes by forcing ambient air over the exterior of the tubes A

common example of an air cooler is a carrsquos radiator Fin Fan Coolers are used in

any application where large quantities of heat need to be transferred This

includes chemical and petrochemical industries power stations waste-to-energy

facilities as well as steelworks

Fin Fan Cooler are used for two primary reasons

They increase plant efficiency

They are a green solution as compared to cooling towers and shell and

tube heat exchangers because they do not require an auxiliary water

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supply (water lost due to drift and evaporation plus no water treatment

chemicals are required)

Figure General Overview of Fin Fan Cooler

Produced Water

The produced water system receives liquid from the equipment Miano slug

catcher train 1 and 2 inlet separators and is fed to three phase separator where

water oil and gas is separated The gases produced are burnt in incinerator

whereas hydrocarbon liquid is stored to be sold Liquid from compressors

recycle inlet separator recycle feed scrubber high and low pressure slug

catchers is passed to degasser Separated water is injected down the earth

Incinerator

The term incinerate means to burn something until nothing is left but ashes An

incinerator is a unit or facility used to burn trash and other types of waste until it is

reduced to ash An incinerator is constructed of heavy well-insulated materials

so that it does not give off extreme amounts of external heat The high levels of

heat are kept inside the furnace or unit so that the waste is burned quickly and

efficiently If the heat were allowed to escape the waste would not burn as

completely or as rapidly

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Control System

The plant is controlled at CCR (Central Control Room) by PLCs (Programmable

Logic Controllers) through fiber optic control line All control parameters are

received at LER (Local Equipment Room) via two optic fiber control lines One

being primary and other secondary operating in redundancy ie if primary fails

control shifts to secondary These control parameters are sent to CCR via single

optic fiber cable

Safety System

Wellheads and Gas Processing Plant have their own Fire amp Gas detection

systems emergency shutdown (ESD) Plant has a fault tolerant controller It is

based on Triple Modular Redundant (TMR) architecture manufactured by

Triconex The TMR system is based on three isolated parallel control systems

integrated into one system The system operates on a two out of three voting

principle which provides high integrity error free uninterrupted operation with no

single point of failure The TMR receives inputs from Process Sensors Manual

Switches Fire amp Gas Detectors Packaged Equipment Control Systems and

Product Exporting Facilities The TMR carries out cause and effect processing on

the data received and where necessary produces output signals Outputs from

the TMR are hard wired directly to ESD shutdown and blow down valve

solenoids motor control instrumentelectrical interfaces to control electrical

drives package equipment logic control systems manifold area as well as

telecoms

The operator in central control room is able to accept alarms and once the fault

has been cleared reset the input All the control systems are centralized to a

single interface All the PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers) communicate with

the servers and servers communicate with the clients through Ethernet connectivity

Centralization eases the navigation of different systems at a common interface

Emergency Shutdown

The ESD system receives inputs from field mounted instrumentation on the process

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and utility equipment and initiates executive actions appropriate to the level of ESD

The system is an Active system which is in standby and will activate when in an

alarm or fault condition The Kadanwari Gas Process Facility ESD system is

comprised of five (5) levels The emergency severity decreases with increasing ESD

level number

ESD 1

This shutdown level is automatically initiated by fire major gas leak or a detected

toxic atmosphere in the process area of the plant or manually from CCR A level 1

shutdown will cause all production to cease close all emergency shutdown

valves stop the process and shutdown of the main power generation The

emergency vent valves to the stack will open and in addition all equipment of zone 1

certified will be isolated This is the highest level of ESD and will cause the following

to occur

All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close All slowdown Valves (BDVs) on the process facility will open

All Main Gas Driven Generators will be tripped

Emergency Diesel Generator will start

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close Upper Master Valve

(UMV) Close

ESD 2

This shutdown level is activated automatically if a major process or utility failure

occurs or manually from CCR All production to the plant from the wellhead is

stopped All emergency shutdown valves trip to their fail safe position

Venting shall be as specified This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

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All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valve Close Wing Valves Close and Upper Master Valve(UMV) Close

ESD 3

The level 3 shutdown isolates and stops a single process train only Production

continues via the other train This ESD level is initiated by process conditions or

operator at local panel This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

ESD 3A Train 1 production to cease

ESD 3B Train 2 production to cease

All online wellhead choke valves go to minimum flow ie (1O )

ESD 4

A level 4 shutdown shall cease all production from an entire field either

Kadanwari or Miano upstream of the associated slug catchers ESD 4K for

Kadanwari amp ESD 4M for Miano This ESD level is initiated automatically by slug

catcher abnormal process conditions This level of ESD will cause the following

to occur

All SDVs close isolating the relevant slug catcher and its upstream gas

production facility from the Kadanwari Gas Processing Plant

All Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close and Upper MasterValves (UMV) of the relevant gas production facility Close

A parallel timer is provided to close within 10 second if not closed in given

time SSSV seals the well

ESD 5

A level 5 shutdown represents equipment shutdown for the protection of the

individual equipment without any change in the process This level of ESD is for the

protection of various pieces of equipment and is initiated by its own inputs eg

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frequently to limit liquid holdup and minimize the slug volumes of liquid which can

be generated by the system

Coating

Pigs may be used to apply internal pipe coatings such as epoxy coating

materials in operating pipelines Pigs may also be used with corrosion inhibitors

to distribute and coat the entire internal wetted perimeter

Inspection

Pigs are being used more frequently as inspection tools Gauging or sizing pigs

are typically run following the completion of new construction or line repair to

determine if there are any internal obstacles bends or buckles in the pipe Pigs

can also be equipped with cameras to allow viewing of the pipe internals

Electronic intelligent or smart ldquopigsrdquo that use magnetic and ultrasonic systems

have been developed and refined that locate and measure internal and external

corrosion pitting dents buckles and any other anomalies in the pipe wall

Intelligent pigs

The accuracy of location and measurement of anomalies by the intelligent pigs

has continued to improve Initially the electronics and power systems were so

large that intelligent pigs could be used only in lines 30 in and greater in size

The continued sophistication and miniaturization of the electronic systems used

in the intelligent pigs has allowed the development of smaller pigs that can be

used in small-diameter pipelines Newly enacted DOT pipeline-integrity

regulations and rules acknowledge the effectiveness of the intelligent pigs and

incorporate their use in the pipeline-integrity testing process

Compressors

A gas compressor is a mechanical device that increases the pressure of a gas by

reducing its volume Gas pressure is increased by forcing gas molecules together

to reduce gas volume When volume is reduced gas pressure increases

All gases have large spaces among their molecules These spaces could be

enhanced further and decreased by doing some work Work done which is used

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for the enhancement of these spaces is called expansion and work done to

minimize these spaces is called compression All gases while expansion

produces cooling effect and while compression of gases raises there

temperature Compression is a term used to force gases to occupy smaller

volumes by increasing their pressure Volume of gases is interlinked with

temperature and pressure of the gas which is cleared by 2 laws govern gas

compressions

Boyles Law

Charles Law

The main types of compressor are listed below

Front End Compressor

The plant currently processes gas from a number of wells The flow and pressure

from some of these wells (currently K-10 K-11 amp K-12) has declined and they

cannot be fed directly into the Central Processing Facility To recover the

maximum gas reserves from these wells a Front End Compressor is employed

The compressor is a two stage double acting gas engine driven reciprocating

(PT) compressor Double acting means that gas is compressed on each end of

the piston It normal operates with a speed range of 600 to 900 RPM and isequipped with four compressor cylinders two for each stage Each cylinder is

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also equipped with a variable volume head end pocket

In case of compressor emergency shutdown the production chokes and the

Upper Master Valves on the on line wells will close and operator will be notified in

central control room Sweet gas from gas distribution network is used to operate the

gas engine driver of the compressor package The detailed scheme of working is

shown in figure (page 22 )

PT Reciprocating Compressor

The mechanical cycle of piston tube reciprocating compressor comprises four

strokes the expansion stroke the intake stroke the compression stroke and the

discharge stroke

Expansion Stroke

As the piston moves back on the expansion stroke the chamber volume

increases and the pressure drop As the pressure drops the discharge valve

closes since there is greater pressure in the discharge line than in the chamber

Intake Stroke

As the piston moves back during the intake stroke the pressure decreases until it

is less than the pressure in the inlet line This higher intake pressure opens the

inlet valve and gas rushes into the cylinder equalizing the pressure there with

the intake pressure The compression chamber is now at or near the intake

pressure

Compression Stroke

The piston now starts the compression stroke by moving forward decreasing the

chamber volume and increasing the pressure The increased pressure is now

higher than the intake pressure causing the intake valve to close

Discharge Stroke

The piston continues to move to the left during the discharge stroke This creates

an increase in chamber pressure until it is greater than the discharge pressure

When this happens the Discharge valve opens and the compressed air from the

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cylinder goes into the discharge line The compression cycle is then repeated

from the stage

Compressor Capacity

The capacity of the compressor depends upon cylinder displacement That

displacement is simply the volume that the piston displaces (moves) as it travels

from one end of the cylinder to the other Capacity and displacement is equal to

the cross-sectional area of the cylinder times the length of the stroke

Lubrication and Cooling

Lubricating oil is circulated through the system by a gear pump which is chain

driven from the engine crank shaft The oil pump is mounted on the engine front

housing

The pump operates between 30 - 40 psig

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A circulating pump deliver cooling water to the water jackets in the cylinder block

flowing around the cylinder liners and is directed into the cylinder heads Each

cylinder head has water cooled exhaust elbows which outlet the water into the

water cooled exhausts From the end of engine the water flows to compressor

1st and 2nd stage cylinders and compressor lube oil cooler (LOwater heat

exchanger) The water from the compressor cylinder and lube oil cooler returns

to engine water cooled exhaust

Figure Flow diagram of Front End Compressor

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Centrifugal Compressor

Centrifugal compressors are machines in which velocity and pressure given to air

or gas in a radial direction by one or more impellers diffuser combination In a

centrifugal compressor the mechanical energy is increased by centrifugal action

The gas enters the suction eye of a high speed rotary element called the impeller

which carries radial vanes integrally cast in it As the impeller rotates the blades

of the impeller force the gas outward from the center the impeller to the outer rim

of impeller the increase in velocity of the gas creates a flow pressure area at the

eye of the impeller The gas at the outer rim of the impeller is forced in to a

passage way called a diffuser where the velocity decreases in the pressure of the

gas

Inlet

The inlet to a centrifugal compressor is typically a simple pipe It may include

features such as a valve and both pressure and temperature instrumentation

Centrifugal impeller

The key component that makes a compressor centrifugal is the centrifugal

impeller shown above It is the impellers rotating set of vanes (or blades) that

gradually raises the energy of the working gas This is identical to an axial

compressor with the exception that the gases can reach higher velocities and

energy levels through the impellers increasing radius

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Diffuser

The next key component to the simple centrifugal compressor is the diffuser

Downstream of the impeller in the flow path it is the diffusers responsibility to

convert the kinetic energy (high velocity) of the gas into pressure by gradually

slowing (diffusing) the gas velocity

SEPERATORS

A well-stream is a mixture of gases hydrocarbon liquids water solids and

contaminants Due to variations in pressure and temperature gases evolve from

the liquids water vapor condenses and some of the well-stream changes to liquid

and free gas The separation of well-stream fluids takes place in a separator This

pressure vessel is manufactured in three forms

1 horizontal

2 vertical

3 spherical

To help separation the vessel is normally designed with a series of internal

fittings These fittings are built into the separator to ensure total phase separation

of the well-stream

In gas plants separators are given alternative names due to the function they

perform in the process system A scrubber does a similar job to a knockout drum

However the scrubber usually separates a stream containing high gas-to-liquid

ratios The knockout drum is used where a high degree of liquids are entrained in

the gas

Fluid flow from a well can include gas condensable liquid vapors water water

vapor crude oil and solids As well-stream fluids reach ground level where

pressure is lower than in the reservoir the capacity of the liquid to hold gas in

solution decreases and gas separates out of the oil

Separation depends upon the effect of gravity to separate liquids For adequate

separation one fluid must be lighter than the other fluid For example distillates

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(gasoline kerosene etc) and crude oil will not separate in a vessel because they

tend to dissolve in each other Because a separator basically depends upon

gravity to separate the fluids the ease with which separation takes place

depends upon the difference in density of the fluids

Droplets of liquid will separate from gas provided

a) The gas remains in the separator long enough

b) The gas flow remains constant to provoke separation

The difference in density between a gas and liquid will therefore determine the

maximum flow rate of liquid in the vessel

Figure Two phase horizontal separator

Gas bubbles in the liquid will break out in some oil field applications in 30 to 60

seconds Consequently the separator is designed so that the liquid remains in

the vessel for 30 to 60 seconds The length of time that a liquid remains in the

vessel is called its residence time Residence time differs widely from field to field

depending upon viscosity and API Gravity

Another important factor which must be considered is temperature Generally a

decrease in operating temperature will increase the liquid recovery in a separator

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as the gas condenses By reducing the pressure on the fluid flash separation

occurs resulting in a flow through the separator which is controlled by external

instrumentation

COALESCENCE

Another important principle in fluid separation is that of coalescence This means

the coming together of liquid droplets created by the force of gravity

A common example of coalescing occurs when drops of water form on the

windshield of a car as it is driven in fog As the tiny drops or water which make up

the fog strike the windshield they combine and eventually form a drop large

enough to run down the glass

Several of the internal devices of a separator such as deflector plates

straightening vanes and even the vessel walls are forms of coalescers In each

vessel drops of liquid adhere to the surface of the device and combine with other

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drops until the drop is large enough to fall out The effectiveness of separation

will also depend upon the total amount of coalescing surface area that is present

There are many different types of separators used in the Oil amp Gas industry

Consequently separators are manufactured with one two or several internal

fittings depending on their use and quick removal of these fluids from the vessel

DEFLECTOR PLATES

These are fitted in front of the inlet to the separator and can be net or

dish-shaped Their purpose is to absorb the impact of the incoming fluids and to

encourage the separation of gas and liquids They also slow the flow rate of the

liquids through the vessel

WEIRS

A weir is a metal wall which is fitted across the inside of the vessel normally to a

height of 50 of the overall height of the separator Its purpose is to assist the

process of three phase separation The inlet fluids (oil plus water) are given time

to separate in the liquid accumulation section The water level (interface) is

normally controlled at 50 of the height of the weir Oil floating on the wateroverflows the weir and accumulates in the small oil compartment where it is

drawn off under level control

CENTRIFUGAL DEVICES

These are used in both vertical and horizontal separators for gas-liquid

separation The device imparts a swirling motion to the fluids entering the vessel

Centrifugal force causes the heavier liquids to travel outwards towards the walls

of the vessel and the lighter gases to flow up the centre Centrifugal devices are

also known as cyclones

VORTEX BREAKERS

When liquid flows through a drain outlet a vortex (whirlpool) will form This can

be seen when we pull the plug from a sink or bath tub The same would happen

as water and oil flow from the separator This condition a vortex could allow gas

to flow down the centre of the whirlpool and enter the liquid phase causing

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pressurizing of tanks etc To stop this happening vortex breakers are fitted to all

liquid outlets Although they come in a number of different designs vortex

breakers all serve the same purpose - to prevent a whirlpool from forming

MIST OR DEMISTER PADS

The gas which is released from the fluids in the separator still contains droplets of

oil and water which coalesce and fall when the drops get large enough The

demister pad assists in this process Made from knitted wire and contained within

a sturdy frame it causes the gas to continually change its direction of flow

Because gas changes direction far easier than liquid the gas will flow around

each strand of wire whilst the liquid entrained in the gas stream will continue and

stick to the wire

COALESCING PLATES

There are several different forms of coalescing devices the most common of

which are coalescing plates These plates are mounted in the flow stream of the

fluids and assist in breaking down oil-water emulsions The fluid is forced to

follow a path that constantly changes direction This causes the water droplets to

gather together or coalesce and fall to the bottom of the separator The same

principle is used to separate gas and oil mixtures when the oil droplets are

induced to coalesce Simply stated every surface within the separator including

the separator walls assists with the coalescing process

STRAIGHTENlNG VANES

These are often fitted to horizontal separators to remove turbulence in the gas

stream after initial separation at the inlet deflector

FLOAT SHEILD

Internal floats are used as level controllers Any agitation of the liquid surface or

the effect of coalesced liquids falling on the float may cause control problems

Therefore a float shield is fitted to enclose the float creating an area of still liquid

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MEMBRANES

The gas contains 12 carbon dioxide and 22 ppm of hydrogen sulphide at 115oF

and 1100 psig This needs to be removed before the gas can be exported The

majority of carbon dioxide hydrogen sulphide and water is removed by means of

membranes

Membranes are thin semipermeable barriers that selectively separate some

compounds from others Currently the only commercially workable membranes

used for CO2 removal are polymer based for example cellulose acetate

polyimides polyamides polysulfone polycarbonates and polyetherimide The

membrane does not operate as a filter where small molecules are separated

from larger ones through a medium with pores rather it separates based on how

well different compounds dissolve into the membrane and diffuse through it The

membranes are manufactured in flat sheets consisting of an extremely thin

nonporous layer mounted on a much-thicker and highly porous layer of the same

material providing mechanical strength The flat sheets are combined into a

spiral-wound element (Figure below) Feed gas enters along the side of the

membrane and passes through the feed spacers As the gas travels between

membrane sheets CO2 H2S and H2O permeate through the membrane and are

collected in the permeate tube The driving force for transport is the high-feed

pressure and low-permeate pressures The gas on the feed side that does not

permeate leaves through the side of the element opposite the feed position Once

the membranes have been manufactured into elements six to 12 elements are

joined together and inserted into a tube Multiple tubes are mounted on skids in a

horizontal orientation

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Figure Membrane general Working

In high H2S applications most polymers have been shown to have very little

resistance to H2S plasticization (ldquosofteningrdquo of the membrane) and as a

consequence can only be used at very low H2S partial pressure limits Cellulose

acetate membranes in contrast have been shown to be applicable at extreme

H2S partial pressure conditions It is these membranes that have been utilized in

the testing to determine the limits of membrane performance in high H 2S

applications

The primary membranes used in Kadanwari facility are Cellulose acetate

Cellulose acetic acid and acetic anhydride are mixed together and reacted to

form cellulose acetate polymers This process is aided by the addition of a small

amount of sulfuric acid which is subsequently neutralized during processing

However the membranes are bought from UOP (vendor) and installed for use

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How membrane work

The basic principle of separation is selectivity of certain components of a mixture

for the membrane For example the cellulose acetate membrane has very high

selectivity for CO2 and H2S as compared to CH4 Therefore such type of

membrane can be used in gas sweetening process

The selectivity is directly related to the Permeability of gas which accounts that

which gas can pass across the membrane more easily In simple words

membranes being polymer materials are made of long chains of molecules The

different structure of polymer materials only allow selective molecules to pass

through them depending upon chemical and physical compatibility Thus

permeability depends upon choice of polymer

The permeability is determined by permeability coefficient (P) and is product of

solubility (S) and diffusivity (D)

P = S D

Solubility

The solubility is mainly determined by ease of condensation Heavy molecules

are more readily condensed Therefore higher molecular weighted molecules will

more easily condensed and therefore have greater solubility

Molecule Molecular weight

CH4 16

H2S 34

CO2 44

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Diffusivity

Diffusivity is ease of molecule to penetrate into some material It depends on size

of gas molecule Here size of molecule is not to be confused by molecular weight

it is the size of the structure Eg the size of O2 molecule is smaller than N2

Molecule Molecular Diameter (Ao)

CO2 33

H2S 36

Ch4 40

For cellulose acetate

DCO2DCH4 S CO2S CH4 P CO2P CH4

45 73 308

Chemical degradation

Cellulose acetate polymer is chemically degraded by a process called hydrolysis

which means breaking apart by the addition of water This is a chemical reaction

in which water is added to the cellulose acetate polymer causing the release of

acetic acid molecules This process proceeds stepwise until all the acetate

groups are released resulting in the reformation of cellulose Moreover alcohols

aromatic hydrocarbons or solvents with chlorine nitro benzene or similar

aromatic solvents will harm the membrane It will expand and lose plastification in

contact with them

Effect of Temperature

The permeation rates of all gases increases with increasing temperature

however membrane selectivity for CO2 over hydrocarbon decreases at higher

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temperature Consequently CO2 removal will improve as operating temperature

increases but hydro carbon recovery will decrease

Primary Membrane

The primary membranes comprise of two trains Each train consists of two

sections AB and CD each section consists of a 30 tube membrane skid (A and

C) followed by a 25 tube skid (B and D) The conditioned gas (after pre-

treatment) enters the primary membrane via the particulate filter adjacent to the

skid The gas is fed to the membranes through a common inlet manifold which

supplies primary membranes skids A and C A pressure control loop located

upstream of the manual inlet isolation valve is provided to maintain a constant

supply pressure to the membrane skid and to allow for preheating at the inlet

prior to skid start-up This pressure control loop can also be used during start-up

to control the pressurization of the pretreatment skid and associated pipes to the

primary membranes

The gas passes through membrane skid A the residual gas exiting the membrane

skid is sent to skid B and the permeate to common permeate discharge header An

identical arrangement is provide on the inlet to skid C as provided on skid A Theresidual gas from skid B combines with the residual gas from skid D in a common

discharge header and is then sent to the H2S polishing towers via the feed coolers

on the pre-treatment skid The permeate from skid B is sent to the common

permeate discharge header The permeate discharge header sends the gas to

either the recycle compressor or the vent header via a pressure control loop

Overpressure protection for the membranes is provided by a pressure safety valve

on the supply header to the membrane banks

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Secondary (Recycle) Membrane

The recycle membranes comprise of a single train with two skids each with four

banks of membrane tubes The conditioned gas from the discharge of the recycle

pre-treatment skid is routed to the first recycle membrane skid The gas passes

through the membranes the residual gas is fed to primary membrane (skid A) inlet

via feed gas cooler and permeate to the common permeate discharge header An

identical arrangement is provide on the inlet to skid B Permeate from the recycle

membrane skids A and B is routed to the vent header Some portion of permeate is

heated and sent for regeneration in Mem-Guard units Nitrogen purge can be

connected downstream of the inlet isolation valve on each skid to enable the

membrane tubes to be purged and left pressurized during prolonged shutdown

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Figure Flow Diagram of Recycle membrane unit

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ADVANTAGES OF MEMBRANE SYSTEMS

Membrane systems have major advantages over more-traditional methods of

acid gas removal

Lower capital cost Membrane systems are skid mounted and so the

scope cost and time taken for site preparation are minimal Installation

costs are significantly lower than alternative technologies especially for

remote areas Furthermore no additional facilities for solvent storage and

water treatment needed by other processes are required

Lower operating costs The only major operating cost for single-stage

membrane systems is membrane replacement This cost is significantly

lower than the solvent replacement and energy costs associated with

traditional technologies The improvements in membrane and

pretreatment design allow a longer useful membrane life which further

reduces operating costs The energy costs of multistage systems with

large recycle compressors are usually comparable to those for traditionaltechnologies

Deferred capital investment Often contracted sales-gas flow rates

increase over time as more wells are brought on-line With traditional

technologies the system design needs to take this later production into

account immediately and so the majority of the equipment is installed

before it is even needed The modular nature of membrane systems

means that only the membranes that are needed at start-up need be

installed The rest can be added either into existing tubes or in new skids

only when they are required

Operational simplicity and high reliability Because single-stage

membrane systems have no moving parts they have almost no

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unscheduled downtime and are extremely simple to operate They can

operate unattended for long periods of time The addition of a recycle

compressor adds some complexity to the system but still much less than

with a solvent- or adsorbent-based technology Multistage systems can be

operated at full capacity as single-stage systems when the recycle

compressor is down

Good weight and space efficiency Skid construction can be optimized

to the space available This space efficiency is especially important for

offshore environments where deck area is at a premium and is the

reason why so many new offshore developments have chosen to use

membranes for acid gas removal Figure 6 illustrates the space efficiency

of membrane systems The membrane unit in the lower left corner

replaced all the amine and glycol plant equipment shown in the rest of the

picture

Adaptability Because membrane area is dictated by the percentage of

acid gas removal rather than absolute acid gas removal small variations

in feed acid gas content hardly change the sales-gas acid gas

specification For example a system designed for 10 down to 3 acid

gas removal produces a 35 product from a 12 feed gas and a 5

product from a 15 feed gas

Design efficiency The membrane and pretreatment systems integrate a

number of operations such as dehydration CO2 and H2S removal dew-

point control and mercury removal Traditional acid gas removal

technologies require all of these operations as separate processes and

may also require additional dehydration because some technologies

saturate the product stream with water

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Power generation The permeate gas from membrane systems can be

used to provide fuel gas for power generation either for a recycle

compressor or other equipment

Ideal for debottlenecking Because expanding solvent- or adsorbent-

based acid gas removal plants without adding additional trains is difficult

an ideal solution is to use membranes for bulk acid gas removal and leave

the existing plant for final cleanup An additional advantage is that the

permeate gas from the membrane system can often be used as fuel for

the existing plant thus avoiding significant increase in hydrocarbon

losses

Environmentally friendly Membrane systems do not involve the

periodic removal and handling of spent solvents or adsorbents Permeate

gases can be flared used as fuel or re-injected into the well Items thatdo need disposal such as spent membrane elements can be incinerated

Ideal for remote locations Many of the factors mentioned above make

membrane systems a highly desirable technology for remote locations

where spare parts are rare and labor unskilled Furthermore solvents

storage and trucking water supply power generation or extensive

infrastructure are not required

Re-injection optimizations Since the permeate stream from the

membrane system can be operated at elevated pressures it is possible to

further pressurize by re-injection compression train

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Sorption

Sorption is a physical and chemical process by which one substance becomes

attached to another

It is of two main types

1 Absorption

2 Adsorption

Absorption

Absorption is a physical or chemical phenomenon or process in which atoms

molecules or ions enter some bulk phase ndash gas liquid or solid material This is a

different process from adsorption since molecules undergoing absorption are

taken up by the volume not by the surface (as in the case for adsorption)

Absorption process may be chemical (reactive) or physical (non-reactive)

Physical absorption

Physical absorption or non-reactive absorption is made between two phases ofmatter a liquid absorbs a gas or a solid absorbs a liquid

When a liquid solvent absorbs a gas mixture or part of it a mass of gas moves

into the liquid For example water may absorb oxygen from the air This mass

transfer takes place at the interface between the liquid and the gas at a rate

depending on both the gas and the liquid This type of absorption depends on the

solubility of gases the pressure and the temperature The rate and amount of

absorption also depend on the surface area of the interface and its duration in

time

When a solid absorbs a liquid mixture or part of it a mass of liquid moves into the

solid For example a clay pot used to store water may absorb some of the water

This mass transfer takes place at the interface between the solid and the liquid

at a rate depending on both the solid and the liquid

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Chemical absorption

Chemical absorption or reactive absorption is a chemical reaction between the

absorbed and the absorbing substances Sometimes it combines with physical

absorption This type of absorption depends upon the stoichiometry of the

reaction and the concentration of its reactants

Adsorption

Adsorption is the adhesion of atoms ions or molecules from a gas liquid or

dissolved solid to a surface This process creates a film of the adsorbate on the

surface of the adsorbent The binding to the surface is usually weak and

reversible Compounds with color and those that have taste or odor tend to bind

strongly Compounds that vibrate at frequencies in the visible spectrum are very

often are strongly adsorbed on activated carbon

The most common industrial adsorbents are activated carbon silica gel and

alumina because they present enormous surface areas per unit weight

Depending on the nature of attractive forces existing between the adsorbate and

adsorbent adsorption can be classified as

i) Physical adsorption

ii) Chemical adsorption

i) Physical adsorption (Physisorption)

In physical adsorption the forces of attraction between the molecules of the

adsorbate and the adsorbent are of the weak van der Waals type Since the

forces of attraction are weak the process of physisorption can be easily reversed

by heating or decreasing the pressure of the adsorbate (as in the case of gases)

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ii) Chemical adsorption (Chemisorption)

In chemisorption the forces of attraction between the adsorbate and the

adsorbent are very strong the molecules of adsorbate form chemical bonds with

the molecules of the adsorbent present in the surface

Adsorption is generally accompanied by release of energy that is most

adsorption processes are exothermic in nature Adsorption is a spontaneous

process therefore its free energy change is negative (∆Glt0) However the

entropy change associated with adsorption is generally negative because the

adsorbate molecules lose their translation freedom when they get attached to the

surface of the adsorbent Therefore in order for ∆G to be negative the enthalpy

change (∆H) must be sufficiently negative such that (∆G=∆H-T∆S) lt 0 This

explanation accounts for exothermic adsorption processes In cases where

endothermic adsorption occurs the entropy change ∆S is sufficiently positive

such that ∆G remains negative

Pre treatment

The main function of pretreatment skid is to provide membrane inlet specification

gas as mentioned by the vendor UOP It removes the contaminants that would

poison the membranes like dust solids (adsorbent particles) lube oil heavy

hydrocarbons etc It consists of

Feed Cooler

Feed Gas Scrubber

Filter Coalescer

Feed Gas Heater

Activated Carbon Guard Filter

Particle Filter

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The regeneration is carried out by heated permeate gas from the recycle

membranes at 450oF The vessel is depressurized to 20 psi and heated gas is

introduced from top The gas carries out the adsorbed contaminants and leaves

the vessel from bottom cleaning the adsorbent This contaminated gas is burnt in

the flare

UOP the vendor of Memguard unit has never disclosed that what substance

MG3 and MG5 exactly are But as mentioned by vendor that both care class of

aluminosilicates Therefore MG3 can be potassium aluminosilicate and MG5 can

be Calcium aluminosilicate These are molecular sieves adsorbents Molecular

sieves are a microporous material which can selectively adsorb gases andliquids They are synthetic zeolites (crystalline metal aluminosilicates) which

upon dehydration can efficiently and selectively remove water or other

solvents The selectivity of a molecular sieve is determined by its pore size

molecules with a critical diameter which is less than the pore size will be

efficiently adsorbed while larger molecules will be excluded

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3A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

The 3A molecular sieve adsorbent has a 3 angstrom (3A) pore size which means

that any molecule that is larger than the 3 angstrom pores will not be adsorbed

The 3A molecular sieve is the potassium type of A crystalline structure and is a

form of alkali Aluminosilicate For a 3A molecular sieve the sequence rate that

adsorption occurs is He Ne N and H2O

Due to the crystalline structure molecular sieves that have a 3 angstrom pore

size have a very high rate of adsorption and properties that promote a longer life

for products treated by the sieve The most common use for the 3A molecular

sieve is to remove water and moisture from materials that are in gas and liquid

form

5A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

These are molecular sieve adsorbents with a pore size of 5 angstrom (5A) 5A

molecular sieves are unable to adsorb any molecules or impurities that are

smaller than 5A It is calcium form of type A crystalline structure and is form of analkali-aluminosilicate that is most commonly used to separate isomerous alkanes

from normal alkanes and to co-adsorb moisture and water along with carbon

dioxide from gases In additional 5A molecular sieves are used for gaseous

pressure swing adsorption (PSA)mdashthat is to separate particular gases from other

gases

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of C3H8 to C22H46

Adsorption of Freon-12 (dichlorodifluoromethane)

Natural gas drying

Normal- and iso-paraffin separation

Separation of aromatic

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Inlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1096

MEHTANE 8593

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008

N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGEN 076

WATER 007

Outlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1098

MEHTANE 8608

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGENT 076

WATER 000

H2S polisher

The H2S polishing unit has been designed to treat 187 MMscfday of natural gas

containing up to 11 CO2 and 21 ppm H2S where the level of the CO2 and H2S

is reduced using a MemGuard Membrane separation unit The unit is situated

down-stream of the membrane unit and will further reduce the level of H2S in the

processed gas to a sales gas specification of 38 ppm

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This process uses three non-regenerable fixed bed absorber vessels using a low

temperature high activity absorbent The absorbent is a mixture of activated

metal oxides (mainly zinc oxide) The three towers can are generally operated in

parallel arrangement but on demand can be used in series (any of alternate

arrangements of A B C vessels) as shown in figure

The higher sales gas flow rate increased the catalyst consumption and

replacement frequency

ZnO + H2S =gt ZnS + H20

Routine samples are taken from the beds to provide a check on each bed

performance and to follow the saturation profile during the absorbent life After

the adsorbent has been fully utilized the adsorption vessels are recharged with

new adsorbent discarding the utilized one in a safe manner

109oF

1215 psig

Before H2S Polishing After H2S Polishing

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Figure

H2S Tower

Inlet pipe

4 Drums of 19mm

ceramic Balls

6 Micron mesh

5 Drums of 50mmceramic

1 Drums of19mm ceramic

01 Drums of6mm ceramic

112 drums of

Catalist ZnO

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Recycle Compressor

The permeate gas of the primary membrane unit carries recoverable amount of

CH4 It is fed to recycle membrane unit for further CH 4 recovery But the

permeate pressure from primary membranes which has been reduced to 12 psi

must be regenerated to 1200 psi for the gas to be fed again to the system For

this purpose we have employed recycle compressor The compressor is a four

stage centrifugal compressor It is driven by gas turbine of 31200 HP It has 25

MW producing capacity

Figure Recycle Compressor Process Flow Diagram

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Sales Gas Compressor

Gas from H2S polishing unit is sent to sales gas compressor where its pressure

is enhanced to 1100 psi so it may be injected to SNGPL high pressure trunk line

Sales gas compressor is single stage gas turbine driven

Figure Process Flow of Sales Gas Compressor

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Cooling Towers

A cooling tower is a heat rejection device which extracts waste heat to theatmosphere through the cooling of a water stream to a lower temperature Hot

water from the system enters the cooling tower and is distributed over the fill

(heat transfer surface) Air is induced or forced through the fill causing a small

portion of the water to evaporate This evaporation removes heat from the

remaining water which is collected in the cold water basin and returned to the

system to absorb more heat Each cooling tower line although operating under

the same basic principle of operation is arranged a little differently

Types

Natural draft mdash Utilizes buoyancy via a tall chimney Warm moist air naturally

rises due to the density differential compared to the dry cooler outside air Warm

moist air is less dense than drier air at the same pressure This moist air

buoyancy produces an upwards current of air through the tower

Mechanical draft mdash Uses power-driven fan motors to force or draw airthrough the tower

o Induced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a fan at the

discharge (at the top) which pulls air up through the tower The fan

induces hot moist air out the discharge This produces low entering

and high exiting air velocities reducing the possibility of

recirculation in which discharged air flows back into the air intake

o Forced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a blower type fan at

the intake The fan forces air into the tower creating high entering

and low exiting air velocities The low exiting velocity is much more

susceptible to recirculation This fanfill geometry is also known as

blow-through

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Forced Draft Cooling Tower Vs Induced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower have the ability to handle large water flow

rate than Forced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower is suitable for large cell sizes and fan sizes

as compared with Forced Draft Larger fan size may result in greater

efficiency and consequently lower power and sound level

Forced Draft Cooling Tower can be square or rectangular type only

however Induced Draft Cooling Towers can be round square or

rectangular type

Induced Draft Cooling Tower uses more compact ground area than Forced

Draft Cooling Tower equivalent capacity due to absence of fan on one

side

Fan equipment is warm exhaust air is less liable to icing up in winter

operation (Cold Countries)

Higher velocity in Forced Draft Cooling Tower cause drop in suspension

and cause additional static resistance to system

Configuration

There are two main configurations of factory assembled cooling towers crossflow

and counterflow In crossflow cooling towers the water flows vertically down the

fill as air flows horizontally across In counterflow cooling towers the water flows

vertically down the fill as air flows vertically up

Crossflow Configuration Counterflow Configuration

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Drift mdash Water droplets that are carried out of the cooling tower with the exhaust

air Drift droplets have the same concentration of impurities as the water entering

the tower The drift rate is typically reduced by employing baffle-like devices

called drift eliminators through which the air must travel after leaving the fill and

spray zones of the tower

Blow-out mdash Water droplets blown out of the cooling tower by wind generally at

the air inlet openings Water may also be lost in the absence of wind through

splashing or misting Devices such as wind screens louvers splash deflectors

and water diverters are used to limit these losses

Blow-down mdash The portion of the circulating water flow that is removed (usually

discharged to a drain) in order to maintain the amount of Total Dissolved Solids

(TDS) and other impurities at an acceptably low level Higher TDS concentration

in solution may result from greater cooling tower efficiency However the higher

the TDS concentration the greater the risk of scale biological growth and

corrosion

Make-up mdash The water that must be added to the circulating water system in

order to compensate for water losses such as evaporation drift loss blow-out

blow-down etc

Approach mdash The approach is the difference in temperature between the cooled-

water temperature and the entering-air wet bulb temperature

Range mdash The range is the temperature difference between the warm water inlet

and cooled water exit

Fill mdash Inside the tower fills are added to increase contact surface as well as

contact time between air and water to provide better heat transfer The efficiency

of the tower depends on the selection and amount of fill

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There are two types of fills that may be used

o Film type fill (causes water to spread into a thin film)

o Splash type fill (breaks up falling stream of water and interrupts its

vertical progress)

Important

Scale build up is controlled by adding chemicals to the cooling loop and diluting

the concentration by blow down and make-up Following chemicals are added to

the Cooling to control CorrosionSale and microbial growth

Corrosion Inhibitor To control corrosion in the Cooling system

Dispersant To kept ions in suspension to avoid settle down and buildup

Sodium hypo Chlorite To Control microbial Growth

Acid To control Alkalinity in the system

High Stress Polymer To run the system at higher conductivity It is a

multifunctional polymer for Zinc amp Phosphate stabilization in cooling tower

Fin Fan Cooler

Fin fan heat exchanger is simply a pressure vessel which cools a circulating fluid

within finned tubes by forcing ambient air over the exterior of the tubes A

common example of an air cooler is a carrsquos radiator Fin Fan Coolers are used in

any application where large quantities of heat need to be transferred This

includes chemical and petrochemical industries power stations waste-to-energy

facilities as well as steelworks

Fin Fan Cooler are used for two primary reasons

They increase plant efficiency

They are a green solution as compared to cooling towers and shell and

tube heat exchangers because they do not require an auxiliary water

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supply (water lost due to drift and evaporation plus no water treatment

chemicals are required)

Figure General Overview of Fin Fan Cooler

Produced Water

The produced water system receives liquid from the equipment Miano slug

catcher train 1 and 2 inlet separators and is fed to three phase separator where

water oil and gas is separated The gases produced are burnt in incinerator

whereas hydrocarbon liquid is stored to be sold Liquid from compressors

recycle inlet separator recycle feed scrubber high and low pressure slug

catchers is passed to degasser Separated water is injected down the earth

Incinerator

The term incinerate means to burn something until nothing is left but ashes An

incinerator is a unit or facility used to burn trash and other types of waste until it is

reduced to ash An incinerator is constructed of heavy well-insulated materials

so that it does not give off extreme amounts of external heat The high levels of

heat are kept inside the furnace or unit so that the waste is burned quickly and

efficiently If the heat were allowed to escape the waste would not burn as

completely or as rapidly

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Control System

The plant is controlled at CCR (Central Control Room) by PLCs (Programmable

Logic Controllers) through fiber optic control line All control parameters are

received at LER (Local Equipment Room) via two optic fiber control lines One

being primary and other secondary operating in redundancy ie if primary fails

control shifts to secondary These control parameters are sent to CCR via single

optic fiber cable

Safety System

Wellheads and Gas Processing Plant have their own Fire amp Gas detection

systems emergency shutdown (ESD) Plant has a fault tolerant controller It is

based on Triple Modular Redundant (TMR) architecture manufactured by

Triconex The TMR system is based on three isolated parallel control systems

integrated into one system The system operates on a two out of three voting

principle which provides high integrity error free uninterrupted operation with no

single point of failure The TMR receives inputs from Process Sensors Manual

Switches Fire amp Gas Detectors Packaged Equipment Control Systems and

Product Exporting Facilities The TMR carries out cause and effect processing on

the data received and where necessary produces output signals Outputs from

the TMR are hard wired directly to ESD shutdown and blow down valve

solenoids motor control instrumentelectrical interfaces to control electrical

drives package equipment logic control systems manifold area as well as

telecoms

The operator in central control room is able to accept alarms and once the fault

has been cleared reset the input All the control systems are centralized to a

single interface All the PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers) communicate with

the servers and servers communicate with the clients through Ethernet connectivity

Centralization eases the navigation of different systems at a common interface

Emergency Shutdown

The ESD system receives inputs from field mounted instrumentation on the process

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and utility equipment and initiates executive actions appropriate to the level of ESD

The system is an Active system which is in standby and will activate when in an

alarm or fault condition The Kadanwari Gas Process Facility ESD system is

comprised of five (5) levels The emergency severity decreases with increasing ESD

level number

ESD 1

This shutdown level is automatically initiated by fire major gas leak or a detected

toxic atmosphere in the process area of the plant or manually from CCR A level 1

shutdown will cause all production to cease close all emergency shutdown

valves stop the process and shutdown of the main power generation The

emergency vent valves to the stack will open and in addition all equipment of zone 1

certified will be isolated This is the highest level of ESD and will cause the following

to occur

All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close All slowdown Valves (BDVs) on the process facility will open

All Main Gas Driven Generators will be tripped

Emergency Diesel Generator will start

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close Upper Master Valve

(UMV) Close

ESD 2

This shutdown level is activated automatically if a major process or utility failure

occurs or manually from CCR All production to the plant from the wellhead is

stopped All emergency shutdown valves trip to their fail safe position

Venting shall be as specified This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

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All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valve Close Wing Valves Close and Upper Master Valve(UMV) Close

ESD 3

The level 3 shutdown isolates and stops a single process train only Production

continues via the other train This ESD level is initiated by process conditions or

operator at local panel This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

ESD 3A Train 1 production to cease

ESD 3B Train 2 production to cease

All online wellhead choke valves go to minimum flow ie (1O )

ESD 4

A level 4 shutdown shall cease all production from an entire field either

Kadanwari or Miano upstream of the associated slug catchers ESD 4K for

Kadanwari amp ESD 4M for Miano This ESD level is initiated automatically by slug

catcher abnormal process conditions This level of ESD will cause the following

to occur

All SDVs close isolating the relevant slug catcher and its upstream gas

production facility from the Kadanwari Gas Processing Plant

All Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close and Upper MasterValves (UMV) of the relevant gas production facility Close

A parallel timer is provided to close within 10 second if not closed in given

time SSSV seals the well

ESD 5

A level 5 shutdown represents equipment shutdown for the protection of the

individual equipment without any change in the process This level of ESD is for the

protection of various pieces of equipment and is initiated by its own inputs eg

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frequently to limit liquid holdup and minimize the slug volumes of liquid which can

be generated by the system

Coating

Pigs may be used to apply internal pipe coatings such as epoxy coating

materials in operating pipelines Pigs may also be used with corrosion inhibitors

to distribute and coat the entire internal wetted perimeter

Inspection

Pigs are being used more frequently as inspection tools Gauging or sizing pigs

are typically run following the completion of new construction or line repair to

determine if there are any internal obstacles bends or buckles in the pipe Pigs

can also be equipped with cameras to allow viewing of the pipe internals

Electronic intelligent or smart ldquopigsrdquo that use magnetic and ultrasonic systems

have been developed and refined that locate and measure internal and external

corrosion pitting dents buckles and any other anomalies in the pipe wall

Intelligent pigs

The accuracy of location and measurement of anomalies by the intelligent pigs

has continued to improve Initially the electronics and power systems were so

large that intelligent pigs could be used only in lines 30 in and greater in size

The continued sophistication and miniaturization of the electronic systems used

in the intelligent pigs has allowed the development of smaller pigs that can be

used in small-diameter pipelines Newly enacted DOT pipeline-integrity

regulations and rules acknowledge the effectiveness of the intelligent pigs and

incorporate their use in the pipeline-integrity testing process

Compressors

A gas compressor is a mechanical device that increases the pressure of a gas by

reducing its volume Gas pressure is increased by forcing gas molecules together

to reduce gas volume When volume is reduced gas pressure increases

All gases have large spaces among their molecules These spaces could be

enhanced further and decreased by doing some work Work done which is used

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for the enhancement of these spaces is called expansion and work done to

minimize these spaces is called compression All gases while expansion

produces cooling effect and while compression of gases raises there

temperature Compression is a term used to force gases to occupy smaller

volumes by increasing their pressure Volume of gases is interlinked with

temperature and pressure of the gas which is cleared by 2 laws govern gas

compressions

Boyles Law

Charles Law

The main types of compressor are listed below

Front End Compressor

The plant currently processes gas from a number of wells The flow and pressure

from some of these wells (currently K-10 K-11 amp K-12) has declined and they

cannot be fed directly into the Central Processing Facility To recover the

maximum gas reserves from these wells a Front End Compressor is employed

The compressor is a two stage double acting gas engine driven reciprocating

(PT) compressor Double acting means that gas is compressed on each end of

the piston It normal operates with a speed range of 600 to 900 RPM and isequipped with four compressor cylinders two for each stage Each cylinder is

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also equipped with a variable volume head end pocket

In case of compressor emergency shutdown the production chokes and the

Upper Master Valves on the on line wells will close and operator will be notified in

central control room Sweet gas from gas distribution network is used to operate the

gas engine driver of the compressor package The detailed scheme of working is

shown in figure (page 22 )

PT Reciprocating Compressor

The mechanical cycle of piston tube reciprocating compressor comprises four

strokes the expansion stroke the intake stroke the compression stroke and the

discharge stroke

Expansion Stroke

As the piston moves back on the expansion stroke the chamber volume

increases and the pressure drop As the pressure drops the discharge valve

closes since there is greater pressure in the discharge line than in the chamber

Intake Stroke

As the piston moves back during the intake stroke the pressure decreases until it

is less than the pressure in the inlet line This higher intake pressure opens the

inlet valve and gas rushes into the cylinder equalizing the pressure there with

the intake pressure The compression chamber is now at or near the intake

pressure

Compression Stroke

The piston now starts the compression stroke by moving forward decreasing the

chamber volume and increasing the pressure The increased pressure is now

higher than the intake pressure causing the intake valve to close

Discharge Stroke

The piston continues to move to the left during the discharge stroke This creates

an increase in chamber pressure until it is greater than the discharge pressure

When this happens the Discharge valve opens and the compressed air from the

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cylinder goes into the discharge line The compression cycle is then repeated

from the stage

Compressor Capacity

The capacity of the compressor depends upon cylinder displacement That

displacement is simply the volume that the piston displaces (moves) as it travels

from one end of the cylinder to the other Capacity and displacement is equal to

the cross-sectional area of the cylinder times the length of the stroke

Lubrication and Cooling

Lubricating oil is circulated through the system by a gear pump which is chain

driven from the engine crank shaft The oil pump is mounted on the engine front

housing

The pump operates between 30 - 40 psig

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A circulating pump deliver cooling water to the water jackets in the cylinder block

flowing around the cylinder liners and is directed into the cylinder heads Each

cylinder head has water cooled exhaust elbows which outlet the water into the

water cooled exhausts From the end of engine the water flows to compressor

1st and 2nd stage cylinders and compressor lube oil cooler (LOwater heat

exchanger) The water from the compressor cylinder and lube oil cooler returns

to engine water cooled exhaust

Figure Flow diagram of Front End Compressor

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Centrifugal Compressor

Centrifugal compressors are machines in which velocity and pressure given to air

or gas in a radial direction by one or more impellers diffuser combination In a

centrifugal compressor the mechanical energy is increased by centrifugal action

The gas enters the suction eye of a high speed rotary element called the impeller

which carries radial vanes integrally cast in it As the impeller rotates the blades

of the impeller force the gas outward from the center the impeller to the outer rim

of impeller the increase in velocity of the gas creates a flow pressure area at the

eye of the impeller The gas at the outer rim of the impeller is forced in to a

passage way called a diffuser where the velocity decreases in the pressure of the

gas

Inlet

The inlet to a centrifugal compressor is typically a simple pipe It may include

features such as a valve and both pressure and temperature instrumentation

Centrifugal impeller

The key component that makes a compressor centrifugal is the centrifugal

impeller shown above It is the impellers rotating set of vanes (or blades) that

gradually raises the energy of the working gas This is identical to an axial

compressor with the exception that the gases can reach higher velocities and

energy levels through the impellers increasing radius

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Diffuser

The next key component to the simple centrifugal compressor is the diffuser

Downstream of the impeller in the flow path it is the diffusers responsibility to

convert the kinetic energy (high velocity) of the gas into pressure by gradually

slowing (diffusing) the gas velocity

SEPERATORS

A well-stream is a mixture of gases hydrocarbon liquids water solids and

contaminants Due to variations in pressure and temperature gases evolve from

the liquids water vapor condenses and some of the well-stream changes to liquid

and free gas The separation of well-stream fluids takes place in a separator This

pressure vessel is manufactured in three forms

1 horizontal

2 vertical

3 spherical

To help separation the vessel is normally designed with a series of internal

fittings These fittings are built into the separator to ensure total phase separation

of the well-stream

In gas plants separators are given alternative names due to the function they

perform in the process system A scrubber does a similar job to a knockout drum

However the scrubber usually separates a stream containing high gas-to-liquid

ratios The knockout drum is used where a high degree of liquids are entrained in

the gas

Fluid flow from a well can include gas condensable liquid vapors water water

vapor crude oil and solids As well-stream fluids reach ground level where

pressure is lower than in the reservoir the capacity of the liquid to hold gas in

solution decreases and gas separates out of the oil

Separation depends upon the effect of gravity to separate liquids For adequate

separation one fluid must be lighter than the other fluid For example distillates

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(gasoline kerosene etc) and crude oil will not separate in a vessel because they

tend to dissolve in each other Because a separator basically depends upon

gravity to separate the fluids the ease with which separation takes place

depends upon the difference in density of the fluids

Droplets of liquid will separate from gas provided

a) The gas remains in the separator long enough

b) The gas flow remains constant to provoke separation

The difference in density between a gas and liquid will therefore determine the

maximum flow rate of liquid in the vessel

Figure Two phase horizontal separator

Gas bubbles in the liquid will break out in some oil field applications in 30 to 60

seconds Consequently the separator is designed so that the liquid remains in

the vessel for 30 to 60 seconds The length of time that a liquid remains in the

vessel is called its residence time Residence time differs widely from field to field

depending upon viscosity and API Gravity

Another important factor which must be considered is temperature Generally a

decrease in operating temperature will increase the liquid recovery in a separator

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as the gas condenses By reducing the pressure on the fluid flash separation

occurs resulting in a flow through the separator which is controlled by external

instrumentation

COALESCENCE

Another important principle in fluid separation is that of coalescence This means

the coming together of liquid droplets created by the force of gravity

A common example of coalescing occurs when drops of water form on the

windshield of a car as it is driven in fog As the tiny drops or water which make up

the fog strike the windshield they combine and eventually form a drop large

enough to run down the glass

Several of the internal devices of a separator such as deflector plates

straightening vanes and even the vessel walls are forms of coalescers In each

vessel drops of liquid adhere to the surface of the device and combine with other

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drops until the drop is large enough to fall out The effectiveness of separation

will also depend upon the total amount of coalescing surface area that is present

There are many different types of separators used in the Oil amp Gas industry

Consequently separators are manufactured with one two or several internal

fittings depending on their use and quick removal of these fluids from the vessel

DEFLECTOR PLATES

These are fitted in front of the inlet to the separator and can be net or

dish-shaped Their purpose is to absorb the impact of the incoming fluids and to

encourage the separation of gas and liquids They also slow the flow rate of the

liquids through the vessel

WEIRS

A weir is a metal wall which is fitted across the inside of the vessel normally to a

height of 50 of the overall height of the separator Its purpose is to assist the

process of three phase separation The inlet fluids (oil plus water) are given time

to separate in the liquid accumulation section The water level (interface) is

normally controlled at 50 of the height of the weir Oil floating on the wateroverflows the weir and accumulates in the small oil compartment where it is

drawn off under level control

CENTRIFUGAL DEVICES

These are used in both vertical and horizontal separators for gas-liquid

separation The device imparts a swirling motion to the fluids entering the vessel

Centrifugal force causes the heavier liquids to travel outwards towards the walls

of the vessel and the lighter gases to flow up the centre Centrifugal devices are

also known as cyclones

VORTEX BREAKERS

When liquid flows through a drain outlet a vortex (whirlpool) will form This can

be seen when we pull the plug from a sink or bath tub The same would happen

as water and oil flow from the separator This condition a vortex could allow gas

to flow down the centre of the whirlpool and enter the liquid phase causing

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pressurizing of tanks etc To stop this happening vortex breakers are fitted to all

liquid outlets Although they come in a number of different designs vortex

breakers all serve the same purpose - to prevent a whirlpool from forming

MIST OR DEMISTER PADS

The gas which is released from the fluids in the separator still contains droplets of

oil and water which coalesce and fall when the drops get large enough The

demister pad assists in this process Made from knitted wire and contained within

a sturdy frame it causes the gas to continually change its direction of flow

Because gas changes direction far easier than liquid the gas will flow around

each strand of wire whilst the liquid entrained in the gas stream will continue and

stick to the wire

COALESCING PLATES

There are several different forms of coalescing devices the most common of

which are coalescing plates These plates are mounted in the flow stream of the

fluids and assist in breaking down oil-water emulsions The fluid is forced to

follow a path that constantly changes direction This causes the water droplets to

gather together or coalesce and fall to the bottom of the separator The same

principle is used to separate gas and oil mixtures when the oil droplets are

induced to coalesce Simply stated every surface within the separator including

the separator walls assists with the coalescing process

STRAIGHTENlNG VANES

These are often fitted to horizontal separators to remove turbulence in the gas

stream after initial separation at the inlet deflector

FLOAT SHEILD

Internal floats are used as level controllers Any agitation of the liquid surface or

the effect of coalesced liquids falling on the float may cause control problems

Therefore a float shield is fitted to enclose the float creating an area of still liquid

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MEMBRANES

The gas contains 12 carbon dioxide and 22 ppm of hydrogen sulphide at 115oF

and 1100 psig This needs to be removed before the gas can be exported The

majority of carbon dioxide hydrogen sulphide and water is removed by means of

membranes

Membranes are thin semipermeable barriers that selectively separate some

compounds from others Currently the only commercially workable membranes

used for CO2 removal are polymer based for example cellulose acetate

polyimides polyamides polysulfone polycarbonates and polyetherimide The

membrane does not operate as a filter where small molecules are separated

from larger ones through a medium with pores rather it separates based on how

well different compounds dissolve into the membrane and diffuse through it The

membranes are manufactured in flat sheets consisting of an extremely thin

nonporous layer mounted on a much-thicker and highly porous layer of the same

material providing mechanical strength The flat sheets are combined into a

spiral-wound element (Figure below) Feed gas enters along the side of the

membrane and passes through the feed spacers As the gas travels between

membrane sheets CO2 H2S and H2O permeate through the membrane and are

collected in the permeate tube The driving force for transport is the high-feed

pressure and low-permeate pressures The gas on the feed side that does not

permeate leaves through the side of the element opposite the feed position Once

the membranes have been manufactured into elements six to 12 elements are

joined together and inserted into a tube Multiple tubes are mounted on skids in a

horizontal orientation

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Figure Membrane general Working

In high H2S applications most polymers have been shown to have very little

resistance to H2S plasticization (ldquosofteningrdquo of the membrane) and as a

consequence can only be used at very low H2S partial pressure limits Cellulose

acetate membranes in contrast have been shown to be applicable at extreme

H2S partial pressure conditions It is these membranes that have been utilized in

the testing to determine the limits of membrane performance in high H 2S

applications

The primary membranes used in Kadanwari facility are Cellulose acetate

Cellulose acetic acid and acetic anhydride are mixed together and reacted to

form cellulose acetate polymers This process is aided by the addition of a small

amount of sulfuric acid which is subsequently neutralized during processing

However the membranes are bought from UOP (vendor) and installed for use

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How membrane work

The basic principle of separation is selectivity of certain components of a mixture

for the membrane For example the cellulose acetate membrane has very high

selectivity for CO2 and H2S as compared to CH4 Therefore such type of

membrane can be used in gas sweetening process

The selectivity is directly related to the Permeability of gas which accounts that

which gas can pass across the membrane more easily In simple words

membranes being polymer materials are made of long chains of molecules The

different structure of polymer materials only allow selective molecules to pass

through them depending upon chemical and physical compatibility Thus

permeability depends upon choice of polymer

The permeability is determined by permeability coefficient (P) and is product of

solubility (S) and diffusivity (D)

P = S D

Solubility

The solubility is mainly determined by ease of condensation Heavy molecules

are more readily condensed Therefore higher molecular weighted molecules will

more easily condensed and therefore have greater solubility

Molecule Molecular weight

CH4 16

H2S 34

CO2 44

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Diffusivity

Diffusivity is ease of molecule to penetrate into some material It depends on size

of gas molecule Here size of molecule is not to be confused by molecular weight

it is the size of the structure Eg the size of O2 molecule is smaller than N2

Molecule Molecular Diameter (Ao)

CO2 33

H2S 36

Ch4 40

For cellulose acetate

DCO2DCH4 S CO2S CH4 P CO2P CH4

45 73 308

Chemical degradation

Cellulose acetate polymer is chemically degraded by a process called hydrolysis

which means breaking apart by the addition of water This is a chemical reaction

in which water is added to the cellulose acetate polymer causing the release of

acetic acid molecules This process proceeds stepwise until all the acetate

groups are released resulting in the reformation of cellulose Moreover alcohols

aromatic hydrocarbons or solvents with chlorine nitro benzene or similar

aromatic solvents will harm the membrane It will expand and lose plastification in

contact with them

Effect of Temperature

The permeation rates of all gases increases with increasing temperature

however membrane selectivity for CO2 over hydrocarbon decreases at higher

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temperature Consequently CO2 removal will improve as operating temperature

increases but hydro carbon recovery will decrease

Primary Membrane

The primary membranes comprise of two trains Each train consists of two

sections AB and CD each section consists of a 30 tube membrane skid (A and

C) followed by a 25 tube skid (B and D) The conditioned gas (after pre-

treatment) enters the primary membrane via the particulate filter adjacent to the

skid The gas is fed to the membranes through a common inlet manifold which

supplies primary membranes skids A and C A pressure control loop located

upstream of the manual inlet isolation valve is provided to maintain a constant

supply pressure to the membrane skid and to allow for preheating at the inlet

prior to skid start-up This pressure control loop can also be used during start-up

to control the pressurization of the pretreatment skid and associated pipes to the

primary membranes

The gas passes through membrane skid A the residual gas exiting the membrane

skid is sent to skid B and the permeate to common permeate discharge header An

identical arrangement is provide on the inlet to skid C as provided on skid A Theresidual gas from skid B combines with the residual gas from skid D in a common

discharge header and is then sent to the H2S polishing towers via the feed coolers

on the pre-treatment skid The permeate from skid B is sent to the common

permeate discharge header The permeate discharge header sends the gas to

either the recycle compressor or the vent header via a pressure control loop

Overpressure protection for the membranes is provided by a pressure safety valve

on the supply header to the membrane banks

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Secondary (Recycle) Membrane

The recycle membranes comprise of a single train with two skids each with four

banks of membrane tubes The conditioned gas from the discharge of the recycle

pre-treatment skid is routed to the first recycle membrane skid The gas passes

through the membranes the residual gas is fed to primary membrane (skid A) inlet

via feed gas cooler and permeate to the common permeate discharge header An

identical arrangement is provide on the inlet to skid B Permeate from the recycle

membrane skids A and B is routed to the vent header Some portion of permeate is

heated and sent for regeneration in Mem-Guard units Nitrogen purge can be

connected downstream of the inlet isolation valve on each skid to enable the

membrane tubes to be purged and left pressurized during prolonged shutdown

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Figure Flow Diagram of Recycle membrane unit

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ADVANTAGES OF MEMBRANE SYSTEMS

Membrane systems have major advantages over more-traditional methods of

acid gas removal

Lower capital cost Membrane systems are skid mounted and so the

scope cost and time taken for site preparation are minimal Installation

costs are significantly lower than alternative technologies especially for

remote areas Furthermore no additional facilities for solvent storage and

water treatment needed by other processes are required

Lower operating costs The only major operating cost for single-stage

membrane systems is membrane replacement This cost is significantly

lower than the solvent replacement and energy costs associated with

traditional technologies The improvements in membrane and

pretreatment design allow a longer useful membrane life which further

reduces operating costs The energy costs of multistage systems with

large recycle compressors are usually comparable to those for traditionaltechnologies

Deferred capital investment Often contracted sales-gas flow rates

increase over time as more wells are brought on-line With traditional

technologies the system design needs to take this later production into

account immediately and so the majority of the equipment is installed

before it is even needed The modular nature of membrane systems

means that only the membranes that are needed at start-up need be

installed The rest can be added either into existing tubes or in new skids

only when they are required

Operational simplicity and high reliability Because single-stage

membrane systems have no moving parts they have almost no

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unscheduled downtime and are extremely simple to operate They can

operate unattended for long periods of time The addition of a recycle

compressor adds some complexity to the system but still much less than

with a solvent- or adsorbent-based technology Multistage systems can be

operated at full capacity as single-stage systems when the recycle

compressor is down

Good weight and space efficiency Skid construction can be optimized

to the space available This space efficiency is especially important for

offshore environments where deck area is at a premium and is the

reason why so many new offshore developments have chosen to use

membranes for acid gas removal Figure 6 illustrates the space efficiency

of membrane systems The membrane unit in the lower left corner

replaced all the amine and glycol plant equipment shown in the rest of the

picture

Adaptability Because membrane area is dictated by the percentage of

acid gas removal rather than absolute acid gas removal small variations

in feed acid gas content hardly change the sales-gas acid gas

specification For example a system designed for 10 down to 3 acid

gas removal produces a 35 product from a 12 feed gas and a 5

product from a 15 feed gas

Design efficiency The membrane and pretreatment systems integrate a

number of operations such as dehydration CO2 and H2S removal dew-

point control and mercury removal Traditional acid gas removal

technologies require all of these operations as separate processes and

may also require additional dehydration because some technologies

saturate the product stream with water

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Power generation The permeate gas from membrane systems can be

used to provide fuel gas for power generation either for a recycle

compressor or other equipment

Ideal for debottlenecking Because expanding solvent- or adsorbent-

based acid gas removal plants without adding additional trains is difficult

an ideal solution is to use membranes for bulk acid gas removal and leave

the existing plant for final cleanup An additional advantage is that the

permeate gas from the membrane system can often be used as fuel for

the existing plant thus avoiding significant increase in hydrocarbon

losses

Environmentally friendly Membrane systems do not involve the

periodic removal and handling of spent solvents or adsorbents Permeate

gases can be flared used as fuel or re-injected into the well Items thatdo need disposal such as spent membrane elements can be incinerated

Ideal for remote locations Many of the factors mentioned above make

membrane systems a highly desirable technology for remote locations

where spare parts are rare and labor unskilled Furthermore solvents

storage and trucking water supply power generation or extensive

infrastructure are not required

Re-injection optimizations Since the permeate stream from the

membrane system can be operated at elevated pressures it is possible to

further pressurize by re-injection compression train

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Sorption

Sorption is a physical and chemical process by which one substance becomes

attached to another

It is of two main types

1 Absorption

2 Adsorption

Absorption

Absorption is a physical or chemical phenomenon or process in which atoms

molecules or ions enter some bulk phase ndash gas liquid or solid material This is a

different process from adsorption since molecules undergoing absorption are

taken up by the volume not by the surface (as in the case for adsorption)

Absorption process may be chemical (reactive) or physical (non-reactive)

Physical absorption

Physical absorption or non-reactive absorption is made between two phases ofmatter a liquid absorbs a gas or a solid absorbs a liquid

When a liquid solvent absorbs a gas mixture or part of it a mass of gas moves

into the liquid For example water may absorb oxygen from the air This mass

transfer takes place at the interface between the liquid and the gas at a rate

depending on both the gas and the liquid This type of absorption depends on the

solubility of gases the pressure and the temperature The rate and amount of

absorption also depend on the surface area of the interface and its duration in

time

When a solid absorbs a liquid mixture or part of it a mass of liquid moves into the

solid For example a clay pot used to store water may absorb some of the water

This mass transfer takes place at the interface between the solid and the liquid

at a rate depending on both the solid and the liquid

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Chemical absorption

Chemical absorption or reactive absorption is a chemical reaction between the

absorbed and the absorbing substances Sometimes it combines with physical

absorption This type of absorption depends upon the stoichiometry of the

reaction and the concentration of its reactants

Adsorption

Adsorption is the adhesion of atoms ions or molecules from a gas liquid or

dissolved solid to a surface This process creates a film of the adsorbate on the

surface of the adsorbent The binding to the surface is usually weak and

reversible Compounds with color and those that have taste or odor tend to bind

strongly Compounds that vibrate at frequencies in the visible spectrum are very

often are strongly adsorbed on activated carbon

The most common industrial adsorbents are activated carbon silica gel and

alumina because they present enormous surface areas per unit weight

Depending on the nature of attractive forces existing between the adsorbate and

adsorbent adsorption can be classified as

i) Physical adsorption

ii) Chemical adsorption

i) Physical adsorption (Physisorption)

In physical adsorption the forces of attraction between the molecules of the

adsorbate and the adsorbent are of the weak van der Waals type Since the

forces of attraction are weak the process of physisorption can be easily reversed

by heating or decreasing the pressure of the adsorbate (as in the case of gases)

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ii) Chemical adsorption (Chemisorption)

In chemisorption the forces of attraction between the adsorbate and the

adsorbent are very strong the molecules of adsorbate form chemical bonds with

the molecules of the adsorbent present in the surface

Adsorption is generally accompanied by release of energy that is most

adsorption processes are exothermic in nature Adsorption is a spontaneous

process therefore its free energy change is negative (∆Glt0) However the

entropy change associated with adsorption is generally negative because the

adsorbate molecules lose their translation freedom when they get attached to the

surface of the adsorbent Therefore in order for ∆G to be negative the enthalpy

change (∆H) must be sufficiently negative such that (∆G=∆H-T∆S) lt 0 This

explanation accounts for exothermic adsorption processes In cases where

endothermic adsorption occurs the entropy change ∆S is sufficiently positive

such that ∆G remains negative

Pre treatment

The main function of pretreatment skid is to provide membrane inlet specification

gas as mentioned by the vendor UOP It removes the contaminants that would

poison the membranes like dust solids (adsorbent particles) lube oil heavy

hydrocarbons etc It consists of

Feed Cooler

Feed Gas Scrubber

Filter Coalescer

Feed Gas Heater

Activated Carbon Guard Filter

Particle Filter

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The regeneration is carried out by heated permeate gas from the recycle

membranes at 450oF The vessel is depressurized to 20 psi and heated gas is

introduced from top The gas carries out the adsorbed contaminants and leaves

the vessel from bottom cleaning the adsorbent This contaminated gas is burnt in

the flare

UOP the vendor of Memguard unit has never disclosed that what substance

MG3 and MG5 exactly are But as mentioned by vendor that both care class of

aluminosilicates Therefore MG3 can be potassium aluminosilicate and MG5 can

be Calcium aluminosilicate These are molecular sieves adsorbents Molecular

sieves are a microporous material which can selectively adsorb gases andliquids They are synthetic zeolites (crystalline metal aluminosilicates) which

upon dehydration can efficiently and selectively remove water or other

solvents The selectivity of a molecular sieve is determined by its pore size

molecules with a critical diameter which is less than the pore size will be

efficiently adsorbed while larger molecules will be excluded

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3A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

The 3A molecular sieve adsorbent has a 3 angstrom (3A) pore size which means

that any molecule that is larger than the 3 angstrom pores will not be adsorbed

The 3A molecular sieve is the potassium type of A crystalline structure and is a

form of alkali Aluminosilicate For a 3A molecular sieve the sequence rate that

adsorption occurs is He Ne N and H2O

Due to the crystalline structure molecular sieves that have a 3 angstrom pore

size have a very high rate of adsorption and properties that promote a longer life

for products treated by the sieve The most common use for the 3A molecular

sieve is to remove water and moisture from materials that are in gas and liquid

form

5A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

These are molecular sieve adsorbents with a pore size of 5 angstrom (5A) 5A

molecular sieves are unable to adsorb any molecules or impurities that are

smaller than 5A It is calcium form of type A crystalline structure and is form of analkali-aluminosilicate that is most commonly used to separate isomerous alkanes

from normal alkanes and to co-adsorb moisture and water along with carbon

dioxide from gases In additional 5A molecular sieves are used for gaseous

pressure swing adsorption (PSA)mdashthat is to separate particular gases from other

gases

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of C3H8 to C22H46

Adsorption of Freon-12 (dichlorodifluoromethane)

Natural gas drying

Normal- and iso-paraffin separation

Separation of aromatic

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Inlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1096

MEHTANE 8593

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008

N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGEN 076

WATER 007

Outlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1098

MEHTANE 8608

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGENT 076

WATER 000

H2S polisher

The H2S polishing unit has been designed to treat 187 MMscfday of natural gas

containing up to 11 CO2 and 21 ppm H2S where the level of the CO2 and H2S

is reduced using a MemGuard Membrane separation unit The unit is situated

down-stream of the membrane unit and will further reduce the level of H2S in the

processed gas to a sales gas specification of 38 ppm

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This process uses three non-regenerable fixed bed absorber vessels using a low

temperature high activity absorbent The absorbent is a mixture of activated

metal oxides (mainly zinc oxide) The three towers can are generally operated in

parallel arrangement but on demand can be used in series (any of alternate

arrangements of A B C vessels) as shown in figure

The higher sales gas flow rate increased the catalyst consumption and

replacement frequency

ZnO + H2S =gt ZnS + H20

Routine samples are taken from the beds to provide a check on each bed

performance and to follow the saturation profile during the absorbent life After

the adsorbent has been fully utilized the adsorption vessels are recharged with

new adsorbent discarding the utilized one in a safe manner

109oF

1215 psig

Before H2S Polishing After H2S Polishing

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Figure

H2S Tower

Inlet pipe

4 Drums of 19mm

ceramic Balls

6 Micron mesh

5 Drums of 50mmceramic

1 Drums of19mm ceramic

01 Drums of6mm ceramic

112 drums of

Catalist ZnO

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Recycle Compressor

The permeate gas of the primary membrane unit carries recoverable amount of

CH4 It is fed to recycle membrane unit for further CH 4 recovery But the

permeate pressure from primary membranes which has been reduced to 12 psi

must be regenerated to 1200 psi for the gas to be fed again to the system For

this purpose we have employed recycle compressor The compressor is a four

stage centrifugal compressor It is driven by gas turbine of 31200 HP It has 25

MW producing capacity

Figure Recycle Compressor Process Flow Diagram

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Sales Gas Compressor

Gas from H2S polishing unit is sent to sales gas compressor where its pressure

is enhanced to 1100 psi so it may be injected to SNGPL high pressure trunk line

Sales gas compressor is single stage gas turbine driven

Figure Process Flow of Sales Gas Compressor

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Cooling Towers

A cooling tower is a heat rejection device which extracts waste heat to theatmosphere through the cooling of a water stream to a lower temperature Hot

water from the system enters the cooling tower and is distributed over the fill

(heat transfer surface) Air is induced or forced through the fill causing a small

portion of the water to evaporate This evaporation removes heat from the

remaining water which is collected in the cold water basin and returned to the

system to absorb more heat Each cooling tower line although operating under

the same basic principle of operation is arranged a little differently

Types

Natural draft mdash Utilizes buoyancy via a tall chimney Warm moist air naturally

rises due to the density differential compared to the dry cooler outside air Warm

moist air is less dense than drier air at the same pressure This moist air

buoyancy produces an upwards current of air through the tower

Mechanical draft mdash Uses power-driven fan motors to force or draw airthrough the tower

o Induced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a fan at the

discharge (at the top) which pulls air up through the tower The fan

induces hot moist air out the discharge This produces low entering

and high exiting air velocities reducing the possibility of

recirculation in which discharged air flows back into the air intake

o Forced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a blower type fan at

the intake The fan forces air into the tower creating high entering

and low exiting air velocities The low exiting velocity is much more

susceptible to recirculation This fanfill geometry is also known as

blow-through

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Forced Draft Cooling Tower Vs Induced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower have the ability to handle large water flow

rate than Forced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower is suitable for large cell sizes and fan sizes

as compared with Forced Draft Larger fan size may result in greater

efficiency and consequently lower power and sound level

Forced Draft Cooling Tower can be square or rectangular type only

however Induced Draft Cooling Towers can be round square or

rectangular type

Induced Draft Cooling Tower uses more compact ground area than Forced

Draft Cooling Tower equivalent capacity due to absence of fan on one

side

Fan equipment is warm exhaust air is less liable to icing up in winter

operation (Cold Countries)

Higher velocity in Forced Draft Cooling Tower cause drop in suspension

and cause additional static resistance to system

Configuration

There are two main configurations of factory assembled cooling towers crossflow

and counterflow In crossflow cooling towers the water flows vertically down the

fill as air flows horizontally across In counterflow cooling towers the water flows

vertically down the fill as air flows vertically up

Crossflow Configuration Counterflow Configuration

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Drift mdash Water droplets that are carried out of the cooling tower with the exhaust

air Drift droplets have the same concentration of impurities as the water entering

the tower The drift rate is typically reduced by employing baffle-like devices

called drift eliminators through which the air must travel after leaving the fill and

spray zones of the tower

Blow-out mdash Water droplets blown out of the cooling tower by wind generally at

the air inlet openings Water may also be lost in the absence of wind through

splashing or misting Devices such as wind screens louvers splash deflectors

and water diverters are used to limit these losses

Blow-down mdash The portion of the circulating water flow that is removed (usually

discharged to a drain) in order to maintain the amount of Total Dissolved Solids

(TDS) and other impurities at an acceptably low level Higher TDS concentration

in solution may result from greater cooling tower efficiency However the higher

the TDS concentration the greater the risk of scale biological growth and

corrosion

Make-up mdash The water that must be added to the circulating water system in

order to compensate for water losses such as evaporation drift loss blow-out

blow-down etc

Approach mdash The approach is the difference in temperature between the cooled-

water temperature and the entering-air wet bulb temperature

Range mdash The range is the temperature difference between the warm water inlet

and cooled water exit

Fill mdash Inside the tower fills are added to increase contact surface as well as

contact time between air and water to provide better heat transfer The efficiency

of the tower depends on the selection and amount of fill

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There are two types of fills that may be used

o Film type fill (causes water to spread into a thin film)

o Splash type fill (breaks up falling stream of water and interrupts its

vertical progress)

Important

Scale build up is controlled by adding chemicals to the cooling loop and diluting

the concentration by blow down and make-up Following chemicals are added to

the Cooling to control CorrosionSale and microbial growth

Corrosion Inhibitor To control corrosion in the Cooling system

Dispersant To kept ions in suspension to avoid settle down and buildup

Sodium hypo Chlorite To Control microbial Growth

Acid To control Alkalinity in the system

High Stress Polymer To run the system at higher conductivity It is a

multifunctional polymer for Zinc amp Phosphate stabilization in cooling tower

Fin Fan Cooler

Fin fan heat exchanger is simply a pressure vessel which cools a circulating fluid

within finned tubes by forcing ambient air over the exterior of the tubes A

common example of an air cooler is a carrsquos radiator Fin Fan Coolers are used in

any application where large quantities of heat need to be transferred This

includes chemical and petrochemical industries power stations waste-to-energy

facilities as well as steelworks

Fin Fan Cooler are used for two primary reasons

They increase plant efficiency

They are a green solution as compared to cooling towers and shell and

tube heat exchangers because they do not require an auxiliary water

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supply (water lost due to drift and evaporation plus no water treatment

chemicals are required)

Figure General Overview of Fin Fan Cooler

Produced Water

The produced water system receives liquid from the equipment Miano slug

catcher train 1 and 2 inlet separators and is fed to three phase separator where

water oil and gas is separated The gases produced are burnt in incinerator

whereas hydrocarbon liquid is stored to be sold Liquid from compressors

recycle inlet separator recycle feed scrubber high and low pressure slug

catchers is passed to degasser Separated water is injected down the earth

Incinerator

The term incinerate means to burn something until nothing is left but ashes An

incinerator is a unit or facility used to burn trash and other types of waste until it is

reduced to ash An incinerator is constructed of heavy well-insulated materials

so that it does not give off extreme amounts of external heat The high levels of

heat are kept inside the furnace or unit so that the waste is burned quickly and

efficiently If the heat were allowed to escape the waste would not burn as

completely or as rapidly

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Control System

The plant is controlled at CCR (Central Control Room) by PLCs (Programmable

Logic Controllers) through fiber optic control line All control parameters are

received at LER (Local Equipment Room) via two optic fiber control lines One

being primary and other secondary operating in redundancy ie if primary fails

control shifts to secondary These control parameters are sent to CCR via single

optic fiber cable

Safety System

Wellheads and Gas Processing Plant have their own Fire amp Gas detection

systems emergency shutdown (ESD) Plant has a fault tolerant controller It is

based on Triple Modular Redundant (TMR) architecture manufactured by

Triconex The TMR system is based on three isolated parallel control systems

integrated into one system The system operates on a two out of three voting

principle which provides high integrity error free uninterrupted operation with no

single point of failure The TMR receives inputs from Process Sensors Manual

Switches Fire amp Gas Detectors Packaged Equipment Control Systems and

Product Exporting Facilities The TMR carries out cause and effect processing on

the data received and where necessary produces output signals Outputs from

the TMR are hard wired directly to ESD shutdown and blow down valve

solenoids motor control instrumentelectrical interfaces to control electrical

drives package equipment logic control systems manifold area as well as

telecoms

The operator in central control room is able to accept alarms and once the fault

has been cleared reset the input All the control systems are centralized to a

single interface All the PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers) communicate with

the servers and servers communicate with the clients through Ethernet connectivity

Centralization eases the navigation of different systems at a common interface

Emergency Shutdown

The ESD system receives inputs from field mounted instrumentation on the process

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and utility equipment and initiates executive actions appropriate to the level of ESD

The system is an Active system which is in standby and will activate when in an

alarm or fault condition The Kadanwari Gas Process Facility ESD system is

comprised of five (5) levels The emergency severity decreases with increasing ESD

level number

ESD 1

This shutdown level is automatically initiated by fire major gas leak or a detected

toxic atmosphere in the process area of the plant or manually from CCR A level 1

shutdown will cause all production to cease close all emergency shutdown

valves stop the process and shutdown of the main power generation The

emergency vent valves to the stack will open and in addition all equipment of zone 1

certified will be isolated This is the highest level of ESD and will cause the following

to occur

All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close All slowdown Valves (BDVs) on the process facility will open

All Main Gas Driven Generators will be tripped

Emergency Diesel Generator will start

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close Upper Master Valve

(UMV) Close

ESD 2

This shutdown level is activated automatically if a major process or utility failure

occurs or manually from CCR All production to the plant from the wellhead is

stopped All emergency shutdown valves trip to their fail safe position

Venting shall be as specified This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

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All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valve Close Wing Valves Close and Upper Master Valve(UMV) Close

ESD 3

The level 3 shutdown isolates and stops a single process train only Production

continues via the other train This ESD level is initiated by process conditions or

operator at local panel This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

ESD 3A Train 1 production to cease

ESD 3B Train 2 production to cease

All online wellhead choke valves go to minimum flow ie (1O )

ESD 4

A level 4 shutdown shall cease all production from an entire field either

Kadanwari or Miano upstream of the associated slug catchers ESD 4K for

Kadanwari amp ESD 4M for Miano This ESD level is initiated automatically by slug

catcher abnormal process conditions This level of ESD will cause the following

to occur

All SDVs close isolating the relevant slug catcher and its upstream gas

production facility from the Kadanwari Gas Processing Plant

All Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close and Upper MasterValves (UMV) of the relevant gas production facility Close

A parallel timer is provided to close within 10 second if not closed in given

time SSSV seals the well

ESD 5

A level 5 shutdown represents equipment shutdown for the protection of the

individual equipment without any change in the process This level of ESD is for the

protection of various pieces of equipment and is initiated by its own inputs eg

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for the enhancement of these spaces is called expansion and work done to

minimize these spaces is called compression All gases while expansion

produces cooling effect and while compression of gases raises there

temperature Compression is a term used to force gases to occupy smaller

volumes by increasing their pressure Volume of gases is interlinked with

temperature and pressure of the gas which is cleared by 2 laws govern gas

compressions

Boyles Law

Charles Law

The main types of compressor are listed below

Front End Compressor

The plant currently processes gas from a number of wells The flow and pressure

from some of these wells (currently K-10 K-11 amp K-12) has declined and they

cannot be fed directly into the Central Processing Facility To recover the

maximum gas reserves from these wells a Front End Compressor is employed

The compressor is a two stage double acting gas engine driven reciprocating

(PT) compressor Double acting means that gas is compressed on each end of

the piston It normal operates with a speed range of 600 to 900 RPM and isequipped with four compressor cylinders two for each stage Each cylinder is

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also equipped with a variable volume head end pocket

In case of compressor emergency shutdown the production chokes and the

Upper Master Valves on the on line wells will close and operator will be notified in

central control room Sweet gas from gas distribution network is used to operate the

gas engine driver of the compressor package The detailed scheme of working is

shown in figure (page 22 )

PT Reciprocating Compressor

The mechanical cycle of piston tube reciprocating compressor comprises four

strokes the expansion stroke the intake stroke the compression stroke and the

discharge stroke

Expansion Stroke

As the piston moves back on the expansion stroke the chamber volume

increases and the pressure drop As the pressure drops the discharge valve

closes since there is greater pressure in the discharge line than in the chamber

Intake Stroke

As the piston moves back during the intake stroke the pressure decreases until it

is less than the pressure in the inlet line This higher intake pressure opens the

inlet valve and gas rushes into the cylinder equalizing the pressure there with

the intake pressure The compression chamber is now at or near the intake

pressure

Compression Stroke

The piston now starts the compression stroke by moving forward decreasing the

chamber volume and increasing the pressure The increased pressure is now

higher than the intake pressure causing the intake valve to close

Discharge Stroke

The piston continues to move to the left during the discharge stroke This creates

an increase in chamber pressure until it is greater than the discharge pressure

When this happens the Discharge valve opens and the compressed air from the

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cylinder goes into the discharge line The compression cycle is then repeated

from the stage

Compressor Capacity

The capacity of the compressor depends upon cylinder displacement That

displacement is simply the volume that the piston displaces (moves) as it travels

from one end of the cylinder to the other Capacity and displacement is equal to

the cross-sectional area of the cylinder times the length of the stroke

Lubrication and Cooling

Lubricating oil is circulated through the system by a gear pump which is chain

driven from the engine crank shaft The oil pump is mounted on the engine front

housing

The pump operates between 30 - 40 psig

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A circulating pump deliver cooling water to the water jackets in the cylinder block

flowing around the cylinder liners and is directed into the cylinder heads Each

cylinder head has water cooled exhaust elbows which outlet the water into the

water cooled exhausts From the end of engine the water flows to compressor

1st and 2nd stage cylinders and compressor lube oil cooler (LOwater heat

exchanger) The water from the compressor cylinder and lube oil cooler returns

to engine water cooled exhaust

Figure Flow diagram of Front End Compressor

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Centrifugal Compressor

Centrifugal compressors are machines in which velocity and pressure given to air

or gas in a radial direction by one or more impellers diffuser combination In a

centrifugal compressor the mechanical energy is increased by centrifugal action

The gas enters the suction eye of a high speed rotary element called the impeller

which carries radial vanes integrally cast in it As the impeller rotates the blades

of the impeller force the gas outward from the center the impeller to the outer rim

of impeller the increase in velocity of the gas creates a flow pressure area at the

eye of the impeller The gas at the outer rim of the impeller is forced in to a

passage way called a diffuser where the velocity decreases in the pressure of the

gas

Inlet

The inlet to a centrifugal compressor is typically a simple pipe It may include

features such as a valve and both pressure and temperature instrumentation

Centrifugal impeller

The key component that makes a compressor centrifugal is the centrifugal

impeller shown above It is the impellers rotating set of vanes (or blades) that

gradually raises the energy of the working gas This is identical to an axial

compressor with the exception that the gases can reach higher velocities and

energy levels through the impellers increasing radius

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Diffuser

The next key component to the simple centrifugal compressor is the diffuser

Downstream of the impeller in the flow path it is the diffusers responsibility to

convert the kinetic energy (high velocity) of the gas into pressure by gradually

slowing (diffusing) the gas velocity

SEPERATORS

A well-stream is a mixture of gases hydrocarbon liquids water solids and

contaminants Due to variations in pressure and temperature gases evolve from

the liquids water vapor condenses and some of the well-stream changes to liquid

and free gas The separation of well-stream fluids takes place in a separator This

pressure vessel is manufactured in three forms

1 horizontal

2 vertical

3 spherical

To help separation the vessel is normally designed with a series of internal

fittings These fittings are built into the separator to ensure total phase separation

of the well-stream

In gas plants separators are given alternative names due to the function they

perform in the process system A scrubber does a similar job to a knockout drum

However the scrubber usually separates a stream containing high gas-to-liquid

ratios The knockout drum is used where a high degree of liquids are entrained in

the gas

Fluid flow from a well can include gas condensable liquid vapors water water

vapor crude oil and solids As well-stream fluids reach ground level where

pressure is lower than in the reservoir the capacity of the liquid to hold gas in

solution decreases and gas separates out of the oil

Separation depends upon the effect of gravity to separate liquids For adequate

separation one fluid must be lighter than the other fluid For example distillates

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(gasoline kerosene etc) and crude oil will not separate in a vessel because they

tend to dissolve in each other Because a separator basically depends upon

gravity to separate the fluids the ease with which separation takes place

depends upon the difference in density of the fluids

Droplets of liquid will separate from gas provided

a) The gas remains in the separator long enough

b) The gas flow remains constant to provoke separation

The difference in density between a gas and liquid will therefore determine the

maximum flow rate of liquid in the vessel

Figure Two phase horizontal separator

Gas bubbles in the liquid will break out in some oil field applications in 30 to 60

seconds Consequently the separator is designed so that the liquid remains in

the vessel for 30 to 60 seconds The length of time that a liquid remains in the

vessel is called its residence time Residence time differs widely from field to field

depending upon viscosity and API Gravity

Another important factor which must be considered is temperature Generally a

decrease in operating temperature will increase the liquid recovery in a separator

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as the gas condenses By reducing the pressure on the fluid flash separation

occurs resulting in a flow through the separator which is controlled by external

instrumentation

COALESCENCE

Another important principle in fluid separation is that of coalescence This means

the coming together of liquid droplets created by the force of gravity

A common example of coalescing occurs when drops of water form on the

windshield of a car as it is driven in fog As the tiny drops or water which make up

the fog strike the windshield they combine and eventually form a drop large

enough to run down the glass

Several of the internal devices of a separator such as deflector plates

straightening vanes and even the vessel walls are forms of coalescers In each

vessel drops of liquid adhere to the surface of the device and combine with other

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drops until the drop is large enough to fall out The effectiveness of separation

will also depend upon the total amount of coalescing surface area that is present

There are many different types of separators used in the Oil amp Gas industry

Consequently separators are manufactured with one two or several internal

fittings depending on their use and quick removal of these fluids from the vessel

DEFLECTOR PLATES

These are fitted in front of the inlet to the separator and can be net or

dish-shaped Their purpose is to absorb the impact of the incoming fluids and to

encourage the separation of gas and liquids They also slow the flow rate of the

liquids through the vessel

WEIRS

A weir is a metal wall which is fitted across the inside of the vessel normally to a

height of 50 of the overall height of the separator Its purpose is to assist the

process of three phase separation The inlet fluids (oil plus water) are given time

to separate in the liquid accumulation section The water level (interface) is

normally controlled at 50 of the height of the weir Oil floating on the wateroverflows the weir and accumulates in the small oil compartment where it is

drawn off under level control

CENTRIFUGAL DEVICES

These are used in both vertical and horizontal separators for gas-liquid

separation The device imparts a swirling motion to the fluids entering the vessel

Centrifugal force causes the heavier liquids to travel outwards towards the walls

of the vessel and the lighter gases to flow up the centre Centrifugal devices are

also known as cyclones

VORTEX BREAKERS

When liquid flows through a drain outlet a vortex (whirlpool) will form This can

be seen when we pull the plug from a sink or bath tub The same would happen

as water and oil flow from the separator This condition a vortex could allow gas

to flow down the centre of the whirlpool and enter the liquid phase causing

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pressurizing of tanks etc To stop this happening vortex breakers are fitted to all

liquid outlets Although they come in a number of different designs vortex

breakers all serve the same purpose - to prevent a whirlpool from forming

MIST OR DEMISTER PADS

The gas which is released from the fluids in the separator still contains droplets of

oil and water which coalesce and fall when the drops get large enough The

demister pad assists in this process Made from knitted wire and contained within

a sturdy frame it causes the gas to continually change its direction of flow

Because gas changes direction far easier than liquid the gas will flow around

each strand of wire whilst the liquid entrained in the gas stream will continue and

stick to the wire

COALESCING PLATES

There are several different forms of coalescing devices the most common of

which are coalescing plates These plates are mounted in the flow stream of the

fluids and assist in breaking down oil-water emulsions The fluid is forced to

follow a path that constantly changes direction This causes the water droplets to

gather together or coalesce and fall to the bottom of the separator The same

principle is used to separate gas and oil mixtures when the oil droplets are

induced to coalesce Simply stated every surface within the separator including

the separator walls assists with the coalescing process

STRAIGHTENlNG VANES

These are often fitted to horizontal separators to remove turbulence in the gas

stream after initial separation at the inlet deflector

FLOAT SHEILD

Internal floats are used as level controllers Any agitation of the liquid surface or

the effect of coalesced liquids falling on the float may cause control problems

Therefore a float shield is fitted to enclose the float creating an area of still liquid

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MEMBRANES

The gas contains 12 carbon dioxide and 22 ppm of hydrogen sulphide at 115oF

and 1100 psig This needs to be removed before the gas can be exported The

majority of carbon dioxide hydrogen sulphide and water is removed by means of

membranes

Membranes are thin semipermeable barriers that selectively separate some

compounds from others Currently the only commercially workable membranes

used for CO2 removal are polymer based for example cellulose acetate

polyimides polyamides polysulfone polycarbonates and polyetherimide The

membrane does not operate as a filter where small molecules are separated

from larger ones through a medium with pores rather it separates based on how

well different compounds dissolve into the membrane and diffuse through it The

membranes are manufactured in flat sheets consisting of an extremely thin

nonporous layer mounted on a much-thicker and highly porous layer of the same

material providing mechanical strength The flat sheets are combined into a

spiral-wound element (Figure below) Feed gas enters along the side of the

membrane and passes through the feed spacers As the gas travels between

membrane sheets CO2 H2S and H2O permeate through the membrane and are

collected in the permeate tube The driving force for transport is the high-feed

pressure and low-permeate pressures The gas on the feed side that does not

permeate leaves through the side of the element opposite the feed position Once

the membranes have been manufactured into elements six to 12 elements are

joined together and inserted into a tube Multiple tubes are mounted on skids in a

horizontal orientation

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Figure Membrane general Working

In high H2S applications most polymers have been shown to have very little

resistance to H2S plasticization (ldquosofteningrdquo of the membrane) and as a

consequence can only be used at very low H2S partial pressure limits Cellulose

acetate membranes in contrast have been shown to be applicable at extreme

H2S partial pressure conditions It is these membranes that have been utilized in

the testing to determine the limits of membrane performance in high H 2S

applications

The primary membranes used in Kadanwari facility are Cellulose acetate

Cellulose acetic acid and acetic anhydride are mixed together and reacted to

form cellulose acetate polymers This process is aided by the addition of a small

amount of sulfuric acid which is subsequently neutralized during processing

However the membranes are bought from UOP (vendor) and installed for use

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How membrane work

The basic principle of separation is selectivity of certain components of a mixture

for the membrane For example the cellulose acetate membrane has very high

selectivity for CO2 and H2S as compared to CH4 Therefore such type of

membrane can be used in gas sweetening process

The selectivity is directly related to the Permeability of gas which accounts that

which gas can pass across the membrane more easily In simple words

membranes being polymer materials are made of long chains of molecules The

different structure of polymer materials only allow selective molecules to pass

through them depending upon chemical and physical compatibility Thus

permeability depends upon choice of polymer

The permeability is determined by permeability coefficient (P) and is product of

solubility (S) and diffusivity (D)

P = S D

Solubility

The solubility is mainly determined by ease of condensation Heavy molecules

are more readily condensed Therefore higher molecular weighted molecules will

more easily condensed and therefore have greater solubility

Molecule Molecular weight

CH4 16

H2S 34

CO2 44

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Diffusivity

Diffusivity is ease of molecule to penetrate into some material It depends on size

of gas molecule Here size of molecule is not to be confused by molecular weight

it is the size of the structure Eg the size of O2 molecule is smaller than N2

Molecule Molecular Diameter (Ao)

CO2 33

H2S 36

Ch4 40

For cellulose acetate

DCO2DCH4 S CO2S CH4 P CO2P CH4

45 73 308

Chemical degradation

Cellulose acetate polymer is chemically degraded by a process called hydrolysis

which means breaking apart by the addition of water This is a chemical reaction

in which water is added to the cellulose acetate polymer causing the release of

acetic acid molecules This process proceeds stepwise until all the acetate

groups are released resulting in the reformation of cellulose Moreover alcohols

aromatic hydrocarbons or solvents with chlorine nitro benzene or similar

aromatic solvents will harm the membrane It will expand and lose plastification in

contact with them

Effect of Temperature

The permeation rates of all gases increases with increasing temperature

however membrane selectivity for CO2 over hydrocarbon decreases at higher

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temperature Consequently CO2 removal will improve as operating temperature

increases but hydro carbon recovery will decrease

Primary Membrane

The primary membranes comprise of two trains Each train consists of two

sections AB and CD each section consists of a 30 tube membrane skid (A and

C) followed by a 25 tube skid (B and D) The conditioned gas (after pre-

treatment) enters the primary membrane via the particulate filter adjacent to the

skid The gas is fed to the membranes through a common inlet manifold which

supplies primary membranes skids A and C A pressure control loop located

upstream of the manual inlet isolation valve is provided to maintain a constant

supply pressure to the membrane skid and to allow for preheating at the inlet

prior to skid start-up This pressure control loop can also be used during start-up

to control the pressurization of the pretreatment skid and associated pipes to the

primary membranes

The gas passes through membrane skid A the residual gas exiting the membrane

skid is sent to skid B and the permeate to common permeate discharge header An

identical arrangement is provide on the inlet to skid C as provided on skid A Theresidual gas from skid B combines with the residual gas from skid D in a common

discharge header and is then sent to the H2S polishing towers via the feed coolers

on the pre-treatment skid The permeate from skid B is sent to the common

permeate discharge header The permeate discharge header sends the gas to

either the recycle compressor or the vent header via a pressure control loop

Overpressure protection for the membranes is provided by a pressure safety valve

on the supply header to the membrane banks

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Secondary (Recycle) Membrane

The recycle membranes comprise of a single train with two skids each with four

banks of membrane tubes The conditioned gas from the discharge of the recycle

pre-treatment skid is routed to the first recycle membrane skid The gas passes

through the membranes the residual gas is fed to primary membrane (skid A) inlet

via feed gas cooler and permeate to the common permeate discharge header An

identical arrangement is provide on the inlet to skid B Permeate from the recycle

membrane skids A and B is routed to the vent header Some portion of permeate is

heated and sent for regeneration in Mem-Guard units Nitrogen purge can be

connected downstream of the inlet isolation valve on each skid to enable the

membrane tubes to be purged and left pressurized during prolonged shutdown

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Figure Flow Diagram of Recycle membrane unit

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ADVANTAGES OF MEMBRANE SYSTEMS

Membrane systems have major advantages over more-traditional methods of

acid gas removal

Lower capital cost Membrane systems are skid mounted and so the

scope cost and time taken for site preparation are minimal Installation

costs are significantly lower than alternative technologies especially for

remote areas Furthermore no additional facilities for solvent storage and

water treatment needed by other processes are required

Lower operating costs The only major operating cost for single-stage

membrane systems is membrane replacement This cost is significantly

lower than the solvent replacement and energy costs associated with

traditional technologies The improvements in membrane and

pretreatment design allow a longer useful membrane life which further

reduces operating costs The energy costs of multistage systems with

large recycle compressors are usually comparable to those for traditionaltechnologies

Deferred capital investment Often contracted sales-gas flow rates

increase over time as more wells are brought on-line With traditional

technologies the system design needs to take this later production into

account immediately and so the majority of the equipment is installed

before it is even needed The modular nature of membrane systems

means that only the membranes that are needed at start-up need be

installed The rest can be added either into existing tubes or in new skids

only when they are required

Operational simplicity and high reliability Because single-stage

membrane systems have no moving parts they have almost no

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unscheduled downtime and are extremely simple to operate They can

operate unattended for long periods of time The addition of a recycle

compressor adds some complexity to the system but still much less than

with a solvent- or adsorbent-based technology Multistage systems can be

operated at full capacity as single-stage systems when the recycle

compressor is down

Good weight and space efficiency Skid construction can be optimized

to the space available This space efficiency is especially important for

offshore environments where deck area is at a premium and is the

reason why so many new offshore developments have chosen to use

membranes for acid gas removal Figure 6 illustrates the space efficiency

of membrane systems The membrane unit in the lower left corner

replaced all the amine and glycol plant equipment shown in the rest of the

picture

Adaptability Because membrane area is dictated by the percentage of

acid gas removal rather than absolute acid gas removal small variations

in feed acid gas content hardly change the sales-gas acid gas

specification For example a system designed for 10 down to 3 acid

gas removal produces a 35 product from a 12 feed gas and a 5

product from a 15 feed gas

Design efficiency The membrane and pretreatment systems integrate a

number of operations such as dehydration CO2 and H2S removal dew-

point control and mercury removal Traditional acid gas removal

technologies require all of these operations as separate processes and

may also require additional dehydration because some technologies

saturate the product stream with water

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Power generation The permeate gas from membrane systems can be

used to provide fuel gas for power generation either for a recycle

compressor or other equipment

Ideal for debottlenecking Because expanding solvent- or adsorbent-

based acid gas removal plants without adding additional trains is difficult

an ideal solution is to use membranes for bulk acid gas removal and leave

the existing plant for final cleanup An additional advantage is that the

permeate gas from the membrane system can often be used as fuel for

the existing plant thus avoiding significant increase in hydrocarbon

losses

Environmentally friendly Membrane systems do not involve the

periodic removal and handling of spent solvents or adsorbents Permeate

gases can be flared used as fuel or re-injected into the well Items thatdo need disposal such as spent membrane elements can be incinerated

Ideal for remote locations Many of the factors mentioned above make

membrane systems a highly desirable technology for remote locations

where spare parts are rare and labor unskilled Furthermore solvents

storage and trucking water supply power generation or extensive

infrastructure are not required

Re-injection optimizations Since the permeate stream from the

membrane system can be operated at elevated pressures it is possible to

further pressurize by re-injection compression train

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Sorption

Sorption is a physical and chemical process by which one substance becomes

attached to another

It is of two main types

1 Absorption

2 Adsorption

Absorption

Absorption is a physical or chemical phenomenon or process in which atoms

molecules or ions enter some bulk phase ndash gas liquid or solid material This is a

different process from adsorption since molecules undergoing absorption are

taken up by the volume not by the surface (as in the case for adsorption)

Absorption process may be chemical (reactive) or physical (non-reactive)

Physical absorption

Physical absorption or non-reactive absorption is made between two phases ofmatter a liquid absorbs a gas or a solid absorbs a liquid

When a liquid solvent absorbs a gas mixture or part of it a mass of gas moves

into the liquid For example water may absorb oxygen from the air This mass

transfer takes place at the interface between the liquid and the gas at a rate

depending on both the gas and the liquid This type of absorption depends on the

solubility of gases the pressure and the temperature The rate and amount of

absorption also depend on the surface area of the interface and its duration in

time

When a solid absorbs a liquid mixture or part of it a mass of liquid moves into the

solid For example a clay pot used to store water may absorb some of the water

This mass transfer takes place at the interface between the solid and the liquid

at a rate depending on both the solid and the liquid

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Chemical absorption

Chemical absorption or reactive absorption is a chemical reaction between the

absorbed and the absorbing substances Sometimes it combines with physical

absorption This type of absorption depends upon the stoichiometry of the

reaction and the concentration of its reactants

Adsorption

Adsorption is the adhesion of atoms ions or molecules from a gas liquid or

dissolved solid to a surface This process creates a film of the adsorbate on the

surface of the adsorbent The binding to the surface is usually weak and

reversible Compounds with color and those that have taste or odor tend to bind

strongly Compounds that vibrate at frequencies in the visible spectrum are very

often are strongly adsorbed on activated carbon

The most common industrial adsorbents are activated carbon silica gel and

alumina because they present enormous surface areas per unit weight

Depending on the nature of attractive forces existing between the adsorbate and

adsorbent adsorption can be classified as

i) Physical adsorption

ii) Chemical adsorption

i) Physical adsorption (Physisorption)

In physical adsorption the forces of attraction between the molecules of the

adsorbate and the adsorbent are of the weak van der Waals type Since the

forces of attraction are weak the process of physisorption can be easily reversed

by heating or decreasing the pressure of the adsorbate (as in the case of gases)

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ii) Chemical adsorption (Chemisorption)

In chemisorption the forces of attraction between the adsorbate and the

adsorbent are very strong the molecules of adsorbate form chemical bonds with

the molecules of the adsorbent present in the surface

Adsorption is generally accompanied by release of energy that is most

adsorption processes are exothermic in nature Adsorption is a spontaneous

process therefore its free energy change is negative (∆Glt0) However the

entropy change associated with adsorption is generally negative because the

adsorbate molecules lose their translation freedom when they get attached to the

surface of the adsorbent Therefore in order for ∆G to be negative the enthalpy

change (∆H) must be sufficiently negative such that (∆G=∆H-T∆S) lt 0 This

explanation accounts for exothermic adsorption processes In cases where

endothermic adsorption occurs the entropy change ∆S is sufficiently positive

such that ∆G remains negative

Pre treatment

The main function of pretreatment skid is to provide membrane inlet specification

gas as mentioned by the vendor UOP It removes the contaminants that would

poison the membranes like dust solids (adsorbent particles) lube oil heavy

hydrocarbons etc It consists of

Feed Cooler

Feed Gas Scrubber

Filter Coalescer

Feed Gas Heater

Activated Carbon Guard Filter

Particle Filter

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The regeneration is carried out by heated permeate gas from the recycle

membranes at 450oF The vessel is depressurized to 20 psi and heated gas is

introduced from top The gas carries out the adsorbed contaminants and leaves

the vessel from bottom cleaning the adsorbent This contaminated gas is burnt in

the flare

UOP the vendor of Memguard unit has never disclosed that what substance

MG3 and MG5 exactly are But as mentioned by vendor that both care class of

aluminosilicates Therefore MG3 can be potassium aluminosilicate and MG5 can

be Calcium aluminosilicate These are molecular sieves adsorbents Molecular

sieves are a microporous material which can selectively adsorb gases andliquids They are synthetic zeolites (crystalline metal aluminosilicates) which

upon dehydration can efficiently and selectively remove water or other

solvents The selectivity of a molecular sieve is determined by its pore size

molecules with a critical diameter which is less than the pore size will be

efficiently adsorbed while larger molecules will be excluded

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3A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

The 3A molecular sieve adsorbent has a 3 angstrom (3A) pore size which means

that any molecule that is larger than the 3 angstrom pores will not be adsorbed

The 3A molecular sieve is the potassium type of A crystalline structure and is a

form of alkali Aluminosilicate For a 3A molecular sieve the sequence rate that

adsorption occurs is He Ne N and H2O

Due to the crystalline structure molecular sieves that have a 3 angstrom pore

size have a very high rate of adsorption and properties that promote a longer life

for products treated by the sieve The most common use for the 3A molecular

sieve is to remove water and moisture from materials that are in gas and liquid

form

5A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

These are molecular sieve adsorbents with a pore size of 5 angstrom (5A) 5A

molecular sieves are unable to adsorb any molecules or impurities that are

smaller than 5A It is calcium form of type A crystalline structure and is form of analkali-aluminosilicate that is most commonly used to separate isomerous alkanes

from normal alkanes and to co-adsorb moisture and water along with carbon

dioxide from gases In additional 5A molecular sieves are used for gaseous

pressure swing adsorption (PSA)mdashthat is to separate particular gases from other

gases

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of C3H8 to C22H46

Adsorption of Freon-12 (dichlorodifluoromethane)

Natural gas drying

Normal- and iso-paraffin separation

Separation of aromatic

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Inlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1096

MEHTANE 8593

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008

N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGEN 076

WATER 007

Outlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1098

MEHTANE 8608

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGENT 076

WATER 000

H2S polisher

The H2S polishing unit has been designed to treat 187 MMscfday of natural gas

containing up to 11 CO2 and 21 ppm H2S where the level of the CO2 and H2S

is reduced using a MemGuard Membrane separation unit The unit is situated

down-stream of the membrane unit and will further reduce the level of H2S in the

processed gas to a sales gas specification of 38 ppm

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This process uses three non-regenerable fixed bed absorber vessels using a low

temperature high activity absorbent The absorbent is a mixture of activated

metal oxides (mainly zinc oxide) The three towers can are generally operated in

parallel arrangement but on demand can be used in series (any of alternate

arrangements of A B C vessels) as shown in figure

The higher sales gas flow rate increased the catalyst consumption and

replacement frequency

ZnO + H2S =gt ZnS + H20

Routine samples are taken from the beds to provide a check on each bed

performance and to follow the saturation profile during the absorbent life After

the adsorbent has been fully utilized the adsorption vessels are recharged with

new adsorbent discarding the utilized one in a safe manner

109oF

1215 psig

Before H2S Polishing After H2S Polishing

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Figure

H2S Tower

Inlet pipe

4 Drums of 19mm

ceramic Balls

6 Micron mesh

5 Drums of 50mmceramic

1 Drums of19mm ceramic

01 Drums of6mm ceramic

112 drums of

Catalist ZnO

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Recycle Compressor

The permeate gas of the primary membrane unit carries recoverable amount of

CH4 It is fed to recycle membrane unit for further CH 4 recovery But the

permeate pressure from primary membranes which has been reduced to 12 psi

must be regenerated to 1200 psi for the gas to be fed again to the system For

this purpose we have employed recycle compressor The compressor is a four

stage centrifugal compressor It is driven by gas turbine of 31200 HP It has 25

MW producing capacity

Figure Recycle Compressor Process Flow Diagram

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Sales Gas Compressor

Gas from H2S polishing unit is sent to sales gas compressor where its pressure

is enhanced to 1100 psi so it may be injected to SNGPL high pressure trunk line

Sales gas compressor is single stage gas turbine driven

Figure Process Flow of Sales Gas Compressor

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Cooling Towers

A cooling tower is a heat rejection device which extracts waste heat to theatmosphere through the cooling of a water stream to a lower temperature Hot

water from the system enters the cooling tower and is distributed over the fill

(heat transfer surface) Air is induced or forced through the fill causing a small

portion of the water to evaporate This evaporation removes heat from the

remaining water which is collected in the cold water basin and returned to the

system to absorb more heat Each cooling tower line although operating under

the same basic principle of operation is arranged a little differently

Types

Natural draft mdash Utilizes buoyancy via a tall chimney Warm moist air naturally

rises due to the density differential compared to the dry cooler outside air Warm

moist air is less dense than drier air at the same pressure This moist air

buoyancy produces an upwards current of air through the tower

Mechanical draft mdash Uses power-driven fan motors to force or draw airthrough the tower

o Induced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a fan at the

discharge (at the top) which pulls air up through the tower The fan

induces hot moist air out the discharge This produces low entering

and high exiting air velocities reducing the possibility of

recirculation in which discharged air flows back into the air intake

o Forced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a blower type fan at

the intake The fan forces air into the tower creating high entering

and low exiting air velocities The low exiting velocity is much more

susceptible to recirculation This fanfill geometry is also known as

blow-through

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Forced Draft Cooling Tower Vs Induced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower have the ability to handle large water flow

rate than Forced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower is suitable for large cell sizes and fan sizes

as compared with Forced Draft Larger fan size may result in greater

efficiency and consequently lower power and sound level

Forced Draft Cooling Tower can be square or rectangular type only

however Induced Draft Cooling Towers can be round square or

rectangular type

Induced Draft Cooling Tower uses more compact ground area than Forced

Draft Cooling Tower equivalent capacity due to absence of fan on one

side

Fan equipment is warm exhaust air is less liable to icing up in winter

operation (Cold Countries)

Higher velocity in Forced Draft Cooling Tower cause drop in suspension

and cause additional static resistance to system

Configuration

There are two main configurations of factory assembled cooling towers crossflow

and counterflow In crossflow cooling towers the water flows vertically down the

fill as air flows horizontally across In counterflow cooling towers the water flows

vertically down the fill as air flows vertically up

Crossflow Configuration Counterflow Configuration

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Drift mdash Water droplets that are carried out of the cooling tower with the exhaust

air Drift droplets have the same concentration of impurities as the water entering

the tower The drift rate is typically reduced by employing baffle-like devices

called drift eliminators through which the air must travel after leaving the fill and

spray zones of the tower

Blow-out mdash Water droplets blown out of the cooling tower by wind generally at

the air inlet openings Water may also be lost in the absence of wind through

splashing or misting Devices such as wind screens louvers splash deflectors

and water diverters are used to limit these losses

Blow-down mdash The portion of the circulating water flow that is removed (usually

discharged to a drain) in order to maintain the amount of Total Dissolved Solids

(TDS) and other impurities at an acceptably low level Higher TDS concentration

in solution may result from greater cooling tower efficiency However the higher

the TDS concentration the greater the risk of scale biological growth and

corrosion

Make-up mdash The water that must be added to the circulating water system in

order to compensate for water losses such as evaporation drift loss blow-out

blow-down etc

Approach mdash The approach is the difference in temperature between the cooled-

water temperature and the entering-air wet bulb temperature

Range mdash The range is the temperature difference between the warm water inlet

and cooled water exit

Fill mdash Inside the tower fills are added to increase contact surface as well as

contact time between air and water to provide better heat transfer The efficiency

of the tower depends on the selection and amount of fill

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There are two types of fills that may be used

o Film type fill (causes water to spread into a thin film)

o Splash type fill (breaks up falling stream of water and interrupts its

vertical progress)

Important

Scale build up is controlled by adding chemicals to the cooling loop and diluting

the concentration by blow down and make-up Following chemicals are added to

the Cooling to control CorrosionSale and microbial growth

Corrosion Inhibitor To control corrosion in the Cooling system

Dispersant To kept ions in suspension to avoid settle down and buildup

Sodium hypo Chlorite To Control microbial Growth

Acid To control Alkalinity in the system

High Stress Polymer To run the system at higher conductivity It is a

multifunctional polymer for Zinc amp Phosphate stabilization in cooling tower

Fin Fan Cooler

Fin fan heat exchanger is simply a pressure vessel which cools a circulating fluid

within finned tubes by forcing ambient air over the exterior of the tubes A

common example of an air cooler is a carrsquos radiator Fin Fan Coolers are used in

any application where large quantities of heat need to be transferred This

includes chemical and petrochemical industries power stations waste-to-energy

facilities as well as steelworks

Fin Fan Cooler are used for two primary reasons

They increase plant efficiency

They are a green solution as compared to cooling towers and shell and

tube heat exchangers because they do not require an auxiliary water

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supply (water lost due to drift and evaporation plus no water treatment

chemicals are required)

Figure General Overview of Fin Fan Cooler

Produced Water

The produced water system receives liquid from the equipment Miano slug

catcher train 1 and 2 inlet separators and is fed to three phase separator where

water oil and gas is separated The gases produced are burnt in incinerator

whereas hydrocarbon liquid is stored to be sold Liquid from compressors

recycle inlet separator recycle feed scrubber high and low pressure slug

catchers is passed to degasser Separated water is injected down the earth

Incinerator

The term incinerate means to burn something until nothing is left but ashes An

incinerator is a unit or facility used to burn trash and other types of waste until it is

reduced to ash An incinerator is constructed of heavy well-insulated materials

so that it does not give off extreme amounts of external heat The high levels of

heat are kept inside the furnace or unit so that the waste is burned quickly and

efficiently If the heat were allowed to escape the waste would not burn as

completely or as rapidly

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Control System

The plant is controlled at CCR (Central Control Room) by PLCs (Programmable

Logic Controllers) through fiber optic control line All control parameters are

received at LER (Local Equipment Room) via two optic fiber control lines One

being primary and other secondary operating in redundancy ie if primary fails

control shifts to secondary These control parameters are sent to CCR via single

optic fiber cable

Safety System

Wellheads and Gas Processing Plant have their own Fire amp Gas detection

systems emergency shutdown (ESD) Plant has a fault tolerant controller It is

based on Triple Modular Redundant (TMR) architecture manufactured by

Triconex The TMR system is based on three isolated parallel control systems

integrated into one system The system operates on a two out of three voting

principle which provides high integrity error free uninterrupted operation with no

single point of failure The TMR receives inputs from Process Sensors Manual

Switches Fire amp Gas Detectors Packaged Equipment Control Systems and

Product Exporting Facilities The TMR carries out cause and effect processing on

the data received and where necessary produces output signals Outputs from

the TMR are hard wired directly to ESD shutdown and blow down valve

solenoids motor control instrumentelectrical interfaces to control electrical

drives package equipment logic control systems manifold area as well as

telecoms

The operator in central control room is able to accept alarms and once the fault

has been cleared reset the input All the control systems are centralized to a

single interface All the PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers) communicate with

the servers and servers communicate with the clients through Ethernet connectivity

Centralization eases the navigation of different systems at a common interface

Emergency Shutdown

The ESD system receives inputs from field mounted instrumentation on the process

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and utility equipment and initiates executive actions appropriate to the level of ESD

The system is an Active system which is in standby and will activate when in an

alarm or fault condition The Kadanwari Gas Process Facility ESD system is

comprised of five (5) levels The emergency severity decreases with increasing ESD

level number

ESD 1

This shutdown level is automatically initiated by fire major gas leak or a detected

toxic atmosphere in the process area of the plant or manually from CCR A level 1

shutdown will cause all production to cease close all emergency shutdown

valves stop the process and shutdown of the main power generation The

emergency vent valves to the stack will open and in addition all equipment of zone 1

certified will be isolated This is the highest level of ESD and will cause the following

to occur

All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close All slowdown Valves (BDVs) on the process facility will open

All Main Gas Driven Generators will be tripped

Emergency Diesel Generator will start

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close Upper Master Valve

(UMV) Close

ESD 2

This shutdown level is activated automatically if a major process or utility failure

occurs or manually from CCR All production to the plant from the wellhead is

stopped All emergency shutdown valves trip to their fail safe position

Venting shall be as specified This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

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All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valve Close Wing Valves Close and Upper Master Valve(UMV) Close

ESD 3

The level 3 shutdown isolates and stops a single process train only Production

continues via the other train This ESD level is initiated by process conditions or

operator at local panel This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

ESD 3A Train 1 production to cease

ESD 3B Train 2 production to cease

All online wellhead choke valves go to minimum flow ie (1O )

ESD 4

A level 4 shutdown shall cease all production from an entire field either

Kadanwari or Miano upstream of the associated slug catchers ESD 4K for

Kadanwari amp ESD 4M for Miano This ESD level is initiated automatically by slug

catcher abnormal process conditions This level of ESD will cause the following

to occur

All SDVs close isolating the relevant slug catcher and its upstream gas

production facility from the Kadanwari Gas Processing Plant

All Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close and Upper MasterValves (UMV) of the relevant gas production facility Close

A parallel timer is provided to close within 10 second if not closed in given

time SSSV seals the well

ESD 5

A level 5 shutdown represents equipment shutdown for the protection of the

individual equipment without any change in the process This level of ESD is for the

protection of various pieces of equipment and is initiated by its own inputs eg

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also equipped with a variable volume head end pocket

In case of compressor emergency shutdown the production chokes and the

Upper Master Valves on the on line wells will close and operator will be notified in

central control room Sweet gas from gas distribution network is used to operate the

gas engine driver of the compressor package The detailed scheme of working is

shown in figure (page 22 )

PT Reciprocating Compressor

The mechanical cycle of piston tube reciprocating compressor comprises four

strokes the expansion stroke the intake stroke the compression stroke and the

discharge stroke

Expansion Stroke

As the piston moves back on the expansion stroke the chamber volume

increases and the pressure drop As the pressure drops the discharge valve

closes since there is greater pressure in the discharge line than in the chamber

Intake Stroke

As the piston moves back during the intake stroke the pressure decreases until it

is less than the pressure in the inlet line This higher intake pressure opens the

inlet valve and gas rushes into the cylinder equalizing the pressure there with

the intake pressure The compression chamber is now at or near the intake

pressure

Compression Stroke

The piston now starts the compression stroke by moving forward decreasing the

chamber volume and increasing the pressure The increased pressure is now

higher than the intake pressure causing the intake valve to close

Discharge Stroke

The piston continues to move to the left during the discharge stroke This creates

an increase in chamber pressure until it is greater than the discharge pressure

When this happens the Discharge valve opens and the compressed air from the

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cylinder goes into the discharge line The compression cycle is then repeated

from the stage

Compressor Capacity

The capacity of the compressor depends upon cylinder displacement That

displacement is simply the volume that the piston displaces (moves) as it travels

from one end of the cylinder to the other Capacity and displacement is equal to

the cross-sectional area of the cylinder times the length of the stroke

Lubrication and Cooling

Lubricating oil is circulated through the system by a gear pump which is chain

driven from the engine crank shaft The oil pump is mounted on the engine front

housing

The pump operates between 30 - 40 psig

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A circulating pump deliver cooling water to the water jackets in the cylinder block

flowing around the cylinder liners and is directed into the cylinder heads Each

cylinder head has water cooled exhaust elbows which outlet the water into the

water cooled exhausts From the end of engine the water flows to compressor

1st and 2nd stage cylinders and compressor lube oil cooler (LOwater heat

exchanger) The water from the compressor cylinder and lube oil cooler returns

to engine water cooled exhaust

Figure Flow diagram of Front End Compressor

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Centrifugal Compressor

Centrifugal compressors are machines in which velocity and pressure given to air

or gas in a radial direction by one or more impellers diffuser combination In a

centrifugal compressor the mechanical energy is increased by centrifugal action

The gas enters the suction eye of a high speed rotary element called the impeller

which carries radial vanes integrally cast in it As the impeller rotates the blades

of the impeller force the gas outward from the center the impeller to the outer rim

of impeller the increase in velocity of the gas creates a flow pressure area at the

eye of the impeller The gas at the outer rim of the impeller is forced in to a

passage way called a diffuser where the velocity decreases in the pressure of the

gas

Inlet

The inlet to a centrifugal compressor is typically a simple pipe It may include

features such as a valve and both pressure and temperature instrumentation

Centrifugal impeller

The key component that makes a compressor centrifugal is the centrifugal

impeller shown above It is the impellers rotating set of vanes (or blades) that

gradually raises the energy of the working gas This is identical to an axial

compressor with the exception that the gases can reach higher velocities and

energy levels through the impellers increasing radius

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Diffuser

The next key component to the simple centrifugal compressor is the diffuser

Downstream of the impeller in the flow path it is the diffusers responsibility to

convert the kinetic energy (high velocity) of the gas into pressure by gradually

slowing (diffusing) the gas velocity

SEPERATORS

A well-stream is a mixture of gases hydrocarbon liquids water solids and

contaminants Due to variations in pressure and temperature gases evolve from

the liquids water vapor condenses and some of the well-stream changes to liquid

and free gas The separation of well-stream fluids takes place in a separator This

pressure vessel is manufactured in three forms

1 horizontal

2 vertical

3 spherical

To help separation the vessel is normally designed with a series of internal

fittings These fittings are built into the separator to ensure total phase separation

of the well-stream

In gas plants separators are given alternative names due to the function they

perform in the process system A scrubber does a similar job to a knockout drum

However the scrubber usually separates a stream containing high gas-to-liquid

ratios The knockout drum is used where a high degree of liquids are entrained in

the gas

Fluid flow from a well can include gas condensable liquid vapors water water

vapor crude oil and solids As well-stream fluids reach ground level where

pressure is lower than in the reservoir the capacity of the liquid to hold gas in

solution decreases and gas separates out of the oil

Separation depends upon the effect of gravity to separate liquids For adequate

separation one fluid must be lighter than the other fluid For example distillates

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(gasoline kerosene etc) and crude oil will not separate in a vessel because they

tend to dissolve in each other Because a separator basically depends upon

gravity to separate the fluids the ease with which separation takes place

depends upon the difference in density of the fluids

Droplets of liquid will separate from gas provided

a) The gas remains in the separator long enough

b) The gas flow remains constant to provoke separation

The difference in density between a gas and liquid will therefore determine the

maximum flow rate of liquid in the vessel

Figure Two phase horizontal separator

Gas bubbles in the liquid will break out in some oil field applications in 30 to 60

seconds Consequently the separator is designed so that the liquid remains in

the vessel for 30 to 60 seconds The length of time that a liquid remains in the

vessel is called its residence time Residence time differs widely from field to field

depending upon viscosity and API Gravity

Another important factor which must be considered is temperature Generally a

decrease in operating temperature will increase the liquid recovery in a separator

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as the gas condenses By reducing the pressure on the fluid flash separation

occurs resulting in a flow through the separator which is controlled by external

instrumentation

COALESCENCE

Another important principle in fluid separation is that of coalescence This means

the coming together of liquid droplets created by the force of gravity

A common example of coalescing occurs when drops of water form on the

windshield of a car as it is driven in fog As the tiny drops or water which make up

the fog strike the windshield they combine and eventually form a drop large

enough to run down the glass

Several of the internal devices of a separator such as deflector plates

straightening vanes and even the vessel walls are forms of coalescers In each

vessel drops of liquid adhere to the surface of the device and combine with other

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drops until the drop is large enough to fall out The effectiveness of separation

will also depend upon the total amount of coalescing surface area that is present

There are many different types of separators used in the Oil amp Gas industry

Consequently separators are manufactured with one two or several internal

fittings depending on their use and quick removal of these fluids from the vessel

DEFLECTOR PLATES

These are fitted in front of the inlet to the separator and can be net or

dish-shaped Their purpose is to absorb the impact of the incoming fluids and to

encourage the separation of gas and liquids They also slow the flow rate of the

liquids through the vessel

WEIRS

A weir is a metal wall which is fitted across the inside of the vessel normally to a

height of 50 of the overall height of the separator Its purpose is to assist the

process of three phase separation The inlet fluids (oil plus water) are given time

to separate in the liquid accumulation section The water level (interface) is

normally controlled at 50 of the height of the weir Oil floating on the wateroverflows the weir and accumulates in the small oil compartment where it is

drawn off under level control

CENTRIFUGAL DEVICES

These are used in both vertical and horizontal separators for gas-liquid

separation The device imparts a swirling motion to the fluids entering the vessel

Centrifugal force causes the heavier liquids to travel outwards towards the walls

of the vessel and the lighter gases to flow up the centre Centrifugal devices are

also known as cyclones

VORTEX BREAKERS

When liquid flows through a drain outlet a vortex (whirlpool) will form This can

be seen when we pull the plug from a sink or bath tub The same would happen

as water and oil flow from the separator This condition a vortex could allow gas

to flow down the centre of the whirlpool and enter the liquid phase causing

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pressurizing of tanks etc To stop this happening vortex breakers are fitted to all

liquid outlets Although they come in a number of different designs vortex

breakers all serve the same purpose - to prevent a whirlpool from forming

MIST OR DEMISTER PADS

The gas which is released from the fluids in the separator still contains droplets of

oil and water which coalesce and fall when the drops get large enough The

demister pad assists in this process Made from knitted wire and contained within

a sturdy frame it causes the gas to continually change its direction of flow

Because gas changes direction far easier than liquid the gas will flow around

each strand of wire whilst the liquid entrained in the gas stream will continue and

stick to the wire

COALESCING PLATES

There are several different forms of coalescing devices the most common of

which are coalescing plates These plates are mounted in the flow stream of the

fluids and assist in breaking down oil-water emulsions The fluid is forced to

follow a path that constantly changes direction This causes the water droplets to

gather together or coalesce and fall to the bottom of the separator The same

principle is used to separate gas and oil mixtures when the oil droplets are

induced to coalesce Simply stated every surface within the separator including

the separator walls assists with the coalescing process

STRAIGHTENlNG VANES

These are often fitted to horizontal separators to remove turbulence in the gas

stream after initial separation at the inlet deflector

FLOAT SHEILD

Internal floats are used as level controllers Any agitation of the liquid surface or

the effect of coalesced liquids falling on the float may cause control problems

Therefore a float shield is fitted to enclose the float creating an area of still liquid

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MEMBRANES

The gas contains 12 carbon dioxide and 22 ppm of hydrogen sulphide at 115oF

and 1100 psig This needs to be removed before the gas can be exported The

majority of carbon dioxide hydrogen sulphide and water is removed by means of

membranes

Membranes are thin semipermeable barriers that selectively separate some

compounds from others Currently the only commercially workable membranes

used for CO2 removal are polymer based for example cellulose acetate

polyimides polyamides polysulfone polycarbonates and polyetherimide The

membrane does not operate as a filter where small molecules are separated

from larger ones through a medium with pores rather it separates based on how

well different compounds dissolve into the membrane and diffuse through it The

membranes are manufactured in flat sheets consisting of an extremely thin

nonporous layer mounted on a much-thicker and highly porous layer of the same

material providing mechanical strength The flat sheets are combined into a

spiral-wound element (Figure below) Feed gas enters along the side of the

membrane and passes through the feed spacers As the gas travels between

membrane sheets CO2 H2S and H2O permeate through the membrane and are

collected in the permeate tube The driving force for transport is the high-feed

pressure and low-permeate pressures The gas on the feed side that does not

permeate leaves through the side of the element opposite the feed position Once

the membranes have been manufactured into elements six to 12 elements are

joined together and inserted into a tube Multiple tubes are mounted on skids in a

horizontal orientation

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Figure Membrane general Working

In high H2S applications most polymers have been shown to have very little

resistance to H2S plasticization (ldquosofteningrdquo of the membrane) and as a

consequence can only be used at very low H2S partial pressure limits Cellulose

acetate membranes in contrast have been shown to be applicable at extreme

H2S partial pressure conditions It is these membranes that have been utilized in

the testing to determine the limits of membrane performance in high H 2S

applications

The primary membranes used in Kadanwari facility are Cellulose acetate

Cellulose acetic acid and acetic anhydride are mixed together and reacted to

form cellulose acetate polymers This process is aided by the addition of a small

amount of sulfuric acid which is subsequently neutralized during processing

However the membranes are bought from UOP (vendor) and installed for use

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How membrane work

The basic principle of separation is selectivity of certain components of a mixture

for the membrane For example the cellulose acetate membrane has very high

selectivity for CO2 and H2S as compared to CH4 Therefore such type of

membrane can be used in gas sweetening process

The selectivity is directly related to the Permeability of gas which accounts that

which gas can pass across the membrane more easily In simple words

membranes being polymer materials are made of long chains of molecules The

different structure of polymer materials only allow selective molecules to pass

through them depending upon chemical and physical compatibility Thus

permeability depends upon choice of polymer

The permeability is determined by permeability coefficient (P) and is product of

solubility (S) and diffusivity (D)

P = S D

Solubility

The solubility is mainly determined by ease of condensation Heavy molecules

are more readily condensed Therefore higher molecular weighted molecules will

more easily condensed and therefore have greater solubility

Molecule Molecular weight

CH4 16

H2S 34

CO2 44

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Diffusivity

Diffusivity is ease of molecule to penetrate into some material It depends on size

of gas molecule Here size of molecule is not to be confused by molecular weight

it is the size of the structure Eg the size of O2 molecule is smaller than N2

Molecule Molecular Diameter (Ao)

CO2 33

H2S 36

Ch4 40

For cellulose acetate

DCO2DCH4 S CO2S CH4 P CO2P CH4

45 73 308

Chemical degradation

Cellulose acetate polymer is chemically degraded by a process called hydrolysis

which means breaking apart by the addition of water This is a chemical reaction

in which water is added to the cellulose acetate polymer causing the release of

acetic acid molecules This process proceeds stepwise until all the acetate

groups are released resulting in the reformation of cellulose Moreover alcohols

aromatic hydrocarbons or solvents with chlorine nitro benzene or similar

aromatic solvents will harm the membrane It will expand and lose plastification in

contact with them

Effect of Temperature

The permeation rates of all gases increases with increasing temperature

however membrane selectivity for CO2 over hydrocarbon decreases at higher

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temperature Consequently CO2 removal will improve as operating temperature

increases but hydro carbon recovery will decrease

Primary Membrane

The primary membranes comprise of two trains Each train consists of two

sections AB and CD each section consists of a 30 tube membrane skid (A and

C) followed by a 25 tube skid (B and D) The conditioned gas (after pre-

treatment) enters the primary membrane via the particulate filter adjacent to the

skid The gas is fed to the membranes through a common inlet manifold which

supplies primary membranes skids A and C A pressure control loop located

upstream of the manual inlet isolation valve is provided to maintain a constant

supply pressure to the membrane skid and to allow for preheating at the inlet

prior to skid start-up This pressure control loop can also be used during start-up

to control the pressurization of the pretreatment skid and associated pipes to the

primary membranes

The gas passes through membrane skid A the residual gas exiting the membrane

skid is sent to skid B and the permeate to common permeate discharge header An

identical arrangement is provide on the inlet to skid C as provided on skid A Theresidual gas from skid B combines with the residual gas from skid D in a common

discharge header and is then sent to the H2S polishing towers via the feed coolers

on the pre-treatment skid The permeate from skid B is sent to the common

permeate discharge header The permeate discharge header sends the gas to

either the recycle compressor or the vent header via a pressure control loop

Overpressure protection for the membranes is provided by a pressure safety valve

on the supply header to the membrane banks

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Secondary (Recycle) Membrane

The recycle membranes comprise of a single train with two skids each with four

banks of membrane tubes The conditioned gas from the discharge of the recycle

pre-treatment skid is routed to the first recycle membrane skid The gas passes

through the membranes the residual gas is fed to primary membrane (skid A) inlet

via feed gas cooler and permeate to the common permeate discharge header An

identical arrangement is provide on the inlet to skid B Permeate from the recycle

membrane skids A and B is routed to the vent header Some portion of permeate is

heated and sent for regeneration in Mem-Guard units Nitrogen purge can be

connected downstream of the inlet isolation valve on each skid to enable the

membrane tubes to be purged and left pressurized during prolonged shutdown

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Figure Flow Diagram of Recycle membrane unit

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ADVANTAGES OF MEMBRANE SYSTEMS

Membrane systems have major advantages over more-traditional methods of

acid gas removal

Lower capital cost Membrane systems are skid mounted and so the

scope cost and time taken for site preparation are minimal Installation

costs are significantly lower than alternative technologies especially for

remote areas Furthermore no additional facilities for solvent storage and

water treatment needed by other processes are required

Lower operating costs The only major operating cost for single-stage

membrane systems is membrane replacement This cost is significantly

lower than the solvent replacement and energy costs associated with

traditional technologies The improvements in membrane and

pretreatment design allow a longer useful membrane life which further

reduces operating costs The energy costs of multistage systems with

large recycle compressors are usually comparable to those for traditionaltechnologies

Deferred capital investment Often contracted sales-gas flow rates

increase over time as more wells are brought on-line With traditional

technologies the system design needs to take this later production into

account immediately and so the majority of the equipment is installed

before it is even needed The modular nature of membrane systems

means that only the membranes that are needed at start-up need be

installed The rest can be added either into existing tubes or in new skids

only when they are required

Operational simplicity and high reliability Because single-stage

membrane systems have no moving parts they have almost no

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unscheduled downtime and are extremely simple to operate They can

operate unattended for long periods of time The addition of a recycle

compressor adds some complexity to the system but still much less than

with a solvent- or adsorbent-based technology Multistage systems can be

operated at full capacity as single-stage systems when the recycle

compressor is down

Good weight and space efficiency Skid construction can be optimized

to the space available This space efficiency is especially important for

offshore environments where deck area is at a premium and is the

reason why so many new offshore developments have chosen to use

membranes for acid gas removal Figure 6 illustrates the space efficiency

of membrane systems The membrane unit in the lower left corner

replaced all the amine and glycol plant equipment shown in the rest of the

picture

Adaptability Because membrane area is dictated by the percentage of

acid gas removal rather than absolute acid gas removal small variations

in feed acid gas content hardly change the sales-gas acid gas

specification For example a system designed for 10 down to 3 acid

gas removal produces a 35 product from a 12 feed gas and a 5

product from a 15 feed gas

Design efficiency The membrane and pretreatment systems integrate a

number of operations such as dehydration CO2 and H2S removal dew-

point control and mercury removal Traditional acid gas removal

technologies require all of these operations as separate processes and

may also require additional dehydration because some technologies

saturate the product stream with water

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Power generation The permeate gas from membrane systems can be

used to provide fuel gas for power generation either for a recycle

compressor or other equipment

Ideal for debottlenecking Because expanding solvent- or adsorbent-

based acid gas removal plants without adding additional trains is difficult

an ideal solution is to use membranes for bulk acid gas removal and leave

the existing plant for final cleanup An additional advantage is that the

permeate gas from the membrane system can often be used as fuel for

the existing plant thus avoiding significant increase in hydrocarbon

losses

Environmentally friendly Membrane systems do not involve the

periodic removal and handling of spent solvents or adsorbents Permeate

gases can be flared used as fuel or re-injected into the well Items thatdo need disposal such as spent membrane elements can be incinerated

Ideal for remote locations Many of the factors mentioned above make

membrane systems a highly desirable technology for remote locations

where spare parts are rare and labor unskilled Furthermore solvents

storage and trucking water supply power generation or extensive

infrastructure are not required

Re-injection optimizations Since the permeate stream from the

membrane system can be operated at elevated pressures it is possible to

further pressurize by re-injection compression train

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Sorption

Sorption is a physical and chemical process by which one substance becomes

attached to another

It is of two main types

1 Absorption

2 Adsorption

Absorption

Absorption is a physical or chemical phenomenon or process in which atoms

molecules or ions enter some bulk phase ndash gas liquid or solid material This is a

different process from adsorption since molecules undergoing absorption are

taken up by the volume not by the surface (as in the case for adsorption)

Absorption process may be chemical (reactive) or physical (non-reactive)

Physical absorption

Physical absorption or non-reactive absorption is made between two phases ofmatter a liquid absorbs a gas or a solid absorbs a liquid

When a liquid solvent absorbs a gas mixture or part of it a mass of gas moves

into the liquid For example water may absorb oxygen from the air This mass

transfer takes place at the interface between the liquid and the gas at a rate

depending on both the gas and the liquid This type of absorption depends on the

solubility of gases the pressure and the temperature The rate and amount of

absorption also depend on the surface area of the interface and its duration in

time

When a solid absorbs a liquid mixture or part of it a mass of liquid moves into the

solid For example a clay pot used to store water may absorb some of the water

This mass transfer takes place at the interface between the solid and the liquid

at a rate depending on both the solid and the liquid

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Chemical absorption

Chemical absorption or reactive absorption is a chemical reaction between the

absorbed and the absorbing substances Sometimes it combines with physical

absorption This type of absorption depends upon the stoichiometry of the

reaction and the concentration of its reactants

Adsorption

Adsorption is the adhesion of atoms ions or molecules from a gas liquid or

dissolved solid to a surface This process creates a film of the adsorbate on the

surface of the adsorbent The binding to the surface is usually weak and

reversible Compounds with color and those that have taste or odor tend to bind

strongly Compounds that vibrate at frequencies in the visible spectrum are very

often are strongly adsorbed on activated carbon

The most common industrial adsorbents are activated carbon silica gel and

alumina because they present enormous surface areas per unit weight

Depending on the nature of attractive forces existing between the adsorbate and

adsorbent adsorption can be classified as

i) Physical adsorption

ii) Chemical adsorption

i) Physical adsorption (Physisorption)

In physical adsorption the forces of attraction between the molecules of the

adsorbate and the adsorbent are of the weak van der Waals type Since the

forces of attraction are weak the process of physisorption can be easily reversed

by heating or decreasing the pressure of the adsorbate (as in the case of gases)

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ii) Chemical adsorption (Chemisorption)

In chemisorption the forces of attraction between the adsorbate and the

adsorbent are very strong the molecules of adsorbate form chemical bonds with

the molecules of the adsorbent present in the surface

Adsorption is generally accompanied by release of energy that is most

adsorption processes are exothermic in nature Adsorption is a spontaneous

process therefore its free energy change is negative (∆Glt0) However the

entropy change associated with adsorption is generally negative because the

adsorbate molecules lose their translation freedom when they get attached to the

surface of the adsorbent Therefore in order for ∆G to be negative the enthalpy

change (∆H) must be sufficiently negative such that (∆G=∆H-T∆S) lt 0 This

explanation accounts for exothermic adsorption processes In cases where

endothermic adsorption occurs the entropy change ∆S is sufficiently positive

such that ∆G remains negative

Pre treatment

The main function of pretreatment skid is to provide membrane inlet specification

gas as mentioned by the vendor UOP It removes the contaminants that would

poison the membranes like dust solids (adsorbent particles) lube oil heavy

hydrocarbons etc It consists of

Feed Cooler

Feed Gas Scrubber

Filter Coalescer

Feed Gas Heater

Activated Carbon Guard Filter

Particle Filter

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The regeneration is carried out by heated permeate gas from the recycle

membranes at 450oF The vessel is depressurized to 20 psi and heated gas is

introduced from top The gas carries out the adsorbed contaminants and leaves

the vessel from bottom cleaning the adsorbent This contaminated gas is burnt in

the flare

UOP the vendor of Memguard unit has never disclosed that what substance

MG3 and MG5 exactly are But as mentioned by vendor that both care class of

aluminosilicates Therefore MG3 can be potassium aluminosilicate and MG5 can

be Calcium aluminosilicate These are molecular sieves adsorbents Molecular

sieves are a microporous material which can selectively adsorb gases andliquids They are synthetic zeolites (crystalline metal aluminosilicates) which

upon dehydration can efficiently and selectively remove water or other

solvents The selectivity of a molecular sieve is determined by its pore size

molecules with a critical diameter which is less than the pore size will be

efficiently adsorbed while larger molecules will be excluded

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3A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

The 3A molecular sieve adsorbent has a 3 angstrom (3A) pore size which means

that any molecule that is larger than the 3 angstrom pores will not be adsorbed

The 3A molecular sieve is the potassium type of A crystalline structure and is a

form of alkali Aluminosilicate For a 3A molecular sieve the sequence rate that

adsorption occurs is He Ne N and H2O

Due to the crystalline structure molecular sieves that have a 3 angstrom pore

size have a very high rate of adsorption and properties that promote a longer life

for products treated by the sieve The most common use for the 3A molecular

sieve is to remove water and moisture from materials that are in gas and liquid

form

5A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

These are molecular sieve adsorbents with a pore size of 5 angstrom (5A) 5A

molecular sieves are unable to adsorb any molecules or impurities that are

smaller than 5A It is calcium form of type A crystalline structure and is form of analkali-aluminosilicate that is most commonly used to separate isomerous alkanes

from normal alkanes and to co-adsorb moisture and water along with carbon

dioxide from gases In additional 5A molecular sieves are used for gaseous

pressure swing adsorption (PSA)mdashthat is to separate particular gases from other

gases

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of C3H8 to C22H46

Adsorption of Freon-12 (dichlorodifluoromethane)

Natural gas drying

Normal- and iso-paraffin separation

Separation of aromatic

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Inlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1096

MEHTANE 8593

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008

N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGEN 076

WATER 007

Outlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1098

MEHTANE 8608

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGENT 076

WATER 000

H2S polisher

The H2S polishing unit has been designed to treat 187 MMscfday of natural gas

containing up to 11 CO2 and 21 ppm H2S where the level of the CO2 and H2S

is reduced using a MemGuard Membrane separation unit The unit is situated

down-stream of the membrane unit and will further reduce the level of H2S in the

processed gas to a sales gas specification of 38 ppm

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This process uses three non-regenerable fixed bed absorber vessels using a low

temperature high activity absorbent The absorbent is a mixture of activated

metal oxides (mainly zinc oxide) The three towers can are generally operated in

parallel arrangement but on demand can be used in series (any of alternate

arrangements of A B C vessels) as shown in figure

The higher sales gas flow rate increased the catalyst consumption and

replacement frequency

ZnO + H2S =gt ZnS + H20

Routine samples are taken from the beds to provide a check on each bed

performance and to follow the saturation profile during the absorbent life After

the adsorbent has been fully utilized the adsorption vessels are recharged with

new adsorbent discarding the utilized one in a safe manner

109oF

1215 psig

Before H2S Polishing After H2S Polishing

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Figure

H2S Tower

Inlet pipe

4 Drums of 19mm

ceramic Balls

6 Micron mesh

5 Drums of 50mmceramic

1 Drums of19mm ceramic

01 Drums of6mm ceramic

112 drums of

Catalist ZnO

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Recycle Compressor

The permeate gas of the primary membrane unit carries recoverable amount of

CH4 It is fed to recycle membrane unit for further CH 4 recovery But the

permeate pressure from primary membranes which has been reduced to 12 psi

must be regenerated to 1200 psi for the gas to be fed again to the system For

this purpose we have employed recycle compressor The compressor is a four

stage centrifugal compressor It is driven by gas turbine of 31200 HP It has 25

MW producing capacity

Figure Recycle Compressor Process Flow Diagram

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Sales Gas Compressor

Gas from H2S polishing unit is sent to sales gas compressor where its pressure

is enhanced to 1100 psi so it may be injected to SNGPL high pressure trunk line

Sales gas compressor is single stage gas turbine driven

Figure Process Flow of Sales Gas Compressor

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Cooling Towers

A cooling tower is a heat rejection device which extracts waste heat to theatmosphere through the cooling of a water stream to a lower temperature Hot

water from the system enters the cooling tower and is distributed over the fill

(heat transfer surface) Air is induced or forced through the fill causing a small

portion of the water to evaporate This evaporation removes heat from the

remaining water which is collected in the cold water basin and returned to the

system to absorb more heat Each cooling tower line although operating under

the same basic principle of operation is arranged a little differently

Types

Natural draft mdash Utilizes buoyancy via a tall chimney Warm moist air naturally

rises due to the density differential compared to the dry cooler outside air Warm

moist air is less dense than drier air at the same pressure This moist air

buoyancy produces an upwards current of air through the tower

Mechanical draft mdash Uses power-driven fan motors to force or draw airthrough the tower

o Induced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a fan at the

discharge (at the top) which pulls air up through the tower The fan

induces hot moist air out the discharge This produces low entering

and high exiting air velocities reducing the possibility of

recirculation in which discharged air flows back into the air intake

o Forced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a blower type fan at

the intake The fan forces air into the tower creating high entering

and low exiting air velocities The low exiting velocity is much more

susceptible to recirculation This fanfill geometry is also known as

blow-through

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Forced Draft Cooling Tower Vs Induced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower have the ability to handle large water flow

rate than Forced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower is suitable for large cell sizes and fan sizes

as compared with Forced Draft Larger fan size may result in greater

efficiency and consequently lower power and sound level

Forced Draft Cooling Tower can be square or rectangular type only

however Induced Draft Cooling Towers can be round square or

rectangular type

Induced Draft Cooling Tower uses more compact ground area than Forced

Draft Cooling Tower equivalent capacity due to absence of fan on one

side

Fan equipment is warm exhaust air is less liable to icing up in winter

operation (Cold Countries)

Higher velocity in Forced Draft Cooling Tower cause drop in suspension

and cause additional static resistance to system

Configuration

There are two main configurations of factory assembled cooling towers crossflow

and counterflow In crossflow cooling towers the water flows vertically down the

fill as air flows horizontally across In counterflow cooling towers the water flows

vertically down the fill as air flows vertically up

Crossflow Configuration Counterflow Configuration

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Drift mdash Water droplets that are carried out of the cooling tower with the exhaust

air Drift droplets have the same concentration of impurities as the water entering

the tower The drift rate is typically reduced by employing baffle-like devices

called drift eliminators through which the air must travel after leaving the fill and

spray zones of the tower

Blow-out mdash Water droplets blown out of the cooling tower by wind generally at

the air inlet openings Water may also be lost in the absence of wind through

splashing or misting Devices such as wind screens louvers splash deflectors

and water diverters are used to limit these losses

Blow-down mdash The portion of the circulating water flow that is removed (usually

discharged to a drain) in order to maintain the amount of Total Dissolved Solids

(TDS) and other impurities at an acceptably low level Higher TDS concentration

in solution may result from greater cooling tower efficiency However the higher

the TDS concentration the greater the risk of scale biological growth and

corrosion

Make-up mdash The water that must be added to the circulating water system in

order to compensate for water losses such as evaporation drift loss blow-out

blow-down etc

Approach mdash The approach is the difference in temperature between the cooled-

water temperature and the entering-air wet bulb temperature

Range mdash The range is the temperature difference between the warm water inlet

and cooled water exit

Fill mdash Inside the tower fills are added to increase contact surface as well as

contact time between air and water to provide better heat transfer The efficiency

of the tower depends on the selection and amount of fill

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There are two types of fills that may be used

o Film type fill (causes water to spread into a thin film)

o Splash type fill (breaks up falling stream of water and interrupts its

vertical progress)

Important

Scale build up is controlled by adding chemicals to the cooling loop and diluting

the concentration by blow down and make-up Following chemicals are added to

the Cooling to control CorrosionSale and microbial growth

Corrosion Inhibitor To control corrosion in the Cooling system

Dispersant To kept ions in suspension to avoid settle down and buildup

Sodium hypo Chlorite To Control microbial Growth

Acid To control Alkalinity in the system

High Stress Polymer To run the system at higher conductivity It is a

multifunctional polymer for Zinc amp Phosphate stabilization in cooling tower

Fin Fan Cooler

Fin fan heat exchanger is simply a pressure vessel which cools a circulating fluid

within finned tubes by forcing ambient air over the exterior of the tubes A

common example of an air cooler is a carrsquos radiator Fin Fan Coolers are used in

any application where large quantities of heat need to be transferred This

includes chemical and petrochemical industries power stations waste-to-energy

facilities as well as steelworks

Fin Fan Cooler are used for two primary reasons

They increase plant efficiency

They are a green solution as compared to cooling towers and shell and

tube heat exchangers because they do not require an auxiliary water

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supply (water lost due to drift and evaporation plus no water treatment

chemicals are required)

Figure General Overview of Fin Fan Cooler

Produced Water

The produced water system receives liquid from the equipment Miano slug

catcher train 1 and 2 inlet separators and is fed to three phase separator where

water oil and gas is separated The gases produced are burnt in incinerator

whereas hydrocarbon liquid is stored to be sold Liquid from compressors

recycle inlet separator recycle feed scrubber high and low pressure slug

catchers is passed to degasser Separated water is injected down the earth

Incinerator

The term incinerate means to burn something until nothing is left but ashes An

incinerator is a unit or facility used to burn trash and other types of waste until it is

reduced to ash An incinerator is constructed of heavy well-insulated materials

so that it does not give off extreme amounts of external heat The high levels of

heat are kept inside the furnace or unit so that the waste is burned quickly and

efficiently If the heat were allowed to escape the waste would not burn as

completely or as rapidly

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Control System

The plant is controlled at CCR (Central Control Room) by PLCs (Programmable

Logic Controllers) through fiber optic control line All control parameters are

received at LER (Local Equipment Room) via two optic fiber control lines One

being primary and other secondary operating in redundancy ie if primary fails

control shifts to secondary These control parameters are sent to CCR via single

optic fiber cable

Safety System

Wellheads and Gas Processing Plant have their own Fire amp Gas detection

systems emergency shutdown (ESD) Plant has a fault tolerant controller It is

based on Triple Modular Redundant (TMR) architecture manufactured by

Triconex The TMR system is based on three isolated parallel control systems

integrated into one system The system operates on a two out of three voting

principle which provides high integrity error free uninterrupted operation with no

single point of failure The TMR receives inputs from Process Sensors Manual

Switches Fire amp Gas Detectors Packaged Equipment Control Systems and

Product Exporting Facilities The TMR carries out cause and effect processing on

the data received and where necessary produces output signals Outputs from

the TMR are hard wired directly to ESD shutdown and blow down valve

solenoids motor control instrumentelectrical interfaces to control electrical

drives package equipment logic control systems manifold area as well as

telecoms

The operator in central control room is able to accept alarms and once the fault

has been cleared reset the input All the control systems are centralized to a

single interface All the PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers) communicate with

the servers and servers communicate with the clients through Ethernet connectivity

Centralization eases the navigation of different systems at a common interface

Emergency Shutdown

The ESD system receives inputs from field mounted instrumentation on the process

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and utility equipment and initiates executive actions appropriate to the level of ESD

The system is an Active system which is in standby and will activate when in an

alarm or fault condition The Kadanwari Gas Process Facility ESD system is

comprised of five (5) levels The emergency severity decreases with increasing ESD

level number

ESD 1

This shutdown level is automatically initiated by fire major gas leak or a detected

toxic atmosphere in the process area of the plant or manually from CCR A level 1

shutdown will cause all production to cease close all emergency shutdown

valves stop the process and shutdown of the main power generation The

emergency vent valves to the stack will open and in addition all equipment of zone 1

certified will be isolated This is the highest level of ESD and will cause the following

to occur

All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close All slowdown Valves (BDVs) on the process facility will open

All Main Gas Driven Generators will be tripped

Emergency Diesel Generator will start

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close Upper Master Valve

(UMV) Close

ESD 2

This shutdown level is activated automatically if a major process or utility failure

occurs or manually from CCR All production to the plant from the wellhead is

stopped All emergency shutdown valves trip to their fail safe position

Venting shall be as specified This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

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All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valve Close Wing Valves Close and Upper Master Valve(UMV) Close

ESD 3

The level 3 shutdown isolates and stops a single process train only Production

continues via the other train This ESD level is initiated by process conditions or

operator at local panel This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

ESD 3A Train 1 production to cease

ESD 3B Train 2 production to cease

All online wellhead choke valves go to minimum flow ie (1O )

ESD 4

A level 4 shutdown shall cease all production from an entire field either

Kadanwari or Miano upstream of the associated slug catchers ESD 4K for

Kadanwari amp ESD 4M for Miano This ESD level is initiated automatically by slug

catcher abnormal process conditions This level of ESD will cause the following

to occur

All SDVs close isolating the relevant slug catcher and its upstream gas

production facility from the Kadanwari Gas Processing Plant

All Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close and Upper MasterValves (UMV) of the relevant gas production facility Close

A parallel timer is provided to close within 10 second if not closed in given

time SSSV seals the well

ESD 5

A level 5 shutdown represents equipment shutdown for the protection of the

individual equipment without any change in the process This level of ESD is for the

protection of various pieces of equipment and is initiated by its own inputs eg

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cylinder goes into the discharge line The compression cycle is then repeated

from the stage

Compressor Capacity

The capacity of the compressor depends upon cylinder displacement That

displacement is simply the volume that the piston displaces (moves) as it travels

from one end of the cylinder to the other Capacity and displacement is equal to

the cross-sectional area of the cylinder times the length of the stroke

Lubrication and Cooling

Lubricating oil is circulated through the system by a gear pump which is chain

driven from the engine crank shaft The oil pump is mounted on the engine front

housing

The pump operates between 30 - 40 psig

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A circulating pump deliver cooling water to the water jackets in the cylinder block

flowing around the cylinder liners and is directed into the cylinder heads Each

cylinder head has water cooled exhaust elbows which outlet the water into the

water cooled exhausts From the end of engine the water flows to compressor

1st and 2nd stage cylinders and compressor lube oil cooler (LOwater heat

exchanger) The water from the compressor cylinder and lube oil cooler returns

to engine water cooled exhaust

Figure Flow diagram of Front End Compressor

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Centrifugal Compressor

Centrifugal compressors are machines in which velocity and pressure given to air

or gas in a radial direction by one or more impellers diffuser combination In a

centrifugal compressor the mechanical energy is increased by centrifugal action

The gas enters the suction eye of a high speed rotary element called the impeller

which carries radial vanes integrally cast in it As the impeller rotates the blades

of the impeller force the gas outward from the center the impeller to the outer rim

of impeller the increase in velocity of the gas creates a flow pressure area at the

eye of the impeller The gas at the outer rim of the impeller is forced in to a

passage way called a diffuser where the velocity decreases in the pressure of the

gas

Inlet

The inlet to a centrifugal compressor is typically a simple pipe It may include

features such as a valve and both pressure and temperature instrumentation

Centrifugal impeller

The key component that makes a compressor centrifugal is the centrifugal

impeller shown above It is the impellers rotating set of vanes (or blades) that

gradually raises the energy of the working gas This is identical to an axial

compressor with the exception that the gases can reach higher velocities and

energy levels through the impellers increasing radius

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Diffuser

The next key component to the simple centrifugal compressor is the diffuser

Downstream of the impeller in the flow path it is the diffusers responsibility to

convert the kinetic energy (high velocity) of the gas into pressure by gradually

slowing (diffusing) the gas velocity

SEPERATORS

A well-stream is a mixture of gases hydrocarbon liquids water solids and

contaminants Due to variations in pressure and temperature gases evolve from

the liquids water vapor condenses and some of the well-stream changes to liquid

and free gas The separation of well-stream fluids takes place in a separator This

pressure vessel is manufactured in three forms

1 horizontal

2 vertical

3 spherical

To help separation the vessel is normally designed with a series of internal

fittings These fittings are built into the separator to ensure total phase separation

of the well-stream

In gas plants separators are given alternative names due to the function they

perform in the process system A scrubber does a similar job to a knockout drum

However the scrubber usually separates a stream containing high gas-to-liquid

ratios The knockout drum is used where a high degree of liquids are entrained in

the gas

Fluid flow from a well can include gas condensable liquid vapors water water

vapor crude oil and solids As well-stream fluids reach ground level where

pressure is lower than in the reservoir the capacity of the liquid to hold gas in

solution decreases and gas separates out of the oil

Separation depends upon the effect of gravity to separate liquids For adequate

separation one fluid must be lighter than the other fluid For example distillates

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(gasoline kerosene etc) and crude oil will not separate in a vessel because they

tend to dissolve in each other Because a separator basically depends upon

gravity to separate the fluids the ease with which separation takes place

depends upon the difference in density of the fluids

Droplets of liquid will separate from gas provided

a) The gas remains in the separator long enough

b) The gas flow remains constant to provoke separation

The difference in density between a gas and liquid will therefore determine the

maximum flow rate of liquid in the vessel

Figure Two phase horizontal separator

Gas bubbles in the liquid will break out in some oil field applications in 30 to 60

seconds Consequently the separator is designed so that the liquid remains in

the vessel for 30 to 60 seconds The length of time that a liquid remains in the

vessel is called its residence time Residence time differs widely from field to field

depending upon viscosity and API Gravity

Another important factor which must be considered is temperature Generally a

decrease in operating temperature will increase the liquid recovery in a separator

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as the gas condenses By reducing the pressure on the fluid flash separation

occurs resulting in a flow through the separator which is controlled by external

instrumentation

COALESCENCE

Another important principle in fluid separation is that of coalescence This means

the coming together of liquid droplets created by the force of gravity

A common example of coalescing occurs when drops of water form on the

windshield of a car as it is driven in fog As the tiny drops or water which make up

the fog strike the windshield they combine and eventually form a drop large

enough to run down the glass

Several of the internal devices of a separator such as deflector plates

straightening vanes and even the vessel walls are forms of coalescers In each

vessel drops of liquid adhere to the surface of the device and combine with other

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drops until the drop is large enough to fall out The effectiveness of separation

will also depend upon the total amount of coalescing surface area that is present

There are many different types of separators used in the Oil amp Gas industry

Consequently separators are manufactured with one two or several internal

fittings depending on their use and quick removal of these fluids from the vessel

DEFLECTOR PLATES

These are fitted in front of the inlet to the separator and can be net or

dish-shaped Their purpose is to absorb the impact of the incoming fluids and to

encourage the separation of gas and liquids They also slow the flow rate of the

liquids through the vessel

WEIRS

A weir is a metal wall which is fitted across the inside of the vessel normally to a

height of 50 of the overall height of the separator Its purpose is to assist the

process of three phase separation The inlet fluids (oil plus water) are given time

to separate in the liquid accumulation section The water level (interface) is

normally controlled at 50 of the height of the weir Oil floating on the wateroverflows the weir and accumulates in the small oil compartment where it is

drawn off under level control

CENTRIFUGAL DEVICES

These are used in both vertical and horizontal separators for gas-liquid

separation The device imparts a swirling motion to the fluids entering the vessel

Centrifugal force causes the heavier liquids to travel outwards towards the walls

of the vessel and the lighter gases to flow up the centre Centrifugal devices are

also known as cyclones

VORTEX BREAKERS

When liquid flows through a drain outlet a vortex (whirlpool) will form This can

be seen when we pull the plug from a sink or bath tub The same would happen

as water and oil flow from the separator This condition a vortex could allow gas

to flow down the centre of the whirlpool and enter the liquid phase causing

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pressurizing of tanks etc To stop this happening vortex breakers are fitted to all

liquid outlets Although they come in a number of different designs vortex

breakers all serve the same purpose - to prevent a whirlpool from forming

MIST OR DEMISTER PADS

The gas which is released from the fluids in the separator still contains droplets of

oil and water which coalesce and fall when the drops get large enough The

demister pad assists in this process Made from knitted wire and contained within

a sturdy frame it causes the gas to continually change its direction of flow

Because gas changes direction far easier than liquid the gas will flow around

each strand of wire whilst the liquid entrained in the gas stream will continue and

stick to the wire

COALESCING PLATES

There are several different forms of coalescing devices the most common of

which are coalescing plates These plates are mounted in the flow stream of the

fluids and assist in breaking down oil-water emulsions The fluid is forced to

follow a path that constantly changes direction This causes the water droplets to

gather together or coalesce and fall to the bottom of the separator The same

principle is used to separate gas and oil mixtures when the oil droplets are

induced to coalesce Simply stated every surface within the separator including

the separator walls assists with the coalescing process

STRAIGHTENlNG VANES

These are often fitted to horizontal separators to remove turbulence in the gas

stream after initial separation at the inlet deflector

FLOAT SHEILD

Internal floats are used as level controllers Any agitation of the liquid surface or

the effect of coalesced liquids falling on the float may cause control problems

Therefore a float shield is fitted to enclose the float creating an area of still liquid

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MEMBRANES

The gas contains 12 carbon dioxide and 22 ppm of hydrogen sulphide at 115oF

and 1100 psig This needs to be removed before the gas can be exported The

majority of carbon dioxide hydrogen sulphide and water is removed by means of

membranes

Membranes are thin semipermeable barriers that selectively separate some

compounds from others Currently the only commercially workable membranes

used for CO2 removal are polymer based for example cellulose acetate

polyimides polyamides polysulfone polycarbonates and polyetherimide The

membrane does not operate as a filter where small molecules are separated

from larger ones through a medium with pores rather it separates based on how

well different compounds dissolve into the membrane and diffuse through it The

membranes are manufactured in flat sheets consisting of an extremely thin

nonporous layer mounted on a much-thicker and highly porous layer of the same

material providing mechanical strength The flat sheets are combined into a

spiral-wound element (Figure below) Feed gas enters along the side of the

membrane and passes through the feed spacers As the gas travels between

membrane sheets CO2 H2S and H2O permeate through the membrane and are

collected in the permeate tube The driving force for transport is the high-feed

pressure and low-permeate pressures The gas on the feed side that does not

permeate leaves through the side of the element opposite the feed position Once

the membranes have been manufactured into elements six to 12 elements are

joined together and inserted into a tube Multiple tubes are mounted on skids in a

horizontal orientation

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Figure Membrane general Working

In high H2S applications most polymers have been shown to have very little

resistance to H2S plasticization (ldquosofteningrdquo of the membrane) and as a

consequence can only be used at very low H2S partial pressure limits Cellulose

acetate membranes in contrast have been shown to be applicable at extreme

H2S partial pressure conditions It is these membranes that have been utilized in

the testing to determine the limits of membrane performance in high H 2S

applications

The primary membranes used in Kadanwari facility are Cellulose acetate

Cellulose acetic acid and acetic anhydride are mixed together and reacted to

form cellulose acetate polymers This process is aided by the addition of a small

amount of sulfuric acid which is subsequently neutralized during processing

However the membranes are bought from UOP (vendor) and installed for use

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How membrane work

The basic principle of separation is selectivity of certain components of a mixture

for the membrane For example the cellulose acetate membrane has very high

selectivity for CO2 and H2S as compared to CH4 Therefore such type of

membrane can be used in gas sweetening process

The selectivity is directly related to the Permeability of gas which accounts that

which gas can pass across the membrane more easily In simple words

membranes being polymer materials are made of long chains of molecules The

different structure of polymer materials only allow selective molecules to pass

through them depending upon chemical and physical compatibility Thus

permeability depends upon choice of polymer

The permeability is determined by permeability coefficient (P) and is product of

solubility (S) and diffusivity (D)

P = S D

Solubility

The solubility is mainly determined by ease of condensation Heavy molecules

are more readily condensed Therefore higher molecular weighted molecules will

more easily condensed and therefore have greater solubility

Molecule Molecular weight

CH4 16

H2S 34

CO2 44

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Diffusivity

Diffusivity is ease of molecule to penetrate into some material It depends on size

of gas molecule Here size of molecule is not to be confused by molecular weight

it is the size of the structure Eg the size of O2 molecule is smaller than N2

Molecule Molecular Diameter (Ao)

CO2 33

H2S 36

Ch4 40

For cellulose acetate

DCO2DCH4 S CO2S CH4 P CO2P CH4

45 73 308

Chemical degradation

Cellulose acetate polymer is chemically degraded by a process called hydrolysis

which means breaking apart by the addition of water This is a chemical reaction

in which water is added to the cellulose acetate polymer causing the release of

acetic acid molecules This process proceeds stepwise until all the acetate

groups are released resulting in the reformation of cellulose Moreover alcohols

aromatic hydrocarbons or solvents with chlorine nitro benzene or similar

aromatic solvents will harm the membrane It will expand and lose plastification in

contact with them

Effect of Temperature

The permeation rates of all gases increases with increasing temperature

however membrane selectivity for CO2 over hydrocarbon decreases at higher

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temperature Consequently CO2 removal will improve as operating temperature

increases but hydro carbon recovery will decrease

Primary Membrane

The primary membranes comprise of two trains Each train consists of two

sections AB and CD each section consists of a 30 tube membrane skid (A and

C) followed by a 25 tube skid (B and D) The conditioned gas (after pre-

treatment) enters the primary membrane via the particulate filter adjacent to the

skid The gas is fed to the membranes through a common inlet manifold which

supplies primary membranes skids A and C A pressure control loop located

upstream of the manual inlet isolation valve is provided to maintain a constant

supply pressure to the membrane skid and to allow for preheating at the inlet

prior to skid start-up This pressure control loop can also be used during start-up

to control the pressurization of the pretreatment skid and associated pipes to the

primary membranes

The gas passes through membrane skid A the residual gas exiting the membrane

skid is sent to skid B and the permeate to common permeate discharge header An

identical arrangement is provide on the inlet to skid C as provided on skid A Theresidual gas from skid B combines with the residual gas from skid D in a common

discharge header and is then sent to the H2S polishing towers via the feed coolers

on the pre-treatment skid The permeate from skid B is sent to the common

permeate discharge header The permeate discharge header sends the gas to

either the recycle compressor or the vent header via a pressure control loop

Overpressure protection for the membranes is provided by a pressure safety valve

on the supply header to the membrane banks

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Secondary (Recycle) Membrane

The recycle membranes comprise of a single train with two skids each with four

banks of membrane tubes The conditioned gas from the discharge of the recycle

pre-treatment skid is routed to the first recycle membrane skid The gas passes

through the membranes the residual gas is fed to primary membrane (skid A) inlet

via feed gas cooler and permeate to the common permeate discharge header An

identical arrangement is provide on the inlet to skid B Permeate from the recycle

membrane skids A and B is routed to the vent header Some portion of permeate is

heated and sent for regeneration in Mem-Guard units Nitrogen purge can be

connected downstream of the inlet isolation valve on each skid to enable the

membrane tubes to be purged and left pressurized during prolonged shutdown

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Figure Flow Diagram of Recycle membrane unit

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ADVANTAGES OF MEMBRANE SYSTEMS

Membrane systems have major advantages over more-traditional methods of

acid gas removal

Lower capital cost Membrane systems are skid mounted and so the

scope cost and time taken for site preparation are minimal Installation

costs are significantly lower than alternative technologies especially for

remote areas Furthermore no additional facilities for solvent storage and

water treatment needed by other processes are required

Lower operating costs The only major operating cost for single-stage

membrane systems is membrane replacement This cost is significantly

lower than the solvent replacement and energy costs associated with

traditional technologies The improvements in membrane and

pretreatment design allow a longer useful membrane life which further

reduces operating costs The energy costs of multistage systems with

large recycle compressors are usually comparable to those for traditionaltechnologies

Deferred capital investment Often contracted sales-gas flow rates

increase over time as more wells are brought on-line With traditional

technologies the system design needs to take this later production into

account immediately and so the majority of the equipment is installed

before it is even needed The modular nature of membrane systems

means that only the membranes that are needed at start-up need be

installed The rest can be added either into existing tubes or in new skids

only when they are required

Operational simplicity and high reliability Because single-stage

membrane systems have no moving parts they have almost no

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unscheduled downtime and are extremely simple to operate They can

operate unattended for long periods of time The addition of a recycle

compressor adds some complexity to the system but still much less than

with a solvent- or adsorbent-based technology Multistage systems can be

operated at full capacity as single-stage systems when the recycle

compressor is down

Good weight and space efficiency Skid construction can be optimized

to the space available This space efficiency is especially important for

offshore environments where deck area is at a premium and is the

reason why so many new offshore developments have chosen to use

membranes for acid gas removal Figure 6 illustrates the space efficiency

of membrane systems The membrane unit in the lower left corner

replaced all the amine and glycol plant equipment shown in the rest of the

picture

Adaptability Because membrane area is dictated by the percentage of

acid gas removal rather than absolute acid gas removal small variations

in feed acid gas content hardly change the sales-gas acid gas

specification For example a system designed for 10 down to 3 acid

gas removal produces a 35 product from a 12 feed gas and a 5

product from a 15 feed gas

Design efficiency The membrane and pretreatment systems integrate a

number of operations such as dehydration CO2 and H2S removal dew-

point control and mercury removal Traditional acid gas removal

technologies require all of these operations as separate processes and

may also require additional dehydration because some technologies

saturate the product stream with water

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Power generation The permeate gas from membrane systems can be

used to provide fuel gas for power generation either for a recycle

compressor or other equipment

Ideal for debottlenecking Because expanding solvent- or adsorbent-

based acid gas removal plants without adding additional trains is difficult

an ideal solution is to use membranes for bulk acid gas removal and leave

the existing plant for final cleanup An additional advantage is that the

permeate gas from the membrane system can often be used as fuel for

the existing plant thus avoiding significant increase in hydrocarbon

losses

Environmentally friendly Membrane systems do not involve the

periodic removal and handling of spent solvents or adsorbents Permeate

gases can be flared used as fuel or re-injected into the well Items thatdo need disposal such as spent membrane elements can be incinerated

Ideal for remote locations Many of the factors mentioned above make

membrane systems a highly desirable technology for remote locations

where spare parts are rare and labor unskilled Furthermore solvents

storage and trucking water supply power generation or extensive

infrastructure are not required

Re-injection optimizations Since the permeate stream from the

membrane system can be operated at elevated pressures it is possible to

further pressurize by re-injection compression train

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Sorption

Sorption is a physical and chemical process by which one substance becomes

attached to another

It is of two main types

1 Absorption

2 Adsorption

Absorption

Absorption is a physical or chemical phenomenon or process in which atoms

molecules or ions enter some bulk phase ndash gas liquid or solid material This is a

different process from adsorption since molecules undergoing absorption are

taken up by the volume not by the surface (as in the case for adsorption)

Absorption process may be chemical (reactive) or physical (non-reactive)

Physical absorption

Physical absorption or non-reactive absorption is made between two phases ofmatter a liquid absorbs a gas or a solid absorbs a liquid

When a liquid solvent absorbs a gas mixture or part of it a mass of gas moves

into the liquid For example water may absorb oxygen from the air This mass

transfer takes place at the interface between the liquid and the gas at a rate

depending on both the gas and the liquid This type of absorption depends on the

solubility of gases the pressure and the temperature The rate and amount of

absorption also depend on the surface area of the interface and its duration in

time

When a solid absorbs a liquid mixture or part of it a mass of liquid moves into the

solid For example a clay pot used to store water may absorb some of the water

This mass transfer takes place at the interface between the solid and the liquid

at a rate depending on both the solid and the liquid

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Chemical absorption

Chemical absorption or reactive absorption is a chemical reaction between the

absorbed and the absorbing substances Sometimes it combines with physical

absorption This type of absorption depends upon the stoichiometry of the

reaction and the concentration of its reactants

Adsorption

Adsorption is the adhesion of atoms ions or molecules from a gas liquid or

dissolved solid to a surface This process creates a film of the adsorbate on the

surface of the adsorbent The binding to the surface is usually weak and

reversible Compounds with color and those that have taste or odor tend to bind

strongly Compounds that vibrate at frequencies in the visible spectrum are very

often are strongly adsorbed on activated carbon

The most common industrial adsorbents are activated carbon silica gel and

alumina because they present enormous surface areas per unit weight

Depending on the nature of attractive forces existing between the adsorbate and

adsorbent adsorption can be classified as

i) Physical adsorption

ii) Chemical adsorption

i) Physical adsorption (Physisorption)

In physical adsorption the forces of attraction between the molecules of the

adsorbate and the adsorbent are of the weak van der Waals type Since the

forces of attraction are weak the process of physisorption can be easily reversed

by heating or decreasing the pressure of the adsorbate (as in the case of gases)

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ii) Chemical adsorption (Chemisorption)

In chemisorption the forces of attraction between the adsorbate and the

adsorbent are very strong the molecules of adsorbate form chemical bonds with

the molecules of the adsorbent present in the surface

Adsorption is generally accompanied by release of energy that is most

adsorption processes are exothermic in nature Adsorption is a spontaneous

process therefore its free energy change is negative (∆Glt0) However the

entropy change associated with adsorption is generally negative because the

adsorbate molecules lose their translation freedom when they get attached to the

surface of the adsorbent Therefore in order for ∆G to be negative the enthalpy

change (∆H) must be sufficiently negative such that (∆G=∆H-T∆S) lt 0 This

explanation accounts for exothermic adsorption processes In cases where

endothermic adsorption occurs the entropy change ∆S is sufficiently positive

such that ∆G remains negative

Pre treatment

The main function of pretreatment skid is to provide membrane inlet specification

gas as mentioned by the vendor UOP It removes the contaminants that would

poison the membranes like dust solids (adsorbent particles) lube oil heavy

hydrocarbons etc It consists of

Feed Cooler

Feed Gas Scrubber

Filter Coalescer

Feed Gas Heater

Activated Carbon Guard Filter

Particle Filter

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The regeneration is carried out by heated permeate gas from the recycle

membranes at 450oF The vessel is depressurized to 20 psi and heated gas is

introduced from top The gas carries out the adsorbed contaminants and leaves

the vessel from bottom cleaning the adsorbent This contaminated gas is burnt in

the flare

UOP the vendor of Memguard unit has never disclosed that what substance

MG3 and MG5 exactly are But as mentioned by vendor that both care class of

aluminosilicates Therefore MG3 can be potassium aluminosilicate and MG5 can

be Calcium aluminosilicate These are molecular sieves adsorbents Molecular

sieves are a microporous material which can selectively adsorb gases andliquids They are synthetic zeolites (crystalline metal aluminosilicates) which

upon dehydration can efficiently and selectively remove water or other

solvents The selectivity of a molecular sieve is determined by its pore size

molecules with a critical diameter which is less than the pore size will be

efficiently adsorbed while larger molecules will be excluded

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3A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

The 3A molecular sieve adsorbent has a 3 angstrom (3A) pore size which means

that any molecule that is larger than the 3 angstrom pores will not be adsorbed

The 3A molecular sieve is the potassium type of A crystalline structure and is a

form of alkali Aluminosilicate For a 3A molecular sieve the sequence rate that

adsorption occurs is He Ne N and H2O

Due to the crystalline structure molecular sieves that have a 3 angstrom pore

size have a very high rate of adsorption and properties that promote a longer life

for products treated by the sieve The most common use for the 3A molecular

sieve is to remove water and moisture from materials that are in gas and liquid

form

5A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

These are molecular sieve adsorbents with a pore size of 5 angstrom (5A) 5A

molecular sieves are unable to adsorb any molecules or impurities that are

smaller than 5A It is calcium form of type A crystalline structure and is form of analkali-aluminosilicate that is most commonly used to separate isomerous alkanes

from normal alkanes and to co-adsorb moisture and water along with carbon

dioxide from gases In additional 5A molecular sieves are used for gaseous

pressure swing adsorption (PSA)mdashthat is to separate particular gases from other

gases

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of C3H8 to C22H46

Adsorption of Freon-12 (dichlorodifluoromethane)

Natural gas drying

Normal- and iso-paraffin separation

Separation of aromatic

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Inlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1096

MEHTANE 8593

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008

N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGEN 076

WATER 007

Outlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1098

MEHTANE 8608

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGENT 076

WATER 000

H2S polisher

The H2S polishing unit has been designed to treat 187 MMscfday of natural gas

containing up to 11 CO2 and 21 ppm H2S where the level of the CO2 and H2S

is reduced using a MemGuard Membrane separation unit The unit is situated

down-stream of the membrane unit and will further reduce the level of H2S in the

processed gas to a sales gas specification of 38 ppm

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This process uses three non-regenerable fixed bed absorber vessels using a low

temperature high activity absorbent The absorbent is a mixture of activated

metal oxides (mainly zinc oxide) The three towers can are generally operated in

parallel arrangement but on demand can be used in series (any of alternate

arrangements of A B C vessels) as shown in figure

The higher sales gas flow rate increased the catalyst consumption and

replacement frequency

ZnO + H2S =gt ZnS + H20

Routine samples are taken from the beds to provide a check on each bed

performance and to follow the saturation profile during the absorbent life After

the adsorbent has been fully utilized the adsorption vessels are recharged with

new adsorbent discarding the utilized one in a safe manner

109oF

1215 psig

Before H2S Polishing After H2S Polishing

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Figure

H2S Tower

Inlet pipe

4 Drums of 19mm

ceramic Balls

6 Micron mesh

5 Drums of 50mmceramic

1 Drums of19mm ceramic

01 Drums of6mm ceramic

112 drums of

Catalist ZnO

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Recycle Compressor

The permeate gas of the primary membrane unit carries recoverable amount of

CH4 It is fed to recycle membrane unit for further CH 4 recovery But the

permeate pressure from primary membranes which has been reduced to 12 psi

must be regenerated to 1200 psi for the gas to be fed again to the system For

this purpose we have employed recycle compressor The compressor is a four

stage centrifugal compressor It is driven by gas turbine of 31200 HP It has 25

MW producing capacity

Figure Recycle Compressor Process Flow Diagram

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Sales Gas Compressor

Gas from H2S polishing unit is sent to sales gas compressor where its pressure

is enhanced to 1100 psi so it may be injected to SNGPL high pressure trunk line

Sales gas compressor is single stage gas turbine driven

Figure Process Flow of Sales Gas Compressor

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Cooling Towers

A cooling tower is a heat rejection device which extracts waste heat to theatmosphere through the cooling of a water stream to a lower temperature Hot

water from the system enters the cooling tower and is distributed over the fill

(heat transfer surface) Air is induced or forced through the fill causing a small

portion of the water to evaporate This evaporation removes heat from the

remaining water which is collected in the cold water basin and returned to the

system to absorb more heat Each cooling tower line although operating under

the same basic principle of operation is arranged a little differently

Types

Natural draft mdash Utilizes buoyancy via a tall chimney Warm moist air naturally

rises due to the density differential compared to the dry cooler outside air Warm

moist air is less dense than drier air at the same pressure This moist air

buoyancy produces an upwards current of air through the tower

Mechanical draft mdash Uses power-driven fan motors to force or draw airthrough the tower

o Induced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a fan at the

discharge (at the top) which pulls air up through the tower The fan

induces hot moist air out the discharge This produces low entering

and high exiting air velocities reducing the possibility of

recirculation in which discharged air flows back into the air intake

o Forced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a blower type fan at

the intake The fan forces air into the tower creating high entering

and low exiting air velocities The low exiting velocity is much more

susceptible to recirculation This fanfill geometry is also known as

blow-through

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Forced Draft Cooling Tower Vs Induced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower have the ability to handle large water flow

rate than Forced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower is suitable for large cell sizes and fan sizes

as compared with Forced Draft Larger fan size may result in greater

efficiency and consequently lower power and sound level

Forced Draft Cooling Tower can be square or rectangular type only

however Induced Draft Cooling Towers can be round square or

rectangular type

Induced Draft Cooling Tower uses more compact ground area than Forced

Draft Cooling Tower equivalent capacity due to absence of fan on one

side

Fan equipment is warm exhaust air is less liable to icing up in winter

operation (Cold Countries)

Higher velocity in Forced Draft Cooling Tower cause drop in suspension

and cause additional static resistance to system

Configuration

There are two main configurations of factory assembled cooling towers crossflow

and counterflow In crossflow cooling towers the water flows vertically down the

fill as air flows horizontally across In counterflow cooling towers the water flows

vertically down the fill as air flows vertically up

Crossflow Configuration Counterflow Configuration

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Drift mdash Water droplets that are carried out of the cooling tower with the exhaust

air Drift droplets have the same concentration of impurities as the water entering

the tower The drift rate is typically reduced by employing baffle-like devices

called drift eliminators through which the air must travel after leaving the fill and

spray zones of the tower

Blow-out mdash Water droplets blown out of the cooling tower by wind generally at

the air inlet openings Water may also be lost in the absence of wind through

splashing or misting Devices such as wind screens louvers splash deflectors

and water diverters are used to limit these losses

Blow-down mdash The portion of the circulating water flow that is removed (usually

discharged to a drain) in order to maintain the amount of Total Dissolved Solids

(TDS) and other impurities at an acceptably low level Higher TDS concentration

in solution may result from greater cooling tower efficiency However the higher

the TDS concentration the greater the risk of scale biological growth and

corrosion

Make-up mdash The water that must be added to the circulating water system in

order to compensate for water losses such as evaporation drift loss blow-out

blow-down etc

Approach mdash The approach is the difference in temperature between the cooled-

water temperature and the entering-air wet bulb temperature

Range mdash The range is the temperature difference between the warm water inlet

and cooled water exit

Fill mdash Inside the tower fills are added to increase contact surface as well as

contact time between air and water to provide better heat transfer The efficiency

of the tower depends on the selection and amount of fill

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There are two types of fills that may be used

o Film type fill (causes water to spread into a thin film)

o Splash type fill (breaks up falling stream of water and interrupts its

vertical progress)

Important

Scale build up is controlled by adding chemicals to the cooling loop and diluting

the concentration by blow down and make-up Following chemicals are added to

the Cooling to control CorrosionSale and microbial growth

Corrosion Inhibitor To control corrosion in the Cooling system

Dispersant To kept ions in suspension to avoid settle down and buildup

Sodium hypo Chlorite To Control microbial Growth

Acid To control Alkalinity in the system

High Stress Polymer To run the system at higher conductivity It is a

multifunctional polymer for Zinc amp Phosphate stabilization in cooling tower

Fin Fan Cooler

Fin fan heat exchanger is simply a pressure vessel which cools a circulating fluid

within finned tubes by forcing ambient air over the exterior of the tubes A

common example of an air cooler is a carrsquos radiator Fin Fan Coolers are used in

any application where large quantities of heat need to be transferred This

includes chemical and petrochemical industries power stations waste-to-energy

facilities as well as steelworks

Fin Fan Cooler are used for two primary reasons

They increase plant efficiency

They are a green solution as compared to cooling towers and shell and

tube heat exchangers because they do not require an auxiliary water

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supply (water lost due to drift and evaporation plus no water treatment

chemicals are required)

Figure General Overview of Fin Fan Cooler

Produced Water

The produced water system receives liquid from the equipment Miano slug

catcher train 1 and 2 inlet separators and is fed to three phase separator where

water oil and gas is separated The gases produced are burnt in incinerator

whereas hydrocarbon liquid is stored to be sold Liquid from compressors

recycle inlet separator recycle feed scrubber high and low pressure slug

catchers is passed to degasser Separated water is injected down the earth

Incinerator

The term incinerate means to burn something until nothing is left but ashes An

incinerator is a unit or facility used to burn trash and other types of waste until it is

reduced to ash An incinerator is constructed of heavy well-insulated materials

so that it does not give off extreme amounts of external heat The high levels of

heat are kept inside the furnace or unit so that the waste is burned quickly and

efficiently If the heat were allowed to escape the waste would not burn as

completely or as rapidly

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Control System

The plant is controlled at CCR (Central Control Room) by PLCs (Programmable

Logic Controllers) through fiber optic control line All control parameters are

received at LER (Local Equipment Room) via two optic fiber control lines One

being primary and other secondary operating in redundancy ie if primary fails

control shifts to secondary These control parameters are sent to CCR via single

optic fiber cable

Safety System

Wellheads and Gas Processing Plant have their own Fire amp Gas detection

systems emergency shutdown (ESD) Plant has a fault tolerant controller It is

based on Triple Modular Redundant (TMR) architecture manufactured by

Triconex The TMR system is based on three isolated parallel control systems

integrated into one system The system operates on a two out of three voting

principle which provides high integrity error free uninterrupted operation with no

single point of failure The TMR receives inputs from Process Sensors Manual

Switches Fire amp Gas Detectors Packaged Equipment Control Systems and

Product Exporting Facilities The TMR carries out cause and effect processing on

the data received and where necessary produces output signals Outputs from

the TMR are hard wired directly to ESD shutdown and blow down valve

solenoids motor control instrumentelectrical interfaces to control electrical

drives package equipment logic control systems manifold area as well as

telecoms

The operator in central control room is able to accept alarms and once the fault

has been cleared reset the input All the control systems are centralized to a

single interface All the PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers) communicate with

the servers and servers communicate with the clients through Ethernet connectivity

Centralization eases the navigation of different systems at a common interface

Emergency Shutdown

The ESD system receives inputs from field mounted instrumentation on the process

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and utility equipment and initiates executive actions appropriate to the level of ESD

The system is an Active system which is in standby and will activate when in an

alarm or fault condition The Kadanwari Gas Process Facility ESD system is

comprised of five (5) levels The emergency severity decreases with increasing ESD

level number

ESD 1

This shutdown level is automatically initiated by fire major gas leak or a detected

toxic atmosphere in the process area of the plant or manually from CCR A level 1

shutdown will cause all production to cease close all emergency shutdown

valves stop the process and shutdown of the main power generation The

emergency vent valves to the stack will open and in addition all equipment of zone 1

certified will be isolated This is the highest level of ESD and will cause the following

to occur

All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close All slowdown Valves (BDVs) on the process facility will open

All Main Gas Driven Generators will be tripped

Emergency Diesel Generator will start

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close Upper Master Valve

(UMV) Close

ESD 2

This shutdown level is activated automatically if a major process or utility failure

occurs or manually from CCR All production to the plant from the wellhead is

stopped All emergency shutdown valves trip to their fail safe position

Venting shall be as specified This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

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All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valve Close Wing Valves Close and Upper Master Valve(UMV) Close

ESD 3

The level 3 shutdown isolates and stops a single process train only Production

continues via the other train This ESD level is initiated by process conditions or

operator at local panel This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

ESD 3A Train 1 production to cease

ESD 3B Train 2 production to cease

All online wellhead choke valves go to minimum flow ie (1O )

ESD 4

A level 4 shutdown shall cease all production from an entire field either

Kadanwari or Miano upstream of the associated slug catchers ESD 4K for

Kadanwari amp ESD 4M for Miano This ESD level is initiated automatically by slug

catcher abnormal process conditions This level of ESD will cause the following

to occur

All SDVs close isolating the relevant slug catcher and its upstream gas

production facility from the Kadanwari Gas Processing Plant

All Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close and Upper MasterValves (UMV) of the relevant gas production facility Close

A parallel timer is provided to close within 10 second if not closed in given

time SSSV seals the well

ESD 5

A level 5 shutdown represents equipment shutdown for the protection of the

individual equipment without any change in the process This level of ESD is for the

protection of various pieces of equipment and is initiated by its own inputs eg

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A circulating pump deliver cooling water to the water jackets in the cylinder block

flowing around the cylinder liners and is directed into the cylinder heads Each

cylinder head has water cooled exhaust elbows which outlet the water into the

water cooled exhausts From the end of engine the water flows to compressor

1st and 2nd stage cylinders and compressor lube oil cooler (LOwater heat

exchanger) The water from the compressor cylinder and lube oil cooler returns

to engine water cooled exhaust

Figure Flow diagram of Front End Compressor

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Centrifugal Compressor

Centrifugal compressors are machines in which velocity and pressure given to air

or gas in a radial direction by one or more impellers diffuser combination In a

centrifugal compressor the mechanical energy is increased by centrifugal action

The gas enters the suction eye of a high speed rotary element called the impeller

which carries radial vanes integrally cast in it As the impeller rotates the blades

of the impeller force the gas outward from the center the impeller to the outer rim

of impeller the increase in velocity of the gas creates a flow pressure area at the

eye of the impeller The gas at the outer rim of the impeller is forced in to a

passage way called a diffuser where the velocity decreases in the pressure of the

gas

Inlet

The inlet to a centrifugal compressor is typically a simple pipe It may include

features such as a valve and both pressure and temperature instrumentation

Centrifugal impeller

The key component that makes a compressor centrifugal is the centrifugal

impeller shown above It is the impellers rotating set of vanes (or blades) that

gradually raises the energy of the working gas This is identical to an axial

compressor with the exception that the gases can reach higher velocities and

energy levels through the impellers increasing radius

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Diffuser

The next key component to the simple centrifugal compressor is the diffuser

Downstream of the impeller in the flow path it is the diffusers responsibility to

convert the kinetic energy (high velocity) of the gas into pressure by gradually

slowing (diffusing) the gas velocity

SEPERATORS

A well-stream is a mixture of gases hydrocarbon liquids water solids and

contaminants Due to variations in pressure and temperature gases evolve from

the liquids water vapor condenses and some of the well-stream changes to liquid

and free gas The separation of well-stream fluids takes place in a separator This

pressure vessel is manufactured in three forms

1 horizontal

2 vertical

3 spherical

To help separation the vessel is normally designed with a series of internal

fittings These fittings are built into the separator to ensure total phase separation

of the well-stream

In gas plants separators are given alternative names due to the function they

perform in the process system A scrubber does a similar job to a knockout drum

However the scrubber usually separates a stream containing high gas-to-liquid

ratios The knockout drum is used where a high degree of liquids are entrained in

the gas

Fluid flow from a well can include gas condensable liquid vapors water water

vapor crude oil and solids As well-stream fluids reach ground level where

pressure is lower than in the reservoir the capacity of the liquid to hold gas in

solution decreases and gas separates out of the oil

Separation depends upon the effect of gravity to separate liquids For adequate

separation one fluid must be lighter than the other fluid For example distillates

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(gasoline kerosene etc) and crude oil will not separate in a vessel because they

tend to dissolve in each other Because a separator basically depends upon

gravity to separate the fluids the ease with which separation takes place

depends upon the difference in density of the fluids

Droplets of liquid will separate from gas provided

a) The gas remains in the separator long enough

b) The gas flow remains constant to provoke separation

The difference in density between a gas and liquid will therefore determine the

maximum flow rate of liquid in the vessel

Figure Two phase horizontal separator

Gas bubbles in the liquid will break out in some oil field applications in 30 to 60

seconds Consequently the separator is designed so that the liquid remains in

the vessel for 30 to 60 seconds The length of time that a liquid remains in the

vessel is called its residence time Residence time differs widely from field to field

depending upon viscosity and API Gravity

Another important factor which must be considered is temperature Generally a

decrease in operating temperature will increase the liquid recovery in a separator

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as the gas condenses By reducing the pressure on the fluid flash separation

occurs resulting in a flow through the separator which is controlled by external

instrumentation

COALESCENCE

Another important principle in fluid separation is that of coalescence This means

the coming together of liquid droplets created by the force of gravity

A common example of coalescing occurs when drops of water form on the

windshield of a car as it is driven in fog As the tiny drops or water which make up

the fog strike the windshield they combine and eventually form a drop large

enough to run down the glass

Several of the internal devices of a separator such as deflector plates

straightening vanes and even the vessel walls are forms of coalescers In each

vessel drops of liquid adhere to the surface of the device and combine with other

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drops until the drop is large enough to fall out The effectiveness of separation

will also depend upon the total amount of coalescing surface area that is present

There are many different types of separators used in the Oil amp Gas industry

Consequently separators are manufactured with one two or several internal

fittings depending on their use and quick removal of these fluids from the vessel

DEFLECTOR PLATES

These are fitted in front of the inlet to the separator and can be net or

dish-shaped Their purpose is to absorb the impact of the incoming fluids and to

encourage the separation of gas and liquids They also slow the flow rate of the

liquids through the vessel

WEIRS

A weir is a metal wall which is fitted across the inside of the vessel normally to a

height of 50 of the overall height of the separator Its purpose is to assist the

process of three phase separation The inlet fluids (oil plus water) are given time

to separate in the liquid accumulation section The water level (interface) is

normally controlled at 50 of the height of the weir Oil floating on the wateroverflows the weir and accumulates in the small oil compartment where it is

drawn off under level control

CENTRIFUGAL DEVICES

These are used in both vertical and horizontal separators for gas-liquid

separation The device imparts a swirling motion to the fluids entering the vessel

Centrifugal force causes the heavier liquids to travel outwards towards the walls

of the vessel and the lighter gases to flow up the centre Centrifugal devices are

also known as cyclones

VORTEX BREAKERS

When liquid flows through a drain outlet a vortex (whirlpool) will form This can

be seen when we pull the plug from a sink or bath tub The same would happen

as water and oil flow from the separator This condition a vortex could allow gas

to flow down the centre of the whirlpool and enter the liquid phase causing

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pressurizing of tanks etc To stop this happening vortex breakers are fitted to all

liquid outlets Although they come in a number of different designs vortex

breakers all serve the same purpose - to prevent a whirlpool from forming

MIST OR DEMISTER PADS

The gas which is released from the fluids in the separator still contains droplets of

oil and water which coalesce and fall when the drops get large enough The

demister pad assists in this process Made from knitted wire and contained within

a sturdy frame it causes the gas to continually change its direction of flow

Because gas changes direction far easier than liquid the gas will flow around

each strand of wire whilst the liquid entrained in the gas stream will continue and

stick to the wire

COALESCING PLATES

There are several different forms of coalescing devices the most common of

which are coalescing plates These plates are mounted in the flow stream of the

fluids and assist in breaking down oil-water emulsions The fluid is forced to

follow a path that constantly changes direction This causes the water droplets to

gather together or coalesce and fall to the bottom of the separator The same

principle is used to separate gas and oil mixtures when the oil droplets are

induced to coalesce Simply stated every surface within the separator including

the separator walls assists with the coalescing process

STRAIGHTENlNG VANES

These are often fitted to horizontal separators to remove turbulence in the gas

stream after initial separation at the inlet deflector

FLOAT SHEILD

Internal floats are used as level controllers Any agitation of the liquid surface or

the effect of coalesced liquids falling on the float may cause control problems

Therefore a float shield is fitted to enclose the float creating an area of still liquid

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MEMBRANES

The gas contains 12 carbon dioxide and 22 ppm of hydrogen sulphide at 115oF

and 1100 psig This needs to be removed before the gas can be exported The

majority of carbon dioxide hydrogen sulphide and water is removed by means of

membranes

Membranes are thin semipermeable barriers that selectively separate some

compounds from others Currently the only commercially workable membranes

used for CO2 removal are polymer based for example cellulose acetate

polyimides polyamides polysulfone polycarbonates and polyetherimide The

membrane does not operate as a filter where small molecules are separated

from larger ones through a medium with pores rather it separates based on how

well different compounds dissolve into the membrane and diffuse through it The

membranes are manufactured in flat sheets consisting of an extremely thin

nonporous layer mounted on a much-thicker and highly porous layer of the same

material providing mechanical strength The flat sheets are combined into a

spiral-wound element (Figure below) Feed gas enters along the side of the

membrane and passes through the feed spacers As the gas travels between

membrane sheets CO2 H2S and H2O permeate through the membrane and are

collected in the permeate tube The driving force for transport is the high-feed

pressure and low-permeate pressures The gas on the feed side that does not

permeate leaves through the side of the element opposite the feed position Once

the membranes have been manufactured into elements six to 12 elements are

joined together and inserted into a tube Multiple tubes are mounted on skids in a

horizontal orientation

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Figure Membrane general Working

In high H2S applications most polymers have been shown to have very little

resistance to H2S plasticization (ldquosofteningrdquo of the membrane) and as a

consequence can only be used at very low H2S partial pressure limits Cellulose

acetate membranes in contrast have been shown to be applicable at extreme

H2S partial pressure conditions It is these membranes that have been utilized in

the testing to determine the limits of membrane performance in high H 2S

applications

The primary membranes used in Kadanwari facility are Cellulose acetate

Cellulose acetic acid and acetic anhydride are mixed together and reacted to

form cellulose acetate polymers This process is aided by the addition of a small

amount of sulfuric acid which is subsequently neutralized during processing

However the membranes are bought from UOP (vendor) and installed for use

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How membrane work

The basic principle of separation is selectivity of certain components of a mixture

for the membrane For example the cellulose acetate membrane has very high

selectivity for CO2 and H2S as compared to CH4 Therefore such type of

membrane can be used in gas sweetening process

The selectivity is directly related to the Permeability of gas which accounts that

which gas can pass across the membrane more easily In simple words

membranes being polymer materials are made of long chains of molecules The

different structure of polymer materials only allow selective molecules to pass

through them depending upon chemical and physical compatibility Thus

permeability depends upon choice of polymer

The permeability is determined by permeability coefficient (P) and is product of

solubility (S) and diffusivity (D)

P = S D

Solubility

The solubility is mainly determined by ease of condensation Heavy molecules

are more readily condensed Therefore higher molecular weighted molecules will

more easily condensed and therefore have greater solubility

Molecule Molecular weight

CH4 16

H2S 34

CO2 44

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Diffusivity

Diffusivity is ease of molecule to penetrate into some material It depends on size

of gas molecule Here size of molecule is not to be confused by molecular weight

it is the size of the structure Eg the size of O2 molecule is smaller than N2

Molecule Molecular Diameter (Ao)

CO2 33

H2S 36

Ch4 40

For cellulose acetate

DCO2DCH4 S CO2S CH4 P CO2P CH4

45 73 308

Chemical degradation

Cellulose acetate polymer is chemically degraded by a process called hydrolysis

which means breaking apart by the addition of water This is a chemical reaction

in which water is added to the cellulose acetate polymer causing the release of

acetic acid molecules This process proceeds stepwise until all the acetate

groups are released resulting in the reformation of cellulose Moreover alcohols

aromatic hydrocarbons or solvents with chlorine nitro benzene or similar

aromatic solvents will harm the membrane It will expand and lose plastification in

contact with them

Effect of Temperature

The permeation rates of all gases increases with increasing temperature

however membrane selectivity for CO2 over hydrocarbon decreases at higher

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temperature Consequently CO2 removal will improve as operating temperature

increases but hydro carbon recovery will decrease

Primary Membrane

The primary membranes comprise of two trains Each train consists of two

sections AB and CD each section consists of a 30 tube membrane skid (A and

C) followed by a 25 tube skid (B and D) The conditioned gas (after pre-

treatment) enters the primary membrane via the particulate filter adjacent to the

skid The gas is fed to the membranes through a common inlet manifold which

supplies primary membranes skids A and C A pressure control loop located

upstream of the manual inlet isolation valve is provided to maintain a constant

supply pressure to the membrane skid and to allow for preheating at the inlet

prior to skid start-up This pressure control loop can also be used during start-up

to control the pressurization of the pretreatment skid and associated pipes to the

primary membranes

The gas passes through membrane skid A the residual gas exiting the membrane

skid is sent to skid B and the permeate to common permeate discharge header An

identical arrangement is provide on the inlet to skid C as provided on skid A Theresidual gas from skid B combines with the residual gas from skid D in a common

discharge header and is then sent to the H2S polishing towers via the feed coolers

on the pre-treatment skid The permeate from skid B is sent to the common

permeate discharge header The permeate discharge header sends the gas to

either the recycle compressor or the vent header via a pressure control loop

Overpressure protection for the membranes is provided by a pressure safety valve

on the supply header to the membrane banks

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Secondary (Recycle) Membrane

The recycle membranes comprise of a single train with two skids each with four

banks of membrane tubes The conditioned gas from the discharge of the recycle

pre-treatment skid is routed to the first recycle membrane skid The gas passes

through the membranes the residual gas is fed to primary membrane (skid A) inlet

via feed gas cooler and permeate to the common permeate discharge header An

identical arrangement is provide on the inlet to skid B Permeate from the recycle

membrane skids A and B is routed to the vent header Some portion of permeate is

heated and sent for regeneration in Mem-Guard units Nitrogen purge can be

connected downstream of the inlet isolation valve on each skid to enable the

membrane tubes to be purged and left pressurized during prolonged shutdown

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Figure Flow Diagram of Recycle membrane unit

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ADVANTAGES OF MEMBRANE SYSTEMS

Membrane systems have major advantages over more-traditional methods of

acid gas removal

Lower capital cost Membrane systems are skid mounted and so the

scope cost and time taken for site preparation are minimal Installation

costs are significantly lower than alternative technologies especially for

remote areas Furthermore no additional facilities for solvent storage and

water treatment needed by other processes are required

Lower operating costs The only major operating cost for single-stage

membrane systems is membrane replacement This cost is significantly

lower than the solvent replacement and energy costs associated with

traditional technologies The improvements in membrane and

pretreatment design allow a longer useful membrane life which further

reduces operating costs The energy costs of multistage systems with

large recycle compressors are usually comparable to those for traditionaltechnologies

Deferred capital investment Often contracted sales-gas flow rates

increase over time as more wells are brought on-line With traditional

technologies the system design needs to take this later production into

account immediately and so the majority of the equipment is installed

before it is even needed The modular nature of membrane systems

means that only the membranes that are needed at start-up need be

installed The rest can be added either into existing tubes or in new skids

only when they are required

Operational simplicity and high reliability Because single-stage

membrane systems have no moving parts they have almost no

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unscheduled downtime and are extremely simple to operate They can

operate unattended for long periods of time The addition of a recycle

compressor adds some complexity to the system but still much less than

with a solvent- or adsorbent-based technology Multistage systems can be

operated at full capacity as single-stage systems when the recycle

compressor is down

Good weight and space efficiency Skid construction can be optimized

to the space available This space efficiency is especially important for

offshore environments where deck area is at a premium and is the

reason why so many new offshore developments have chosen to use

membranes for acid gas removal Figure 6 illustrates the space efficiency

of membrane systems The membrane unit in the lower left corner

replaced all the amine and glycol plant equipment shown in the rest of the

picture

Adaptability Because membrane area is dictated by the percentage of

acid gas removal rather than absolute acid gas removal small variations

in feed acid gas content hardly change the sales-gas acid gas

specification For example a system designed for 10 down to 3 acid

gas removal produces a 35 product from a 12 feed gas and a 5

product from a 15 feed gas

Design efficiency The membrane and pretreatment systems integrate a

number of operations such as dehydration CO2 and H2S removal dew-

point control and mercury removal Traditional acid gas removal

technologies require all of these operations as separate processes and

may also require additional dehydration because some technologies

saturate the product stream with water

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Power generation The permeate gas from membrane systems can be

used to provide fuel gas for power generation either for a recycle

compressor or other equipment

Ideal for debottlenecking Because expanding solvent- or adsorbent-

based acid gas removal plants without adding additional trains is difficult

an ideal solution is to use membranes for bulk acid gas removal and leave

the existing plant for final cleanup An additional advantage is that the

permeate gas from the membrane system can often be used as fuel for

the existing plant thus avoiding significant increase in hydrocarbon

losses

Environmentally friendly Membrane systems do not involve the

periodic removal and handling of spent solvents or adsorbents Permeate

gases can be flared used as fuel or re-injected into the well Items thatdo need disposal such as spent membrane elements can be incinerated

Ideal for remote locations Many of the factors mentioned above make

membrane systems a highly desirable technology for remote locations

where spare parts are rare and labor unskilled Furthermore solvents

storage and trucking water supply power generation or extensive

infrastructure are not required

Re-injection optimizations Since the permeate stream from the

membrane system can be operated at elevated pressures it is possible to

further pressurize by re-injection compression train

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Sorption

Sorption is a physical and chemical process by which one substance becomes

attached to another

It is of two main types

1 Absorption

2 Adsorption

Absorption

Absorption is a physical or chemical phenomenon or process in which atoms

molecules or ions enter some bulk phase ndash gas liquid or solid material This is a

different process from adsorption since molecules undergoing absorption are

taken up by the volume not by the surface (as in the case for adsorption)

Absorption process may be chemical (reactive) or physical (non-reactive)

Physical absorption

Physical absorption or non-reactive absorption is made between two phases ofmatter a liquid absorbs a gas or a solid absorbs a liquid

When a liquid solvent absorbs a gas mixture or part of it a mass of gas moves

into the liquid For example water may absorb oxygen from the air This mass

transfer takes place at the interface between the liquid and the gas at a rate

depending on both the gas and the liquid This type of absorption depends on the

solubility of gases the pressure and the temperature The rate and amount of

absorption also depend on the surface area of the interface and its duration in

time

When a solid absorbs a liquid mixture or part of it a mass of liquid moves into the

solid For example a clay pot used to store water may absorb some of the water

This mass transfer takes place at the interface between the solid and the liquid

at a rate depending on both the solid and the liquid

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Chemical absorption

Chemical absorption or reactive absorption is a chemical reaction between the

absorbed and the absorbing substances Sometimes it combines with physical

absorption This type of absorption depends upon the stoichiometry of the

reaction and the concentration of its reactants

Adsorption

Adsorption is the adhesion of atoms ions or molecules from a gas liquid or

dissolved solid to a surface This process creates a film of the adsorbate on the

surface of the adsorbent The binding to the surface is usually weak and

reversible Compounds with color and those that have taste or odor tend to bind

strongly Compounds that vibrate at frequencies in the visible spectrum are very

often are strongly adsorbed on activated carbon

The most common industrial adsorbents are activated carbon silica gel and

alumina because they present enormous surface areas per unit weight

Depending on the nature of attractive forces existing between the adsorbate and

adsorbent adsorption can be classified as

i) Physical adsorption

ii) Chemical adsorption

i) Physical adsorption (Physisorption)

In physical adsorption the forces of attraction between the molecules of the

adsorbate and the adsorbent are of the weak van der Waals type Since the

forces of attraction are weak the process of physisorption can be easily reversed

by heating or decreasing the pressure of the adsorbate (as in the case of gases)

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ii) Chemical adsorption (Chemisorption)

In chemisorption the forces of attraction between the adsorbate and the

adsorbent are very strong the molecules of adsorbate form chemical bonds with

the molecules of the adsorbent present in the surface

Adsorption is generally accompanied by release of energy that is most

adsorption processes are exothermic in nature Adsorption is a spontaneous

process therefore its free energy change is negative (∆Glt0) However the

entropy change associated with adsorption is generally negative because the

adsorbate molecules lose their translation freedom when they get attached to the

surface of the adsorbent Therefore in order for ∆G to be negative the enthalpy

change (∆H) must be sufficiently negative such that (∆G=∆H-T∆S) lt 0 This

explanation accounts for exothermic adsorption processes In cases where

endothermic adsorption occurs the entropy change ∆S is sufficiently positive

such that ∆G remains negative

Pre treatment

The main function of pretreatment skid is to provide membrane inlet specification

gas as mentioned by the vendor UOP It removes the contaminants that would

poison the membranes like dust solids (adsorbent particles) lube oil heavy

hydrocarbons etc It consists of

Feed Cooler

Feed Gas Scrubber

Filter Coalescer

Feed Gas Heater

Activated Carbon Guard Filter

Particle Filter

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The regeneration is carried out by heated permeate gas from the recycle

membranes at 450oF The vessel is depressurized to 20 psi and heated gas is

introduced from top The gas carries out the adsorbed contaminants and leaves

the vessel from bottom cleaning the adsorbent This contaminated gas is burnt in

the flare

UOP the vendor of Memguard unit has never disclosed that what substance

MG3 and MG5 exactly are But as mentioned by vendor that both care class of

aluminosilicates Therefore MG3 can be potassium aluminosilicate and MG5 can

be Calcium aluminosilicate These are molecular sieves adsorbents Molecular

sieves are a microporous material which can selectively adsorb gases andliquids They are synthetic zeolites (crystalline metal aluminosilicates) which

upon dehydration can efficiently and selectively remove water or other

solvents The selectivity of a molecular sieve is determined by its pore size

molecules with a critical diameter which is less than the pore size will be

efficiently adsorbed while larger molecules will be excluded

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3A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

The 3A molecular sieve adsorbent has a 3 angstrom (3A) pore size which means

that any molecule that is larger than the 3 angstrom pores will not be adsorbed

The 3A molecular sieve is the potassium type of A crystalline structure and is a

form of alkali Aluminosilicate For a 3A molecular sieve the sequence rate that

adsorption occurs is He Ne N and H2O

Due to the crystalline structure molecular sieves that have a 3 angstrom pore

size have a very high rate of adsorption and properties that promote a longer life

for products treated by the sieve The most common use for the 3A molecular

sieve is to remove water and moisture from materials that are in gas and liquid

form

5A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

These are molecular sieve adsorbents with a pore size of 5 angstrom (5A) 5A

molecular sieves are unable to adsorb any molecules or impurities that are

smaller than 5A It is calcium form of type A crystalline structure and is form of analkali-aluminosilicate that is most commonly used to separate isomerous alkanes

from normal alkanes and to co-adsorb moisture and water along with carbon

dioxide from gases In additional 5A molecular sieves are used for gaseous

pressure swing adsorption (PSA)mdashthat is to separate particular gases from other

gases

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of C3H8 to C22H46

Adsorption of Freon-12 (dichlorodifluoromethane)

Natural gas drying

Normal- and iso-paraffin separation

Separation of aromatic

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Inlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1096

MEHTANE 8593

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008

N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGEN 076

WATER 007

Outlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1098

MEHTANE 8608

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGENT 076

WATER 000

H2S polisher

The H2S polishing unit has been designed to treat 187 MMscfday of natural gas

containing up to 11 CO2 and 21 ppm H2S where the level of the CO2 and H2S

is reduced using a MemGuard Membrane separation unit The unit is situated

down-stream of the membrane unit and will further reduce the level of H2S in the

processed gas to a sales gas specification of 38 ppm

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This process uses three non-regenerable fixed bed absorber vessels using a low

temperature high activity absorbent The absorbent is a mixture of activated

metal oxides (mainly zinc oxide) The three towers can are generally operated in

parallel arrangement but on demand can be used in series (any of alternate

arrangements of A B C vessels) as shown in figure

The higher sales gas flow rate increased the catalyst consumption and

replacement frequency

ZnO + H2S =gt ZnS + H20

Routine samples are taken from the beds to provide a check on each bed

performance and to follow the saturation profile during the absorbent life After

the adsorbent has been fully utilized the adsorption vessels are recharged with

new adsorbent discarding the utilized one in a safe manner

109oF

1215 psig

Before H2S Polishing After H2S Polishing

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Figure

H2S Tower

Inlet pipe

4 Drums of 19mm

ceramic Balls

6 Micron mesh

5 Drums of 50mmceramic

1 Drums of19mm ceramic

01 Drums of6mm ceramic

112 drums of

Catalist ZnO

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Recycle Compressor

The permeate gas of the primary membrane unit carries recoverable amount of

CH4 It is fed to recycle membrane unit for further CH 4 recovery But the

permeate pressure from primary membranes which has been reduced to 12 psi

must be regenerated to 1200 psi for the gas to be fed again to the system For

this purpose we have employed recycle compressor The compressor is a four

stage centrifugal compressor It is driven by gas turbine of 31200 HP It has 25

MW producing capacity

Figure Recycle Compressor Process Flow Diagram

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Sales Gas Compressor

Gas from H2S polishing unit is sent to sales gas compressor where its pressure

is enhanced to 1100 psi so it may be injected to SNGPL high pressure trunk line

Sales gas compressor is single stage gas turbine driven

Figure Process Flow of Sales Gas Compressor

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Cooling Towers

A cooling tower is a heat rejection device which extracts waste heat to theatmosphere through the cooling of a water stream to a lower temperature Hot

water from the system enters the cooling tower and is distributed over the fill

(heat transfer surface) Air is induced or forced through the fill causing a small

portion of the water to evaporate This evaporation removes heat from the

remaining water which is collected in the cold water basin and returned to the

system to absorb more heat Each cooling tower line although operating under

the same basic principle of operation is arranged a little differently

Types

Natural draft mdash Utilizes buoyancy via a tall chimney Warm moist air naturally

rises due to the density differential compared to the dry cooler outside air Warm

moist air is less dense than drier air at the same pressure This moist air

buoyancy produces an upwards current of air through the tower

Mechanical draft mdash Uses power-driven fan motors to force or draw airthrough the tower

o Induced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a fan at the

discharge (at the top) which pulls air up through the tower The fan

induces hot moist air out the discharge This produces low entering

and high exiting air velocities reducing the possibility of

recirculation in which discharged air flows back into the air intake

o Forced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a blower type fan at

the intake The fan forces air into the tower creating high entering

and low exiting air velocities The low exiting velocity is much more

susceptible to recirculation This fanfill geometry is also known as

blow-through

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Forced Draft Cooling Tower Vs Induced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower have the ability to handle large water flow

rate than Forced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower is suitable for large cell sizes and fan sizes

as compared with Forced Draft Larger fan size may result in greater

efficiency and consequently lower power and sound level

Forced Draft Cooling Tower can be square or rectangular type only

however Induced Draft Cooling Towers can be round square or

rectangular type

Induced Draft Cooling Tower uses more compact ground area than Forced

Draft Cooling Tower equivalent capacity due to absence of fan on one

side

Fan equipment is warm exhaust air is less liable to icing up in winter

operation (Cold Countries)

Higher velocity in Forced Draft Cooling Tower cause drop in suspension

and cause additional static resistance to system

Configuration

There are two main configurations of factory assembled cooling towers crossflow

and counterflow In crossflow cooling towers the water flows vertically down the

fill as air flows horizontally across In counterflow cooling towers the water flows

vertically down the fill as air flows vertically up

Crossflow Configuration Counterflow Configuration

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Drift mdash Water droplets that are carried out of the cooling tower with the exhaust

air Drift droplets have the same concentration of impurities as the water entering

the tower The drift rate is typically reduced by employing baffle-like devices

called drift eliminators through which the air must travel after leaving the fill and

spray zones of the tower

Blow-out mdash Water droplets blown out of the cooling tower by wind generally at

the air inlet openings Water may also be lost in the absence of wind through

splashing or misting Devices such as wind screens louvers splash deflectors

and water diverters are used to limit these losses

Blow-down mdash The portion of the circulating water flow that is removed (usually

discharged to a drain) in order to maintain the amount of Total Dissolved Solids

(TDS) and other impurities at an acceptably low level Higher TDS concentration

in solution may result from greater cooling tower efficiency However the higher

the TDS concentration the greater the risk of scale biological growth and

corrosion

Make-up mdash The water that must be added to the circulating water system in

order to compensate for water losses such as evaporation drift loss blow-out

blow-down etc

Approach mdash The approach is the difference in temperature between the cooled-

water temperature and the entering-air wet bulb temperature

Range mdash The range is the temperature difference between the warm water inlet

and cooled water exit

Fill mdash Inside the tower fills are added to increase contact surface as well as

contact time between air and water to provide better heat transfer The efficiency

of the tower depends on the selection and amount of fill

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There are two types of fills that may be used

o Film type fill (causes water to spread into a thin film)

o Splash type fill (breaks up falling stream of water and interrupts its

vertical progress)

Important

Scale build up is controlled by adding chemicals to the cooling loop and diluting

the concentration by blow down and make-up Following chemicals are added to

the Cooling to control CorrosionSale and microbial growth

Corrosion Inhibitor To control corrosion in the Cooling system

Dispersant To kept ions in suspension to avoid settle down and buildup

Sodium hypo Chlorite To Control microbial Growth

Acid To control Alkalinity in the system

High Stress Polymer To run the system at higher conductivity It is a

multifunctional polymer for Zinc amp Phosphate stabilization in cooling tower

Fin Fan Cooler

Fin fan heat exchanger is simply a pressure vessel which cools a circulating fluid

within finned tubes by forcing ambient air over the exterior of the tubes A

common example of an air cooler is a carrsquos radiator Fin Fan Coolers are used in

any application where large quantities of heat need to be transferred This

includes chemical and petrochemical industries power stations waste-to-energy

facilities as well as steelworks

Fin Fan Cooler are used for two primary reasons

They increase plant efficiency

They are a green solution as compared to cooling towers and shell and

tube heat exchangers because they do not require an auxiliary water

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supply (water lost due to drift and evaporation plus no water treatment

chemicals are required)

Figure General Overview of Fin Fan Cooler

Produced Water

The produced water system receives liquid from the equipment Miano slug

catcher train 1 and 2 inlet separators and is fed to three phase separator where

water oil and gas is separated The gases produced are burnt in incinerator

whereas hydrocarbon liquid is stored to be sold Liquid from compressors

recycle inlet separator recycle feed scrubber high and low pressure slug

catchers is passed to degasser Separated water is injected down the earth

Incinerator

The term incinerate means to burn something until nothing is left but ashes An

incinerator is a unit or facility used to burn trash and other types of waste until it is

reduced to ash An incinerator is constructed of heavy well-insulated materials

so that it does not give off extreme amounts of external heat The high levels of

heat are kept inside the furnace or unit so that the waste is burned quickly and

efficiently If the heat were allowed to escape the waste would not burn as

completely or as rapidly

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Control System

The plant is controlled at CCR (Central Control Room) by PLCs (Programmable

Logic Controllers) through fiber optic control line All control parameters are

received at LER (Local Equipment Room) via two optic fiber control lines One

being primary and other secondary operating in redundancy ie if primary fails

control shifts to secondary These control parameters are sent to CCR via single

optic fiber cable

Safety System

Wellheads and Gas Processing Plant have their own Fire amp Gas detection

systems emergency shutdown (ESD) Plant has a fault tolerant controller It is

based on Triple Modular Redundant (TMR) architecture manufactured by

Triconex The TMR system is based on three isolated parallel control systems

integrated into one system The system operates on a two out of three voting

principle which provides high integrity error free uninterrupted operation with no

single point of failure The TMR receives inputs from Process Sensors Manual

Switches Fire amp Gas Detectors Packaged Equipment Control Systems and

Product Exporting Facilities The TMR carries out cause and effect processing on

the data received and where necessary produces output signals Outputs from

the TMR are hard wired directly to ESD shutdown and blow down valve

solenoids motor control instrumentelectrical interfaces to control electrical

drives package equipment logic control systems manifold area as well as

telecoms

The operator in central control room is able to accept alarms and once the fault

has been cleared reset the input All the control systems are centralized to a

single interface All the PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers) communicate with

the servers and servers communicate with the clients through Ethernet connectivity

Centralization eases the navigation of different systems at a common interface

Emergency Shutdown

The ESD system receives inputs from field mounted instrumentation on the process

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and utility equipment and initiates executive actions appropriate to the level of ESD

The system is an Active system which is in standby and will activate when in an

alarm or fault condition The Kadanwari Gas Process Facility ESD system is

comprised of five (5) levels The emergency severity decreases with increasing ESD

level number

ESD 1

This shutdown level is automatically initiated by fire major gas leak or a detected

toxic atmosphere in the process area of the plant or manually from CCR A level 1

shutdown will cause all production to cease close all emergency shutdown

valves stop the process and shutdown of the main power generation The

emergency vent valves to the stack will open and in addition all equipment of zone 1

certified will be isolated This is the highest level of ESD and will cause the following

to occur

All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close All slowdown Valves (BDVs) on the process facility will open

All Main Gas Driven Generators will be tripped

Emergency Diesel Generator will start

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close Upper Master Valve

(UMV) Close

ESD 2

This shutdown level is activated automatically if a major process or utility failure

occurs or manually from CCR All production to the plant from the wellhead is

stopped All emergency shutdown valves trip to their fail safe position

Venting shall be as specified This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

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All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valve Close Wing Valves Close and Upper Master Valve(UMV) Close

ESD 3

The level 3 shutdown isolates and stops a single process train only Production

continues via the other train This ESD level is initiated by process conditions or

operator at local panel This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

ESD 3A Train 1 production to cease

ESD 3B Train 2 production to cease

All online wellhead choke valves go to minimum flow ie (1O )

ESD 4

A level 4 shutdown shall cease all production from an entire field either

Kadanwari or Miano upstream of the associated slug catchers ESD 4K for

Kadanwari amp ESD 4M for Miano This ESD level is initiated automatically by slug

catcher abnormal process conditions This level of ESD will cause the following

to occur

All SDVs close isolating the relevant slug catcher and its upstream gas

production facility from the Kadanwari Gas Processing Plant

All Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close and Upper MasterValves (UMV) of the relevant gas production facility Close

A parallel timer is provided to close within 10 second if not closed in given

time SSSV seals the well

ESD 5

A level 5 shutdown represents equipment shutdown for the protection of the

individual equipment without any change in the process This level of ESD is for the

protection of various pieces of equipment and is initiated by its own inputs eg

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Centrifugal Compressor

Centrifugal compressors are machines in which velocity and pressure given to air

or gas in a radial direction by one or more impellers diffuser combination In a

centrifugal compressor the mechanical energy is increased by centrifugal action

The gas enters the suction eye of a high speed rotary element called the impeller

which carries radial vanes integrally cast in it As the impeller rotates the blades

of the impeller force the gas outward from the center the impeller to the outer rim

of impeller the increase in velocity of the gas creates a flow pressure area at the

eye of the impeller The gas at the outer rim of the impeller is forced in to a

passage way called a diffuser where the velocity decreases in the pressure of the

gas

Inlet

The inlet to a centrifugal compressor is typically a simple pipe It may include

features such as a valve and both pressure and temperature instrumentation

Centrifugal impeller

The key component that makes a compressor centrifugal is the centrifugal

impeller shown above It is the impellers rotating set of vanes (or blades) that

gradually raises the energy of the working gas This is identical to an axial

compressor with the exception that the gases can reach higher velocities and

energy levels through the impellers increasing radius

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Diffuser

The next key component to the simple centrifugal compressor is the diffuser

Downstream of the impeller in the flow path it is the diffusers responsibility to

convert the kinetic energy (high velocity) of the gas into pressure by gradually

slowing (diffusing) the gas velocity

SEPERATORS

A well-stream is a mixture of gases hydrocarbon liquids water solids and

contaminants Due to variations in pressure and temperature gases evolve from

the liquids water vapor condenses and some of the well-stream changes to liquid

and free gas The separation of well-stream fluids takes place in a separator This

pressure vessel is manufactured in three forms

1 horizontal

2 vertical

3 spherical

To help separation the vessel is normally designed with a series of internal

fittings These fittings are built into the separator to ensure total phase separation

of the well-stream

In gas plants separators are given alternative names due to the function they

perform in the process system A scrubber does a similar job to a knockout drum

However the scrubber usually separates a stream containing high gas-to-liquid

ratios The knockout drum is used where a high degree of liquids are entrained in

the gas

Fluid flow from a well can include gas condensable liquid vapors water water

vapor crude oil and solids As well-stream fluids reach ground level where

pressure is lower than in the reservoir the capacity of the liquid to hold gas in

solution decreases and gas separates out of the oil

Separation depends upon the effect of gravity to separate liquids For adequate

separation one fluid must be lighter than the other fluid For example distillates

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(gasoline kerosene etc) and crude oil will not separate in a vessel because they

tend to dissolve in each other Because a separator basically depends upon

gravity to separate the fluids the ease with which separation takes place

depends upon the difference in density of the fluids

Droplets of liquid will separate from gas provided

a) The gas remains in the separator long enough

b) The gas flow remains constant to provoke separation

The difference in density between a gas and liquid will therefore determine the

maximum flow rate of liquid in the vessel

Figure Two phase horizontal separator

Gas bubbles in the liquid will break out in some oil field applications in 30 to 60

seconds Consequently the separator is designed so that the liquid remains in

the vessel for 30 to 60 seconds The length of time that a liquid remains in the

vessel is called its residence time Residence time differs widely from field to field

depending upon viscosity and API Gravity

Another important factor which must be considered is temperature Generally a

decrease in operating temperature will increase the liquid recovery in a separator

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as the gas condenses By reducing the pressure on the fluid flash separation

occurs resulting in a flow through the separator which is controlled by external

instrumentation

COALESCENCE

Another important principle in fluid separation is that of coalescence This means

the coming together of liquid droplets created by the force of gravity

A common example of coalescing occurs when drops of water form on the

windshield of a car as it is driven in fog As the tiny drops or water which make up

the fog strike the windshield they combine and eventually form a drop large

enough to run down the glass

Several of the internal devices of a separator such as deflector plates

straightening vanes and even the vessel walls are forms of coalescers In each

vessel drops of liquid adhere to the surface of the device and combine with other

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drops until the drop is large enough to fall out The effectiveness of separation

will also depend upon the total amount of coalescing surface area that is present

There are many different types of separators used in the Oil amp Gas industry

Consequently separators are manufactured with one two or several internal

fittings depending on their use and quick removal of these fluids from the vessel

DEFLECTOR PLATES

These are fitted in front of the inlet to the separator and can be net or

dish-shaped Their purpose is to absorb the impact of the incoming fluids and to

encourage the separation of gas and liquids They also slow the flow rate of the

liquids through the vessel

WEIRS

A weir is a metal wall which is fitted across the inside of the vessel normally to a

height of 50 of the overall height of the separator Its purpose is to assist the

process of three phase separation The inlet fluids (oil plus water) are given time

to separate in the liquid accumulation section The water level (interface) is

normally controlled at 50 of the height of the weir Oil floating on the wateroverflows the weir and accumulates in the small oil compartment where it is

drawn off under level control

CENTRIFUGAL DEVICES

These are used in both vertical and horizontal separators for gas-liquid

separation The device imparts a swirling motion to the fluids entering the vessel

Centrifugal force causes the heavier liquids to travel outwards towards the walls

of the vessel and the lighter gases to flow up the centre Centrifugal devices are

also known as cyclones

VORTEX BREAKERS

When liquid flows through a drain outlet a vortex (whirlpool) will form This can

be seen when we pull the plug from a sink or bath tub The same would happen

as water and oil flow from the separator This condition a vortex could allow gas

to flow down the centre of the whirlpool and enter the liquid phase causing

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pressurizing of tanks etc To stop this happening vortex breakers are fitted to all

liquid outlets Although they come in a number of different designs vortex

breakers all serve the same purpose - to prevent a whirlpool from forming

MIST OR DEMISTER PADS

The gas which is released from the fluids in the separator still contains droplets of

oil and water which coalesce and fall when the drops get large enough The

demister pad assists in this process Made from knitted wire and contained within

a sturdy frame it causes the gas to continually change its direction of flow

Because gas changes direction far easier than liquid the gas will flow around

each strand of wire whilst the liquid entrained in the gas stream will continue and

stick to the wire

COALESCING PLATES

There are several different forms of coalescing devices the most common of

which are coalescing plates These plates are mounted in the flow stream of the

fluids and assist in breaking down oil-water emulsions The fluid is forced to

follow a path that constantly changes direction This causes the water droplets to

gather together or coalesce and fall to the bottom of the separator The same

principle is used to separate gas and oil mixtures when the oil droplets are

induced to coalesce Simply stated every surface within the separator including

the separator walls assists with the coalescing process

STRAIGHTENlNG VANES

These are often fitted to horizontal separators to remove turbulence in the gas

stream after initial separation at the inlet deflector

FLOAT SHEILD

Internal floats are used as level controllers Any agitation of the liquid surface or

the effect of coalesced liquids falling on the float may cause control problems

Therefore a float shield is fitted to enclose the float creating an area of still liquid

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MEMBRANES

The gas contains 12 carbon dioxide and 22 ppm of hydrogen sulphide at 115oF

and 1100 psig This needs to be removed before the gas can be exported The

majority of carbon dioxide hydrogen sulphide and water is removed by means of

membranes

Membranes are thin semipermeable barriers that selectively separate some

compounds from others Currently the only commercially workable membranes

used for CO2 removal are polymer based for example cellulose acetate

polyimides polyamides polysulfone polycarbonates and polyetherimide The

membrane does not operate as a filter where small molecules are separated

from larger ones through a medium with pores rather it separates based on how

well different compounds dissolve into the membrane and diffuse through it The

membranes are manufactured in flat sheets consisting of an extremely thin

nonporous layer mounted on a much-thicker and highly porous layer of the same

material providing mechanical strength The flat sheets are combined into a

spiral-wound element (Figure below) Feed gas enters along the side of the

membrane and passes through the feed spacers As the gas travels between

membrane sheets CO2 H2S and H2O permeate through the membrane and are

collected in the permeate tube The driving force for transport is the high-feed

pressure and low-permeate pressures The gas on the feed side that does not

permeate leaves through the side of the element opposite the feed position Once

the membranes have been manufactured into elements six to 12 elements are

joined together and inserted into a tube Multiple tubes are mounted on skids in a

horizontal orientation

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Figure Membrane general Working

In high H2S applications most polymers have been shown to have very little

resistance to H2S plasticization (ldquosofteningrdquo of the membrane) and as a

consequence can only be used at very low H2S partial pressure limits Cellulose

acetate membranes in contrast have been shown to be applicable at extreme

H2S partial pressure conditions It is these membranes that have been utilized in

the testing to determine the limits of membrane performance in high H 2S

applications

The primary membranes used in Kadanwari facility are Cellulose acetate

Cellulose acetic acid and acetic anhydride are mixed together and reacted to

form cellulose acetate polymers This process is aided by the addition of a small

amount of sulfuric acid which is subsequently neutralized during processing

However the membranes are bought from UOP (vendor) and installed for use

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How membrane work

The basic principle of separation is selectivity of certain components of a mixture

for the membrane For example the cellulose acetate membrane has very high

selectivity for CO2 and H2S as compared to CH4 Therefore such type of

membrane can be used in gas sweetening process

The selectivity is directly related to the Permeability of gas which accounts that

which gas can pass across the membrane more easily In simple words

membranes being polymer materials are made of long chains of molecules The

different structure of polymer materials only allow selective molecules to pass

through them depending upon chemical and physical compatibility Thus

permeability depends upon choice of polymer

The permeability is determined by permeability coefficient (P) and is product of

solubility (S) and diffusivity (D)

P = S D

Solubility

The solubility is mainly determined by ease of condensation Heavy molecules

are more readily condensed Therefore higher molecular weighted molecules will

more easily condensed and therefore have greater solubility

Molecule Molecular weight

CH4 16

H2S 34

CO2 44

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Diffusivity

Diffusivity is ease of molecule to penetrate into some material It depends on size

of gas molecule Here size of molecule is not to be confused by molecular weight

it is the size of the structure Eg the size of O2 molecule is smaller than N2

Molecule Molecular Diameter (Ao)

CO2 33

H2S 36

Ch4 40

For cellulose acetate

DCO2DCH4 S CO2S CH4 P CO2P CH4

45 73 308

Chemical degradation

Cellulose acetate polymer is chemically degraded by a process called hydrolysis

which means breaking apart by the addition of water This is a chemical reaction

in which water is added to the cellulose acetate polymer causing the release of

acetic acid molecules This process proceeds stepwise until all the acetate

groups are released resulting in the reformation of cellulose Moreover alcohols

aromatic hydrocarbons or solvents with chlorine nitro benzene or similar

aromatic solvents will harm the membrane It will expand and lose plastification in

contact with them

Effect of Temperature

The permeation rates of all gases increases with increasing temperature

however membrane selectivity for CO2 over hydrocarbon decreases at higher

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temperature Consequently CO2 removal will improve as operating temperature

increases but hydro carbon recovery will decrease

Primary Membrane

The primary membranes comprise of two trains Each train consists of two

sections AB and CD each section consists of a 30 tube membrane skid (A and

C) followed by a 25 tube skid (B and D) The conditioned gas (after pre-

treatment) enters the primary membrane via the particulate filter adjacent to the

skid The gas is fed to the membranes through a common inlet manifold which

supplies primary membranes skids A and C A pressure control loop located

upstream of the manual inlet isolation valve is provided to maintain a constant

supply pressure to the membrane skid and to allow for preheating at the inlet

prior to skid start-up This pressure control loop can also be used during start-up

to control the pressurization of the pretreatment skid and associated pipes to the

primary membranes

The gas passes through membrane skid A the residual gas exiting the membrane

skid is sent to skid B and the permeate to common permeate discharge header An

identical arrangement is provide on the inlet to skid C as provided on skid A Theresidual gas from skid B combines with the residual gas from skid D in a common

discharge header and is then sent to the H2S polishing towers via the feed coolers

on the pre-treatment skid The permeate from skid B is sent to the common

permeate discharge header The permeate discharge header sends the gas to

either the recycle compressor or the vent header via a pressure control loop

Overpressure protection for the membranes is provided by a pressure safety valve

on the supply header to the membrane banks

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Secondary (Recycle) Membrane

The recycle membranes comprise of a single train with two skids each with four

banks of membrane tubes The conditioned gas from the discharge of the recycle

pre-treatment skid is routed to the first recycle membrane skid The gas passes

through the membranes the residual gas is fed to primary membrane (skid A) inlet

via feed gas cooler and permeate to the common permeate discharge header An

identical arrangement is provide on the inlet to skid B Permeate from the recycle

membrane skids A and B is routed to the vent header Some portion of permeate is

heated and sent for regeneration in Mem-Guard units Nitrogen purge can be

connected downstream of the inlet isolation valve on each skid to enable the

membrane tubes to be purged and left pressurized during prolonged shutdown

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Figure Flow Diagram of Recycle membrane unit

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ADVANTAGES OF MEMBRANE SYSTEMS

Membrane systems have major advantages over more-traditional methods of

acid gas removal

Lower capital cost Membrane systems are skid mounted and so the

scope cost and time taken for site preparation are minimal Installation

costs are significantly lower than alternative technologies especially for

remote areas Furthermore no additional facilities for solvent storage and

water treatment needed by other processes are required

Lower operating costs The only major operating cost for single-stage

membrane systems is membrane replacement This cost is significantly

lower than the solvent replacement and energy costs associated with

traditional technologies The improvements in membrane and

pretreatment design allow a longer useful membrane life which further

reduces operating costs The energy costs of multistage systems with

large recycle compressors are usually comparable to those for traditionaltechnologies

Deferred capital investment Often contracted sales-gas flow rates

increase over time as more wells are brought on-line With traditional

technologies the system design needs to take this later production into

account immediately and so the majority of the equipment is installed

before it is even needed The modular nature of membrane systems

means that only the membranes that are needed at start-up need be

installed The rest can be added either into existing tubes or in new skids

only when they are required

Operational simplicity and high reliability Because single-stage

membrane systems have no moving parts they have almost no

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unscheduled downtime and are extremely simple to operate They can

operate unattended for long periods of time The addition of a recycle

compressor adds some complexity to the system but still much less than

with a solvent- or adsorbent-based technology Multistage systems can be

operated at full capacity as single-stage systems when the recycle

compressor is down

Good weight and space efficiency Skid construction can be optimized

to the space available This space efficiency is especially important for

offshore environments where deck area is at a premium and is the

reason why so many new offshore developments have chosen to use

membranes for acid gas removal Figure 6 illustrates the space efficiency

of membrane systems The membrane unit in the lower left corner

replaced all the amine and glycol plant equipment shown in the rest of the

picture

Adaptability Because membrane area is dictated by the percentage of

acid gas removal rather than absolute acid gas removal small variations

in feed acid gas content hardly change the sales-gas acid gas

specification For example a system designed for 10 down to 3 acid

gas removal produces a 35 product from a 12 feed gas and a 5

product from a 15 feed gas

Design efficiency The membrane and pretreatment systems integrate a

number of operations such as dehydration CO2 and H2S removal dew-

point control and mercury removal Traditional acid gas removal

technologies require all of these operations as separate processes and

may also require additional dehydration because some technologies

saturate the product stream with water

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Power generation The permeate gas from membrane systems can be

used to provide fuel gas for power generation either for a recycle

compressor or other equipment

Ideal for debottlenecking Because expanding solvent- or adsorbent-

based acid gas removal plants without adding additional trains is difficult

an ideal solution is to use membranes for bulk acid gas removal and leave

the existing plant for final cleanup An additional advantage is that the

permeate gas from the membrane system can often be used as fuel for

the existing plant thus avoiding significant increase in hydrocarbon

losses

Environmentally friendly Membrane systems do not involve the

periodic removal and handling of spent solvents or adsorbents Permeate

gases can be flared used as fuel or re-injected into the well Items thatdo need disposal such as spent membrane elements can be incinerated

Ideal for remote locations Many of the factors mentioned above make

membrane systems a highly desirable technology for remote locations

where spare parts are rare and labor unskilled Furthermore solvents

storage and trucking water supply power generation or extensive

infrastructure are not required

Re-injection optimizations Since the permeate stream from the

membrane system can be operated at elevated pressures it is possible to

further pressurize by re-injection compression train

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Sorption

Sorption is a physical and chemical process by which one substance becomes

attached to another

It is of two main types

1 Absorption

2 Adsorption

Absorption

Absorption is a physical or chemical phenomenon or process in which atoms

molecules or ions enter some bulk phase ndash gas liquid or solid material This is a

different process from adsorption since molecules undergoing absorption are

taken up by the volume not by the surface (as in the case for adsorption)

Absorption process may be chemical (reactive) or physical (non-reactive)

Physical absorption

Physical absorption or non-reactive absorption is made between two phases ofmatter a liquid absorbs a gas or a solid absorbs a liquid

When a liquid solvent absorbs a gas mixture or part of it a mass of gas moves

into the liquid For example water may absorb oxygen from the air This mass

transfer takes place at the interface between the liquid and the gas at a rate

depending on both the gas and the liquid This type of absorption depends on the

solubility of gases the pressure and the temperature The rate and amount of

absorption also depend on the surface area of the interface and its duration in

time

When a solid absorbs a liquid mixture or part of it a mass of liquid moves into the

solid For example a clay pot used to store water may absorb some of the water

This mass transfer takes place at the interface between the solid and the liquid

at a rate depending on both the solid and the liquid

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Chemical absorption

Chemical absorption or reactive absorption is a chemical reaction between the

absorbed and the absorbing substances Sometimes it combines with physical

absorption This type of absorption depends upon the stoichiometry of the

reaction and the concentration of its reactants

Adsorption

Adsorption is the adhesion of atoms ions or molecules from a gas liquid or

dissolved solid to a surface This process creates a film of the adsorbate on the

surface of the adsorbent The binding to the surface is usually weak and

reversible Compounds with color and those that have taste or odor tend to bind

strongly Compounds that vibrate at frequencies in the visible spectrum are very

often are strongly adsorbed on activated carbon

The most common industrial adsorbents are activated carbon silica gel and

alumina because they present enormous surface areas per unit weight

Depending on the nature of attractive forces existing between the adsorbate and

adsorbent adsorption can be classified as

i) Physical adsorption

ii) Chemical adsorption

i) Physical adsorption (Physisorption)

In physical adsorption the forces of attraction between the molecules of the

adsorbate and the adsorbent are of the weak van der Waals type Since the

forces of attraction are weak the process of physisorption can be easily reversed

by heating or decreasing the pressure of the adsorbate (as in the case of gases)

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ii) Chemical adsorption (Chemisorption)

In chemisorption the forces of attraction between the adsorbate and the

adsorbent are very strong the molecules of adsorbate form chemical bonds with

the molecules of the adsorbent present in the surface

Adsorption is generally accompanied by release of energy that is most

adsorption processes are exothermic in nature Adsorption is a spontaneous

process therefore its free energy change is negative (∆Glt0) However the

entropy change associated with adsorption is generally negative because the

adsorbate molecules lose their translation freedom when they get attached to the

surface of the adsorbent Therefore in order for ∆G to be negative the enthalpy

change (∆H) must be sufficiently negative such that (∆G=∆H-T∆S) lt 0 This

explanation accounts for exothermic adsorption processes In cases where

endothermic adsorption occurs the entropy change ∆S is sufficiently positive

such that ∆G remains negative

Pre treatment

The main function of pretreatment skid is to provide membrane inlet specification

gas as mentioned by the vendor UOP It removes the contaminants that would

poison the membranes like dust solids (adsorbent particles) lube oil heavy

hydrocarbons etc It consists of

Feed Cooler

Feed Gas Scrubber

Filter Coalescer

Feed Gas Heater

Activated Carbon Guard Filter

Particle Filter

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The regeneration is carried out by heated permeate gas from the recycle

membranes at 450oF The vessel is depressurized to 20 psi and heated gas is

introduced from top The gas carries out the adsorbed contaminants and leaves

the vessel from bottom cleaning the adsorbent This contaminated gas is burnt in

the flare

UOP the vendor of Memguard unit has never disclosed that what substance

MG3 and MG5 exactly are But as mentioned by vendor that both care class of

aluminosilicates Therefore MG3 can be potassium aluminosilicate and MG5 can

be Calcium aluminosilicate These are molecular sieves adsorbents Molecular

sieves are a microporous material which can selectively adsorb gases andliquids They are synthetic zeolites (crystalline metal aluminosilicates) which

upon dehydration can efficiently and selectively remove water or other

solvents The selectivity of a molecular sieve is determined by its pore size

molecules with a critical diameter which is less than the pore size will be

efficiently adsorbed while larger molecules will be excluded

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3A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

The 3A molecular sieve adsorbent has a 3 angstrom (3A) pore size which means

that any molecule that is larger than the 3 angstrom pores will not be adsorbed

The 3A molecular sieve is the potassium type of A crystalline structure and is a

form of alkali Aluminosilicate For a 3A molecular sieve the sequence rate that

adsorption occurs is He Ne N and H2O

Due to the crystalline structure molecular sieves that have a 3 angstrom pore

size have a very high rate of adsorption and properties that promote a longer life

for products treated by the sieve The most common use for the 3A molecular

sieve is to remove water and moisture from materials that are in gas and liquid

form

5A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

These are molecular sieve adsorbents with a pore size of 5 angstrom (5A) 5A

molecular sieves are unable to adsorb any molecules or impurities that are

smaller than 5A It is calcium form of type A crystalline structure and is form of analkali-aluminosilicate that is most commonly used to separate isomerous alkanes

from normal alkanes and to co-adsorb moisture and water along with carbon

dioxide from gases In additional 5A molecular sieves are used for gaseous

pressure swing adsorption (PSA)mdashthat is to separate particular gases from other

gases

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of C3H8 to C22H46

Adsorption of Freon-12 (dichlorodifluoromethane)

Natural gas drying

Normal- and iso-paraffin separation

Separation of aromatic

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Inlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1096

MEHTANE 8593

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008

N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGEN 076

WATER 007

Outlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1098

MEHTANE 8608

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGENT 076

WATER 000

H2S polisher

The H2S polishing unit has been designed to treat 187 MMscfday of natural gas

containing up to 11 CO2 and 21 ppm H2S where the level of the CO2 and H2S

is reduced using a MemGuard Membrane separation unit The unit is situated

down-stream of the membrane unit and will further reduce the level of H2S in the

processed gas to a sales gas specification of 38 ppm

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This process uses three non-regenerable fixed bed absorber vessels using a low

temperature high activity absorbent The absorbent is a mixture of activated

metal oxides (mainly zinc oxide) The three towers can are generally operated in

parallel arrangement but on demand can be used in series (any of alternate

arrangements of A B C vessels) as shown in figure

The higher sales gas flow rate increased the catalyst consumption and

replacement frequency

ZnO + H2S =gt ZnS + H20

Routine samples are taken from the beds to provide a check on each bed

performance and to follow the saturation profile during the absorbent life After

the adsorbent has been fully utilized the adsorption vessels are recharged with

new adsorbent discarding the utilized one in a safe manner

109oF

1215 psig

Before H2S Polishing After H2S Polishing

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Figure

H2S Tower

Inlet pipe

4 Drums of 19mm

ceramic Balls

6 Micron mesh

5 Drums of 50mmceramic

1 Drums of19mm ceramic

01 Drums of6mm ceramic

112 drums of

Catalist ZnO

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Recycle Compressor

The permeate gas of the primary membrane unit carries recoverable amount of

CH4 It is fed to recycle membrane unit for further CH 4 recovery But the

permeate pressure from primary membranes which has been reduced to 12 psi

must be regenerated to 1200 psi for the gas to be fed again to the system For

this purpose we have employed recycle compressor The compressor is a four

stage centrifugal compressor It is driven by gas turbine of 31200 HP It has 25

MW producing capacity

Figure Recycle Compressor Process Flow Diagram

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Sales Gas Compressor

Gas from H2S polishing unit is sent to sales gas compressor where its pressure

is enhanced to 1100 psi so it may be injected to SNGPL high pressure trunk line

Sales gas compressor is single stage gas turbine driven

Figure Process Flow of Sales Gas Compressor

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Cooling Towers

A cooling tower is a heat rejection device which extracts waste heat to theatmosphere through the cooling of a water stream to a lower temperature Hot

water from the system enters the cooling tower and is distributed over the fill

(heat transfer surface) Air is induced or forced through the fill causing a small

portion of the water to evaporate This evaporation removes heat from the

remaining water which is collected in the cold water basin and returned to the

system to absorb more heat Each cooling tower line although operating under

the same basic principle of operation is arranged a little differently

Types

Natural draft mdash Utilizes buoyancy via a tall chimney Warm moist air naturally

rises due to the density differential compared to the dry cooler outside air Warm

moist air is less dense than drier air at the same pressure This moist air

buoyancy produces an upwards current of air through the tower

Mechanical draft mdash Uses power-driven fan motors to force or draw airthrough the tower

o Induced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a fan at the

discharge (at the top) which pulls air up through the tower The fan

induces hot moist air out the discharge This produces low entering

and high exiting air velocities reducing the possibility of

recirculation in which discharged air flows back into the air intake

o Forced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a blower type fan at

the intake The fan forces air into the tower creating high entering

and low exiting air velocities The low exiting velocity is much more

susceptible to recirculation This fanfill geometry is also known as

blow-through

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Forced Draft Cooling Tower Vs Induced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower have the ability to handle large water flow

rate than Forced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower is suitable for large cell sizes and fan sizes

as compared with Forced Draft Larger fan size may result in greater

efficiency and consequently lower power and sound level

Forced Draft Cooling Tower can be square or rectangular type only

however Induced Draft Cooling Towers can be round square or

rectangular type

Induced Draft Cooling Tower uses more compact ground area than Forced

Draft Cooling Tower equivalent capacity due to absence of fan on one

side

Fan equipment is warm exhaust air is less liable to icing up in winter

operation (Cold Countries)

Higher velocity in Forced Draft Cooling Tower cause drop in suspension

and cause additional static resistance to system

Configuration

There are two main configurations of factory assembled cooling towers crossflow

and counterflow In crossflow cooling towers the water flows vertically down the

fill as air flows horizontally across In counterflow cooling towers the water flows

vertically down the fill as air flows vertically up

Crossflow Configuration Counterflow Configuration

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Drift mdash Water droplets that are carried out of the cooling tower with the exhaust

air Drift droplets have the same concentration of impurities as the water entering

the tower The drift rate is typically reduced by employing baffle-like devices

called drift eliminators through which the air must travel after leaving the fill and

spray zones of the tower

Blow-out mdash Water droplets blown out of the cooling tower by wind generally at

the air inlet openings Water may also be lost in the absence of wind through

splashing or misting Devices such as wind screens louvers splash deflectors

and water diverters are used to limit these losses

Blow-down mdash The portion of the circulating water flow that is removed (usually

discharged to a drain) in order to maintain the amount of Total Dissolved Solids

(TDS) and other impurities at an acceptably low level Higher TDS concentration

in solution may result from greater cooling tower efficiency However the higher

the TDS concentration the greater the risk of scale biological growth and

corrosion

Make-up mdash The water that must be added to the circulating water system in

order to compensate for water losses such as evaporation drift loss blow-out

blow-down etc

Approach mdash The approach is the difference in temperature between the cooled-

water temperature and the entering-air wet bulb temperature

Range mdash The range is the temperature difference between the warm water inlet

and cooled water exit

Fill mdash Inside the tower fills are added to increase contact surface as well as

contact time between air and water to provide better heat transfer The efficiency

of the tower depends on the selection and amount of fill

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There are two types of fills that may be used

o Film type fill (causes water to spread into a thin film)

o Splash type fill (breaks up falling stream of water and interrupts its

vertical progress)

Important

Scale build up is controlled by adding chemicals to the cooling loop and diluting

the concentration by blow down and make-up Following chemicals are added to

the Cooling to control CorrosionSale and microbial growth

Corrosion Inhibitor To control corrosion in the Cooling system

Dispersant To kept ions in suspension to avoid settle down and buildup

Sodium hypo Chlorite To Control microbial Growth

Acid To control Alkalinity in the system

High Stress Polymer To run the system at higher conductivity It is a

multifunctional polymer for Zinc amp Phosphate stabilization in cooling tower

Fin Fan Cooler

Fin fan heat exchanger is simply a pressure vessel which cools a circulating fluid

within finned tubes by forcing ambient air over the exterior of the tubes A

common example of an air cooler is a carrsquos radiator Fin Fan Coolers are used in

any application where large quantities of heat need to be transferred This

includes chemical and petrochemical industries power stations waste-to-energy

facilities as well as steelworks

Fin Fan Cooler are used for two primary reasons

They increase plant efficiency

They are a green solution as compared to cooling towers and shell and

tube heat exchangers because they do not require an auxiliary water

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supply (water lost due to drift and evaporation plus no water treatment

chemicals are required)

Figure General Overview of Fin Fan Cooler

Produced Water

The produced water system receives liquid from the equipment Miano slug

catcher train 1 and 2 inlet separators and is fed to three phase separator where

water oil and gas is separated The gases produced are burnt in incinerator

whereas hydrocarbon liquid is stored to be sold Liquid from compressors

recycle inlet separator recycle feed scrubber high and low pressure slug

catchers is passed to degasser Separated water is injected down the earth

Incinerator

The term incinerate means to burn something until nothing is left but ashes An

incinerator is a unit or facility used to burn trash and other types of waste until it is

reduced to ash An incinerator is constructed of heavy well-insulated materials

so that it does not give off extreme amounts of external heat The high levels of

heat are kept inside the furnace or unit so that the waste is burned quickly and

efficiently If the heat were allowed to escape the waste would not burn as

completely or as rapidly

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Control System

The plant is controlled at CCR (Central Control Room) by PLCs (Programmable

Logic Controllers) through fiber optic control line All control parameters are

received at LER (Local Equipment Room) via two optic fiber control lines One

being primary and other secondary operating in redundancy ie if primary fails

control shifts to secondary These control parameters are sent to CCR via single

optic fiber cable

Safety System

Wellheads and Gas Processing Plant have their own Fire amp Gas detection

systems emergency shutdown (ESD) Plant has a fault tolerant controller It is

based on Triple Modular Redundant (TMR) architecture manufactured by

Triconex The TMR system is based on three isolated parallel control systems

integrated into one system The system operates on a two out of three voting

principle which provides high integrity error free uninterrupted operation with no

single point of failure The TMR receives inputs from Process Sensors Manual

Switches Fire amp Gas Detectors Packaged Equipment Control Systems and

Product Exporting Facilities The TMR carries out cause and effect processing on

the data received and where necessary produces output signals Outputs from

the TMR are hard wired directly to ESD shutdown and blow down valve

solenoids motor control instrumentelectrical interfaces to control electrical

drives package equipment logic control systems manifold area as well as

telecoms

The operator in central control room is able to accept alarms and once the fault

has been cleared reset the input All the control systems are centralized to a

single interface All the PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers) communicate with

the servers and servers communicate with the clients through Ethernet connectivity

Centralization eases the navigation of different systems at a common interface

Emergency Shutdown

The ESD system receives inputs from field mounted instrumentation on the process

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and utility equipment and initiates executive actions appropriate to the level of ESD

The system is an Active system which is in standby and will activate when in an

alarm or fault condition The Kadanwari Gas Process Facility ESD system is

comprised of five (5) levels The emergency severity decreases with increasing ESD

level number

ESD 1

This shutdown level is automatically initiated by fire major gas leak or a detected

toxic atmosphere in the process area of the plant or manually from CCR A level 1

shutdown will cause all production to cease close all emergency shutdown

valves stop the process and shutdown of the main power generation The

emergency vent valves to the stack will open and in addition all equipment of zone 1

certified will be isolated This is the highest level of ESD and will cause the following

to occur

All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close All slowdown Valves (BDVs) on the process facility will open

All Main Gas Driven Generators will be tripped

Emergency Diesel Generator will start

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close Upper Master Valve

(UMV) Close

ESD 2

This shutdown level is activated automatically if a major process or utility failure

occurs or manually from CCR All production to the plant from the wellhead is

stopped All emergency shutdown valves trip to their fail safe position

Venting shall be as specified This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

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All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valve Close Wing Valves Close and Upper Master Valve(UMV) Close

ESD 3

The level 3 shutdown isolates and stops a single process train only Production

continues via the other train This ESD level is initiated by process conditions or

operator at local panel This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

ESD 3A Train 1 production to cease

ESD 3B Train 2 production to cease

All online wellhead choke valves go to minimum flow ie (1O )

ESD 4

A level 4 shutdown shall cease all production from an entire field either

Kadanwari or Miano upstream of the associated slug catchers ESD 4K for

Kadanwari amp ESD 4M for Miano This ESD level is initiated automatically by slug

catcher abnormal process conditions This level of ESD will cause the following

to occur

All SDVs close isolating the relevant slug catcher and its upstream gas

production facility from the Kadanwari Gas Processing Plant

All Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close and Upper MasterValves (UMV) of the relevant gas production facility Close

A parallel timer is provided to close within 10 second if not closed in given

time SSSV seals the well

ESD 5

A level 5 shutdown represents equipment shutdown for the protection of the

individual equipment without any change in the process This level of ESD is for the

protection of various pieces of equipment and is initiated by its own inputs eg

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Diffuser

The next key component to the simple centrifugal compressor is the diffuser

Downstream of the impeller in the flow path it is the diffusers responsibility to

convert the kinetic energy (high velocity) of the gas into pressure by gradually

slowing (diffusing) the gas velocity

SEPERATORS

A well-stream is a mixture of gases hydrocarbon liquids water solids and

contaminants Due to variations in pressure and temperature gases evolve from

the liquids water vapor condenses and some of the well-stream changes to liquid

and free gas The separation of well-stream fluids takes place in a separator This

pressure vessel is manufactured in three forms

1 horizontal

2 vertical

3 spherical

To help separation the vessel is normally designed with a series of internal

fittings These fittings are built into the separator to ensure total phase separation

of the well-stream

In gas plants separators are given alternative names due to the function they

perform in the process system A scrubber does a similar job to a knockout drum

However the scrubber usually separates a stream containing high gas-to-liquid

ratios The knockout drum is used where a high degree of liquids are entrained in

the gas

Fluid flow from a well can include gas condensable liquid vapors water water

vapor crude oil and solids As well-stream fluids reach ground level where

pressure is lower than in the reservoir the capacity of the liquid to hold gas in

solution decreases and gas separates out of the oil

Separation depends upon the effect of gravity to separate liquids For adequate

separation one fluid must be lighter than the other fluid For example distillates

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(gasoline kerosene etc) and crude oil will not separate in a vessel because they

tend to dissolve in each other Because a separator basically depends upon

gravity to separate the fluids the ease with which separation takes place

depends upon the difference in density of the fluids

Droplets of liquid will separate from gas provided

a) The gas remains in the separator long enough

b) The gas flow remains constant to provoke separation

The difference in density between a gas and liquid will therefore determine the

maximum flow rate of liquid in the vessel

Figure Two phase horizontal separator

Gas bubbles in the liquid will break out in some oil field applications in 30 to 60

seconds Consequently the separator is designed so that the liquid remains in

the vessel for 30 to 60 seconds The length of time that a liquid remains in the

vessel is called its residence time Residence time differs widely from field to field

depending upon viscosity and API Gravity

Another important factor which must be considered is temperature Generally a

decrease in operating temperature will increase the liquid recovery in a separator

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as the gas condenses By reducing the pressure on the fluid flash separation

occurs resulting in a flow through the separator which is controlled by external

instrumentation

COALESCENCE

Another important principle in fluid separation is that of coalescence This means

the coming together of liquid droplets created by the force of gravity

A common example of coalescing occurs when drops of water form on the

windshield of a car as it is driven in fog As the tiny drops or water which make up

the fog strike the windshield they combine and eventually form a drop large

enough to run down the glass

Several of the internal devices of a separator such as deflector plates

straightening vanes and even the vessel walls are forms of coalescers In each

vessel drops of liquid adhere to the surface of the device and combine with other

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drops until the drop is large enough to fall out The effectiveness of separation

will also depend upon the total amount of coalescing surface area that is present

There are many different types of separators used in the Oil amp Gas industry

Consequently separators are manufactured with one two or several internal

fittings depending on their use and quick removal of these fluids from the vessel

DEFLECTOR PLATES

These are fitted in front of the inlet to the separator and can be net or

dish-shaped Their purpose is to absorb the impact of the incoming fluids and to

encourage the separation of gas and liquids They also slow the flow rate of the

liquids through the vessel

WEIRS

A weir is a metal wall which is fitted across the inside of the vessel normally to a

height of 50 of the overall height of the separator Its purpose is to assist the

process of three phase separation The inlet fluids (oil plus water) are given time

to separate in the liquid accumulation section The water level (interface) is

normally controlled at 50 of the height of the weir Oil floating on the wateroverflows the weir and accumulates in the small oil compartment where it is

drawn off under level control

CENTRIFUGAL DEVICES

These are used in both vertical and horizontal separators for gas-liquid

separation The device imparts a swirling motion to the fluids entering the vessel

Centrifugal force causes the heavier liquids to travel outwards towards the walls

of the vessel and the lighter gases to flow up the centre Centrifugal devices are

also known as cyclones

VORTEX BREAKERS

When liquid flows through a drain outlet a vortex (whirlpool) will form This can

be seen when we pull the plug from a sink or bath tub The same would happen

as water and oil flow from the separator This condition a vortex could allow gas

to flow down the centre of the whirlpool and enter the liquid phase causing

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pressurizing of tanks etc To stop this happening vortex breakers are fitted to all

liquid outlets Although they come in a number of different designs vortex

breakers all serve the same purpose - to prevent a whirlpool from forming

MIST OR DEMISTER PADS

The gas which is released from the fluids in the separator still contains droplets of

oil and water which coalesce and fall when the drops get large enough The

demister pad assists in this process Made from knitted wire and contained within

a sturdy frame it causes the gas to continually change its direction of flow

Because gas changes direction far easier than liquid the gas will flow around

each strand of wire whilst the liquid entrained in the gas stream will continue and

stick to the wire

COALESCING PLATES

There are several different forms of coalescing devices the most common of

which are coalescing plates These plates are mounted in the flow stream of the

fluids and assist in breaking down oil-water emulsions The fluid is forced to

follow a path that constantly changes direction This causes the water droplets to

gather together or coalesce and fall to the bottom of the separator The same

principle is used to separate gas and oil mixtures when the oil droplets are

induced to coalesce Simply stated every surface within the separator including

the separator walls assists with the coalescing process

STRAIGHTENlNG VANES

These are often fitted to horizontal separators to remove turbulence in the gas

stream after initial separation at the inlet deflector

FLOAT SHEILD

Internal floats are used as level controllers Any agitation of the liquid surface or

the effect of coalesced liquids falling on the float may cause control problems

Therefore a float shield is fitted to enclose the float creating an area of still liquid

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MEMBRANES

The gas contains 12 carbon dioxide and 22 ppm of hydrogen sulphide at 115oF

and 1100 psig This needs to be removed before the gas can be exported The

majority of carbon dioxide hydrogen sulphide and water is removed by means of

membranes

Membranes are thin semipermeable barriers that selectively separate some

compounds from others Currently the only commercially workable membranes

used for CO2 removal are polymer based for example cellulose acetate

polyimides polyamides polysulfone polycarbonates and polyetherimide The

membrane does not operate as a filter where small molecules are separated

from larger ones through a medium with pores rather it separates based on how

well different compounds dissolve into the membrane and diffuse through it The

membranes are manufactured in flat sheets consisting of an extremely thin

nonporous layer mounted on a much-thicker and highly porous layer of the same

material providing mechanical strength The flat sheets are combined into a

spiral-wound element (Figure below) Feed gas enters along the side of the

membrane and passes through the feed spacers As the gas travels between

membrane sheets CO2 H2S and H2O permeate through the membrane and are

collected in the permeate tube The driving force for transport is the high-feed

pressure and low-permeate pressures The gas on the feed side that does not

permeate leaves through the side of the element opposite the feed position Once

the membranes have been manufactured into elements six to 12 elements are

joined together and inserted into a tube Multiple tubes are mounted on skids in a

horizontal orientation

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Figure Membrane general Working

In high H2S applications most polymers have been shown to have very little

resistance to H2S plasticization (ldquosofteningrdquo of the membrane) and as a

consequence can only be used at very low H2S partial pressure limits Cellulose

acetate membranes in contrast have been shown to be applicable at extreme

H2S partial pressure conditions It is these membranes that have been utilized in

the testing to determine the limits of membrane performance in high H 2S

applications

The primary membranes used in Kadanwari facility are Cellulose acetate

Cellulose acetic acid and acetic anhydride are mixed together and reacted to

form cellulose acetate polymers This process is aided by the addition of a small

amount of sulfuric acid which is subsequently neutralized during processing

However the membranes are bought from UOP (vendor) and installed for use

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How membrane work

The basic principle of separation is selectivity of certain components of a mixture

for the membrane For example the cellulose acetate membrane has very high

selectivity for CO2 and H2S as compared to CH4 Therefore such type of

membrane can be used in gas sweetening process

The selectivity is directly related to the Permeability of gas which accounts that

which gas can pass across the membrane more easily In simple words

membranes being polymer materials are made of long chains of molecules The

different structure of polymer materials only allow selective molecules to pass

through them depending upon chemical and physical compatibility Thus

permeability depends upon choice of polymer

The permeability is determined by permeability coefficient (P) and is product of

solubility (S) and diffusivity (D)

P = S D

Solubility

The solubility is mainly determined by ease of condensation Heavy molecules

are more readily condensed Therefore higher molecular weighted molecules will

more easily condensed and therefore have greater solubility

Molecule Molecular weight

CH4 16

H2S 34

CO2 44

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Diffusivity

Diffusivity is ease of molecule to penetrate into some material It depends on size

of gas molecule Here size of molecule is not to be confused by molecular weight

it is the size of the structure Eg the size of O2 molecule is smaller than N2

Molecule Molecular Diameter (Ao)

CO2 33

H2S 36

Ch4 40

For cellulose acetate

DCO2DCH4 S CO2S CH4 P CO2P CH4

45 73 308

Chemical degradation

Cellulose acetate polymer is chemically degraded by a process called hydrolysis

which means breaking apart by the addition of water This is a chemical reaction

in which water is added to the cellulose acetate polymer causing the release of

acetic acid molecules This process proceeds stepwise until all the acetate

groups are released resulting in the reformation of cellulose Moreover alcohols

aromatic hydrocarbons or solvents with chlorine nitro benzene or similar

aromatic solvents will harm the membrane It will expand and lose plastification in

contact with them

Effect of Temperature

The permeation rates of all gases increases with increasing temperature

however membrane selectivity for CO2 over hydrocarbon decreases at higher

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temperature Consequently CO2 removal will improve as operating temperature

increases but hydro carbon recovery will decrease

Primary Membrane

The primary membranes comprise of two trains Each train consists of two

sections AB and CD each section consists of a 30 tube membrane skid (A and

C) followed by a 25 tube skid (B and D) The conditioned gas (after pre-

treatment) enters the primary membrane via the particulate filter adjacent to the

skid The gas is fed to the membranes through a common inlet manifold which

supplies primary membranes skids A and C A pressure control loop located

upstream of the manual inlet isolation valve is provided to maintain a constant

supply pressure to the membrane skid and to allow for preheating at the inlet

prior to skid start-up This pressure control loop can also be used during start-up

to control the pressurization of the pretreatment skid and associated pipes to the

primary membranes

The gas passes through membrane skid A the residual gas exiting the membrane

skid is sent to skid B and the permeate to common permeate discharge header An

identical arrangement is provide on the inlet to skid C as provided on skid A Theresidual gas from skid B combines with the residual gas from skid D in a common

discharge header and is then sent to the H2S polishing towers via the feed coolers

on the pre-treatment skid The permeate from skid B is sent to the common

permeate discharge header The permeate discharge header sends the gas to

either the recycle compressor or the vent header via a pressure control loop

Overpressure protection for the membranes is provided by a pressure safety valve

on the supply header to the membrane banks

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Secondary (Recycle) Membrane

The recycle membranes comprise of a single train with two skids each with four

banks of membrane tubes The conditioned gas from the discharge of the recycle

pre-treatment skid is routed to the first recycle membrane skid The gas passes

through the membranes the residual gas is fed to primary membrane (skid A) inlet

via feed gas cooler and permeate to the common permeate discharge header An

identical arrangement is provide on the inlet to skid B Permeate from the recycle

membrane skids A and B is routed to the vent header Some portion of permeate is

heated and sent for regeneration in Mem-Guard units Nitrogen purge can be

connected downstream of the inlet isolation valve on each skid to enable the

membrane tubes to be purged and left pressurized during prolonged shutdown

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Figure Flow Diagram of Recycle membrane unit

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ADVANTAGES OF MEMBRANE SYSTEMS

Membrane systems have major advantages over more-traditional methods of

acid gas removal

Lower capital cost Membrane systems are skid mounted and so the

scope cost and time taken for site preparation are minimal Installation

costs are significantly lower than alternative technologies especially for

remote areas Furthermore no additional facilities for solvent storage and

water treatment needed by other processes are required

Lower operating costs The only major operating cost for single-stage

membrane systems is membrane replacement This cost is significantly

lower than the solvent replacement and energy costs associated with

traditional technologies The improvements in membrane and

pretreatment design allow a longer useful membrane life which further

reduces operating costs The energy costs of multistage systems with

large recycle compressors are usually comparable to those for traditionaltechnologies

Deferred capital investment Often contracted sales-gas flow rates

increase over time as more wells are brought on-line With traditional

technologies the system design needs to take this later production into

account immediately and so the majority of the equipment is installed

before it is even needed The modular nature of membrane systems

means that only the membranes that are needed at start-up need be

installed The rest can be added either into existing tubes or in new skids

only when they are required

Operational simplicity and high reliability Because single-stage

membrane systems have no moving parts they have almost no

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unscheduled downtime and are extremely simple to operate They can

operate unattended for long periods of time The addition of a recycle

compressor adds some complexity to the system but still much less than

with a solvent- or adsorbent-based technology Multistage systems can be

operated at full capacity as single-stage systems when the recycle

compressor is down

Good weight and space efficiency Skid construction can be optimized

to the space available This space efficiency is especially important for

offshore environments where deck area is at a premium and is the

reason why so many new offshore developments have chosen to use

membranes for acid gas removal Figure 6 illustrates the space efficiency

of membrane systems The membrane unit in the lower left corner

replaced all the amine and glycol plant equipment shown in the rest of the

picture

Adaptability Because membrane area is dictated by the percentage of

acid gas removal rather than absolute acid gas removal small variations

in feed acid gas content hardly change the sales-gas acid gas

specification For example a system designed for 10 down to 3 acid

gas removal produces a 35 product from a 12 feed gas and a 5

product from a 15 feed gas

Design efficiency The membrane and pretreatment systems integrate a

number of operations such as dehydration CO2 and H2S removal dew-

point control and mercury removal Traditional acid gas removal

technologies require all of these operations as separate processes and

may also require additional dehydration because some technologies

saturate the product stream with water

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Power generation The permeate gas from membrane systems can be

used to provide fuel gas for power generation either for a recycle

compressor or other equipment

Ideal for debottlenecking Because expanding solvent- or adsorbent-

based acid gas removal plants without adding additional trains is difficult

an ideal solution is to use membranes for bulk acid gas removal and leave

the existing plant for final cleanup An additional advantage is that the

permeate gas from the membrane system can often be used as fuel for

the existing plant thus avoiding significant increase in hydrocarbon

losses

Environmentally friendly Membrane systems do not involve the

periodic removal and handling of spent solvents or adsorbents Permeate

gases can be flared used as fuel or re-injected into the well Items thatdo need disposal such as spent membrane elements can be incinerated

Ideal for remote locations Many of the factors mentioned above make

membrane systems a highly desirable technology for remote locations

where spare parts are rare and labor unskilled Furthermore solvents

storage and trucking water supply power generation or extensive

infrastructure are not required

Re-injection optimizations Since the permeate stream from the

membrane system can be operated at elevated pressures it is possible to

further pressurize by re-injection compression train

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Sorption

Sorption is a physical and chemical process by which one substance becomes

attached to another

It is of two main types

1 Absorption

2 Adsorption

Absorption

Absorption is a physical or chemical phenomenon or process in which atoms

molecules or ions enter some bulk phase ndash gas liquid or solid material This is a

different process from adsorption since molecules undergoing absorption are

taken up by the volume not by the surface (as in the case for adsorption)

Absorption process may be chemical (reactive) or physical (non-reactive)

Physical absorption

Physical absorption or non-reactive absorption is made between two phases ofmatter a liquid absorbs a gas or a solid absorbs a liquid

When a liquid solvent absorbs a gas mixture or part of it a mass of gas moves

into the liquid For example water may absorb oxygen from the air This mass

transfer takes place at the interface between the liquid and the gas at a rate

depending on both the gas and the liquid This type of absorption depends on the

solubility of gases the pressure and the temperature The rate and amount of

absorption also depend on the surface area of the interface and its duration in

time

When a solid absorbs a liquid mixture or part of it a mass of liquid moves into the

solid For example a clay pot used to store water may absorb some of the water

This mass transfer takes place at the interface between the solid and the liquid

at a rate depending on both the solid and the liquid

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Chemical absorption

Chemical absorption or reactive absorption is a chemical reaction between the

absorbed and the absorbing substances Sometimes it combines with physical

absorption This type of absorption depends upon the stoichiometry of the

reaction and the concentration of its reactants

Adsorption

Adsorption is the adhesion of atoms ions or molecules from a gas liquid or

dissolved solid to a surface This process creates a film of the adsorbate on the

surface of the adsorbent The binding to the surface is usually weak and

reversible Compounds with color and those that have taste or odor tend to bind

strongly Compounds that vibrate at frequencies in the visible spectrum are very

often are strongly adsorbed on activated carbon

The most common industrial adsorbents are activated carbon silica gel and

alumina because they present enormous surface areas per unit weight

Depending on the nature of attractive forces existing between the adsorbate and

adsorbent adsorption can be classified as

i) Physical adsorption

ii) Chemical adsorption

i) Physical adsorption (Physisorption)

In physical adsorption the forces of attraction between the molecules of the

adsorbate and the adsorbent are of the weak van der Waals type Since the

forces of attraction are weak the process of physisorption can be easily reversed

by heating or decreasing the pressure of the adsorbate (as in the case of gases)

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ii) Chemical adsorption (Chemisorption)

In chemisorption the forces of attraction between the adsorbate and the

adsorbent are very strong the molecules of adsorbate form chemical bonds with

the molecules of the adsorbent present in the surface

Adsorption is generally accompanied by release of energy that is most

adsorption processes are exothermic in nature Adsorption is a spontaneous

process therefore its free energy change is negative (∆Glt0) However the

entropy change associated with adsorption is generally negative because the

adsorbate molecules lose their translation freedom when they get attached to the

surface of the adsorbent Therefore in order for ∆G to be negative the enthalpy

change (∆H) must be sufficiently negative such that (∆G=∆H-T∆S) lt 0 This

explanation accounts for exothermic adsorption processes In cases where

endothermic adsorption occurs the entropy change ∆S is sufficiently positive

such that ∆G remains negative

Pre treatment

The main function of pretreatment skid is to provide membrane inlet specification

gas as mentioned by the vendor UOP It removes the contaminants that would

poison the membranes like dust solids (adsorbent particles) lube oil heavy

hydrocarbons etc It consists of

Feed Cooler

Feed Gas Scrubber

Filter Coalescer

Feed Gas Heater

Activated Carbon Guard Filter

Particle Filter

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The regeneration is carried out by heated permeate gas from the recycle

membranes at 450oF The vessel is depressurized to 20 psi and heated gas is

introduced from top The gas carries out the adsorbed contaminants and leaves

the vessel from bottom cleaning the adsorbent This contaminated gas is burnt in

the flare

UOP the vendor of Memguard unit has never disclosed that what substance

MG3 and MG5 exactly are But as mentioned by vendor that both care class of

aluminosilicates Therefore MG3 can be potassium aluminosilicate and MG5 can

be Calcium aluminosilicate These are molecular sieves adsorbents Molecular

sieves are a microporous material which can selectively adsorb gases andliquids They are synthetic zeolites (crystalline metal aluminosilicates) which

upon dehydration can efficiently and selectively remove water or other

solvents The selectivity of a molecular sieve is determined by its pore size

molecules with a critical diameter which is less than the pore size will be

efficiently adsorbed while larger molecules will be excluded

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3A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

The 3A molecular sieve adsorbent has a 3 angstrom (3A) pore size which means

that any molecule that is larger than the 3 angstrom pores will not be adsorbed

The 3A molecular sieve is the potassium type of A crystalline structure and is a

form of alkali Aluminosilicate For a 3A molecular sieve the sequence rate that

adsorption occurs is He Ne N and H2O

Due to the crystalline structure molecular sieves that have a 3 angstrom pore

size have a very high rate of adsorption and properties that promote a longer life

for products treated by the sieve The most common use for the 3A molecular

sieve is to remove water and moisture from materials that are in gas and liquid

form

5A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

These are molecular sieve adsorbents with a pore size of 5 angstrom (5A) 5A

molecular sieves are unable to adsorb any molecules or impurities that are

smaller than 5A It is calcium form of type A crystalline structure and is form of analkali-aluminosilicate that is most commonly used to separate isomerous alkanes

from normal alkanes and to co-adsorb moisture and water along with carbon

dioxide from gases In additional 5A molecular sieves are used for gaseous

pressure swing adsorption (PSA)mdashthat is to separate particular gases from other

gases

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of C3H8 to C22H46

Adsorption of Freon-12 (dichlorodifluoromethane)

Natural gas drying

Normal- and iso-paraffin separation

Separation of aromatic

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Inlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1096

MEHTANE 8593

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008

N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGEN 076

WATER 007

Outlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1098

MEHTANE 8608

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGENT 076

WATER 000

H2S polisher

The H2S polishing unit has been designed to treat 187 MMscfday of natural gas

containing up to 11 CO2 and 21 ppm H2S where the level of the CO2 and H2S

is reduced using a MemGuard Membrane separation unit The unit is situated

down-stream of the membrane unit and will further reduce the level of H2S in the

processed gas to a sales gas specification of 38 ppm

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This process uses three non-regenerable fixed bed absorber vessels using a low

temperature high activity absorbent The absorbent is a mixture of activated

metal oxides (mainly zinc oxide) The three towers can are generally operated in

parallel arrangement but on demand can be used in series (any of alternate

arrangements of A B C vessels) as shown in figure

The higher sales gas flow rate increased the catalyst consumption and

replacement frequency

ZnO + H2S =gt ZnS + H20

Routine samples are taken from the beds to provide a check on each bed

performance and to follow the saturation profile during the absorbent life After

the adsorbent has been fully utilized the adsorption vessels are recharged with

new adsorbent discarding the utilized one in a safe manner

109oF

1215 psig

Before H2S Polishing After H2S Polishing

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Figure

H2S Tower

Inlet pipe

4 Drums of 19mm

ceramic Balls

6 Micron mesh

5 Drums of 50mmceramic

1 Drums of19mm ceramic

01 Drums of6mm ceramic

112 drums of

Catalist ZnO

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Recycle Compressor

The permeate gas of the primary membrane unit carries recoverable amount of

CH4 It is fed to recycle membrane unit for further CH 4 recovery But the

permeate pressure from primary membranes which has been reduced to 12 psi

must be regenerated to 1200 psi for the gas to be fed again to the system For

this purpose we have employed recycle compressor The compressor is a four

stage centrifugal compressor It is driven by gas turbine of 31200 HP It has 25

MW producing capacity

Figure Recycle Compressor Process Flow Diagram

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Sales Gas Compressor

Gas from H2S polishing unit is sent to sales gas compressor where its pressure

is enhanced to 1100 psi so it may be injected to SNGPL high pressure trunk line

Sales gas compressor is single stage gas turbine driven

Figure Process Flow of Sales Gas Compressor

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Cooling Towers

A cooling tower is a heat rejection device which extracts waste heat to theatmosphere through the cooling of a water stream to a lower temperature Hot

water from the system enters the cooling tower and is distributed over the fill

(heat transfer surface) Air is induced or forced through the fill causing a small

portion of the water to evaporate This evaporation removes heat from the

remaining water which is collected in the cold water basin and returned to the

system to absorb more heat Each cooling tower line although operating under

the same basic principle of operation is arranged a little differently

Types

Natural draft mdash Utilizes buoyancy via a tall chimney Warm moist air naturally

rises due to the density differential compared to the dry cooler outside air Warm

moist air is less dense than drier air at the same pressure This moist air

buoyancy produces an upwards current of air through the tower

Mechanical draft mdash Uses power-driven fan motors to force or draw airthrough the tower

o Induced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a fan at the

discharge (at the top) which pulls air up through the tower The fan

induces hot moist air out the discharge This produces low entering

and high exiting air velocities reducing the possibility of

recirculation in which discharged air flows back into the air intake

o Forced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a blower type fan at

the intake The fan forces air into the tower creating high entering

and low exiting air velocities The low exiting velocity is much more

susceptible to recirculation This fanfill geometry is also known as

blow-through

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Forced Draft Cooling Tower Vs Induced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower have the ability to handle large water flow

rate than Forced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower is suitable for large cell sizes and fan sizes

as compared with Forced Draft Larger fan size may result in greater

efficiency and consequently lower power and sound level

Forced Draft Cooling Tower can be square or rectangular type only

however Induced Draft Cooling Towers can be round square or

rectangular type

Induced Draft Cooling Tower uses more compact ground area than Forced

Draft Cooling Tower equivalent capacity due to absence of fan on one

side

Fan equipment is warm exhaust air is less liable to icing up in winter

operation (Cold Countries)

Higher velocity in Forced Draft Cooling Tower cause drop in suspension

and cause additional static resistance to system

Configuration

There are two main configurations of factory assembled cooling towers crossflow

and counterflow In crossflow cooling towers the water flows vertically down the

fill as air flows horizontally across In counterflow cooling towers the water flows

vertically down the fill as air flows vertically up

Crossflow Configuration Counterflow Configuration

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Drift mdash Water droplets that are carried out of the cooling tower with the exhaust

air Drift droplets have the same concentration of impurities as the water entering

the tower The drift rate is typically reduced by employing baffle-like devices

called drift eliminators through which the air must travel after leaving the fill and

spray zones of the tower

Blow-out mdash Water droplets blown out of the cooling tower by wind generally at

the air inlet openings Water may also be lost in the absence of wind through

splashing or misting Devices such as wind screens louvers splash deflectors

and water diverters are used to limit these losses

Blow-down mdash The portion of the circulating water flow that is removed (usually

discharged to a drain) in order to maintain the amount of Total Dissolved Solids

(TDS) and other impurities at an acceptably low level Higher TDS concentration

in solution may result from greater cooling tower efficiency However the higher

the TDS concentration the greater the risk of scale biological growth and

corrosion

Make-up mdash The water that must be added to the circulating water system in

order to compensate for water losses such as evaporation drift loss blow-out

blow-down etc

Approach mdash The approach is the difference in temperature between the cooled-

water temperature and the entering-air wet bulb temperature

Range mdash The range is the temperature difference between the warm water inlet

and cooled water exit

Fill mdash Inside the tower fills are added to increase contact surface as well as

contact time between air and water to provide better heat transfer The efficiency

of the tower depends on the selection and amount of fill

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There are two types of fills that may be used

o Film type fill (causes water to spread into a thin film)

o Splash type fill (breaks up falling stream of water and interrupts its

vertical progress)

Important

Scale build up is controlled by adding chemicals to the cooling loop and diluting

the concentration by blow down and make-up Following chemicals are added to

the Cooling to control CorrosionSale and microbial growth

Corrosion Inhibitor To control corrosion in the Cooling system

Dispersant To kept ions in suspension to avoid settle down and buildup

Sodium hypo Chlorite To Control microbial Growth

Acid To control Alkalinity in the system

High Stress Polymer To run the system at higher conductivity It is a

multifunctional polymer for Zinc amp Phosphate stabilization in cooling tower

Fin Fan Cooler

Fin fan heat exchanger is simply a pressure vessel which cools a circulating fluid

within finned tubes by forcing ambient air over the exterior of the tubes A

common example of an air cooler is a carrsquos radiator Fin Fan Coolers are used in

any application where large quantities of heat need to be transferred This

includes chemical and petrochemical industries power stations waste-to-energy

facilities as well as steelworks

Fin Fan Cooler are used for two primary reasons

They increase plant efficiency

They are a green solution as compared to cooling towers and shell and

tube heat exchangers because they do not require an auxiliary water

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supply (water lost due to drift and evaporation plus no water treatment

chemicals are required)

Figure General Overview of Fin Fan Cooler

Produced Water

The produced water system receives liquid from the equipment Miano slug

catcher train 1 and 2 inlet separators and is fed to three phase separator where

water oil and gas is separated The gases produced are burnt in incinerator

whereas hydrocarbon liquid is stored to be sold Liquid from compressors

recycle inlet separator recycle feed scrubber high and low pressure slug

catchers is passed to degasser Separated water is injected down the earth

Incinerator

The term incinerate means to burn something until nothing is left but ashes An

incinerator is a unit or facility used to burn trash and other types of waste until it is

reduced to ash An incinerator is constructed of heavy well-insulated materials

so that it does not give off extreme amounts of external heat The high levels of

heat are kept inside the furnace or unit so that the waste is burned quickly and

efficiently If the heat were allowed to escape the waste would not burn as

completely or as rapidly

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Control System

The plant is controlled at CCR (Central Control Room) by PLCs (Programmable

Logic Controllers) through fiber optic control line All control parameters are

received at LER (Local Equipment Room) via two optic fiber control lines One

being primary and other secondary operating in redundancy ie if primary fails

control shifts to secondary These control parameters are sent to CCR via single

optic fiber cable

Safety System

Wellheads and Gas Processing Plant have their own Fire amp Gas detection

systems emergency shutdown (ESD) Plant has a fault tolerant controller It is

based on Triple Modular Redundant (TMR) architecture manufactured by

Triconex The TMR system is based on three isolated parallel control systems

integrated into one system The system operates on a two out of three voting

principle which provides high integrity error free uninterrupted operation with no

single point of failure The TMR receives inputs from Process Sensors Manual

Switches Fire amp Gas Detectors Packaged Equipment Control Systems and

Product Exporting Facilities The TMR carries out cause and effect processing on

the data received and where necessary produces output signals Outputs from

the TMR are hard wired directly to ESD shutdown and blow down valve

solenoids motor control instrumentelectrical interfaces to control electrical

drives package equipment logic control systems manifold area as well as

telecoms

The operator in central control room is able to accept alarms and once the fault

has been cleared reset the input All the control systems are centralized to a

single interface All the PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers) communicate with

the servers and servers communicate with the clients through Ethernet connectivity

Centralization eases the navigation of different systems at a common interface

Emergency Shutdown

The ESD system receives inputs from field mounted instrumentation on the process

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and utility equipment and initiates executive actions appropriate to the level of ESD

The system is an Active system which is in standby and will activate when in an

alarm or fault condition The Kadanwari Gas Process Facility ESD system is

comprised of five (5) levels The emergency severity decreases with increasing ESD

level number

ESD 1

This shutdown level is automatically initiated by fire major gas leak or a detected

toxic atmosphere in the process area of the plant or manually from CCR A level 1

shutdown will cause all production to cease close all emergency shutdown

valves stop the process and shutdown of the main power generation The

emergency vent valves to the stack will open and in addition all equipment of zone 1

certified will be isolated This is the highest level of ESD and will cause the following

to occur

All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close All slowdown Valves (BDVs) on the process facility will open

All Main Gas Driven Generators will be tripped

Emergency Diesel Generator will start

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close Upper Master Valve

(UMV) Close

ESD 2

This shutdown level is activated automatically if a major process or utility failure

occurs or manually from CCR All production to the plant from the wellhead is

stopped All emergency shutdown valves trip to their fail safe position

Venting shall be as specified This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

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All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valve Close Wing Valves Close and Upper Master Valve(UMV) Close

ESD 3

The level 3 shutdown isolates and stops a single process train only Production

continues via the other train This ESD level is initiated by process conditions or

operator at local panel This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

ESD 3A Train 1 production to cease

ESD 3B Train 2 production to cease

All online wellhead choke valves go to minimum flow ie (1O )

ESD 4

A level 4 shutdown shall cease all production from an entire field either

Kadanwari or Miano upstream of the associated slug catchers ESD 4K for

Kadanwari amp ESD 4M for Miano This ESD level is initiated automatically by slug

catcher abnormal process conditions This level of ESD will cause the following

to occur

All SDVs close isolating the relevant slug catcher and its upstream gas

production facility from the Kadanwari Gas Processing Plant

All Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close and Upper MasterValves (UMV) of the relevant gas production facility Close

A parallel timer is provided to close within 10 second if not closed in given

time SSSV seals the well

ESD 5

A level 5 shutdown represents equipment shutdown for the protection of the

individual equipment without any change in the process This level of ESD is for the

protection of various pieces of equipment and is initiated by its own inputs eg

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(gasoline kerosene etc) and crude oil will not separate in a vessel because they

tend to dissolve in each other Because a separator basically depends upon

gravity to separate the fluids the ease with which separation takes place

depends upon the difference in density of the fluids

Droplets of liquid will separate from gas provided

a) The gas remains in the separator long enough

b) The gas flow remains constant to provoke separation

The difference in density between a gas and liquid will therefore determine the

maximum flow rate of liquid in the vessel

Figure Two phase horizontal separator

Gas bubbles in the liquid will break out in some oil field applications in 30 to 60

seconds Consequently the separator is designed so that the liquid remains in

the vessel for 30 to 60 seconds The length of time that a liquid remains in the

vessel is called its residence time Residence time differs widely from field to field

depending upon viscosity and API Gravity

Another important factor which must be considered is temperature Generally a

decrease in operating temperature will increase the liquid recovery in a separator

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as the gas condenses By reducing the pressure on the fluid flash separation

occurs resulting in a flow through the separator which is controlled by external

instrumentation

COALESCENCE

Another important principle in fluid separation is that of coalescence This means

the coming together of liquid droplets created by the force of gravity

A common example of coalescing occurs when drops of water form on the

windshield of a car as it is driven in fog As the tiny drops or water which make up

the fog strike the windshield they combine and eventually form a drop large

enough to run down the glass

Several of the internal devices of a separator such as deflector plates

straightening vanes and even the vessel walls are forms of coalescers In each

vessel drops of liquid adhere to the surface of the device and combine with other

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drops until the drop is large enough to fall out The effectiveness of separation

will also depend upon the total amount of coalescing surface area that is present

There are many different types of separators used in the Oil amp Gas industry

Consequently separators are manufactured with one two or several internal

fittings depending on their use and quick removal of these fluids from the vessel

DEFLECTOR PLATES

These are fitted in front of the inlet to the separator and can be net or

dish-shaped Their purpose is to absorb the impact of the incoming fluids and to

encourage the separation of gas and liquids They also slow the flow rate of the

liquids through the vessel

WEIRS

A weir is a metal wall which is fitted across the inside of the vessel normally to a

height of 50 of the overall height of the separator Its purpose is to assist the

process of three phase separation The inlet fluids (oil plus water) are given time

to separate in the liquid accumulation section The water level (interface) is

normally controlled at 50 of the height of the weir Oil floating on the wateroverflows the weir and accumulates in the small oil compartment where it is

drawn off under level control

CENTRIFUGAL DEVICES

These are used in both vertical and horizontal separators for gas-liquid

separation The device imparts a swirling motion to the fluids entering the vessel

Centrifugal force causes the heavier liquids to travel outwards towards the walls

of the vessel and the lighter gases to flow up the centre Centrifugal devices are

also known as cyclones

VORTEX BREAKERS

When liquid flows through a drain outlet a vortex (whirlpool) will form This can

be seen when we pull the plug from a sink or bath tub The same would happen

as water and oil flow from the separator This condition a vortex could allow gas

to flow down the centre of the whirlpool and enter the liquid phase causing

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pressurizing of tanks etc To stop this happening vortex breakers are fitted to all

liquid outlets Although they come in a number of different designs vortex

breakers all serve the same purpose - to prevent a whirlpool from forming

MIST OR DEMISTER PADS

The gas which is released from the fluids in the separator still contains droplets of

oil and water which coalesce and fall when the drops get large enough The

demister pad assists in this process Made from knitted wire and contained within

a sturdy frame it causes the gas to continually change its direction of flow

Because gas changes direction far easier than liquid the gas will flow around

each strand of wire whilst the liquid entrained in the gas stream will continue and

stick to the wire

COALESCING PLATES

There are several different forms of coalescing devices the most common of

which are coalescing plates These plates are mounted in the flow stream of the

fluids and assist in breaking down oil-water emulsions The fluid is forced to

follow a path that constantly changes direction This causes the water droplets to

gather together or coalesce and fall to the bottom of the separator The same

principle is used to separate gas and oil mixtures when the oil droplets are

induced to coalesce Simply stated every surface within the separator including

the separator walls assists with the coalescing process

STRAIGHTENlNG VANES

These are often fitted to horizontal separators to remove turbulence in the gas

stream after initial separation at the inlet deflector

FLOAT SHEILD

Internal floats are used as level controllers Any agitation of the liquid surface or

the effect of coalesced liquids falling on the float may cause control problems

Therefore a float shield is fitted to enclose the float creating an area of still liquid

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MEMBRANES

The gas contains 12 carbon dioxide and 22 ppm of hydrogen sulphide at 115oF

and 1100 psig This needs to be removed before the gas can be exported The

majority of carbon dioxide hydrogen sulphide and water is removed by means of

membranes

Membranes are thin semipermeable barriers that selectively separate some

compounds from others Currently the only commercially workable membranes

used for CO2 removal are polymer based for example cellulose acetate

polyimides polyamides polysulfone polycarbonates and polyetherimide The

membrane does not operate as a filter where small molecules are separated

from larger ones through a medium with pores rather it separates based on how

well different compounds dissolve into the membrane and diffuse through it The

membranes are manufactured in flat sheets consisting of an extremely thin

nonporous layer mounted on a much-thicker and highly porous layer of the same

material providing mechanical strength The flat sheets are combined into a

spiral-wound element (Figure below) Feed gas enters along the side of the

membrane and passes through the feed spacers As the gas travels between

membrane sheets CO2 H2S and H2O permeate through the membrane and are

collected in the permeate tube The driving force for transport is the high-feed

pressure and low-permeate pressures The gas on the feed side that does not

permeate leaves through the side of the element opposite the feed position Once

the membranes have been manufactured into elements six to 12 elements are

joined together and inserted into a tube Multiple tubes are mounted on skids in a

horizontal orientation

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Figure Membrane general Working

In high H2S applications most polymers have been shown to have very little

resistance to H2S plasticization (ldquosofteningrdquo of the membrane) and as a

consequence can only be used at very low H2S partial pressure limits Cellulose

acetate membranes in contrast have been shown to be applicable at extreme

H2S partial pressure conditions It is these membranes that have been utilized in

the testing to determine the limits of membrane performance in high H 2S

applications

The primary membranes used in Kadanwari facility are Cellulose acetate

Cellulose acetic acid and acetic anhydride are mixed together and reacted to

form cellulose acetate polymers This process is aided by the addition of a small

amount of sulfuric acid which is subsequently neutralized during processing

However the membranes are bought from UOP (vendor) and installed for use

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How membrane work

The basic principle of separation is selectivity of certain components of a mixture

for the membrane For example the cellulose acetate membrane has very high

selectivity for CO2 and H2S as compared to CH4 Therefore such type of

membrane can be used in gas sweetening process

The selectivity is directly related to the Permeability of gas which accounts that

which gas can pass across the membrane more easily In simple words

membranes being polymer materials are made of long chains of molecules The

different structure of polymer materials only allow selective molecules to pass

through them depending upon chemical and physical compatibility Thus

permeability depends upon choice of polymer

The permeability is determined by permeability coefficient (P) and is product of

solubility (S) and diffusivity (D)

P = S D

Solubility

The solubility is mainly determined by ease of condensation Heavy molecules

are more readily condensed Therefore higher molecular weighted molecules will

more easily condensed and therefore have greater solubility

Molecule Molecular weight

CH4 16

H2S 34

CO2 44

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Diffusivity

Diffusivity is ease of molecule to penetrate into some material It depends on size

of gas molecule Here size of molecule is not to be confused by molecular weight

it is the size of the structure Eg the size of O2 molecule is smaller than N2

Molecule Molecular Diameter (Ao)

CO2 33

H2S 36

Ch4 40

For cellulose acetate

DCO2DCH4 S CO2S CH4 P CO2P CH4

45 73 308

Chemical degradation

Cellulose acetate polymer is chemically degraded by a process called hydrolysis

which means breaking apart by the addition of water This is a chemical reaction

in which water is added to the cellulose acetate polymer causing the release of

acetic acid molecules This process proceeds stepwise until all the acetate

groups are released resulting in the reformation of cellulose Moreover alcohols

aromatic hydrocarbons or solvents with chlorine nitro benzene or similar

aromatic solvents will harm the membrane It will expand and lose plastification in

contact with them

Effect of Temperature

The permeation rates of all gases increases with increasing temperature

however membrane selectivity for CO2 over hydrocarbon decreases at higher

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temperature Consequently CO2 removal will improve as operating temperature

increases but hydro carbon recovery will decrease

Primary Membrane

The primary membranes comprise of two trains Each train consists of two

sections AB and CD each section consists of a 30 tube membrane skid (A and

C) followed by a 25 tube skid (B and D) The conditioned gas (after pre-

treatment) enters the primary membrane via the particulate filter adjacent to the

skid The gas is fed to the membranes through a common inlet manifold which

supplies primary membranes skids A and C A pressure control loop located

upstream of the manual inlet isolation valve is provided to maintain a constant

supply pressure to the membrane skid and to allow for preheating at the inlet

prior to skid start-up This pressure control loop can also be used during start-up

to control the pressurization of the pretreatment skid and associated pipes to the

primary membranes

The gas passes through membrane skid A the residual gas exiting the membrane

skid is sent to skid B and the permeate to common permeate discharge header An

identical arrangement is provide on the inlet to skid C as provided on skid A Theresidual gas from skid B combines with the residual gas from skid D in a common

discharge header and is then sent to the H2S polishing towers via the feed coolers

on the pre-treatment skid The permeate from skid B is sent to the common

permeate discharge header The permeate discharge header sends the gas to

either the recycle compressor or the vent header via a pressure control loop

Overpressure protection for the membranes is provided by a pressure safety valve

on the supply header to the membrane banks

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Secondary (Recycle) Membrane

The recycle membranes comprise of a single train with two skids each with four

banks of membrane tubes The conditioned gas from the discharge of the recycle

pre-treatment skid is routed to the first recycle membrane skid The gas passes

through the membranes the residual gas is fed to primary membrane (skid A) inlet

via feed gas cooler and permeate to the common permeate discharge header An

identical arrangement is provide on the inlet to skid B Permeate from the recycle

membrane skids A and B is routed to the vent header Some portion of permeate is

heated and sent for regeneration in Mem-Guard units Nitrogen purge can be

connected downstream of the inlet isolation valve on each skid to enable the

membrane tubes to be purged and left pressurized during prolonged shutdown

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Figure Flow Diagram of Recycle membrane unit

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ADVANTAGES OF MEMBRANE SYSTEMS

Membrane systems have major advantages over more-traditional methods of

acid gas removal

Lower capital cost Membrane systems are skid mounted and so the

scope cost and time taken for site preparation are minimal Installation

costs are significantly lower than alternative technologies especially for

remote areas Furthermore no additional facilities for solvent storage and

water treatment needed by other processes are required

Lower operating costs The only major operating cost for single-stage

membrane systems is membrane replacement This cost is significantly

lower than the solvent replacement and energy costs associated with

traditional technologies The improvements in membrane and

pretreatment design allow a longer useful membrane life which further

reduces operating costs The energy costs of multistage systems with

large recycle compressors are usually comparable to those for traditionaltechnologies

Deferred capital investment Often contracted sales-gas flow rates

increase over time as more wells are brought on-line With traditional

technologies the system design needs to take this later production into

account immediately and so the majority of the equipment is installed

before it is even needed The modular nature of membrane systems

means that only the membranes that are needed at start-up need be

installed The rest can be added either into existing tubes or in new skids

only when they are required

Operational simplicity and high reliability Because single-stage

membrane systems have no moving parts they have almost no

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unscheduled downtime and are extremely simple to operate They can

operate unattended for long periods of time The addition of a recycle

compressor adds some complexity to the system but still much less than

with a solvent- or adsorbent-based technology Multistage systems can be

operated at full capacity as single-stage systems when the recycle

compressor is down

Good weight and space efficiency Skid construction can be optimized

to the space available This space efficiency is especially important for

offshore environments where deck area is at a premium and is the

reason why so many new offshore developments have chosen to use

membranes for acid gas removal Figure 6 illustrates the space efficiency

of membrane systems The membrane unit in the lower left corner

replaced all the amine and glycol plant equipment shown in the rest of the

picture

Adaptability Because membrane area is dictated by the percentage of

acid gas removal rather than absolute acid gas removal small variations

in feed acid gas content hardly change the sales-gas acid gas

specification For example a system designed for 10 down to 3 acid

gas removal produces a 35 product from a 12 feed gas and a 5

product from a 15 feed gas

Design efficiency The membrane and pretreatment systems integrate a

number of operations such as dehydration CO2 and H2S removal dew-

point control and mercury removal Traditional acid gas removal

technologies require all of these operations as separate processes and

may also require additional dehydration because some technologies

saturate the product stream with water

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Power generation The permeate gas from membrane systems can be

used to provide fuel gas for power generation either for a recycle

compressor or other equipment

Ideal for debottlenecking Because expanding solvent- or adsorbent-

based acid gas removal plants without adding additional trains is difficult

an ideal solution is to use membranes for bulk acid gas removal and leave

the existing plant for final cleanup An additional advantage is that the

permeate gas from the membrane system can often be used as fuel for

the existing plant thus avoiding significant increase in hydrocarbon

losses

Environmentally friendly Membrane systems do not involve the

periodic removal and handling of spent solvents or adsorbents Permeate

gases can be flared used as fuel or re-injected into the well Items thatdo need disposal such as spent membrane elements can be incinerated

Ideal for remote locations Many of the factors mentioned above make

membrane systems a highly desirable technology for remote locations

where spare parts are rare and labor unskilled Furthermore solvents

storage and trucking water supply power generation or extensive

infrastructure are not required

Re-injection optimizations Since the permeate stream from the

membrane system can be operated at elevated pressures it is possible to

further pressurize by re-injection compression train

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Sorption

Sorption is a physical and chemical process by which one substance becomes

attached to another

It is of two main types

1 Absorption

2 Adsorption

Absorption

Absorption is a physical or chemical phenomenon or process in which atoms

molecules or ions enter some bulk phase ndash gas liquid or solid material This is a

different process from adsorption since molecules undergoing absorption are

taken up by the volume not by the surface (as in the case for adsorption)

Absorption process may be chemical (reactive) or physical (non-reactive)

Physical absorption

Physical absorption or non-reactive absorption is made between two phases ofmatter a liquid absorbs a gas or a solid absorbs a liquid

When a liquid solvent absorbs a gas mixture or part of it a mass of gas moves

into the liquid For example water may absorb oxygen from the air This mass

transfer takes place at the interface between the liquid and the gas at a rate

depending on both the gas and the liquid This type of absorption depends on the

solubility of gases the pressure and the temperature The rate and amount of

absorption also depend on the surface area of the interface and its duration in

time

When a solid absorbs a liquid mixture or part of it a mass of liquid moves into the

solid For example a clay pot used to store water may absorb some of the water

This mass transfer takes place at the interface between the solid and the liquid

at a rate depending on both the solid and the liquid

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Chemical absorption

Chemical absorption or reactive absorption is a chemical reaction between the

absorbed and the absorbing substances Sometimes it combines with physical

absorption This type of absorption depends upon the stoichiometry of the

reaction and the concentration of its reactants

Adsorption

Adsorption is the adhesion of atoms ions or molecules from a gas liquid or

dissolved solid to a surface This process creates a film of the adsorbate on the

surface of the adsorbent The binding to the surface is usually weak and

reversible Compounds with color and those that have taste or odor tend to bind

strongly Compounds that vibrate at frequencies in the visible spectrum are very

often are strongly adsorbed on activated carbon

The most common industrial adsorbents are activated carbon silica gel and

alumina because they present enormous surface areas per unit weight

Depending on the nature of attractive forces existing between the adsorbate and

adsorbent adsorption can be classified as

i) Physical adsorption

ii) Chemical adsorption

i) Physical adsorption (Physisorption)

In physical adsorption the forces of attraction between the molecules of the

adsorbate and the adsorbent are of the weak van der Waals type Since the

forces of attraction are weak the process of physisorption can be easily reversed

by heating or decreasing the pressure of the adsorbate (as in the case of gases)

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ii) Chemical adsorption (Chemisorption)

In chemisorption the forces of attraction between the adsorbate and the

adsorbent are very strong the molecules of adsorbate form chemical bonds with

the molecules of the adsorbent present in the surface

Adsorption is generally accompanied by release of energy that is most

adsorption processes are exothermic in nature Adsorption is a spontaneous

process therefore its free energy change is negative (∆Glt0) However the

entropy change associated with adsorption is generally negative because the

adsorbate molecules lose their translation freedom when they get attached to the

surface of the adsorbent Therefore in order for ∆G to be negative the enthalpy

change (∆H) must be sufficiently negative such that (∆G=∆H-T∆S) lt 0 This

explanation accounts for exothermic adsorption processes In cases where

endothermic adsorption occurs the entropy change ∆S is sufficiently positive

such that ∆G remains negative

Pre treatment

The main function of pretreatment skid is to provide membrane inlet specification

gas as mentioned by the vendor UOP It removes the contaminants that would

poison the membranes like dust solids (adsorbent particles) lube oil heavy

hydrocarbons etc It consists of

Feed Cooler

Feed Gas Scrubber

Filter Coalescer

Feed Gas Heater

Activated Carbon Guard Filter

Particle Filter

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The regeneration is carried out by heated permeate gas from the recycle

membranes at 450oF The vessel is depressurized to 20 psi and heated gas is

introduced from top The gas carries out the adsorbed contaminants and leaves

the vessel from bottom cleaning the adsorbent This contaminated gas is burnt in

the flare

UOP the vendor of Memguard unit has never disclosed that what substance

MG3 and MG5 exactly are But as mentioned by vendor that both care class of

aluminosilicates Therefore MG3 can be potassium aluminosilicate and MG5 can

be Calcium aluminosilicate These are molecular sieves adsorbents Molecular

sieves are a microporous material which can selectively adsorb gases andliquids They are synthetic zeolites (crystalline metal aluminosilicates) which

upon dehydration can efficiently and selectively remove water or other

solvents The selectivity of a molecular sieve is determined by its pore size

molecules with a critical diameter which is less than the pore size will be

efficiently adsorbed while larger molecules will be excluded

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3A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

The 3A molecular sieve adsorbent has a 3 angstrom (3A) pore size which means

that any molecule that is larger than the 3 angstrom pores will not be adsorbed

The 3A molecular sieve is the potassium type of A crystalline structure and is a

form of alkali Aluminosilicate For a 3A molecular sieve the sequence rate that

adsorption occurs is He Ne N and H2O

Due to the crystalline structure molecular sieves that have a 3 angstrom pore

size have a very high rate of adsorption and properties that promote a longer life

for products treated by the sieve The most common use for the 3A molecular

sieve is to remove water and moisture from materials that are in gas and liquid

form

5A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

These are molecular sieve adsorbents with a pore size of 5 angstrom (5A) 5A

molecular sieves are unable to adsorb any molecules or impurities that are

smaller than 5A It is calcium form of type A crystalline structure and is form of analkali-aluminosilicate that is most commonly used to separate isomerous alkanes

from normal alkanes and to co-adsorb moisture and water along with carbon

dioxide from gases In additional 5A molecular sieves are used for gaseous

pressure swing adsorption (PSA)mdashthat is to separate particular gases from other

gases

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of C3H8 to C22H46

Adsorption of Freon-12 (dichlorodifluoromethane)

Natural gas drying

Normal- and iso-paraffin separation

Separation of aromatic

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Inlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1096

MEHTANE 8593

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008

N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGEN 076

WATER 007

Outlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1098

MEHTANE 8608

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGENT 076

WATER 000

H2S polisher

The H2S polishing unit has been designed to treat 187 MMscfday of natural gas

containing up to 11 CO2 and 21 ppm H2S where the level of the CO2 and H2S

is reduced using a MemGuard Membrane separation unit The unit is situated

down-stream of the membrane unit and will further reduce the level of H2S in the

processed gas to a sales gas specification of 38 ppm

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This process uses three non-regenerable fixed bed absorber vessels using a low

temperature high activity absorbent The absorbent is a mixture of activated

metal oxides (mainly zinc oxide) The three towers can are generally operated in

parallel arrangement but on demand can be used in series (any of alternate

arrangements of A B C vessels) as shown in figure

The higher sales gas flow rate increased the catalyst consumption and

replacement frequency

ZnO + H2S =gt ZnS + H20

Routine samples are taken from the beds to provide a check on each bed

performance and to follow the saturation profile during the absorbent life After

the adsorbent has been fully utilized the adsorption vessels are recharged with

new adsorbent discarding the utilized one in a safe manner

109oF

1215 psig

Before H2S Polishing After H2S Polishing

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Figure

H2S Tower

Inlet pipe

4 Drums of 19mm

ceramic Balls

6 Micron mesh

5 Drums of 50mmceramic

1 Drums of19mm ceramic

01 Drums of6mm ceramic

112 drums of

Catalist ZnO

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Recycle Compressor

The permeate gas of the primary membrane unit carries recoverable amount of

CH4 It is fed to recycle membrane unit for further CH 4 recovery But the

permeate pressure from primary membranes which has been reduced to 12 psi

must be regenerated to 1200 psi for the gas to be fed again to the system For

this purpose we have employed recycle compressor The compressor is a four

stage centrifugal compressor It is driven by gas turbine of 31200 HP It has 25

MW producing capacity

Figure Recycle Compressor Process Flow Diagram

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Sales Gas Compressor

Gas from H2S polishing unit is sent to sales gas compressor where its pressure

is enhanced to 1100 psi so it may be injected to SNGPL high pressure trunk line

Sales gas compressor is single stage gas turbine driven

Figure Process Flow of Sales Gas Compressor

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Cooling Towers

A cooling tower is a heat rejection device which extracts waste heat to theatmosphere through the cooling of a water stream to a lower temperature Hot

water from the system enters the cooling tower and is distributed over the fill

(heat transfer surface) Air is induced or forced through the fill causing a small

portion of the water to evaporate This evaporation removes heat from the

remaining water which is collected in the cold water basin and returned to the

system to absorb more heat Each cooling tower line although operating under

the same basic principle of operation is arranged a little differently

Types

Natural draft mdash Utilizes buoyancy via a tall chimney Warm moist air naturally

rises due to the density differential compared to the dry cooler outside air Warm

moist air is less dense than drier air at the same pressure This moist air

buoyancy produces an upwards current of air through the tower

Mechanical draft mdash Uses power-driven fan motors to force or draw airthrough the tower

o Induced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a fan at the

discharge (at the top) which pulls air up through the tower The fan

induces hot moist air out the discharge This produces low entering

and high exiting air velocities reducing the possibility of

recirculation in which discharged air flows back into the air intake

o Forced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a blower type fan at

the intake The fan forces air into the tower creating high entering

and low exiting air velocities The low exiting velocity is much more

susceptible to recirculation This fanfill geometry is also known as

blow-through

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Forced Draft Cooling Tower Vs Induced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower have the ability to handle large water flow

rate than Forced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower is suitable for large cell sizes and fan sizes

as compared with Forced Draft Larger fan size may result in greater

efficiency and consequently lower power and sound level

Forced Draft Cooling Tower can be square or rectangular type only

however Induced Draft Cooling Towers can be round square or

rectangular type

Induced Draft Cooling Tower uses more compact ground area than Forced

Draft Cooling Tower equivalent capacity due to absence of fan on one

side

Fan equipment is warm exhaust air is less liable to icing up in winter

operation (Cold Countries)

Higher velocity in Forced Draft Cooling Tower cause drop in suspension

and cause additional static resistance to system

Configuration

There are two main configurations of factory assembled cooling towers crossflow

and counterflow In crossflow cooling towers the water flows vertically down the

fill as air flows horizontally across In counterflow cooling towers the water flows

vertically down the fill as air flows vertically up

Crossflow Configuration Counterflow Configuration

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Drift mdash Water droplets that are carried out of the cooling tower with the exhaust

air Drift droplets have the same concentration of impurities as the water entering

the tower The drift rate is typically reduced by employing baffle-like devices

called drift eliminators through which the air must travel after leaving the fill and

spray zones of the tower

Blow-out mdash Water droplets blown out of the cooling tower by wind generally at

the air inlet openings Water may also be lost in the absence of wind through

splashing or misting Devices such as wind screens louvers splash deflectors

and water diverters are used to limit these losses

Blow-down mdash The portion of the circulating water flow that is removed (usually

discharged to a drain) in order to maintain the amount of Total Dissolved Solids

(TDS) and other impurities at an acceptably low level Higher TDS concentration

in solution may result from greater cooling tower efficiency However the higher

the TDS concentration the greater the risk of scale biological growth and

corrosion

Make-up mdash The water that must be added to the circulating water system in

order to compensate for water losses such as evaporation drift loss blow-out

blow-down etc

Approach mdash The approach is the difference in temperature between the cooled-

water temperature and the entering-air wet bulb temperature

Range mdash The range is the temperature difference between the warm water inlet

and cooled water exit

Fill mdash Inside the tower fills are added to increase contact surface as well as

contact time between air and water to provide better heat transfer The efficiency

of the tower depends on the selection and amount of fill

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There are two types of fills that may be used

o Film type fill (causes water to spread into a thin film)

o Splash type fill (breaks up falling stream of water and interrupts its

vertical progress)

Important

Scale build up is controlled by adding chemicals to the cooling loop and diluting

the concentration by blow down and make-up Following chemicals are added to

the Cooling to control CorrosionSale and microbial growth

Corrosion Inhibitor To control corrosion in the Cooling system

Dispersant To kept ions in suspension to avoid settle down and buildup

Sodium hypo Chlorite To Control microbial Growth

Acid To control Alkalinity in the system

High Stress Polymer To run the system at higher conductivity It is a

multifunctional polymer for Zinc amp Phosphate stabilization in cooling tower

Fin Fan Cooler

Fin fan heat exchanger is simply a pressure vessel which cools a circulating fluid

within finned tubes by forcing ambient air over the exterior of the tubes A

common example of an air cooler is a carrsquos radiator Fin Fan Coolers are used in

any application where large quantities of heat need to be transferred This

includes chemical and petrochemical industries power stations waste-to-energy

facilities as well as steelworks

Fin Fan Cooler are used for two primary reasons

They increase plant efficiency

They are a green solution as compared to cooling towers and shell and

tube heat exchangers because they do not require an auxiliary water

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supply (water lost due to drift and evaporation plus no water treatment

chemicals are required)

Figure General Overview of Fin Fan Cooler

Produced Water

The produced water system receives liquid from the equipment Miano slug

catcher train 1 and 2 inlet separators and is fed to three phase separator where

water oil and gas is separated The gases produced are burnt in incinerator

whereas hydrocarbon liquid is stored to be sold Liquid from compressors

recycle inlet separator recycle feed scrubber high and low pressure slug

catchers is passed to degasser Separated water is injected down the earth

Incinerator

The term incinerate means to burn something until nothing is left but ashes An

incinerator is a unit or facility used to burn trash and other types of waste until it is

reduced to ash An incinerator is constructed of heavy well-insulated materials

so that it does not give off extreme amounts of external heat The high levels of

heat are kept inside the furnace or unit so that the waste is burned quickly and

efficiently If the heat were allowed to escape the waste would not burn as

completely or as rapidly

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Control System

The plant is controlled at CCR (Central Control Room) by PLCs (Programmable

Logic Controllers) through fiber optic control line All control parameters are

received at LER (Local Equipment Room) via two optic fiber control lines One

being primary and other secondary operating in redundancy ie if primary fails

control shifts to secondary These control parameters are sent to CCR via single

optic fiber cable

Safety System

Wellheads and Gas Processing Plant have their own Fire amp Gas detection

systems emergency shutdown (ESD) Plant has a fault tolerant controller It is

based on Triple Modular Redundant (TMR) architecture manufactured by

Triconex The TMR system is based on three isolated parallel control systems

integrated into one system The system operates on a two out of three voting

principle which provides high integrity error free uninterrupted operation with no

single point of failure The TMR receives inputs from Process Sensors Manual

Switches Fire amp Gas Detectors Packaged Equipment Control Systems and

Product Exporting Facilities The TMR carries out cause and effect processing on

the data received and where necessary produces output signals Outputs from

the TMR are hard wired directly to ESD shutdown and blow down valve

solenoids motor control instrumentelectrical interfaces to control electrical

drives package equipment logic control systems manifold area as well as

telecoms

The operator in central control room is able to accept alarms and once the fault

has been cleared reset the input All the control systems are centralized to a

single interface All the PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers) communicate with

the servers and servers communicate with the clients through Ethernet connectivity

Centralization eases the navigation of different systems at a common interface

Emergency Shutdown

The ESD system receives inputs from field mounted instrumentation on the process

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and utility equipment and initiates executive actions appropriate to the level of ESD

The system is an Active system which is in standby and will activate when in an

alarm or fault condition The Kadanwari Gas Process Facility ESD system is

comprised of five (5) levels The emergency severity decreases with increasing ESD

level number

ESD 1

This shutdown level is automatically initiated by fire major gas leak or a detected

toxic atmosphere in the process area of the plant or manually from CCR A level 1

shutdown will cause all production to cease close all emergency shutdown

valves stop the process and shutdown of the main power generation The

emergency vent valves to the stack will open and in addition all equipment of zone 1

certified will be isolated This is the highest level of ESD and will cause the following

to occur

All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close All slowdown Valves (BDVs) on the process facility will open

All Main Gas Driven Generators will be tripped

Emergency Diesel Generator will start

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close Upper Master Valve

(UMV) Close

ESD 2

This shutdown level is activated automatically if a major process or utility failure

occurs or manually from CCR All production to the plant from the wellhead is

stopped All emergency shutdown valves trip to their fail safe position

Venting shall be as specified This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

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All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valve Close Wing Valves Close and Upper Master Valve(UMV) Close

ESD 3

The level 3 shutdown isolates and stops a single process train only Production

continues via the other train This ESD level is initiated by process conditions or

operator at local panel This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

ESD 3A Train 1 production to cease

ESD 3B Train 2 production to cease

All online wellhead choke valves go to minimum flow ie (1O )

ESD 4

A level 4 shutdown shall cease all production from an entire field either

Kadanwari or Miano upstream of the associated slug catchers ESD 4K for

Kadanwari amp ESD 4M for Miano This ESD level is initiated automatically by slug

catcher abnormal process conditions This level of ESD will cause the following

to occur

All SDVs close isolating the relevant slug catcher and its upstream gas

production facility from the Kadanwari Gas Processing Plant

All Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close and Upper MasterValves (UMV) of the relevant gas production facility Close

A parallel timer is provided to close within 10 second if not closed in given

time SSSV seals the well

ESD 5

A level 5 shutdown represents equipment shutdown for the protection of the

individual equipment without any change in the process This level of ESD is for the

protection of various pieces of equipment and is initiated by its own inputs eg

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as the gas condenses By reducing the pressure on the fluid flash separation

occurs resulting in a flow through the separator which is controlled by external

instrumentation

COALESCENCE

Another important principle in fluid separation is that of coalescence This means

the coming together of liquid droplets created by the force of gravity

A common example of coalescing occurs when drops of water form on the

windshield of a car as it is driven in fog As the tiny drops or water which make up

the fog strike the windshield they combine and eventually form a drop large

enough to run down the glass

Several of the internal devices of a separator such as deflector plates

straightening vanes and even the vessel walls are forms of coalescers In each

vessel drops of liquid adhere to the surface of the device and combine with other

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drops until the drop is large enough to fall out The effectiveness of separation

will also depend upon the total amount of coalescing surface area that is present

There are many different types of separators used in the Oil amp Gas industry

Consequently separators are manufactured with one two or several internal

fittings depending on their use and quick removal of these fluids from the vessel

DEFLECTOR PLATES

These are fitted in front of the inlet to the separator and can be net or

dish-shaped Their purpose is to absorb the impact of the incoming fluids and to

encourage the separation of gas and liquids They also slow the flow rate of the

liquids through the vessel

WEIRS

A weir is a metal wall which is fitted across the inside of the vessel normally to a

height of 50 of the overall height of the separator Its purpose is to assist the

process of three phase separation The inlet fluids (oil plus water) are given time

to separate in the liquid accumulation section The water level (interface) is

normally controlled at 50 of the height of the weir Oil floating on the wateroverflows the weir and accumulates in the small oil compartment where it is

drawn off under level control

CENTRIFUGAL DEVICES

These are used in both vertical and horizontal separators for gas-liquid

separation The device imparts a swirling motion to the fluids entering the vessel

Centrifugal force causes the heavier liquids to travel outwards towards the walls

of the vessel and the lighter gases to flow up the centre Centrifugal devices are

also known as cyclones

VORTEX BREAKERS

When liquid flows through a drain outlet a vortex (whirlpool) will form This can

be seen when we pull the plug from a sink or bath tub The same would happen

as water and oil flow from the separator This condition a vortex could allow gas

to flow down the centre of the whirlpool and enter the liquid phase causing

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pressurizing of tanks etc To stop this happening vortex breakers are fitted to all

liquid outlets Although they come in a number of different designs vortex

breakers all serve the same purpose - to prevent a whirlpool from forming

MIST OR DEMISTER PADS

The gas which is released from the fluids in the separator still contains droplets of

oil and water which coalesce and fall when the drops get large enough The

demister pad assists in this process Made from knitted wire and contained within

a sturdy frame it causes the gas to continually change its direction of flow

Because gas changes direction far easier than liquid the gas will flow around

each strand of wire whilst the liquid entrained in the gas stream will continue and

stick to the wire

COALESCING PLATES

There are several different forms of coalescing devices the most common of

which are coalescing plates These plates are mounted in the flow stream of the

fluids and assist in breaking down oil-water emulsions The fluid is forced to

follow a path that constantly changes direction This causes the water droplets to

gather together or coalesce and fall to the bottom of the separator The same

principle is used to separate gas and oil mixtures when the oil droplets are

induced to coalesce Simply stated every surface within the separator including

the separator walls assists with the coalescing process

STRAIGHTENlNG VANES

These are often fitted to horizontal separators to remove turbulence in the gas

stream after initial separation at the inlet deflector

FLOAT SHEILD

Internal floats are used as level controllers Any agitation of the liquid surface or

the effect of coalesced liquids falling on the float may cause control problems

Therefore a float shield is fitted to enclose the float creating an area of still liquid

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MEMBRANES

The gas contains 12 carbon dioxide and 22 ppm of hydrogen sulphide at 115oF

and 1100 psig This needs to be removed before the gas can be exported The

majority of carbon dioxide hydrogen sulphide and water is removed by means of

membranes

Membranes are thin semipermeable barriers that selectively separate some

compounds from others Currently the only commercially workable membranes

used for CO2 removal are polymer based for example cellulose acetate

polyimides polyamides polysulfone polycarbonates and polyetherimide The

membrane does not operate as a filter where small molecules are separated

from larger ones through a medium with pores rather it separates based on how

well different compounds dissolve into the membrane and diffuse through it The

membranes are manufactured in flat sheets consisting of an extremely thin

nonporous layer mounted on a much-thicker and highly porous layer of the same

material providing mechanical strength The flat sheets are combined into a

spiral-wound element (Figure below) Feed gas enters along the side of the

membrane and passes through the feed spacers As the gas travels between

membrane sheets CO2 H2S and H2O permeate through the membrane and are

collected in the permeate tube The driving force for transport is the high-feed

pressure and low-permeate pressures The gas on the feed side that does not

permeate leaves through the side of the element opposite the feed position Once

the membranes have been manufactured into elements six to 12 elements are

joined together and inserted into a tube Multiple tubes are mounted on skids in a

horizontal orientation

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Figure Membrane general Working

In high H2S applications most polymers have been shown to have very little

resistance to H2S plasticization (ldquosofteningrdquo of the membrane) and as a

consequence can only be used at very low H2S partial pressure limits Cellulose

acetate membranes in contrast have been shown to be applicable at extreme

H2S partial pressure conditions It is these membranes that have been utilized in

the testing to determine the limits of membrane performance in high H 2S

applications

The primary membranes used in Kadanwari facility are Cellulose acetate

Cellulose acetic acid and acetic anhydride are mixed together and reacted to

form cellulose acetate polymers This process is aided by the addition of a small

amount of sulfuric acid which is subsequently neutralized during processing

However the membranes are bought from UOP (vendor) and installed for use

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How membrane work

The basic principle of separation is selectivity of certain components of a mixture

for the membrane For example the cellulose acetate membrane has very high

selectivity for CO2 and H2S as compared to CH4 Therefore such type of

membrane can be used in gas sweetening process

The selectivity is directly related to the Permeability of gas which accounts that

which gas can pass across the membrane more easily In simple words

membranes being polymer materials are made of long chains of molecules The

different structure of polymer materials only allow selective molecules to pass

through them depending upon chemical and physical compatibility Thus

permeability depends upon choice of polymer

The permeability is determined by permeability coefficient (P) and is product of

solubility (S) and diffusivity (D)

P = S D

Solubility

The solubility is mainly determined by ease of condensation Heavy molecules

are more readily condensed Therefore higher molecular weighted molecules will

more easily condensed and therefore have greater solubility

Molecule Molecular weight

CH4 16

H2S 34

CO2 44

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Diffusivity

Diffusivity is ease of molecule to penetrate into some material It depends on size

of gas molecule Here size of molecule is not to be confused by molecular weight

it is the size of the structure Eg the size of O2 molecule is smaller than N2

Molecule Molecular Diameter (Ao)

CO2 33

H2S 36

Ch4 40

For cellulose acetate

DCO2DCH4 S CO2S CH4 P CO2P CH4

45 73 308

Chemical degradation

Cellulose acetate polymer is chemically degraded by a process called hydrolysis

which means breaking apart by the addition of water This is a chemical reaction

in which water is added to the cellulose acetate polymer causing the release of

acetic acid molecules This process proceeds stepwise until all the acetate

groups are released resulting in the reformation of cellulose Moreover alcohols

aromatic hydrocarbons or solvents with chlorine nitro benzene or similar

aromatic solvents will harm the membrane It will expand and lose plastification in

contact with them

Effect of Temperature

The permeation rates of all gases increases with increasing temperature

however membrane selectivity for CO2 over hydrocarbon decreases at higher

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temperature Consequently CO2 removal will improve as operating temperature

increases but hydro carbon recovery will decrease

Primary Membrane

The primary membranes comprise of two trains Each train consists of two

sections AB and CD each section consists of a 30 tube membrane skid (A and

C) followed by a 25 tube skid (B and D) The conditioned gas (after pre-

treatment) enters the primary membrane via the particulate filter adjacent to the

skid The gas is fed to the membranes through a common inlet manifold which

supplies primary membranes skids A and C A pressure control loop located

upstream of the manual inlet isolation valve is provided to maintain a constant

supply pressure to the membrane skid and to allow for preheating at the inlet

prior to skid start-up This pressure control loop can also be used during start-up

to control the pressurization of the pretreatment skid and associated pipes to the

primary membranes

The gas passes through membrane skid A the residual gas exiting the membrane

skid is sent to skid B and the permeate to common permeate discharge header An

identical arrangement is provide on the inlet to skid C as provided on skid A Theresidual gas from skid B combines with the residual gas from skid D in a common

discharge header and is then sent to the H2S polishing towers via the feed coolers

on the pre-treatment skid The permeate from skid B is sent to the common

permeate discharge header The permeate discharge header sends the gas to

either the recycle compressor or the vent header via a pressure control loop

Overpressure protection for the membranes is provided by a pressure safety valve

on the supply header to the membrane banks

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Secondary (Recycle) Membrane

The recycle membranes comprise of a single train with two skids each with four

banks of membrane tubes The conditioned gas from the discharge of the recycle

pre-treatment skid is routed to the first recycle membrane skid The gas passes

through the membranes the residual gas is fed to primary membrane (skid A) inlet

via feed gas cooler and permeate to the common permeate discharge header An

identical arrangement is provide on the inlet to skid B Permeate from the recycle

membrane skids A and B is routed to the vent header Some portion of permeate is

heated and sent for regeneration in Mem-Guard units Nitrogen purge can be

connected downstream of the inlet isolation valve on each skid to enable the

membrane tubes to be purged and left pressurized during prolonged shutdown

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Figure Flow Diagram of Recycle membrane unit

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ADVANTAGES OF MEMBRANE SYSTEMS

Membrane systems have major advantages over more-traditional methods of

acid gas removal

Lower capital cost Membrane systems are skid mounted and so the

scope cost and time taken for site preparation are minimal Installation

costs are significantly lower than alternative technologies especially for

remote areas Furthermore no additional facilities for solvent storage and

water treatment needed by other processes are required

Lower operating costs The only major operating cost for single-stage

membrane systems is membrane replacement This cost is significantly

lower than the solvent replacement and energy costs associated with

traditional technologies The improvements in membrane and

pretreatment design allow a longer useful membrane life which further

reduces operating costs The energy costs of multistage systems with

large recycle compressors are usually comparable to those for traditionaltechnologies

Deferred capital investment Often contracted sales-gas flow rates

increase over time as more wells are brought on-line With traditional

technologies the system design needs to take this later production into

account immediately and so the majority of the equipment is installed

before it is even needed The modular nature of membrane systems

means that only the membranes that are needed at start-up need be

installed The rest can be added either into existing tubes or in new skids

only when they are required

Operational simplicity and high reliability Because single-stage

membrane systems have no moving parts they have almost no

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unscheduled downtime and are extremely simple to operate They can

operate unattended for long periods of time The addition of a recycle

compressor adds some complexity to the system but still much less than

with a solvent- or adsorbent-based technology Multistage systems can be

operated at full capacity as single-stage systems when the recycle

compressor is down

Good weight and space efficiency Skid construction can be optimized

to the space available This space efficiency is especially important for

offshore environments where deck area is at a premium and is the

reason why so many new offshore developments have chosen to use

membranes for acid gas removal Figure 6 illustrates the space efficiency

of membrane systems The membrane unit in the lower left corner

replaced all the amine and glycol plant equipment shown in the rest of the

picture

Adaptability Because membrane area is dictated by the percentage of

acid gas removal rather than absolute acid gas removal small variations

in feed acid gas content hardly change the sales-gas acid gas

specification For example a system designed for 10 down to 3 acid

gas removal produces a 35 product from a 12 feed gas and a 5

product from a 15 feed gas

Design efficiency The membrane and pretreatment systems integrate a

number of operations such as dehydration CO2 and H2S removal dew-

point control and mercury removal Traditional acid gas removal

technologies require all of these operations as separate processes and

may also require additional dehydration because some technologies

saturate the product stream with water

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Power generation The permeate gas from membrane systems can be

used to provide fuel gas for power generation either for a recycle

compressor or other equipment

Ideal for debottlenecking Because expanding solvent- or adsorbent-

based acid gas removal plants without adding additional trains is difficult

an ideal solution is to use membranes for bulk acid gas removal and leave

the existing plant for final cleanup An additional advantage is that the

permeate gas from the membrane system can often be used as fuel for

the existing plant thus avoiding significant increase in hydrocarbon

losses

Environmentally friendly Membrane systems do not involve the

periodic removal and handling of spent solvents or adsorbents Permeate

gases can be flared used as fuel or re-injected into the well Items thatdo need disposal such as spent membrane elements can be incinerated

Ideal for remote locations Many of the factors mentioned above make

membrane systems a highly desirable technology for remote locations

where spare parts are rare and labor unskilled Furthermore solvents

storage and trucking water supply power generation or extensive

infrastructure are not required

Re-injection optimizations Since the permeate stream from the

membrane system can be operated at elevated pressures it is possible to

further pressurize by re-injection compression train

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Sorption

Sorption is a physical and chemical process by which one substance becomes

attached to another

It is of two main types

1 Absorption

2 Adsorption

Absorption

Absorption is a physical or chemical phenomenon or process in which atoms

molecules or ions enter some bulk phase ndash gas liquid or solid material This is a

different process from adsorption since molecules undergoing absorption are

taken up by the volume not by the surface (as in the case for adsorption)

Absorption process may be chemical (reactive) or physical (non-reactive)

Physical absorption

Physical absorption or non-reactive absorption is made between two phases ofmatter a liquid absorbs a gas or a solid absorbs a liquid

When a liquid solvent absorbs a gas mixture or part of it a mass of gas moves

into the liquid For example water may absorb oxygen from the air This mass

transfer takes place at the interface between the liquid and the gas at a rate

depending on both the gas and the liquid This type of absorption depends on the

solubility of gases the pressure and the temperature The rate and amount of

absorption also depend on the surface area of the interface and its duration in

time

When a solid absorbs a liquid mixture or part of it a mass of liquid moves into the

solid For example a clay pot used to store water may absorb some of the water

This mass transfer takes place at the interface between the solid and the liquid

at a rate depending on both the solid and the liquid

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Chemical absorption

Chemical absorption or reactive absorption is a chemical reaction between the

absorbed and the absorbing substances Sometimes it combines with physical

absorption This type of absorption depends upon the stoichiometry of the

reaction and the concentration of its reactants

Adsorption

Adsorption is the adhesion of atoms ions or molecules from a gas liquid or

dissolved solid to a surface This process creates a film of the adsorbate on the

surface of the adsorbent The binding to the surface is usually weak and

reversible Compounds with color and those that have taste or odor tend to bind

strongly Compounds that vibrate at frequencies in the visible spectrum are very

often are strongly adsorbed on activated carbon

The most common industrial adsorbents are activated carbon silica gel and

alumina because they present enormous surface areas per unit weight

Depending on the nature of attractive forces existing between the adsorbate and

adsorbent adsorption can be classified as

i) Physical adsorption

ii) Chemical adsorption

i) Physical adsorption (Physisorption)

In physical adsorption the forces of attraction between the molecules of the

adsorbate and the adsorbent are of the weak van der Waals type Since the

forces of attraction are weak the process of physisorption can be easily reversed

by heating or decreasing the pressure of the adsorbate (as in the case of gases)

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ii) Chemical adsorption (Chemisorption)

In chemisorption the forces of attraction between the adsorbate and the

adsorbent are very strong the molecules of adsorbate form chemical bonds with

the molecules of the adsorbent present in the surface

Adsorption is generally accompanied by release of energy that is most

adsorption processes are exothermic in nature Adsorption is a spontaneous

process therefore its free energy change is negative (∆Glt0) However the

entropy change associated with adsorption is generally negative because the

adsorbate molecules lose their translation freedom when they get attached to the

surface of the adsorbent Therefore in order for ∆G to be negative the enthalpy

change (∆H) must be sufficiently negative such that (∆G=∆H-T∆S) lt 0 This

explanation accounts for exothermic adsorption processes In cases where

endothermic adsorption occurs the entropy change ∆S is sufficiently positive

such that ∆G remains negative

Pre treatment

The main function of pretreatment skid is to provide membrane inlet specification

gas as mentioned by the vendor UOP It removes the contaminants that would

poison the membranes like dust solids (adsorbent particles) lube oil heavy

hydrocarbons etc It consists of

Feed Cooler

Feed Gas Scrubber

Filter Coalescer

Feed Gas Heater

Activated Carbon Guard Filter

Particle Filter

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The regeneration is carried out by heated permeate gas from the recycle

membranes at 450oF The vessel is depressurized to 20 psi and heated gas is

introduced from top The gas carries out the adsorbed contaminants and leaves

the vessel from bottom cleaning the adsorbent This contaminated gas is burnt in

the flare

UOP the vendor of Memguard unit has never disclosed that what substance

MG3 and MG5 exactly are But as mentioned by vendor that both care class of

aluminosilicates Therefore MG3 can be potassium aluminosilicate and MG5 can

be Calcium aluminosilicate These are molecular sieves adsorbents Molecular

sieves are a microporous material which can selectively adsorb gases andliquids They are synthetic zeolites (crystalline metal aluminosilicates) which

upon dehydration can efficiently and selectively remove water or other

solvents The selectivity of a molecular sieve is determined by its pore size

molecules with a critical diameter which is less than the pore size will be

efficiently adsorbed while larger molecules will be excluded

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3A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

The 3A molecular sieve adsorbent has a 3 angstrom (3A) pore size which means

that any molecule that is larger than the 3 angstrom pores will not be adsorbed

The 3A molecular sieve is the potassium type of A crystalline structure and is a

form of alkali Aluminosilicate For a 3A molecular sieve the sequence rate that

adsorption occurs is He Ne N and H2O

Due to the crystalline structure molecular sieves that have a 3 angstrom pore

size have a very high rate of adsorption and properties that promote a longer life

for products treated by the sieve The most common use for the 3A molecular

sieve is to remove water and moisture from materials that are in gas and liquid

form

5A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

These are molecular sieve adsorbents with a pore size of 5 angstrom (5A) 5A

molecular sieves are unable to adsorb any molecules or impurities that are

smaller than 5A It is calcium form of type A crystalline structure and is form of analkali-aluminosilicate that is most commonly used to separate isomerous alkanes

from normal alkanes and to co-adsorb moisture and water along with carbon

dioxide from gases In additional 5A molecular sieves are used for gaseous

pressure swing adsorption (PSA)mdashthat is to separate particular gases from other

gases

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of C3H8 to C22H46

Adsorption of Freon-12 (dichlorodifluoromethane)

Natural gas drying

Normal- and iso-paraffin separation

Separation of aromatic

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Inlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1096

MEHTANE 8593

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008

N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGEN 076

WATER 007

Outlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1098

MEHTANE 8608

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGENT 076

WATER 000

H2S polisher

The H2S polishing unit has been designed to treat 187 MMscfday of natural gas

containing up to 11 CO2 and 21 ppm H2S where the level of the CO2 and H2S

is reduced using a MemGuard Membrane separation unit The unit is situated

down-stream of the membrane unit and will further reduce the level of H2S in the

processed gas to a sales gas specification of 38 ppm

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This process uses three non-regenerable fixed bed absorber vessels using a low

temperature high activity absorbent The absorbent is a mixture of activated

metal oxides (mainly zinc oxide) The three towers can are generally operated in

parallel arrangement but on demand can be used in series (any of alternate

arrangements of A B C vessels) as shown in figure

The higher sales gas flow rate increased the catalyst consumption and

replacement frequency

ZnO + H2S =gt ZnS + H20

Routine samples are taken from the beds to provide a check on each bed

performance and to follow the saturation profile during the absorbent life After

the adsorbent has been fully utilized the adsorption vessels are recharged with

new adsorbent discarding the utilized one in a safe manner

109oF

1215 psig

Before H2S Polishing After H2S Polishing

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Figure

H2S Tower

Inlet pipe

4 Drums of 19mm

ceramic Balls

6 Micron mesh

5 Drums of 50mmceramic

1 Drums of19mm ceramic

01 Drums of6mm ceramic

112 drums of

Catalist ZnO

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Recycle Compressor

The permeate gas of the primary membrane unit carries recoverable amount of

CH4 It is fed to recycle membrane unit for further CH 4 recovery But the

permeate pressure from primary membranes which has been reduced to 12 psi

must be regenerated to 1200 psi for the gas to be fed again to the system For

this purpose we have employed recycle compressor The compressor is a four

stage centrifugal compressor It is driven by gas turbine of 31200 HP It has 25

MW producing capacity

Figure Recycle Compressor Process Flow Diagram

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Sales Gas Compressor

Gas from H2S polishing unit is sent to sales gas compressor where its pressure

is enhanced to 1100 psi so it may be injected to SNGPL high pressure trunk line

Sales gas compressor is single stage gas turbine driven

Figure Process Flow of Sales Gas Compressor

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Cooling Towers

A cooling tower is a heat rejection device which extracts waste heat to theatmosphere through the cooling of a water stream to a lower temperature Hot

water from the system enters the cooling tower and is distributed over the fill

(heat transfer surface) Air is induced or forced through the fill causing a small

portion of the water to evaporate This evaporation removes heat from the

remaining water which is collected in the cold water basin and returned to the

system to absorb more heat Each cooling tower line although operating under

the same basic principle of operation is arranged a little differently

Types

Natural draft mdash Utilizes buoyancy via a tall chimney Warm moist air naturally

rises due to the density differential compared to the dry cooler outside air Warm

moist air is less dense than drier air at the same pressure This moist air

buoyancy produces an upwards current of air through the tower

Mechanical draft mdash Uses power-driven fan motors to force or draw airthrough the tower

o Induced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a fan at the

discharge (at the top) which pulls air up through the tower The fan

induces hot moist air out the discharge This produces low entering

and high exiting air velocities reducing the possibility of

recirculation in which discharged air flows back into the air intake

o Forced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a blower type fan at

the intake The fan forces air into the tower creating high entering

and low exiting air velocities The low exiting velocity is much more

susceptible to recirculation This fanfill geometry is also known as

blow-through

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Forced Draft Cooling Tower Vs Induced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower have the ability to handle large water flow

rate than Forced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower is suitable for large cell sizes and fan sizes

as compared with Forced Draft Larger fan size may result in greater

efficiency and consequently lower power and sound level

Forced Draft Cooling Tower can be square or rectangular type only

however Induced Draft Cooling Towers can be round square or

rectangular type

Induced Draft Cooling Tower uses more compact ground area than Forced

Draft Cooling Tower equivalent capacity due to absence of fan on one

side

Fan equipment is warm exhaust air is less liable to icing up in winter

operation (Cold Countries)

Higher velocity in Forced Draft Cooling Tower cause drop in suspension

and cause additional static resistance to system

Configuration

There are two main configurations of factory assembled cooling towers crossflow

and counterflow In crossflow cooling towers the water flows vertically down the

fill as air flows horizontally across In counterflow cooling towers the water flows

vertically down the fill as air flows vertically up

Crossflow Configuration Counterflow Configuration

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Drift mdash Water droplets that are carried out of the cooling tower with the exhaust

air Drift droplets have the same concentration of impurities as the water entering

the tower The drift rate is typically reduced by employing baffle-like devices

called drift eliminators through which the air must travel after leaving the fill and

spray zones of the tower

Blow-out mdash Water droplets blown out of the cooling tower by wind generally at

the air inlet openings Water may also be lost in the absence of wind through

splashing or misting Devices such as wind screens louvers splash deflectors

and water diverters are used to limit these losses

Blow-down mdash The portion of the circulating water flow that is removed (usually

discharged to a drain) in order to maintain the amount of Total Dissolved Solids

(TDS) and other impurities at an acceptably low level Higher TDS concentration

in solution may result from greater cooling tower efficiency However the higher

the TDS concentration the greater the risk of scale biological growth and

corrosion

Make-up mdash The water that must be added to the circulating water system in

order to compensate for water losses such as evaporation drift loss blow-out

blow-down etc

Approach mdash The approach is the difference in temperature between the cooled-

water temperature and the entering-air wet bulb temperature

Range mdash The range is the temperature difference between the warm water inlet

and cooled water exit

Fill mdash Inside the tower fills are added to increase contact surface as well as

contact time between air and water to provide better heat transfer The efficiency

of the tower depends on the selection and amount of fill

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There are two types of fills that may be used

o Film type fill (causes water to spread into a thin film)

o Splash type fill (breaks up falling stream of water and interrupts its

vertical progress)

Important

Scale build up is controlled by adding chemicals to the cooling loop and diluting

the concentration by blow down and make-up Following chemicals are added to

the Cooling to control CorrosionSale and microbial growth

Corrosion Inhibitor To control corrosion in the Cooling system

Dispersant To kept ions in suspension to avoid settle down and buildup

Sodium hypo Chlorite To Control microbial Growth

Acid To control Alkalinity in the system

High Stress Polymer To run the system at higher conductivity It is a

multifunctional polymer for Zinc amp Phosphate stabilization in cooling tower

Fin Fan Cooler

Fin fan heat exchanger is simply a pressure vessel which cools a circulating fluid

within finned tubes by forcing ambient air over the exterior of the tubes A

common example of an air cooler is a carrsquos radiator Fin Fan Coolers are used in

any application where large quantities of heat need to be transferred This

includes chemical and petrochemical industries power stations waste-to-energy

facilities as well as steelworks

Fin Fan Cooler are used for two primary reasons

They increase plant efficiency

They are a green solution as compared to cooling towers and shell and

tube heat exchangers because they do not require an auxiliary water

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supply (water lost due to drift and evaporation plus no water treatment

chemicals are required)

Figure General Overview of Fin Fan Cooler

Produced Water

The produced water system receives liquid from the equipment Miano slug

catcher train 1 and 2 inlet separators and is fed to three phase separator where

water oil and gas is separated The gases produced are burnt in incinerator

whereas hydrocarbon liquid is stored to be sold Liquid from compressors

recycle inlet separator recycle feed scrubber high and low pressure slug

catchers is passed to degasser Separated water is injected down the earth

Incinerator

The term incinerate means to burn something until nothing is left but ashes An

incinerator is a unit or facility used to burn trash and other types of waste until it is

reduced to ash An incinerator is constructed of heavy well-insulated materials

so that it does not give off extreme amounts of external heat The high levels of

heat are kept inside the furnace or unit so that the waste is burned quickly and

efficiently If the heat were allowed to escape the waste would not burn as

completely or as rapidly

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Control System

The plant is controlled at CCR (Central Control Room) by PLCs (Programmable

Logic Controllers) through fiber optic control line All control parameters are

received at LER (Local Equipment Room) via two optic fiber control lines One

being primary and other secondary operating in redundancy ie if primary fails

control shifts to secondary These control parameters are sent to CCR via single

optic fiber cable

Safety System

Wellheads and Gas Processing Plant have their own Fire amp Gas detection

systems emergency shutdown (ESD) Plant has a fault tolerant controller It is

based on Triple Modular Redundant (TMR) architecture manufactured by

Triconex The TMR system is based on three isolated parallel control systems

integrated into one system The system operates on a two out of three voting

principle which provides high integrity error free uninterrupted operation with no

single point of failure The TMR receives inputs from Process Sensors Manual

Switches Fire amp Gas Detectors Packaged Equipment Control Systems and

Product Exporting Facilities The TMR carries out cause and effect processing on

the data received and where necessary produces output signals Outputs from

the TMR are hard wired directly to ESD shutdown and blow down valve

solenoids motor control instrumentelectrical interfaces to control electrical

drives package equipment logic control systems manifold area as well as

telecoms

The operator in central control room is able to accept alarms and once the fault

has been cleared reset the input All the control systems are centralized to a

single interface All the PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers) communicate with

the servers and servers communicate with the clients through Ethernet connectivity

Centralization eases the navigation of different systems at a common interface

Emergency Shutdown

The ESD system receives inputs from field mounted instrumentation on the process

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and utility equipment and initiates executive actions appropriate to the level of ESD

The system is an Active system which is in standby and will activate when in an

alarm or fault condition The Kadanwari Gas Process Facility ESD system is

comprised of five (5) levels The emergency severity decreases with increasing ESD

level number

ESD 1

This shutdown level is automatically initiated by fire major gas leak or a detected

toxic atmosphere in the process area of the plant or manually from CCR A level 1

shutdown will cause all production to cease close all emergency shutdown

valves stop the process and shutdown of the main power generation The

emergency vent valves to the stack will open and in addition all equipment of zone 1

certified will be isolated This is the highest level of ESD and will cause the following

to occur

All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close All slowdown Valves (BDVs) on the process facility will open

All Main Gas Driven Generators will be tripped

Emergency Diesel Generator will start

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close Upper Master Valve

(UMV) Close

ESD 2

This shutdown level is activated automatically if a major process or utility failure

occurs or manually from CCR All production to the plant from the wellhead is

stopped All emergency shutdown valves trip to their fail safe position

Venting shall be as specified This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

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All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valve Close Wing Valves Close and Upper Master Valve(UMV) Close

ESD 3

The level 3 shutdown isolates and stops a single process train only Production

continues via the other train This ESD level is initiated by process conditions or

operator at local panel This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

ESD 3A Train 1 production to cease

ESD 3B Train 2 production to cease

All online wellhead choke valves go to minimum flow ie (1O )

ESD 4

A level 4 shutdown shall cease all production from an entire field either

Kadanwari or Miano upstream of the associated slug catchers ESD 4K for

Kadanwari amp ESD 4M for Miano This ESD level is initiated automatically by slug

catcher abnormal process conditions This level of ESD will cause the following

to occur

All SDVs close isolating the relevant slug catcher and its upstream gas

production facility from the Kadanwari Gas Processing Plant

All Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close and Upper MasterValves (UMV) of the relevant gas production facility Close

A parallel timer is provided to close within 10 second if not closed in given

time SSSV seals the well

ESD 5

A level 5 shutdown represents equipment shutdown for the protection of the

individual equipment without any change in the process This level of ESD is for the

protection of various pieces of equipment and is initiated by its own inputs eg

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drops until the drop is large enough to fall out The effectiveness of separation

will also depend upon the total amount of coalescing surface area that is present

There are many different types of separators used in the Oil amp Gas industry

Consequently separators are manufactured with one two or several internal

fittings depending on their use and quick removal of these fluids from the vessel

DEFLECTOR PLATES

These are fitted in front of the inlet to the separator and can be net or

dish-shaped Their purpose is to absorb the impact of the incoming fluids and to

encourage the separation of gas and liquids They also slow the flow rate of the

liquids through the vessel

WEIRS

A weir is a metal wall which is fitted across the inside of the vessel normally to a

height of 50 of the overall height of the separator Its purpose is to assist the

process of three phase separation The inlet fluids (oil plus water) are given time

to separate in the liquid accumulation section The water level (interface) is

normally controlled at 50 of the height of the weir Oil floating on the wateroverflows the weir and accumulates in the small oil compartment where it is

drawn off under level control

CENTRIFUGAL DEVICES

These are used in both vertical and horizontal separators for gas-liquid

separation The device imparts a swirling motion to the fluids entering the vessel

Centrifugal force causes the heavier liquids to travel outwards towards the walls

of the vessel and the lighter gases to flow up the centre Centrifugal devices are

also known as cyclones

VORTEX BREAKERS

When liquid flows through a drain outlet a vortex (whirlpool) will form This can

be seen when we pull the plug from a sink or bath tub The same would happen

as water and oil flow from the separator This condition a vortex could allow gas

to flow down the centre of the whirlpool and enter the liquid phase causing

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pressurizing of tanks etc To stop this happening vortex breakers are fitted to all

liquid outlets Although they come in a number of different designs vortex

breakers all serve the same purpose - to prevent a whirlpool from forming

MIST OR DEMISTER PADS

The gas which is released from the fluids in the separator still contains droplets of

oil and water which coalesce and fall when the drops get large enough The

demister pad assists in this process Made from knitted wire and contained within

a sturdy frame it causes the gas to continually change its direction of flow

Because gas changes direction far easier than liquid the gas will flow around

each strand of wire whilst the liquid entrained in the gas stream will continue and

stick to the wire

COALESCING PLATES

There are several different forms of coalescing devices the most common of

which are coalescing plates These plates are mounted in the flow stream of the

fluids and assist in breaking down oil-water emulsions The fluid is forced to

follow a path that constantly changes direction This causes the water droplets to

gather together or coalesce and fall to the bottom of the separator The same

principle is used to separate gas and oil mixtures when the oil droplets are

induced to coalesce Simply stated every surface within the separator including

the separator walls assists with the coalescing process

STRAIGHTENlNG VANES

These are often fitted to horizontal separators to remove turbulence in the gas

stream after initial separation at the inlet deflector

FLOAT SHEILD

Internal floats are used as level controllers Any agitation of the liquid surface or

the effect of coalesced liquids falling on the float may cause control problems

Therefore a float shield is fitted to enclose the float creating an area of still liquid

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MEMBRANES

The gas contains 12 carbon dioxide and 22 ppm of hydrogen sulphide at 115oF

and 1100 psig This needs to be removed before the gas can be exported The

majority of carbon dioxide hydrogen sulphide and water is removed by means of

membranes

Membranes are thin semipermeable barriers that selectively separate some

compounds from others Currently the only commercially workable membranes

used for CO2 removal are polymer based for example cellulose acetate

polyimides polyamides polysulfone polycarbonates and polyetherimide The

membrane does not operate as a filter where small molecules are separated

from larger ones through a medium with pores rather it separates based on how

well different compounds dissolve into the membrane and diffuse through it The

membranes are manufactured in flat sheets consisting of an extremely thin

nonporous layer mounted on a much-thicker and highly porous layer of the same

material providing mechanical strength The flat sheets are combined into a

spiral-wound element (Figure below) Feed gas enters along the side of the

membrane and passes through the feed spacers As the gas travels between

membrane sheets CO2 H2S and H2O permeate through the membrane and are

collected in the permeate tube The driving force for transport is the high-feed

pressure and low-permeate pressures The gas on the feed side that does not

permeate leaves through the side of the element opposite the feed position Once

the membranes have been manufactured into elements six to 12 elements are

joined together and inserted into a tube Multiple tubes are mounted on skids in a

horizontal orientation

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Figure Membrane general Working

In high H2S applications most polymers have been shown to have very little

resistance to H2S plasticization (ldquosofteningrdquo of the membrane) and as a

consequence can only be used at very low H2S partial pressure limits Cellulose

acetate membranes in contrast have been shown to be applicable at extreme

H2S partial pressure conditions It is these membranes that have been utilized in

the testing to determine the limits of membrane performance in high H 2S

applications

The primary membranes used in Kadanwari facility are Cellulose acetate

Cellulose acetic acid and acetic anhydride are mixed together and reacted to

form cellulose acetate polymers This process is aided by the addition of a small

amount of sulfuric acid which is subsequently neutralized during processing

However the membranes are bought from UOP (vendor) and installed for use

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How membrane work

The basic principle of separation is selectivity of certain components of a mixture

for the membrane For example the cellulose acetate membrane has very high

selectivity for CO2 and H2S as compared to CH4 Therefore such type of

membrane can be used in gas sweetening process

The selectivity is directly related to the Permeability of gas which accounts that

which gas can pass across the membrane more easily In simple words

membranes being polymer materials are made of long chains of molecules The

different structure of polymer materials only allow selective molecules to pass

through them depending upon chemical and physical compatibility Thus

permeability depends upon choice of polymer

The permeability is determined by permeability coefficient (P) and is product of

solubility (S) and diffusivity (D)

P = S D

Solubility

The solubility is mainly determined by ease of condensation Heavy molecules

are more readily condensed Therefore higher molecular weighted molecules will

more easily condensed and therefore have greater solubility

Molecule Molecular weight

CH4 16

H2S 34

CO2 44

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Diffusivity

Diffusivity is ease of molecule to penetrate into some material It depends on size

of gas molecule Here size of molecule is not to be confused by molecular weight

it is the size of the structure Eg the size of O2 molecule is smaller than N2

Molecule Molecular Diameter (Ao)

CO2 33

H2S 36

Ch4 40

For cellulose acetate

DCO2DCH4 S CO2S CH4 P CO2P CH4

45 73 308

Chemical degradation

Cellulose acetate polymer is chemically degraded by a process called hydrolysis

which means breaking apart by the addition of water This is a chemical reaction

in which water is added to the cellulose acetate polymer causing the release of

acetic acid molecules This process proceeds stepwise until all the acetate

groups are released resulting in the reformation of cellulose Moreover alcohols

aromatic hydrocarbons or solvents with chlorine nitro benzene or similar

aromatic solvents will harm the membrane It will expand and lose plastification in

contact with them

Effect of Temperature

The permeation rates of all gases increases with increasing temperature

however membrane selectivity for CO2 over hydrocarbon decreases at higher

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temperature Consequently CO2 removal will improve as operating temperature

increases but hydro carbon recovery will decrease

Primary Membrane

The primary membranes comprise of two trains Each train consists of two

sections AB and CD each section consists of a 30 tube membrane skid (A and

C) followed by a 25 tube skid (B and D) The conditioned gas (after pre-

treatment) enters the primary membrane via the particulate filter adjacent to the

skid The gas is fed to the membranes through a common inlet manifold which

supplies primary membranes skids A and C A pressure control loop located

upstream of the manual inlet isolation valve is provided to maintain a constant

supply pressure to the membrane skid and to allow for preheating at the inlet

prior to skid start-up This pressure control loop can also be used during start-up

to control the pressurization of the pretreatment skid and associated pipes to the

primary membranes

The gas passes through membrane skid A the residual gas exiting the membrane

skid is sent to skid B and the permeate to common permeate discharge header An

identical arrangement is provide on the inlet to skid C as provided on skid A Theresidual gas from skid B combines with the residual gas from skid D in a common

discharge header and is then sent to the H2S polishing towers via the feed coolers

on the pre-treatment skid The permeate from skid B is sent to the common

permeate discharge header The permeate discharge header sends the gas to

either the recycle compressor or the vent header via a pressure control loop

Overpressure protection for the membranes is provided by a pressure safety valve

on the supply header to the membrane banks

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Secondary (Recycle) Membrane

The recycle membranes comprise of a single train with two skids each with four

banks of membrane tubes The conditioned gas from the discharge of the recycle

pre-treatment skid is routed to the first recycle membrane skid The gas passes

through the membranes the residual gas is fed to primary membrane (skid A) inlet

via feed gas cooler and permeate to the common permeate discharge header An

identical arrangement is provide on the inlet to skid B Permeate from the recycle

membrane skids A and B is routed to the vent header Some portion of permeate is

heated and sent for regeneration in Mem-Guard units Nitrogen purge can be

connected downstream of the inlet isolation valve on each skid to enable the

membrane tubes to be purged and left pressurized during prolonged shutdown

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Figure Flow Diagram of Recycle membrane unit

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ADVANTAGES OF MEMBRANE SYSTEMS

Membrane systems have major advantages over more-traditional methods of

acid gas removal

Lower capital cost Membrane systems are skid mounted and so the

scope cost and time taken for site preparation are minimal Installation

costs are significantly lower than alternative technologies especially for

remote areas Furthermore no additional facilities for solvent storage and

water treatment needed by other processes are required

Lower operating costs The only major operating cost for single-stage

membrane systems is membrane replacement This cost is significantly

lower than the solvent replacement and energy costs associated with

traditional technologies The improvements in membrane and

pretreatment design allow a longer useful membrane life which further

reduces operating costs The energy costs of multistage systems with

large recycle compressors are usually comparable to those for traditionaltechnologies

Deferred capital investment Often contracted sales-gas flow rates

increase over time as more wells are brought on-line With traditional

technologies the system design needs to take this later production into

account immediately and so the majority of the equipment is installed

before it is even needed The modular nature of membrane systems

means that only the membranes that are needed at start-up need be

installed The rest can be added either into existing tubes or in new skids

only when they are required

Operational simplicity and high reliability Because single-stage

membrane systems have no moving parts they have almost no

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unscheduled downtime and are extremely simple to operate They can

operate unattended for long periods of time The addition of a recycle

compressor adds some complexity to the system but still much less than

with a solvent- or adsorbent-based technology Multistage systems can be

operated at full capacity as single-stage systems when the recycle

compressor is down

Good weight and space efficiency Skid construction can be optimized

to the space available This space efficiency is especially important for

offshore environments where deck area is at a premium and is the

reason why so many new offshore developments have chosen to use

membranes for acid gas removal Figure 6 illustrates the space efficiency

of membrane systems The membrane unit in the lower left corner

replaced all the amine and glycol plant equipment shown in the rest of the

picture

Adaptability Because membrane area is dictated by the percentage of

acid gas removal rather than absolute acid gas removal small variations

in feed acid gas content hardly change the sales-gas acid gas

specification For example a system designed for 10 down to 3 acid

gas removal produces a 35 product from a 12 feed gas and a 5

product from a 15 feed gas

Design efficiency The membrane and pretreatment systems integrate a

number of operations such as dehydration CO2 and H2S removal dew-

point control and mercury removal Traditional acid gas removal

technologies require all of these operations as separate processes and

may also require additional dehydration because some technologies

saturate the product stream with water

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Power generation The permeate gas from membrane systems can be

used to provide fuel gas for power generation either for a recycle

compressor or other equipment

Ideal for debottlenecking Because expanding solvent- or adsorbent-

based acid gas removal plants without adding additional trains is difficult

an ideal solution is to use membranes for bulk acid gas removal and leave

the existing plant for final cleanup An additional advantage is that the

permeate gas from the membrane system can often be used as fuel for

the existing plant thus avoiding significant increase in hydrocarbon

losses

Environmentally friendly Membrane systems do not involve the

periodic removal and handling of spent solvents or adsorbents Permeate

gases can be flared used as fuel or re-injected into the well Items thatdo need disposal such as spent membrane elements can be incinerated

Ideal for remote locations Many of the factors mentioned above make

membrane systems a highly desirable technology for remote locations

where spare parts are rare and labor unskilled Furthermore solvents

storage and trucking water supply power generation or extensive

infrastructure are not required

Re-injection optimizations Since the permeate stream from the

membrane system can be operated at elevated pressures it is possible to

further pressurize by re-injection compression train

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Sorption

Sorption is a physical and chemical process by which one substance becomes

attached to another

It is of two main types

1 Absorption

2 Adsorption

Absorption

Absorption is a physical or chemical phenomenon or process in which atoms

molecules or ions enter some bulk phase ndash gas liquid or solid material This is a

different process from adsorption since molecules undergoing absorption are

taken up by the volume not by the surface (as in the case for adsorption)

Absorption process may be chemical (reactive) or physical (non-reactive)

Physical absorption

Physical absorption or non-reactive absorption is made between two phases ofmatter a liquid absorbs a gas or a solid absorbs a liquid

When a liquid solvent absorbs a gas mixture or part of it a mass of gas moves

into the liquid For example water may absorb oxygen from the air This mass

transfer takes place at the interface between the liquid and the gas at a rate

depending on both the gas and the liquid This type of absorption depends on the

solubility of gases the pressure and the temperature The rate and amount of

absorption also depend on the surface area of the interface and its duration in

time

When a solid absorbs a liquid mixture or part of it a mass of liquid moves into the

solid For example a clay pot used to store water may absorb some of the water

This mass transfer takes place at the interface between the solid and the liquid

at a rate depending on both the solid and the liquid

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Chemical absorption

Chemical absorption or reactive absorption is a chemical reaction between the

absorbed and the absorbing substances Sometimes it combines with physical

absorption This type of absorption depends upon the stoichiometry of the

reaction and the concentration of its reactants

Adsorption

Adsorption is the adhesion of atoms ions or molecules from a gas liquid or

dissolved solid to a surface This process creates a film of the adsorbate on the

surface of the adsorbent The binding to the surface is usually weak and

reversible Compounds with color and those that have taste or odor tend to bind

strongly Compounds that vibrate at frequencies in the visible spectrum are very

often are strongly adsorbed on activated carbon

The most common industrial adsorbents are activated carbon silica gel and

alumina because they present enormous surface areas per unit weight

Depending on the nature of attractive forces existing between the adsorbate and

adsorbent adsorption can be classified as

i) Physical adsorption

ii) Chemical adsorption

i) Physical adsorption (Physisorption)

In physical adsorption the forces of attraction between the molecules of the

adsorbate and the adsorbent are of the weak van der Waals type Since the

forces of attraction are weak the process of physisorption can be easily reversed

by heating or decreasing the pressure of the adsorbate (as in the case of gases)

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ii) Chemical adsorption (Chemisorption)

In chemisorption the forces of attraction between the adsorbate and the

adsorbent are very strong the molecules of adsorbate form chemical bonds with

the molecules of the adsorbent present in the surface

Adsorption is generally accompanied by release of energy that is most

adsorption processes are exothermic in nature Adsorption is a spontaneous

process therefore its free energy change is negative (∆Glt0) However the

entropy change associated with adsorption is generally negative because the

adsorbate molecules lose their translation freedom when they get attached to the

surface of the adsorbent Therefore in order for ∆G to be negative the enthalpy

change (∆H) must be sufficiently negative such that (∆G=∆H-T∆S) lt 0 This

explanation accounts for exothermic adsorption processes In cases where

endothermic adsorption occurs the entropy change ∆S is sufficiently positive

such that ∆G remains negative

Pre treatment

The main function of pretreatment skid is to provide membrane inlet specification

gas as mentioned by the vendor UOP It removes the contaminants that would

poison the membranes like dust solids (adsorbent particles) lube oil heavy

hydrocarbons etc It consists of

Feed Cooler

Feed Gas Scrubber

Filter Coalescer

Feed Gas Heater

Activated Carbon Guard Filter

Particle Filter

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The regeneration is carried out by heated permeate gas from the recycle

membranes at 450oF The vessel is depressurized to 20 psi and heated gas is

introduced from top The gas carries out the adsorbed contaminants and leaves

the vessel from bottom cleaning the adsorbent This contaminated gas is burnt in

the flare

UOP the vendor of Memguard unit has never disclosed that what substance

MG3 and MG5 exactly are But as mentioned by vendor that both care class of

aluminosilicates Therefore MG3 can be potassium aluminosilicate and MG5 can

be Calcium aluminosilicate These are molecular sieves adsorbents Molecular

sieves are a microporous material which can selectively adsorb gases andliquids They are synthetic zeolites (crystalline metal aluminosilicates) which

upon dehydration can efficiently and selectively remove water or other

solvents The selectivity of a molecular sieve is determined by its pore size

molecules with a critical diameter which is less than the pore size will be

efficiently adsorbed while larger molecules will be excluded

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3A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

The 3A molecular sieve adsorbent has a 3 angstrom (3A) pore size which means

that any molecule that is larger than the 3 angstrom pores will not be adsorbed

The 3A molecular sieve is the potassium type of A crystalline structure and is a

form of alkali Aluminosilicate For a 3A molecular sieve the sequence rate that

adsorption occurs is He Ne N and H2O

Due to the crystalline structure molecular sieves that have a 3 angstrom pore

size have a very high rate of adsorption and properties that promote a longer life

for products treated by the sieve The most common use for the 3A molecular

sieve is to remove water and moisture from materials that are in gas and liquid

form

5A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

These are molecular sieve adsorbents with a pore size of 5 angstrom (5A) 5A

molecular sieves are unable to adsorb any molecules or impurities that are

smaller than 5A It is calcium form of type A crystalline structure and is form of analkali-aluminosilicate that is most commonly used to separate isomerous alkanes

from normal alkanes and to co-adsorb moisture and water along with carbon

dioxide from gases In additional 5A molecular sieves are used for gaseous

pressure swing adsorption (PSA)mdashthat is to separate particular gases from other

gases

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of C3H8 to C22H46

Adsorption of Freon-12 (dichlorodifluoromethane)

Natural gas drying

Normal- and iso-paraffin separation

Separation of aromatic

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Inlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1096

MEHTANE 8593

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008

N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGEN 076

WATER 007

Outlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1098

MEHTANE 8608

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGENT 076

WATER 000

H2S polisher

The H2S polishing unit has been designed to treat 187 MMscfday of natural gas

containing up to 11 CO2 and 21 ppm H2S where the level of the CO2 and H2S

is reduced using a MemGuard Membrane separation unit The unit is situated

down-stream of the membrane unit and will further reduce the level of H2S in the

processed gas to a sales gas specification of 38 ppm

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This process uses three non-regenerable fixed bed absorber vessels using a low

temperature high activity absorbent The absorbent is a mixture of activated

metal oxides (mainly zinc oxide) The three towers can are generally operated in

parallel arrangement but on demand can be used in series (any of alternate

arrangements of A B C vessels) as shown in figure

The higher sales gas flow rate increased the catalyst consumption and

replacement frequency

ZnO + H2S =gt ZnS + H20

Routine samples are taken from the beds to provide a check on each bed

performance and to follow the saturation profile during the absorbent life After

the adsorbent has been fully utilized the adsorption vessels are recharged with

new adsorbent discarding the utilized one in a safe manner

109oF

1215 psig

Before H2S Polishing After H2S Polishing

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Figure

H2S Tower

Inlet pipe

4 Drums of 19mm

ceramic Balls

6 Micron mesh

5 Drums of 50mmceramic

1 Drums of19mm ceramic

01 Drums of6mm ceramic

112 drums of

Catalist ZnO

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Recycle Compressor

The permeate gas of the primary membrane unit carries recoverable amount of

CH4 It is fed to recycle membrane unit for further CH 4 recovery But the

permeate pressure from primary membranes which has been reduced to 12 psi

must be regenerated to 1200 psi for the gas to be fed again to the system For

this purpose we have employed recycle compressor The compressor is a four

stage centrifugal compressor It is driven by gas turbine of 31200 HP It has 25

MW producing capacity

Figure Recycle Compressor Process Flow Diagram

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Sales Gas Compressor

Gas from H2S polishing unit is sent to sales gas compressor where its pressure

is enhanced to 1100 psi so it may be injected to SNGPL high pressure trunk line

Sales gas compressor is single stage gas turbine driven

Figure Process Flow of Sales Gas Compressor

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Cooling Towers

A cooling tower is a heat rejection device which extracts waste heat to theatmosphere through the cooling of a water stream to a lower temperature Hot

water from the system enters the cooling tower and is distributed over the fill

(heat transfer surface) Air is induced or forced through the fill causing a small

portion of the water to evaporate This evaporation removes heat from the

remaining water which is collected in the cold water basin and returned to the

system to absorb more heat Each cooling tower line although operating under

the same basic principle of operation is arranged a little differently

Types

Natural draft mdash Utilizes buoyancy via a tall chimney Warm moist air naturally

rises due to the density differential compared to the dry cooler outside air Warm

moist air is less dense than drier air at the same pressure This moist air

buoyancy produces an upwards current of air through the tower

Mechanical draft mdash Uses power-driven fan motors to force or draw airthrough the tower

o Induced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a fan at the

discharge (at the top) which pulls air up through the tower The fan

induces hot moist air out the discharge This produces low entering

and high exiting air velocities reducing the possibility of

recirculation in which discharged air flows back into the air intake

o Forced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a blower type fan at

the intake The fan forces air into the tower creating high entering

and low exiting air velocities The low exiting velocity is much more

susceptible to recirculation This fanfill geometry is also known as

blow-through

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Forced Draft Cooling Tower Vs Induced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower have the ability to handle large water flow

rate than Forced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower is suitable for large cell sizes and fan sizes

as compared with Forced Draft Larger fan size may result in greater

efficiency and consequently lower power and sound level

Forced Draft Cooling Tower can be square or rectangular type only

however Induced Draft Cooling Towers can be round square or

rectangular type

Induced Draft Cooling Tower uses more compact ground area than Forced

Draft Cooling Tower equivalent capacity due to absence of fan on one

side

Fan equipment is warm exhaust air is less liable to icing up in winter

operation (Cold Countries)

Higher velocity in Forced Draft Cooling Tower cause drop in suspension

and cause additional static resistance to system

Configuration

There are two main configurations of factory assembled cooling towers crossflow

and counterflow In crossflow cooling towers the water flows vertically down the

fill as air flows horizontally across In counterflow cooling towers the water flows

vertically down the fill as air flows vertically up

Crossflow Configuration Counterflow Configuration

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Drift mdash Water droplets that are carried out of the cooling tower with the exhaust

air Drift droplets have the same concentration of impurities as the water entering

the tower The drift rate is typically reduced by employing baffle-like devices

called drift eliminators through which the air must travel after leaving the fill and

spray zones of the tower

Blow-out mdash Water droplets blown out of the cooling tower by wind generally at

the air inlet openings Water may also be lost in the absence of wind through

splashing or misting Devices such as wind screens louvers splash deflectors

and water diverters are used to limit these losses

Blow-down mdash The portion of the circulating water flow that is removed (usually

discharged to a drain) in order to maintain the amount of Total Dissolved Solids

(TDS) and other impurities at an acceptably low level Higher TDS concentration

in solution may result from greater cooling tower efficiency However the higher

the TDS concentration the greater the risk of scale biological growth and

corrosion

Make-up mdash The water that must be added to the circulating water system in

order to compensate for water losses such as evaporation drift loss blow-out

blow-down etc

Approach mdash The approach is the difference in temperature between the cooled-

water temperature and the entering-air wet bulb temperature

Range mdash The range is the temperature difference between the warm water inlet

and cooled water exit

Fill mdash Inside the tower fills are added to increase contact surface as well as

contact time between air and water to provide better heat transfer The efficiency

of the tower depends on the selection and amount of fill

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There are two types of fills that may be used

o Film type fill (causes water to spread into a thin film)

o Splash type fill (breaks up falling stream of water and interrupts its

vertical progress)

Important

Scale build up is controlled by adding chemicals to the cooling loop and diluting

the concentration by blow down and make-up Following chemicals are added to

the Cooling to control CorrosionSale and microbial growth

Corrosion Inhibitor To control corrosion in the Cooling system

Dispersant To kept ions in suspension to avoid settle down and buildup

Sodium hypo Chlorite To Control microbial Growth

Acid To control Alkalinity in the system

High Stress Polymer To run the system at higher conductivity It is a

multifunctional polymer for Zinc amp Phosphate stabilization in cooling tower

Fin Fan Cooler

Fin fan heat exchanger is simply a pressure vessel which cools a circulating fluid

within finned tubes by forcing ambient air over the exterior of the tubes A

common example of an air cooler is a carrsquos radiator Fin Fan Coolers are used in

any application where large quantities of heat need to be transferred This

includes chemical and petrochemical industries power stations waste-to-energy

facilities as well as steelworks

Fin Fan Cooler are used for two primary reasons

They increase plant efficiency

They are a green solution as compared to cooling towers and shell and

tube heat exchangers because they do not require an auxiliary water

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supply (water lost due to drift and evaporation plus no water treatment

chemicals are required)

Figure General Overview of Fin Fan Cooler

Produced Water

The produced water system receives liquid from the equipment Miano slug

catcher train 1 and 2 inlet separators and is fed to three phase separator where

water oil and gas is separated The gases produced are burnt in incinerator

whereas hydrocarbon liquid is stored to be sold Liquid from compressors

recycle inlet separator recycle feed scrubber high and low pressure slug

catchers is passed to degasser Separated water is injected down the earth

Incinerator

The term incinerate means to burn something until nothing is left but ashes An

incinerator is a unit or facility used to burn trash and other types of waste until it is

reduced to ash An incinerator is constructed of heavy well-insulated materials

so that it does not give off extreme amounts of external heat The high levels of

heat are kept inside the furnace or unit so that the waste is burned quickly and

efficiently If the heat were allowed to escape the waste would not burn as

completely or as rapidly

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Control System

The plant is controlled at CCR (Central Control Room) by PLCs (Programmable

Logic Controllers) through fiber optic control line All control parameters are

received at LER (Local Equipment Room) via two optic fiber control lines One

being primary and other secondary operating in redundancy ie if primary fails

control shifts to secondary These control parameters are sent to CCR via single

optic fiber cable

Safety System

Wellheads and Gas Processing Plant have their own Fire amp Gas detection

systems emergency shutdown (ESD) Plant has a fault tolerant controller It is

based on Triple Modular Redundant (TMR) architecture manufactured by

Triconex The TMR system is based on three isolated parallel control systems

integrated into one system The system operates on a two out of three voting

principle which provides high integrity error free uninterrupted operation with no

single point of failure The TMR receives inputs from Process Sensors Manual

Switches Fire amp Gas Detectors Packaged Equipment Control Systems and

Product Exporting Facilities The TMR carries out cause and effect processing on

the data received and where necessary produces output signals Outputs from

the TMR are hard wired directly to ESD shutdown and blow down valve

solenoids motor control instrumentelectrical interfaces to control electrical

drives package equipment logic control systems manifold area as well as

telecoms

The operator in central control room is able to accept alarms and once the fault

has been cleared reset the input All the control systems are centralized to a

single interface All the PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers) communicate with

the servers and servers communicate with the clients through Ethernet connectivity

Centralization eases the navigation of different systems at a common interface

Emergency Shutdown

The ESD system receives inputs from field mounted instrumentation on the process

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and utility equipment and initiates executive actions appropriate to the level of ESD

The system is an Active system which is in standby and will activate when in an

alarm or fault condition The Kadanwari Gas Process Facility ESD system is

comprised of five (5) levels The emergency severity decreases with increasing ESD

level number

ESD 1

This shutdown level is automatically initiated by fire major gas leak or a detected

toxic atmosphere in the process area of the plant or manually from CCR A level 1

shutdown will cause all production to cease close all emergency shutdown

valves stop the process and shutdown of the main power generation The

emergency vent valves to the stack will open and in addition all equipment of zone 1

certified will be isolated This is the highest level of ESD and will cause the following

to occur

All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close All slowdown Valves (BDVs) on the process facility will open

All Main Gas Driven Generators will be tripped

Emergency Diesel Generator will start

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close Upper Master Valve

(UMV) Close

ESD 2

This shutdown level is activated automatically if a major process or utility failure

occurs or manually from CCR All production to the plant from the wellhead is

stopped All emergency shutdown valves trip to their fail safe position

Venting shall be as specified This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

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All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valve Close Wing Valves Close and Upper Master Valve(UMV) Close

ESD 3

The level 3 shutdown isolates and stops a single process train only Production

continues via the other train This ESD level is initiated by process conditions or

operator at local panel This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

ESD 3A Train 1 production to cease

ESD 3B Train 2 production to cease

All online wellhead choke valves go to minimum flow ie (1O )

ESD 4

A level 4 shutdown shall cease all production from an entire field either

Kadanwari or Miano upstream of the associated slug catchers ESD 4K for

Kadanwari amp ESD 4M for Miano This ESD level is initiated automatically by slug

catcher abnormal process conditions This level of ESD will cause the following

to occur

All SDVs close isolating the relevant slug catcher and its upstream gas

production facility from the Kadanwari Gas Processing Plant

All Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close and Upper MasterValves (UMV) of the relevant gas production facility Close

A parallel timer is provided to close within 10 second if not closed in given

time SSSV seals the well

ESD 5

A level 5 shutdown represents equipment shutdown for the protection of the

individual equipment without any change in the process This level of ESD is for the

protection of various pieces of equipment and is initiated by its own inputs eg

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pressurizing of tanks etc To stop this happening vortex breakers are fitted to all

liquid outlets Although they come in a number of different designs vortex

breakers all serve the same purpose - to prevent a whirlpool from forming

MIST OR DEMISTER PADS

The gas which is released from the fluids in the separator still contains droplets of

oil and water which coalesce and fall when the drops get large enough The

demister pad assists in this process Made from knitted wire and contained within

a sturdy frame it causes the gas to continually change its direction of flow

Because gas changes direction far easier than liquid the gas will flow around

each strand of wire whilst the liquid entrained in the gas stream will continue and

stick to the wire

COALESCING PLATES

There are several different forms of coalescing devices the most common of

which are coalescing plates These plates are mounted in the flow stream of the

fluids and assist in breaking down oil-water emulsions The fluid is forced to

follow a path that constantly changes direction This causes the water droplets to

gather together or coalesce and fall to the bottom of the separator The same

principle is used to separate gas and oil mixtures when the oil droplets are

induced to coalesce Simply stated every surface within the separator including

the separator walls assists with the coalescing process

STRAIGHTENlNG VANES

These are often fitted to horizontal separators to remove turbulence in the gas

stream after initial separation at the inlet deflector

FLOAT SHEILD

Internal floats are used as level controllers Any agitation of the liquid surface or

the effect of coalesced liquids falling on the float may cause control problems

Therefore a float shield is fitted to enclose the float creating an area of still liquid

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MEMBRANES

The gas contains 12 carbon dioxide and 22 ppm of hydrogen sulphide at 115oF

and 1100 psig This needs to be removed before the gas can be exported The

majority of carbon dioxide hydrogen sulphide and water is removed by means of

membranes

Membranes are thin semipermeable barriers that selectively separate some

compounds from others Currently the only commercially workable membranes

used for CO2 removal are polymer based for example cellulose acetate

polyimides polyamides polysulfone polycarbonates and polyetherimide The

membrane does not operate as a filter where small molecules are separated

from larger ones through a medium with pores rather it separates based on how

well different compounds dissolve into the membrane and diffuse through it The

membranes are manufactured in flat sheets consisting of an extremely thin

nonporous layer mounted on a much-thicker and highly porous layer of the same

material providing mechanical strength The flat sheets are combined into a

spiral-wound element (Figure below) Feed gas enters along the side of the

membrane and passes through the feed spacers As the gas travels between

membrane sheets CO2 H2S and H2O permeate through the membrane and are

collected in the permeate tube The driving force for transport is the high-feed

pressure and low-permeate pressures The gas on the feed side that does not

permeate leaves through the side of the element opposite the feed position Once

the membranes have been manufactured into elements six to 12 elements are

joined together and inserted into a tube Multiple tubes are mounted on skids in a

horizontal orientation

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Figure Membrane general Working

In high H2S applications most polymers have been shown to have very little

resistance to H2S plasticization (ldquosofteningrdquo of the membrane) and as a

consequence can only be used at very low H2S partial pressure limits Cellulose

acetate membranes in contrast have been shown to be applicable at extreme

H2S partial pressure conditions It is these membranes that have been utilized in

the testing to determine the limits of membrane performance in high H 2S

applications

The primary membranes used in Kadanwari facility are Cellulose acetate

Cellulose acetic acid and acetic anhydride are mixed together and reacted to

form cellulose acetate polymers This process is aided by the addition of a small

amount of sulfuric acid which is subsequently neutralized during processing

However the membranes are bought from UOP (vendor) and installed for use

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How membrane work

The basic principle of separation is selectivity of certain components of a mixture

for the membrane For example the cellulose acetate membrane has very high

selectivity for CO2 and H2S as compared to CH4 Therefore such type of

membrane can be used in gas sweetening process

The selectivity is directly related to the Permeability of gas which accounts that

which gas can pass across the membrane more easily In simple words

membranes being polymer materials are made of long chains of molecules The

different structure of polymer materials only allow selective molecules to pass

through them depending upon chemical and physical compatibility Thus

permeability depends upon choice of polymer

The permeability is determined by permeability coefficient (P) and is product of

solubility (S) and diffusivity (D)

P = S D

Solubility

The solubility is mainly determined by ease of condensation Heavy molecules

are more readily condensed Therefore higher molecular weighted molecules will

more easily condensed and therefore have greater solubility

Molecule Molecular weight

CH4 16

H2S 34

CO2 44

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Diffusivity

Diffusivity is ease of molecule to penetrate into some material It depends on size

of gas molecule Here size of molecule is not to be confused by molecular weight

it is the size of the structure Eg the size of O2 molecule is smaller than N2

Molecule Molecular Diameter (Ao)

CO2 33

H2S 36

Ch4 40

For cellulose acetate

DCO2DCH4 S CO2S CH4 P CO2P CH4

45 73 308

Chemical degradation

Cellulose acetate polymer is chemically degraded by a process called hydrolysis

which means breaking apart by the addition of water This is a chemical reaction

in which water is added to the cellulose acetate polymer causing the release of

acetic acid molecules This process proceeds stepwise until all the acetate

groups are released resulting in the reformation of cellulose Moreover alcohols

aromatic hydrocarbons or solvents with chlorine nitro benzene or similar

aromatic solvents will harm the membrane It will expand and lose plastification in

contact with them

Effect of Temperature

The permeation rates of all gases increases with increasing temperature

however membrane selectivity for CO2 over hydrocarbon decreases at higher

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temperature Consequently CO2 removal will improve as operating temperature

increases but hydro carbon recovery will decrease

Primary Membrane

The primary membranes comprise of two trains Each train consists of two

sections AB and CD each section consists of a 30 tube membrane skid (A and

C) followed by a 25 tube skid (B and D) The conditioned gas (after pre-

treatment) enters the primary membrane via the particulate filter adjacent to the

skid The gas is fed to the membranes through a common inlet manifold which

supplies primary membranes skids A and C A pressure control loop located

upstream of the manual inlet isolation valve is provided to maintain a constant

supply pressure to the membrane skid and to allow for preheating at the inlet

prior to skid start-up This pressure control loop can also be used during start-up

to control the pressurization of the pretreatment skid and associated pipes to the

primary membranes

The gas passes through membrane skid A the residual gas exiting the membrane

skid is sent to skid B and the permeate to common permeate discharge header An

identical arrangement is provide on the inlet to skid C as provided on skid A Theresidual gas from skid B combines with the residual gas from skid D in a common

discharge header and is then sent to the H2S polishing towers via the feed coolers

on the pre-treatment skid The permeate from skid B is sent to the common

permeate discharge header The permeate discharge header sends the gas to

either the recycle compressor or the vent header via a pressure control loop

Overpressure protection for the membranes is provided by a pressure safety valve

on the supply header to the membrane banks

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Secondary (Recycle) Membrane

The recycle membranes comprise of a single train with two skids each with four

banks of membrane tubes The conditioned gas from the discharge of the recycle

pre-treatment skid is routed to the first recycle membrane skid The gas passes

through the membranes the residual gas is fed to primary membrane (skid A) inlet

via feed gas cooler and permeate to the common permeate discharge header An

identical arrangement is provide on the inlet to skid B Permeate from the recycle

membrane skids A and B is routed to the vent header Some portion of permeate is

heated and sent for regeneration in Mem-Guard units Nitrogen purge can be

connected downstream of the inlet isolation valve on each skid to enable the

membrane tubes to be purged and left pressurized during prolonged shutdown

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Figure Flow Diagram of Recycle membrane unit

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ADVANTAGES OF MEMBRANE SYSTEMS

Membrane systems have major advantages over more-traditional methods of

acid gas removal

Lower capital cost Membrane systems are skid mounted and so the

scope cost and time taken for site preparation are minimal Installation

costs are significantly lower than alternative technologies especially for

remote areas Furthermore no additional facilities for solvent storage and

water treatment needed by other processes are required

Lower operating costs The only major operating cost for single-stage

membrane systems is membrane replacement This cost is significantly

lower than the solvent replacement and energy costs associated with

traditional technologies The improvements in membrane and

pretreatment design allow a longer useful membrane life which further

reduces operating costs The energy costs of multistage systems with

large recycle compressors are usually comparable to those for traditionaltechnologies

Deferred capital investment Often contracted sales-gas flow rates

increase over time as more wells are brought on-line With traditional

technologies the system design needs to take this later production into

account immediately and so the majority of the equipment is installed

before it is even needed The modular nature of membrane systems

means that only the membranes that are needed at start-up need be

installed The rest can be added either into existing tubes or in new skids

only when they are required

Operational simplicity and high reliability Because single-stage

membrane systems have no moving parts they have almost no

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unscheduled downtime and are extremely simple to operate They can

operate unattended for long periods of time The addition of a recycle

compressor adds some complexity to the system but still much less than

with a solvent- or adsorbent-based technology Multistage systems can be

operated at full capacity as single-stage systems when the recycle

compressor is down

Good weight and space efficiency Skid construction can be optimized

to the space available This space efficiency is especially important for

offshore environments where deck area is at a premium and is the

reason why so many new offshore developments have chosen to use

membranes for acid gas removal Figure 6 illustrates the space efficiency

of membrane systems The membrane unit in the lower left corner

replaced all the amine and glycol plant equipment shown in the rest of the

picture

Adaptability Because membrane area is dictated by the percentage of

acid gas removal rather than absolute acid gas removal small variations

in feed acid gas content hardly change the sales-gas acid gas

specification For example a system designed for 10 down to 3 acid

gas removal produces a 35 product from a 12 feed gas and a 5

product from a 15 feed gas

Design efficiency The membrane and pretreatment systems integrate a

number of operations such as dehydration CO2 and H2S removal dew-

point control and mercury removal Traditional acid gas removal

technologies require all of these operations as separate processes and

may also require additional dehydration because some technologies

saturate the product stream with water

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Power generation The permeate gas from membrane systems can be

used to provide fuel gas for power generation either for a recycle

compressor or other equipment

Ideal for debottlenecking Because expanding solvent- or adsorbent-

based acid gas removal plants without adding additional trains is difficult

an ideal solution is to use membranes for bulk acid gas removal and leave

the existing plant for final cleanup An additional advantage is that the

permeate gas from the membrane system can often be used as fuel for

the existing plant thus avoiding significant increase in hydrocarbon

losses

Environmentally friendly Membrane systems do not involve the

periodic removal and handling of spent solvents or adsorbents Permeate

gases can be flared used as fuel or re-injected into the well Items thatdo need disposal such as spent membrane elements can be incinerated

Ideal for remote locations Many of the factors mentioned above make

membrane systems a highly desirable technology for remote locations

where spare parts are rare and labor unskilled Furthermore solvents

storage and trucking water supply power generation or extensive

infrastructure are not required

Re-injection optimizations Since the permeate stream from the

membrane system can be operated at elevated pressures it is possible to

further pressurize by re-injection compression train

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Sorption

Sorption is a physical and chemical process by which one substance becomes

attached to another

It is of two main types

1 Absorption

2 Adsorption

Absorption

Absorption is a physical or chemical phenomenon or process in which atoms

molecules or ions enter some bulk phase ndash gas liquid or solid material This is a

different process from adsorption since molecules undergoing absorption are

taken up by the volume not by the surface (as in the case for adsorption)

Absorption process may be chemical (reactive) or physical (non-reactive)

Physical absorption

Physical absorption or non-reactive absorption is made between two phases ofmatter a liquid absorbs a gas or a solid absorbs a liquid

When a liquid solvent absorbs a gas mixture or part of it a mass of gas moves

into the liquid For example water may absorb oxygen from the air This mass

transfer takes place at the interface between the liquid and the gas at a rate

depending on both the gas and the liquid This type of absorption depends on the

solubility of gases the pressure and the temperature The rate and amount of

absorption also depend on the surface area of the interface and its duration in

time

When a solid absorbs a liquid mixture or part of it a mass of liquid moves into the

solid For example a clay pot used to store water may absorb some of the water

This mass transfer takes place at the interface between the solid and the liquid

at a rate depending on both the solid and the liquid

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Chemical absorption

Chemical absorption or reactive absorption is a chemical reaction between the

absorbed and the absorbing substances Sometimes it combines with physical

absorption This type of absorption depends upon the stoichiometry of the

reaction and the concentration of its reactants

Adsorption

Adsorption is the adhesion of atoms ions or molecules from a gas liquid or

dissolved solid to a surface This process creates a film of the adsorbate on the

surface of the adsorbent The binding to the surface is usually weak and

reversible Compounds with color and those that have taste or odor tend to bind

strongly Compounds that vibrate at frequencies in the visible spectrum are very

often are strongly adsorbed on activated carbon

The most common industrial adsorbents are activated carbon silica gel and

alumina because they present enormous surface areas per unit weight

Depending on the nature of attractive forces existing between the adsorbate and

adsorbent adsorption can be classified as

i) Physical adsorption

ii) Chemical adsorption

i) Physical adsorption (Physisorption)

In physical adsorption the forces of attraction between the molecules of the

adsorbate and the adsorbent are of the weak van der Waals type Since the

forces of attraction are weak the process of physisorption can be easily reversed

by heating or decreasing the pressure of the adsorbate (as in the case of gases)

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ii) Chemical adsorption (Chemisorption)

In chemisorption the forces of attraction between the adsorbate and the

adsorbent are very strong the molecules of adsorbate form chemical bonds with

the molecules of the adsorbent present in the surface

Adsorption is generally accompanied by release of energy that is most

adsorption processes are exothermic in nature Adsorption is a spontaneous

process therefore its free energy change is negative (∆Glt0) However the

entropy change associated with adsorption is generally negative because the

adsorbate molecules lose their translation freedom when they get attached to the

surface of the adsorbent Therefore in order for ∆G to be negative the enthalpy

change (∆H) must be sufficiently negative such that (∆G=∆H-T∆S) lt 0 This

explanation accounts for exothermic adsorption processes In cases where

endothermic adsorption occurs the entropy change ∆S is sufficiently positive

such that ∆G remains negative

Pre treatment

The main function of pretreatment skid is to provide membrane inlet specification

gas as mentioned by the vendor UOP It removes the contaminants that would

poison the membranes like dust solids (adsorbent particles) lube oil heavy

hydrocarbons etc It consists of

Feed Cooler

Feed Gas Scrubber

Filter Coalescer

Feed Gas Heater

Activated Carbon Guard Filter

Particle Filter

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The regeneration is carried out by heated permeate gas from the recycle

membranes at 450oF The vessel is depressurized to 20 psi and heated gas is

introduced from top The gas carries out the adsorbed contaminants and leaves

the vessel from bottom cleaning the adsorbent This contaminated gas is burnt in

the flare

UOP the vendor of Memguard unit has never disclosed that what substance

MG3 and MG5 exactly are But as mentioned by vendor that both care class of

aluminosilicates Therefore MG3 can be potassium aluminosilicate and MG5 can

be Calcium aluminosilicate These are molecular sieves adsorbents Molecular

sieves are a microporous material which can selectively adsorb gases andliquids They are synthetic zeolites (crystalline metal aluminosilicates) which

upon dehydration can efficiently and selectively remove water or other

solvents The selectivity of a molecular sieve is determined by its pore size

molecules with a critical diameter which is less than the pore size will be

efficiently adsorbed while larger molecules will be excluded

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3A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

The 3A molecular sieve adsorbent has a 3 angstrom (3A) pore size which means

that any molecule that is larger than the 3 angstrom pores will not be adsorbed

The 3A molecular sieve is the potassium type of A crystalline structure and is a

form of alkali Aluminosilicate For a 3A molecular sieve the sequence rate that

adsorption occurs is He Ne N and H2O

Due to the crystalline structure molecular sieves that have a 3 angstrom pore

size have a very high rate of adsorption and properties that promote a longer life

for products treated by the sieve The most common use for the 3A molecular

sieve is to remove water and moisture from materials that are in gas and liquid

form

5A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

These are molecular sieve adsorbents with a pore size of 5 angstrom (5A) 5A

molecular sieves are unable to adsorb any molecules or impurities that are

smaller than 5A It is calcium form of type A crystalline structure and is form of analkali-aluminosilicate that is most commonly used to separate isomerous alkanes

from normal alkanes and to co-adsorb moisture and water along with carbon

dioxide from gases In additional 5A molecular sieves are used for gaseous

pressure swing adsorption (PSA)mdashthat is to separate particular gases from other

gases

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of C3H8 to C22H46

Adsorption of Freon-12 (dichlorodifluoromethane)

Natural gas drying

Normal- and iso-paraffin separation

Separation of aromatic

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Inlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1096

MEHTANE 8593

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008

N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGEN 076

WATER 007

Outlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1098

MEHTANE 8608

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGENT 076

WATER 000

H2S polisher

The H2S polishing unit has been designed to treat 187 MMscfday of natural gas

containing up to 11 CO2 and 21 ppm H2S where the level of the CO2 and H2S

is reduced using a MemGuard Membrane separation unit The unit is situated

down-stream of the membrane unit and will further reduce the level of H2S in the

processed gas to a sales gas specification of 38 ppm

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This process uses three non-regenerable fixed bed absorber vessels using a low

temperature high activity absorbent The absorbent is a mixture of activated

metal oxides (mainly zinc oxide) The three towers can are generally operated in

parallel arrangement but on demand can be used in series (any of alternate

arrangements of A B C vessels) as shown in figure

The higher sales gas flow rate increased the catalyst consumption and

replacement frequency

ZnO + H2S =gt ZnS + H20

Routine samples are taken from the beds to provide a check on each bed

performance and to follow the saturation profile during the absorbent life After

the adsorbent has been fully utilized the adsorption vessels are recharged with

new adsorbent discarding the utilized one in a safe manner

109oF

1215 psig

Before H2S Polishing After H2S Polishing

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Figure

H2S Tower

Inlet pipe

4 Drums of 19mm

ceramic Balls

6 Micron mesh

5 Drums of 50mmceramic

1 Drums of19mm ceramic

01 Drums of6mm ceramic

112 drums of

Catalist ZnO

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Recycle Compressor

The permeate gas of the primary membrane unit carries recoverable amount of

CH4 It is fed to recycle membrane unit for further CH 4 recovery But the

permeate pressure from primary membranes which has been reduced to 12 psi

must be regenerated to 1200 psi for the gas to be fed again to the system For

this purpose we have employed recycle compressor The compressor is a four

stage centrifugal compressor It is driven by gas turbine of 31200 HP It has 25

MW producing capacity

Figure Recycle Compressor Process Flow Diagram

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Sales Gas Compressor

Gas from H2S polishing unit is sent to sales gas compressor where its pressure

is enhanced to 1100 psi so it may be injected to SNGPL high pressure trunk line

Sales gas compressor is single stage gas turbine driven

Figure Process Flow of Sales Gas Compressor

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Cooling Towers

A cooling tower is a heat rejection device which extracts waste heat to theatmosphere through the cooling of a water stream to a lower temperature Hot

water from the system enters the cooling tower and is distributed over the fill

(heat transfer surface) Air is induced or forced through the fill causing a small

portion of the water to evaporate This evaporation removes heat from the

remaining water which is collected in the cold water basin and returned to the

system to absorb more heat Each cooling tower line although operating under

the same basic principle of operation is arranged a little differently

Types

Natural draft mdash Utilizes buoyancy via a tall chimney Warm moist air naturally

rises due to the density differential compared to the dry cooler outside air Warm

moist air is less dense than drier air at the same pressure This moist air

buoyancy produces an upwards current of air through the tower

Mechanical draft mdash Uses power-driven fan motors to force or draw airthrough the tower

o Induced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a fan at the

discharge (at the top) which pulls air up through the tower The fan

induces hot moist air out the discharge This produces low entering

and high exiting air velocities reducing the possibility of

recirculation in which discharged air flows back into the air intake

o Forced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a blower type fan at

the intake The fan forces air into the tower creating high entering

and low exiting air velocities The low exiting velocity is much more

susceptible to recirculation This fanfill geometry is also known as

blow-through

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Forced Draft Cooling Tower Vs Induced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower have the ability to handle large water flow

rate than Forced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower is suitable for large cell sizes and fan sizes

as compared with Forced Draft Larger fan size may result in greater

efficiency and consequently lower power and sound level

Forced Draft Cooling Tower can be square or rectangular type only

however Induced Draft Cooling Towers can be round square or

rectangular type

Induced Draft Cooling Tower uses more compact ground area than Forced

Draft Cooling Tower equivalent capacity due to absence of fan on one

side

Fan equipment is warm exhaust air is less liable to icing up in winter

operation (Cold Countries)

Higher velocity in Forced Draft Cooling Tower cause drop in suspension

and cause additional static resistance to system

Configuration

There are two main configurations of factory assembled cooling towers crossflow

and counterflow In crossflow cooling towers the water flows vertically down the

fill as air flows horizontally across In counterflow cooling towers the water flows

vertically down the fill as air flows vertically up

Crossflow Configuration Counterflow Configuration

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Drift mdash Water droplets that are carried out of the cooling tower with the exhaust

air Drift droplets have the same concentration of impurities as the water entering

the tower The drift rate is typically reduced by employing baffle-like devices

called drift eliminators through which the air must travel after leaving the fill and

spray zones of the tower

Blow-out mdash Water droplets blown out of the cooling tower by wind generally at

the air inlet openings Water may also be lost in the absence of wind through

splashing or misting Devices such as wind screens louvers splash deflectors

and water diverters are used to limit these losses

Blow-down mdash The portion of the circulating water flow that is removed (usually

discharged to a drain) in order to maintain the amount of Total Dissolved Solids

(TDS) and other impurities at an acceptably low level Higher TDS concentration

in solution may result from greater cooling tower efficiency However the higher

the TDS concentration the greater the risk of scale biological growth and

corrosion

Make-up mdash The water that must be added to the circulating water system in

order to compensate for water losses such as evaporation drift loss blow-out

blow-down etc

Approach mdash The approach is the difference in temperature between the cooled-

water temperature and the entering-air wet bulb temperature

Range mdash The range is the temperature difference between the warm water inlet

and cooled water exit

Fill mdash Inside the tower fills are added to increase contact surface as well as

contact time between air and water to provide better heat transfer The efficiency

of the tower depends on the selection and amount of fill

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There are two types of fills that may be used

o Film type fill (causes water to spread into a thin film)

o Splash type fill (breaks up falling stream of water and interrupts its

vertical progress)

Important

Scale build up is controlled by adding chemicals to the cooling loop and diluting

the concentration by blow down and make-up Following chemicals are added to

the Cooling to control CorrosionSale and microbial growth

Corrosion Inhibitor To control corrosion in the Cooling system

Dispersant To kept ions in suspension to avoid settle down and buildup

Sodium hypo Chlorite To Control microbial Growth

Acid To control Alkalinity in the system

High Stress Polymer To run the system at higher conductivity It is a

multifunctional polymer for Zinc amp Phosphate stabilization in cooling tower

Fin Fan Cooler

Fin fan heat exchanger is simply a pressure vessel which cools a circulating fluid

within finned tubes by forcing ambient air over the exterior of the tubes A

common example of an air cooler is a carrsquos radiator Fin Fan Coolers are used in

any application where large quantities of heat need to be transferred This

includes chemical and petrochemical industries power stations waste-to-energy

facilities as well as steelworks

Fin Fan Cooler are used for two primary reasons

They increase plant efficiency

They are a green solution as compared to cooling towers and shell and

tube heat exchangers because they do not require an auxiliary water

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supply (water lost due to drift and evaporation plus no water treatment

chemicals are required)

Figure General Overview of Fin Fan Cooler

Produced Water

The produced water system receives liquid from the equipment Miano slug

catcher train 1 and 2 inlet separators and is fed to three phase separator where

water oil and gas is separated The gases produced are burnt in incinerator

whereas hydrocarbon liquid is stored to be sold Liquid from compressors

recycle inlet separator recycle feed scrubber high and low pressure slug

catchers is passed to degasser Separated water is injected down the earth

Incinerator

The term incinerate means to burn something until nothing is left but ashes An

incinerator is a unit or facility used to burn trash and other types of waste until it is

reduced to ash An incinerator is constructed of heavy well-insulated materials

so that it does not give off extreme amounts of external heat The high levels of

heat are kept inside the furnace or unit so that the waste is burned quickly and

efficiently If the heat were allowed to escape the waste would not burn as

completely or as rapidly

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Control System

The plant is controlled at CCR (Central Control Room) by PLCs (Programmable

Logic Controllers) through fiber optic control line All control parameters are

received at LER (Local Equipment Room) via two optic fiber control lines One

being primary and other secondary operating in redundancy ie if primary fails

control shifts to secondary These control parameters are sent to CCR via single

optic fiber cable

Safety System

Wellheads and Gas Processing Plant have their own Fire amp Gas detection

systems emergency shutdown (ESD) Plant has a fault tolerant controller It is

based on Triple Modular Redundant (TMR) architecture manufactured by

Triconex The TMR system is based on three isolated parallel control systems

integrated into one system The system operates on a two out of three voting

principle which provides high integrity error free uninterrupted operation with no

single point of failure The TMR receives inputs from Process Sensors Manual

Switches Fire amp Gas Detectors Packaged Equipment Control Systems and

Product Exporting Facilities The TMR carries out cause and effect processing on

the data received and where necessary produces output signals Outputs from

the TMR are hard wired directly to ESD shutdown and blow down valve

solenoids motor control instrumentelectrical interfaces to control electrical

drives package equipment logic control systems manifold area as well as

telecoms

The operator in central control room is able to accept alarms and once the fault

has been cleared reset the input All the control systems are centralized to a

single interface All the PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers) communicate with

the servers and servers communicate with the clients through Ethernet connectivity

Centralization eases the navigation of different systems at a common interface

Emergency Shutdown

The ESD system receives inputs from field mounted instrumentation on the process

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and utility equipment and initiates executive actions appropriate to the level of ESD

The system is an Active system which is in standby and will activate when in an

alarm or fault condition The Kadanwari Gas Process Facility ESD system is

comprised of five (5) levels The emergency severity decreases with increasing ESD

level number

ESD 1

This shutdown level is automatically initiated by fire major gas leak or a detected

toxic atmosphere in the process area of the plant or manually from CCR A level 1

shutdown will cause all production to cease close all emergency shutdown

valves stop the process and shutdown of the main power generation The

emergency vent valves to the stack will open and in addition all equipment of zone 1

certified will be isolated This is the highest level of ESD and will cause the following

to occur

All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close All slowdown Valves (BDVs) on the process facility will open

All Main Gas Driven Generators will be tripped

Emergency Diesel Generator will start

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close Upper Master Valve

(UMV) Close

ESD 2

This shutdown level is activated automatically if a major process or utility failure

occurs or manually from CCR All production to the plant from the wellhead is

stopped All emergency shutdown valves trip to their fail safe position

Venting shall be as specified This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

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All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valve Close Wing Valves Close and Upper Master Valve(UMV) Close

ESD 3

The level 3 shutdown isolates and stops a single process train only Production

continues via the other train This ESD level is initiated by process conditions or

operator at local panel This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

ESD 3A Train 1 production to cease

ESD 3B Train 2 production to cease

All online wellhead choke valves go to minimum flow ie (1O )

ESD 4

A level 4 shutdown shall cease all production from an entire field either

Kadanwari or Miano upstream of the associated slug catchers ESD 4K for

Kadanwari amp ESD 4M for Miano This ESD level is initiated automatically by slug

catcher abnormal process conditions This level of ESD will cause the following

to occur

All SDVs close isolating the relevant slug catcher and its upstream gas

production facility from the Kadanwari Gas Processing Plant

All Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close and Upper MasterValves (UMV) of the relevant gas production facility Close

A parallel timer is provided to close within 10 second if not closed in given

time SSSV seals the well

ESD 5

A level 5 shutdown represents equipment shutdown for the protection of the

individual equipment without any change in the process This level of ESD is for the

protection of various pieces of equipment and is initiated by its own inputs eg

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MEMBRANES

The gas contains 12 carbon dioxide and 22 ppm of hydrogen sulphide at 115oF

and 1100 psig This needs to be removed before the gas can be exported The

majority of carbon dioxide hydrogen sulphide and water is removed by means of

membranes

Membranes are thin semipermeable barriers that selectively separate some

compounds from others Currently the only commercially workable membranes

used for CO2 removal are polymer based for example cellulose acetate

polyimides polyamides polysulfone polycarbonates and polyetherimide The

membrane does not operate as a filter where small molecules are separated

from larger ones through a medium with pores rather it separates based on how

well different compounds dissolve into the membrane and diffuse through it The

membranes are manufactured in flat sheets consisting of an extremely thin

nonporous layer mounted on a much-thicker and highly porous layer of the same

material providing mechanical strength The flat sheets are combined into a

spiral-wound element (Figure below) Feed gas enters along the side of the

membrane and passes through the feed spacers As the gas travels between

membrane sheets CO2 H2S and H2O permeate through the membrane and are

collected in the permeate tube The driving force for transport is the high-feed

pressure and low-permeate pressures The gas on the feed side that does not

permeate leaves through the side of the element opposite the feed position Once

the membranes have been manufactured into elements six to 12 elements are

joined together and inserted into a tube Multiple tubes are mounted on skids in a

horizontal orientation

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Figure Membrane general Working

In high H2S applications most polymers have been shown to have very little

resistance to H2S plasticization (ldquosofteningrdquo of the membrane) and as a

consequence can only be used at very low H2S partial pressure limits Cellulose

acetate membranes in contrast have been shown to be applicable at extreme

H2S partial pressure conditions It is these membranes that have been utilized in

the testing to determine the limits of membrane performance in high H 2S

applications

The primary membranes used in Kadanwari facility are Cellulose acetate

Cellulose acetic acid and acetic anhydride are mixed together and reacted to

form cellulose acetate polymers This process is aided by the addition of a small

amount of sulfuric acid which is subsequently neutralized during processing

However the membranes are bought from UOP (vendor) and installed for use

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How membrane work

The basic principle of separation is selectivity of certain components of a mixture

for the membrane For example the cellulose acetate membrane has very high

selectivity for CO2 and H2S as compared to CH4 Therefore such type of

membrane can be used in gas sweetening process

The selectivity is directly related to the Permeability of gas which accounts that

which gas can pass across the membrane more easily In simple words

membranes being polymer materials are made of long chains of molecules The

different structure of polymer materials only allow selective molecules to pass

through them depending upon chemical and physical compatibility Thus

permeability depends upon choice of polymer

The permeability is determined by permeability coefficient (P) and is product of

solubility (S) and diffusivity (D)

P = S D

Solubility

The solubility is mainly determined by ease of condensation Heavy molecules

are more readily condensed Therefore higher molecular weighted molecules will

more easily condensed and therefore have greater solubility

Molecule Molecular weight

CH4 16

H2S 34

CO2 44

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Diffusivity

Diffusivity is ease of molecule to penetrate into some material It depends on size

of gas molecule Here size of molecule is not to be confused by molecular weight

it is the size of the structure Eg the size of O2 molecule is smaller than N2

Molecule Molecular Diameter (Ao)

CO2 33

H2S 36

Ch4 40

For cellulose acetate

DCO2DCH4 S CO2S CH4 P CO2P CH4

45 73 308

Chemical degradation

Cellulose acetate polymer is chemically degraded by a process called hydrolysis

which means breaking apart by the addition of water This is a chemical reaction

in which water is added to the cellulose acetate polymer causing the release of

acetic acid molecules This process proceeds stepwise until all the acetate

groups are released resulting in the reformation of cellulose Moreover alcohols

aromatic hydrocarbons or solvents with chlorine nitro benzene or similar

aromatic solvents will harm the membrane It will expand and lose plastification in

contact with them

Effect of Temperature

The permeation rates of all gases increases with increasing temperature

however membrane selectivity for CO2 over hydrocarbon decreases at higher

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temperature Consequently CO2 removal will improve as operating temperature

increases but hydro carbon recovery will decrease

Primary Membrane

The primary membranes comprise of two trains Each train consists of two

sections AB and CD each section consists of a 30 tube membrane skid (A and

C) followed by a 25 tube skid (B and D) The conditioned gas (after pre-

treatment) enters the primary membrane via the particulate filter adjacent to the

skid The gas is fed to the membranes through a common inlet manifold which

supplies primary membranes skids A and C A pressure control loop located

upstream of the manual inlet isolation valve is provided to maintain a constant

supply pressure to the membrane skid and to allow for preheating at the inlet

prior to skid start-up This pressure control loop can also be used during start-up

to control the pressurization of the pretreatment skid and associated pipes to the

primary membranes

The gas passes through membrane skid A the residual gas exiting the membrane

skid is sent to skid B and the permeate to common permeate discharge header An

identical arrangement is provide on the inlet to skid C as provided on skid A Theresidual gas from skid B combines with the residual gas from skid D in a common

discharge header and is then sent to the H2S polishing towers via the feed coolers

on the pre-treatment skid The permeate from skid B is sent to the common

permeate discharge header The permeate discharge header sends the gas to

either the recycle compressor or the vent header via a pressure control loop

Overpressure protection for the membranes is provided by a pressure safety valve

on the supply header to the membrane banks

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Secondary (Recycle) Membrane

The recycle membranes comprise of a single train with two skids each with four

banks of membrane tubes The conditioned gas from the discharge of the recycle

pre-treatment skid is routed to the first recycle membrane skid The gas passes

through the membranes the residual gas is fed to primary membrane (skid A) inlet

via feed gas cooler and permeate to the common permeate discharge header An

identical arrangement is provide on the inlet to skid B Permeate from the recycle

membrane skids A and B is routed to the vent header Some portion of permeate is

heated and sent for regeneration in Mem-Guard units Nitrogen purge can be

connected downstream of the inlet isolation valve on each skid to enable the

membrane tubes to be purged and left pressurized during prolonged shutdown

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Figure Flow Diagram of Recycle membrane unit

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ADVANTAGES OF MEMBRANE SYSTEMS

Membrane systems have major advantages over more-traditional methods of

acid gas removal

Lower capital cost Membrane systems are skid mounted and so the

scope cost and time taken for site preparation are minimal Installation

costs are significantly lower than alternative technologies especially for

remote areas Furthermore no additional facilities for solvent storage and

water treatment needed by other processes are required

Lower operating costs The only major operating cost for single-stage

membrane systems is membrane replacement This cost is significantly

lower than the solvent replacement and energy costs associated with

traditional technologies The improvements in membrane and

pretreatment design allow a longer useful membrane life which further

reduces operating costs The energy costs of multistage systems with

large recycle compressors are usually comparable to those for traditionaltechnologies

Deferred capital investment Often contracted sales-gas flow rates

increase over time as more wells are brought on-line With traditional

technologies the system design needs to take this later production into

account immediately and so the majority of the equipment is installed

before it is even needed The modular nature of membrane systems

means that only the membranes that are needed at start-up need be

installed The rest can be added either into existing tubes or in new skids

only when they are required

Operational simplicity and high reliability Because single-stage

membrane systems have no moving parts they have almost no

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unscheduled downtime and are extremely simple to operate They can

operate unattended for long periods of time The addition of a recycle

compressor adds some complexity to the system but still much less than

with a solvent- or adsorbent-based technology Multistage systems can be

operated at full capacity as single-stage systems when the recycle

compressor is down

Good weight and space efficiency Skid construction can be optimized

to the space available This space efficiency is especially important for

offshore environments where deck area is at a premium and is the

reason why so many new offshore developments have chosen to use

membranes for acid gas removal Figure 6 illustrates the space efficiency

of membrane systems The membrane unit in the lower left corner

replaced all the amine and glycol plant equipment shown in the rest of the

picture

Adaptability Because membrane area is dictated by the percentage of

acid gas removal rather than absolute acid gas removal small variations

in feed acid gas content hardly change the sales-gas acid gas

specification For example a system designed for 10 down to 3 acid

gas removal produces a 35 product from a 12 feed gas and a 5

product from a 15 feed gas

Design efficiency The membrane and pretreatment systems integrate a

number of operations such as dehydration CO2 and H2S removal dew-

point control and mercury removal Traditional acid gas removal

technologies require all of these operations as separate processes and

may also require additional dehydration because some technologies

saturate the product stream with water

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Power generation The permeate gas from membrane systems can be

used to provide fuel gas for power generation either for a recycle

compressor or other equipment

Ideal for debottlenecking Because expanding solvent- or adsorbent-

based acid gas removal plants without adding additional trains is difficult

an ideal solution is to use membranes for bulk acid gas removal and leave

the existing plant for final cleanup An additional advantage is that the

permeate gas from the membrane system can often be used as fuel for

the existing plant thus avoiding significant increase in hydrocarbon

losses

Environmentally friendly Membrane systems do not involve the

periodic removal and handling of spent solvents or adsorbents Permeate

gases can be flared used as fuel or re-injected into the well Items thatdo need disposal such as spent membrane elements can be incinerated

Ideal for remote locations Many of the factors mentioned above make

membrane systems a highly desirable technology for remote locations

where spare parts are rare and labor unskilled Furthermore solvents

storage and trucking water supply power generation or extensive

infrastructure are not required

Re-injection optimizations Since the permeate stream from the

membrane system can be operated at elevated pressures it is possible to

further pressurize by re-injection compression train

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Sorption

Sorption is a physical and chemical process by which one substance becomes

attached to another

It is of two main types

1 Absorption

2 Adsorption

Absorption

Absorption is a physical or chemical phenomenon or process in which atoms

molecules or ions enter some bulk phase ndash gas liquid or solid material This is a

different process from adsorption since molecules undergoing absorption are

taken up by the volume not by the surface (as in the case for adsorption)

Absorption process may be chemical (reactive) or physical (non-reactive)

Physical absorption

Physical absorption or non-reactive absorption is made between two phases ofmatter a liquid absorbs a gas or a solid absorbs a liquid

When a liquid solvent absorbs a gas mixture or part of it a mass of gas moves

into the liquid For example water may absorb oxygen from the air This mass

transfer takes place at the interface between the liquid and the gas at a rate

depending on both the gas and the liquid This type of absorption depends on the

solubility of gases the pressure and the temperature The rate and amount of

absorption also depend on the surface area of the interface and its duration in

time

When a solid absorbs a liquid mixture or part of it a mass of liquid moves into the

solid For example a clay pot used to store water may absorb some of the water

This mass transfer takes place at the interface between the solid and the liquid

at a rate depending on both the solid and the liquid

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Chemical absorption

Chemical absorption or reactive absorption is a chemical reaction between the

absorbed and the absorbing substances Sometimes it combines with physical

absorption This type of absorption depends upon the stoichiometry of the

reaction and the concentration of its reactants

Adsorption

Adsorption is the adhesion of atoms ions or molecules from a gas liquid or

dissolved solid to a surface This process creates a film of the adsorbate on the

surface of the adsorbent The binding to the surface is usually weak and

reversible Compounds with color and those that have taste or odor tend to bind

strongly Compounds that vibrate at frequencies in the visible spectrum are very

often are strongly adsorbed on activated carbon

The most common industrial adsorbents are activated carbon silica gel and

alumina because they present enormous surface areas per unit weight

Depending on the nature of attractive forces existing between the adsorbate and

adsorbent adsorption can be classified as

i) Physical adsorption

ii) Chemical adsorption

i) Physical adsorption (Physisorption)

In physical adsorption the forces of attraction between the molecules of the

adsorbate and the adsorbent are of the weak van der Waals type Since the

forces of attraction are weak the process of physisorption can be easily reversed

by heating or decreasing the pressure of the adsorbate (as in the case of gases)

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ii) Chemical adsorption (Chemisorption)

In chemisorption the forces of attraction between the adsorbate and the

adsorbent are very strong the molecules of adsorbate form chemical bonds with

the molecules of the adsorbent present in the surface

Adsorption is generally accompanied by release of energy that is most

adsorption processes are exothermic in nature Adsorption is a spontaneous

process therefore its free energy change is negative (∆Glt0) However the

entropy change associated with adsorption is generally negative because the

adsorbate molecules lose their translation freedom when they get attached to the

surface of the adsorbent Therefore in order for ∆G to be negative the enthalpy

change (∆H) must be sufficiently negative such that (∆G=∆H-T∆S) lt 0 This

explanation accounts for exothermic adsorption processes In cases where

endothermic adsorption occurs the entropy change ∆S is sufficiently positive

such that ∆G remains negative

Pre treatment

The main function of pretreatment skid is to provide membrane inlet specification

gas as mentioned by the vendor UOP It removes the contaminants that would

poison the membranes like dust solids (adsorbent particles) lube oil heavy

hydrocarbons etc It consists of

Feed Cooler

Feed Gas Scrubber

Filter Coalescer

Feed Gas Heater

Activated Carbon Guard Filter

Particle Filter

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The regeneration is carried out by heated permeate gas from the recycle

membranes at 450oF The vessel is depressurized to 20 psi and heated gas is

introduced from top The gas carries out the adsorbed contaminants and leaves

the vessel from bottom cleaning the adsorbent This contaminated gas is burnt in

the flare

UOP the vendor of Memguard unit has never disclosed that what substance

MG3 and MG5 exactly are But as mentioned by vendor that both care class of

aluminosilicates Therefore MG3 can be potassium aluminosilicate and MG5 can

be Calcium aluminosilicate These are molecular sieves adsorbents Molecular

sieves are a microporous material which can selectively adsorb gases andliquids They are synthetic zeolites (crystalline metal aluminosilicates) which

upon dehydration can efficiently and selectively remove water or other

solvents The selectivity of a molecular sieve is determined by its pore size

molecules with a critical diameter which is less than the pore size will be

efficiently adsorbed while larger molecules will be excluded

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3A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

The 3A molecular sieve adsorbent has a 3 angstrom (3A) pore size which means

that any molecule that is larger than the 3 angstrom pores will not be adsorbed

The 3A molecular sieve is the potassium type of A crystalline structure and is a

form of alkali Aluminosilicate For a 3A molecular sieve the sequence rate that

adsorption occurs is He Ne N and H2O

Due to the crystalline structure molecular sieves that have a 3 angstrom pore

size have a very high rate of adsorption and properties that promote a longer life

for products treated by the sieve The most common use for the 3A molecular

sieve is to remove water and moisture from materials that are in gas and liquid

form

5A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

These are molecular sieve adsorbents with a pore size of 5 angstrom (5A) 5A

molecular sieves are unable to adsorb any molecules or impurities that are

smaller than 5A It is calcium form of type A crystalline structure and is form of analkali-aluminosilicate that is most commonly used to separate isomerous alkanes

from normal alkanes and to co-adsorb moisture and water along with carbon

dioxide from gases In additional 5A molecular sieves are used for gaseous

pressure swing adsorption (PSA)mdashthat is to separate particular gases from other

gases

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of C3H8 to C22H46

Adsorption of Freon-12 (dichlorodifluoromethane)

Natural gas drying

Normal- and iso-paraffin separation

Separation of aromatic

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Inlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1096

MEHTANE 8593

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008

N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGEN 076

WATER 007

Outlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1098

MEHTANE 8608

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGENT 076

WATER 000

H2S polisher

The H2S polishing unit has been designed to treat 187 MMscfday of natural gas

containing up to 11 CO2 and 21 ppm H2S where the level of the CO2 and H2S

is reduced using a MemGuard Membrane separation unit The unit is situated

down-stream of the membrane unit and will further reduce the level of H2S in the

processed gas to a sales gas specification of 38 ppm

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This process uses three non-regenerable fixed bed absorber vessels using a low

temperature high activity absorbent The absorbent is a mixture of activated

metal oxides (mainly zinc oxide) The three towers can are generally operated in

parallel arrangement but on demand can be used in series (any of alternate

arrangements of A B C vessels) as shown in figure

The higher sales gas flow rate increased the catalyst consumption and

replacement frequency

ZnO + H2S =gt ZnS + H20

Routine samples are taken from the beds to provide a check on each bed

performance and to follow the saturation profile during the absorbent life After

the adsorbent has been fully utilized the adsorption vessels are recharged with

new adsorbent discarding the utilized one in a safe manner

109oF

1215 psig

Before H2S Polishing After H2S Polishing

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Figure

H2S Tower

Inlet pipe

4 Drums of 19mm

ceramic Balls

6 Micron mesh

5 Drums of 50mmceramic

1 Drums of19mm ceramic

01 Drums of6mm ceramic

112 drums of

Catalist ZnO

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Recycle Compressor

The permeate gas of the primary membrane unit carries recoverable amount of

CH4 It is fed to recycle membrane unit for further CH 4 recovery But the

permeate pressure from primary membranes which has been reduced to 12 psi

must be regenerated to 1200 psi for the gas to be fed again to the system For

this purpose we have employed recycle compressor The compressor is a four

stage centrifugal compressor It is driven by gas turbine of 31200 HP It has 25

MW producing capacity

Figure Recycle Compressor Process Flow Diagram

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Sales Gas Compressor

Gas from H2S polishing unit is sent to sales gas compressor where its pressure

is enhanced to 1100 psi so it may be injected to SNGPL high pressure trunk line

Sales gas compressor is single stage gas turbine driven

Figure Process Flow of Sales Gas Compressor

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Cooling Towers

A cooling tower is a heat rejection device which extracts waste heat to theatmosphere through the cooling of a water stream to a lower temperature Hot

water from the system enters the cooling tower and is distributed over the fill

(heat transfer surface) Air is induced or forced through the fill causing a small

portion of the water to evaporate This evaporation removes heat from the

remaining water which is collected in the cold water basin and returned to the

system to absorb more heat Each cooling tower line although operating under

the same basic principle of operation is arranged a little differently

Types

Natural draft mdash Utilizes buoyancy via a tall chimney Warm moist air naturally

rises due to the density differential compared to the dry cooler outside air Warm

moist air is less dense than drier air at the same pressure This moist air

buoyancy produces an upwards current of air through the tower

Mechanical draft mdash Uses power-driven fan motors to force or draw airthrough the tower

o Induced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a fan at the

discharge (at the top) which pulls air up through the tower The fan

induces hot moist air out the discharge This produces low entering

and high exiting air velocities reducing the possibility of

recirculation in which discharged air flows back into the air intake

o Forced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a blower type fan at

the intake The fan forces air into the tower creating high entering

and low exiting air velocities The low exiting velocity is much more

susceptible to recirculation This fanfill geometry is also known as

blow-through

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Forced Draft Cooling Tower Vs Induced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower have the ability to handle large water flow

rate than Forced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower is suitable for large cell sizes and fan sizes

as compared with Forced Draft Larger fan size may result in greater

efficiency and consequently lower power and sound level

Forced Draft Cooling Tower can be square or rectangular type only

however Induced Draft Cooling Towers can be round square or

rectangular type

Induced Draft Cooling Tower uses more compact ground area than Forced

Draft Cooling Tower equivalent capacity due to absence of fan on one

side

Fan equipment is warm exhaust air is less liable to icing up in winter

operation (Cold Countries)

Higher velocity in Forced Draft Cooling Tower cause drop in suspension

and cause additional static resistance to system

Configuration

There are two main configurations of factory assembled cooling towers crossflow

and counterflow In crossflow cooling towers the water flows vertically down the

fill as air flows horizontally across In counterflow cooling towers the water flows

vertically down the fill as air flows vertically up

Crossflow Configuration Counterflow Configuration

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Drift mdash Water droplets that are carried out of the cooling tower with the exhaust

air Drift droplets have the same concentration of impurities as the water entering

the tower The drift rate is typically reduced by employing baffle-like devices

called drift eliminators through which the air must travel after leaving the fill and

spray zones of the tower

Blow-out mdash Water droplets blown out of the cooling tower by wind generally at

the air inlet openings Water may also be lost in the absence of wind through

splashing or misting Devices such as wind screens louvers splash deflectors

and water diverters are used to limit these losses

Blow-down mdash The portion of the circulating water flow that is removed (usually

discharged to a drain) in order to maintain the amount of Total Dissolved Solids

(TDS) and other impurities at an acceptably low level Higher TDS concentration

in solution may result from greater cooling tower efficiency However the higher

the TDS concentration the greater the risk of scale biological growth and

corrosion

Make-up mdash The water that must be added to the circulating water system in

order to compensate for water losses such as evaporation drift loss blow-out

blow-down etc

Approach mdash The approach is the difference in temperature between the cooled-

water temperature and the entering-air wet bulb temperature

Range mdash The range is the temperature difference between the warm water inlet

and cooled water exit

Fill mdash Inside the tower fills are added to increase contact surface as well as

contact time between air and water to provide better heat transfer The efficiency

of the tower depends on the selection and amount of fill

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There are two types of fills that may be used

o Film type fill (causes water to spread into a thin film)

o Splash type fill (breaks up falling stream of water and interrupts its

vertical progress)

Important

Scale build up is controlled by adding chemicals to the cooling loop and diluting

the concentration by blow down and make-up Following chemicals are added to

the Cooling to control CorrosionSale and microbial growth

Corrosion Inhibitor To control corrosion in the Cooling system

Dispersant To kept ions in suspension to avoid settle down and buildup

Sodium hypo Chlorite To Control microbial Growth

Acid To control Alkalinity in the system

High Stress Polymer To run the system at higher conductivity It is a

multifunctional polymer for Zinc amp Phosphate stabilization in cooling tower

Fin Fan Cooler

Fin fan heat exchanger is simply a pressure vessel which cools a circulating fluid

within finned tubes by forcing ambient air over the exterior of the tubes A

common example of an air cooler is a carrsquos radiator Fin Fan Coolers are used in

any application where large quantities of heat need to be transferred This

includes chemical and petrochemical industries power stations waste-to-energy

facilities as well as steelworks

Fin Fan Cooler are used for two primary reasons

They increase plant efficiency

They are a green solution as compared to cooling towers and shell and

tube heat exchangers because they do not require an auxiliary water

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supply (water lost due to drift and evaporation plus no water treatment

chemicals are required)

Figure General Overview of Fin Fan Cooler

Produced Water

The produced water system receives liquid from the equipment Miano slug

catcher train 1 and 2 inlet separators and is fed to three phase separator where

water oil and gas is separated The gases produced are burnt in incinerator

whereas hydrocarbon liquid is stored to be sold Liquid from compressors

recycle inlet separator recycle feed scrubber high and low pressure slug

catchers is passed to degasser Separated water is injected down the earth

Incinerator

The term incinerate means to burn something until nothing is left but ashes An

incinerator is a unit or facility used to burn trash and other types of waste until it is

reduced to ash An incinerator is constructed of heavy well-insulated materials

so that it does not give off extreme amounts of external heat The high levels of

heat are kept inside the furnace or unit so that the waste is burned quickly and

efficiently If the heat were allowed to escape the waste would not burn as

completely or as rapidly

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Control System

The plant is controlled at CCR (Central Control Room) by PLCs (Programmable

Logic Controllers) through fiber optic control line All control parameters are

received at LER (Local Equipment Room) via two optic fiber control lines One

being primary and other secondary operating in redundancy ie if primary fails

control shifts to secondary These control parameters are sent to CCR via single

optic fiber cable

Safety System

Wellheads and Gas Processing Plant have their own Fire amp Gas detection

systems emergency shutdown (ESD) Plant has a fault tolerant controller It is

based on Triple Modular Redundant (TMR) architecture manufactured by

Triconex The TMR system is based on three isolated parallel control systems

integrated into one system The system operates on a two out of three voting

principle which provides high integrity error free uninterrupted operation with no

single point of failure The TMR receives inputs from Process Sensors Manual

Switches Fire amp Gas Detectors Packaged Equipment Control Systems and

Product Exporting Facilities The TMR carries out cause and effect processing on

the data received and where necessary produces output signals Outputs from

the TMR are hard wired directly to ESD shutdown and blow down valve

solenoids motor control instrumentelectrical interfaces to control electrical

drives package equipment logic control systems manifold area as well as

telecoms

The operator in central control room is able to accept alarms and once the fault

has been cleared reset the input All the control systems are centralized to a

single interface All the PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers) communicate with

the servers and servers communicate with the clients through Ethernet connectivity

Centralization eases the navigation of different systems at a common interface

Emergency Shutdown

The ESD system receives inputs from field mounted instrumentation on the process

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and utility equipment and initiates executive actions appropriate to the level of ESD

The system is an Active system which is in standby and will activate when in an

alarm or fault condition The Kadanwari Gas Process Facility ESD system is

comprised of five (5) levels The emergency severity decreases with increasing ESD

level number

ESD 1

This shutdown level is automatically initiated by fire major gas leak or a detected

toxic atmosphere in the process area of the plant or manually from CCR A level 1

shutdown will cause all production to cease close all emergency shutdown

valves stop the process and shutdown of the main power generation The

emergency vent valves to the stack will open and in addition all equipment of zone 1

certified will be isolated This is the highest level of ESD and will cause the following

to occur

All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close All slowdown Valves (BDVs) on the process facility will open

All Main Gas Driven Generators will be tripped

Emergency Diesel Generator will start

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close Upper Master Valve

(UMV) Close

ESD 2

This shutdown level is activated automatically if a major process or utility failure

occurs or manually from CCR All production to the plant from the wellhead is

stopped All emergency shutdown valves trip to their fail safe position

Venting shall be as specified This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

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All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valve Close Wing Valves Close and Upper Master Valve(UMV) Close

ESD 3

The level 3 shutdown isolates and stops a single process train only Production

continues via the other train This ESD level is initiated by process conditions or

operator at local panel This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

ESD 3A Train 1 production to cease

ESD 3B Train 2 production to cease

All online wellhead choke valves go to minimum flow ie (1O )

ESD 4

A level 4 shutdown shall cease all production from an entire field either

Kadanwari or Miano upstream of the associated slug catchers ESD 4K for

Kadanwari amp ESD 4M for Miano This ESD level is initiated automatically by slug

catcher abnormal process conditions This level of ESD will cause the following

to occur

All SDVs close isolating the relevant slug catcher and its upstream gas

production facility from the Kadanwari Gas Processing Plant

All Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close and Upper MasterValves (UMV) of the relevant gas production facility Close

A parallel timer is provided to close within 10 second if not closed in given

time SSSV seals the well

ESD 5

A level 5 shutdown represents equipment shutdown for the protection of the

individual equipment without any change in the process This level of ESD is for the

protection of various pieces of equipment and is initiated by its own inputs eg

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Figure Membrane general Working

In high H2S applications most polymers have been shown to have very little

resistance to H2S plasticization (ldquosofteningrdquo of the membrane) and as a

consequence can only be used at very low H2S partial pressure limits Cellulose

acetate membranes in contrast have been shown to be applicable at extreme

H2S partial pressure conditions It is these membranes that have been utilized in

the testing to determine the limits of membrane performance in high H 2S

applications

The primary membranes used in Kadanwari facility are Cellulose acetate

Cellulose acetic acid and acetic anhydride are mixed together and reacted to

form cellulose acetate polymers This process is aided by the addition of a small

amount of sulfuric acid which is subsequently neutralized during processing

However the membranes are bought from UOP (vendor) and installed for use

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How membrane work

The basic principle of separation is selectivity of certain components of a mixture

for the membrane For example the cellulose acetate membrane has very high

selectivity for CO2 and H2S as compared to CH4 Therefore such type of

membrane can be used in gas sweetening process

The selectivity is directly related to the Permeability of gas which accounts that

which gas can pass across the membrane more easily In simple words

membranes being polymer materials are made of long chains of molecules The

different structure of polymer materials only allow selective molecules to pass

through them depending upon chemical and physical compatibility Thus

permeability depends upon choice of polymer

The permeability is determined by permeability coefficient (P) and is product of

solubility (S) and diffusivity (D)

P = S D

Solubility

The solubility is mainly determined by ease of condensation Heavy molecules

are more readily condensed Therefore higher molecular weighted molecules will

more easily condensed and therefore have greater solubility

Molecule Molecular weight

CH4 16

H2S 34

CO2 44

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Diffusivity

Diffusivity is ease of molecule to penetrate into some material It depends on size

of gas molecule Here size of molecule is not to be confused by molecular weight

it is the size of the structure Eg the size of O2 molecule is smaller than N2

Molecule Molecular Diameter (Ao)

CO2 33

H2S 36

Ch4 40

For cellulose acetate

DCO2DCH4 S CO2S CH4 P CO2P CH4

45 73 308

Chemical degradation

Cellulose acetate polymer is chemically degraded by a process called hydrolysis

which means breaking apart by the addition of water This is a chemical reaction

in which water is added to the cellulose acetate polymer causing the release of

acetic acid molecules This process proceeds stepwise until all the acetate

groups are released resulting in the reformation of cellulose Moreover alcohols

aromatic hydrocarbons or solvents with chlorine nitro benzene or similar

aromatic solvents will harm the membrane It will expand and lose plastification in

contact with them

Effect of Temperature

The permeation rates of all gases increases with increasing temperature

however membrane selectivity for CO2 over hydrocarbon decreases at higher

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temperature Consequently CO2 removal will improve as operating temperature

increases but hydro carbon recovery will decrease

Primary Membrane

The primary membranes comprise of two trains Each train consists of two

sections AB and CD each section consists of a 30 tube membrane skid (A and

C) followed by a 25 tube skid (B and D) The conditioned gas (after pre-

treatment) enters the primary membrane via the particulate filter adjacent to the

skid The gas is fed to the membranes through a common inlet manifold which

supplies primary membranes skids A and C A pressure control loop located

upstream of the manual inlet isolation valve is provided to maintain a constant

supply pressure to the membrane skid and to allow for preheating at the inlet

prior to skid start-up This pressure control loop can also be used during start-up

to control the pressurization of the pretreatment skid and associated pipes to the

primary membranes

The gas passes through membrane skid A the residual gas exiting the membrane

skid is sent to skid B and the permeate to common permeate discharge header An

identical arrangement is provide on the inlet to skid C as provided on skid A Theresidual gas from skid B combines with the residual gas from skid D in a common

discharge header and is then sent to the H2S polishing towers via the feed coolers

on the pre-treatment skid The permeate from skid B is sent to the common

permeate discharge header The permeate discharge header sends the gas to

either the recycle compressor or the vent header via a pressure control loop

Overpressure protection for the membranes is provided by a pressure safety valve

on the supply header to the membrane banks

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Secondary (Recycle) Membrane

The recycle membranes comprise of a single train with two skids each with four

banks of membrane tubes The conditioned gas from the discharge of the recycle

pre-treatment skid is routed to the first recycle membrane skid The gas passes

through the membranes the residual gas is fed to primary membrane (skid A) inlet

via feed gas cooler and permeate to the common permeate discharge header An

identical arrangement is provide on the inlet to skid B Permeate from the recycle

membrane skids A and B is routed to the vent header Some portion of permeate is

heated and sent for regeneration in Mem-Guard units Nitrogen purge can be

connected downstream of the inlet isolation valve on each skid to enable the

membrane tubes to be purged and left pressurized during prolonged shutdown

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Figure Flow Diagram of Recycle membrane unit

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ADVANTAGES OF MEMBRANE SYSTEMS

Membrane systems have major advantages over more-traditional methods of

acid gas removal

Lower capital cost Membrane systems are skid mounted and so the

scope cost and time taken for site preparation are minimal Installation

costs are significantly lower than alternative technologies especially for

remote areas Furthermore no additional facilities for solvent storage and

water treatment needed by other processes are required

Lower operating costs The only major operating cost for single-stage

membrane systems is membrane replacement This cost is significantly

lower than the solvent replacement and energy costs associated with

traditional technologies The improvements in membrane and

pretreatment design allow a longer useful membrane life which further

reduces operating costs The energy costs of multistage systems with

large recycle compressors are usually comparable to those for traditionaltechnologies

Deferred capital investment Often contracted sales-gas flow rates

increase over time as more wells are brought on-line With traditional

technologies the system design needs to take this later production into

account immediately and so the majority of the equipment is installed

before it is even needed The modular nature of membrane systems

means that only the membranes that are needed at start-up need be

installed The rest can be added either into existing tubes or in new skids

only when they are required

Operational simplicity and high reliability Because single-stage

membrane systems have no moving parts they have almost no

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unscheduled downtime and are extremely simple to operate They can

operate unattended for long periods of time The addition of a recycle

compressor adds some complexity to the system but still much less than

with a solvent- or adsorbent-based technology Multistage systems can be

operated at full capacity as single-stage systems when the recycle

compressor is down

Good weight and space efficiency Skid construction can be optimized

to the space available This space efficiency is especially important for

offshore environments where deck area is at a premium and is the

reason why so many new offshore developments have chosen to use

membranes for acid gas removal Figure 6 illustrates the space efficiency

of membrane systems The membrane unit in the lower left corner

replaced all the amine and glycol plant equipment shown in the rest of the

picture

Adaptability Because membrane area is dictated by the percentage of

acid gas removal rather than absolute acid gas removal small variations

in feed acid gas content hardly change the sales-gas acid gas

specification For example a system designed for 10 down to 3 acid

gas removal produces a 35 product from a 12 feed gas and a 5

product from a 15 feed gas

Design efficiency The membrane and pretreatment systems integrate a

number of operations such as dehydration CO2 and H2S removal dew-

point control and mercury removal Traditional acid gas removal

technologies require all of these operations as separate processes and

may also require additional dehydration because some technologies

saturate the product stream with water

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Power generation The permeate gas from membrane systems can be

used to provide fuel gas for power generation either for a recycle

compressor or other equipment

Ideal for debottlenecking Because expanding solvent- or adsorbent-

based acid gas removal plants without adding additional trains is difficult

an ideal solution is to use membranes for bulk acid gas removal and leave

the existing plant for final cleanup An additional advantage is that the

permeate gas from the membrane system can often be used as fuel for

the existing plant thus avoiding significant increase in hydrocarbon

losses

Environmentally friendly Membrane systems do not involve the

periodic removal and handling of spent solvents or adsorbents Permeate

gases can be flared used as fuel or re-injected into the well Items thatdo need disposal such as spent membrane elements can be incinerated

Ideal for remote locations Many of the factors mentioned above make

membrane systems a highly desirable technology for remote locations

where spare parts are rare and labor unskilled Furthermore solvents

storage and trucking water supply power generation or extensive

infrastructure are not required

Re-injection optimizations Since the permeate stream from the

membrane system can be operated at elevated pressures it is possible to

further pressurize by re-injection compression train

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Sorption

Sorption is a physical and chemical process by which one substance becomes

attached to another

It is of two main types

1 Absorption

2 Adsorption

Absorption

Absorption is a physical or chemical phenomenon or process in which atoms

molecules or ions enter some bulk phase ndash gas liquid or solid material This is a

different process from adsorption since molecules undergoing absorption are

taken up by the volume not by the surface (as in the case for adsorption)

Absorption process may be chemical (reactive) or physical (non-reactive)

Physical absorption

Physical absorption or non-reactive absorption is made between two phases ofmatter a liquid absorbs a gas or a solid absorbs a liquid

When a liquid solvent absorbs a gas mixture or part of it a mass of gas moves

into the liquid For example water may absorb oxygen from the air This mass

transfer takes place at the interface between the liquid and the gas at a rate

depending on both the gas and the liquid This type of absorption depends on the

solubility of gases the pressure and the temperature The rate and amount of

absorption also depend on the surface area of the interface and its duration in

time

When a solid absorbs a liquid mixture or part of it a mass of liquid moves into the

solid For example a clay pot used to store water may absorb some of the water

This mass transfer takes place at the interface between the solid and the liquid

at a rate depending on both the solid and the liquid

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Chemical absorption

Chemical absorption or reactive absorption is a chemical reaction between the

absorbed and the absorbing substances Sometimes it combines with physical

absorption This type of absorption depends upon the stoichiometry of the

reaction and the concentration of its reactants

Adsorption

Adsorption is the adhesion of atoms ions or molecules from a gas liquid or

dissolved solid to a surface This process creates a film of the adsorbate on the

surface of the adsorbent The binding to the surface is usually weak and

reversible Compounds with color and those that have taste or odor tend to bind

strongly Compounds that vibrate at frequencies in the visible spectrum are very

often are strongly adsorbed on activated carbon

The most common industrial adsorbents are activated carbon silica gel and

alumina because they present enormous surface areas per unit weight

Depending on the nature of attractive forces existing between the adsorbate and

adsorbent adsorption can be classified as

i) Physical adsorption

ii) Chemical adsorption

i) Physical adsorption (Physisorption)

In physical adsorption the forces of attraction between the molecules of the

adsorbate and the adsorbent are of the weak van der Waals type Since the

forces of attraction are weak the process of physisorption can be easily reversed

by heating or decreasing the pressure of the adsorbate (as in the case of gases)

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ii) Chemical adsorption (Chemisorption)

In chemisorption the forces of attraction between the adsorbate and the

adsorbent are very strong the molecules of adsorbate form chemical bonds with

the molecules of the adsorbent present in the surface

Adsorption is generally accompanied by release of energy that is most

adsorption processes are exothermic in nature Adsorption is a spontaneous

process therefore its free energy change is negative (∆Glt0) However the

entropy change associated with adsorption is generally negative because the

adsorbate molecules lose their translation freedom when they get attached to the

surface of the adsorbent Therefore in order for ∆G to be negative the enthalpy

change (∆H) must be sufficiently negative such that (∆G=∆H-T∆S) lt 0 This

explanation accounts for exothermic adsorption processes In cases where

endothermic adsorption occurs the entropy change ∆S is sufficiently positive

such that ∆G remains negative

Pre treatment

The main function of pretreatment skid is to provide membrane inlet specification

gas as mentioned by the vendor UOP It removes the contaminants that would

poison the membranes like dust solids (adsorbent particles) lube oil heavy

hydrocarbons etc It consists of

Feed Cooler

Feed Gas Scrubber

Filter Coalescer

Feed Gas Heater

Activated Carbon Guard Filter

Particle Filter

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The regeneration is carried out by heated permeate gas from the recycle

membranes at 450oF The vessel is depressurized to 20 psi and heated gas is

introduced from top The gas carries out the adsorbed contaminants and leaves

the vessel from bottom cleaning the adsorbent This contaminated gas is burnt in

the flare

UOP the vendor of Memguard unit has never disclosed that what substance

MG3 and MG5 exactly are But as mentioned by vendor that both care class of

aluminosilicates Therefore MG3 can be potassium aluminosilicate and MG5 can

be Calcium aluminosilicate These are molecular sieves adsorbents Molecular

sieves are a microporous material which can selectively adsorb gases andliquids They are synthetic zeolites (crystalline metal aluminosilicates) which

upon dehydration can efficiently and selectively remove water or other

solvents The selectivity of a molecular sieve is determined by its pore size

molecules with a critical diameter which is less than the pore size will be

efficiently adsorbed while larger molecules will be excluded

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3A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

The 3A molecular sieve adsorbent has a 3 angstrom (3A) pore size which means

that any molecule that is larger than the 3 angstrom pores will not be adsorbed

The 3A molecular sieve is the potassium type of A crystalline structure and is a

form of alkali Aluminosilicate For a 3A molecular sieve the sequence rate that

adsorption occurs is He Ne N and H2O

Due to the crystalline structure molecular sieves that have a 3 angstrom pore

size have a very high rate of adsorption and properties that promote a longer life

for products treated by the sieve The most common use for the 3A molecular

sieve is to remove water and moisture from materials that are in gas and liquid

form

5A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

These are molecular sieve adsorbents with a pore size of 5 angstrom (5A) 5A

molecular sieves are unable to adsorb any molecules or impurities that are

smaller than 5A It is calcium form of type A crystalline structure and is form of analkali-aluminosilicate that is most commonly used to separate isomerous alkanes

from normal alkanes and to co-adsorb moisture and water along with carbon

dioxide from gases In additional 5A molecular sieves are used for gaseous

pressure swing adsorption (PSA)mdashthat is to separate particular gases from other

gases

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of C3H8 to C22H46

Adsorption of Freon-12 (dichlorodifluoromethane)

Natural gas drying

Normal- and iso-paraffin separation

Separation of aromatic

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Inlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1096

MEHTANE 8593

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008

N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGEN 076

WATER 007

Outlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1098

MEHTANE 8608

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGENT 076

WATER 000

H2S polisher

The H2S polishing unit has been designed to treat 187 MMscfday of natural gas

containing up to 11 CO2 and 21 ppm H2S where the level of the CO2 and H2S

is reduced using a MemGuard Membrane separation unit The unit is situated

down-stream of the membrane unit and will further reduce the level of H2S in the

processed gas to a sales gas specification of 38 ppm

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This process uses three non-regenerable fixed bed absorber vessels using a low

temperature high activity absorbent The absorbent is a mixture of activated

metal oxides (mainly zinc oxide) The three towers can are generally operated in

parallel arrangement but on demand can be used in series (any of alternate

arrangements of A B C vessels) as shown in figure

The higher sales gas flow rate increased the catalyst consumption and

replacement frequency

ZnO + H2S =gt ZnS + H20

Routine samples are taken from the beds to provide a check on each bed

performance and to follow the saturation profile during the absorbent life After

the adsorbent has been fully utilized the adsorption vessels are recharged with

new adsorbent discarding the utilized one in a safe manner

109oF

1215 psig

Before H2S Polishing After H2S Polishing

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Figure

H2S Tower

Inlet pipe

4 Drums of 19mm

ceramic Balls

6 Micron mesh

5 Drums of 50mmceramic

1 Drums of19mm ceramic

01 Drums of6mm ceramic

112 drums of

Catalist ZnO

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Recycle Compressor

The permeate gas of the primary membrane unit carries recoverable amount of

CH4 It is fed to recycle membrane unit for further CH 4 recovery But the

permeate pressure from primary membranes which has been reduced to 12 psi

must be regenerated to 1200 psi for the gas to be fed again to the system For

this purpose we have employed recycle compressor The compressor is a four

stage centrifugal compressor It is driven by gas turbine of 31200 HP It has 25

MW producing capacity

Figure Recycle Compressor Process Flow Diagram

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Sales Gas Compressor

Gas from H2S polishing unit is sent to sales gas compressor where its pressure

is enhanced to 1100 psi so it may be injected to SNGPL high pressure trunk line

Sales gas compressor is single stage gas turbine driven

Figure Process Flow of Sales Gas Compressor

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Cooling Towers

A cooling tower is a heat rejection device which extracts waste heat to theatmosphere through the cooling of a water stream to a lower temperature Hot

water from the system enters the cooling tower and is distributed over the fill

(heat transfer surface) Air is induced or forced through the fill causing a small

portion of the water to evaporate This evaporation removes heat from the

remaining water which is collected in the cold water basin and returned to the

system to absorb more heat Each cooling tower line although operating under

the same basic principle of operation is arranged a little differently

Types

Natural draft mdash Utilizes buoyancy via a tall chimney Warm moist air naturally

rises due to the density differential compared to the dry cooler outside air Warm

moist air is less dense than drier air at the same pressure This moist air

buoyancy produces an upwards current of air through the tower

Mechanical draft mdash Uses power-driven fan motors to force or draw airthrough the tower

o Induced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a fan at the

discharge (at the top) which pulls air up through the tower The fan

induces hot moist air out the discharge This produces low entering

and high exiting air velocities reducing the possibility of

recirculation in which discharged air flows back into the air intake

o Forced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a blower type fan at

the intake The fan forces air into the tower creating high entering

and low exiting air velocities The low exiting velocity is much more

susceptible to recirculation This fanfill geometry is also known as

blow-through

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Forced Draft Cooling Tower Vs Induced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower have the ability to handle large water flow

rate than Forced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower is suitable for large cell sizes and fan sizes

as compared with Forced Draft Larger fan size may result in greater

efficiency and consequently lower power and sound level

Forced Draft Cooling Tower can be square or rectangular type only

however Induced Draft Cooling Towers can be round square or

rectangular type

Induced Draft Cooling Tower uses more compact ground area than Forced

Draft Cooling Tower equivalent capacity due to absence of fan on one

side

Fan equipment is warm exhaust air is less liable to icing up in winter

operation (Cold Countries)

Higher velocity in Forced Draft Cooling Tower cause drop in suspension

and cause additional static resistance to system

Configuration

There are two main configurations of factory assembled cooling towers crossflow

and counterflow In crossflow cooling towers the water flows vertically down the

fill as air flows horizontally across In counterflow cooling towers the water flows

vertically down the fill as air flows vertically up

Crossflow Configuration Counterflow Configuration

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Drift mdash Water droplets that are carried out of the cooling tower with the exhaust

air Drift droplets have the same concentration of impurities as the water entering

the tower The drift rate is typically reduced by employing baffle-like devices

called drift eliminators through which the air must travel after leaving the fill and

spray zones of the tower

Blow-out mdash Water droplets blown out of the cooling tower by wind generally at

the air inlet openings Water may also be lost in the absence of wind through

splashing or misting Devices such as wind screens louvers splash deflectors

and water diverters are used to limit these losses

Blow-down mdash The portion of the circulating water flow that is removed (usually

discharged to a drain) in order to maintain the amount of Total Dissolved Solids

(TDS) and other impurities at an acceptably low level Higher TDS concentration

in solution may result from greater cooling tower efficiency However the higher

the TDS concentration the greater the risk of scale biological growth and

corrosion

Make-up mdash The water that must be added to the circulating water system in

order to compensate for water losses such as evaporation drift loss blow-out

blow-down etc

Approach mdash The approach is the difference in temperature between the cooled-

water temperature and the entering-air wet bulb temperature

Range mdash The range is the temperature difference between the warm water inlet

and cooled water exit

Fill mdash Inside the tower fills are added to increase contact surface as well as

contact time between air and water to provide better heat transfer The efficiency

of the tower depends on the selection and amount of fill

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There are two types of fills that may be used

o Film type fill (causes water to spread into a thin film)

o Splash type fill (breaks up falling stream of water and interrupts its

vertical progress)

Important

Scale build up is controlled by adding chemicals to the cooling loop and diluting

the concentration by blow down and make-up Following chemicals are added to

the Cooling to control CorrosionSale and microbial growth

Corrosion Inhibitor To control corrosion in the Cooling system

Dispersant To kept ions in suspension to avoid settle down and buildup

Sodium hypo Chlorite To Control microbial Growth

Acid To control Alkalinity in the system

High Stress Polymer To run the system at higher conductivity It is a

multifunctional polymer for Zinc amp Phosphate stabilization in cooling tower

Fin Fan Cooler

Fin fan heat exchanger is simply a pressure vessel which cools a circulating fluid

within finned tubes by forcing ambient air over the exterior of the tubes A

common example of an air cooler is a carrsquos radiator Fin Fan Coolers are used in

any application where large quantities of heat need to be transferred This

includes chemical and petrochemical industries power stations waste-to-energy

facilities as well as steelworks

Fin Fan Cooler are used for two primary reasons

They increase plant efficiency

They are a green solution as compared to cooling towers and shell and

tube heat exchangers because they do not require an auxiliary water

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supply (water lost due to drift and evaporation plus no water treatment

chemicals are required)

Figure General Overview of Fin Fan Cooler

Produced Water

The produced water system receives liquid from the equipment Miano slug

catcher train 1 and 2 inlet separators and is fed to three phase separator where

water oil and gas is separated The gases produced are burnt in incinerator

whereas hydrocarbon liquid is stored to be sold Liquid from compressors

recycle inlet separator recycle feed scrubber high and low pressure slug

catchers is passed to degasser Separated water is injected down the earth

Incinerator

The term incinerate means to burn something until nothing is left but ashes An

incinerator is a unit or facility used to burn trash and other types of waste until it is

reduced to ash An incinerator is constructed of heavy well-insulated materials

so that it does not give off extreme amounts of external heat The high levels of

heat are kept inside the furnace or unit so that the waste is burned quickly and

efficiently If the heat were allowed to escape the waste would not burn as

completely or as rapidly

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Control System

The plant is controlled at CCR (Central Control Room) by PLCs (Programmable

Logic Controllers) through fiber optic control line All control parameters are

received at LER (Local Equipment Room) via two optic fiber control lines One

being primary and other secondary operating in redundancy ie if primary fails

control shifts to secondary These control parameters are sent to CCR via single

optic fiber cable

Safety System

Wellheads and Gas Processing Plant have their own Fire amp Gas detection

systems emergency shutdown (ESD) Plant has a fault tolerant controller It is

based on Triple Modular Redundant (TMR) architecture manufactured by

Triconex The TMR system is based on three isolated parallel control systems

integrated into one system The system operates on a two out of three voting

principle which provides high integrity error free uninterrupted operation with no

single point of failure The TMR receives inputs from Process Sensors Manual

Switches Fire amp Gas Detectors Packaged Equipment Control Systems and

Product Exporting Facilities The TMR carries out cause and effect processing on

the data received and where necessary produces output signals Outputs from

the TMR are hard wired directly to ESD shutdown and blow down valve

solenoids motor control instrumentelectrical interfaces to control electrical

drives package equipment logic control systems manifold area as well as

telecoms

The operator in central control room is able to accept alarms and once the fault

has been cleared reset the input All the control systems are centralized to a

single interface All the PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers) communicate with

the servers and servers communicate with the clients through Ethernet connectivity

Centralization eases the navigation of different systems at a common interface

Emergency Shutdown

The ESD system receives inputs from field mounted instrumentation on the process

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and utility equipment and initiates executive actions appropriate to the level of ESD

The system is an Active system which is in standby and will activate when in an

alarm or fault condition The Kadanwari Gas Process Facility ESD system is

comprised of five (5) levels The emergency severity decreases with increasing ESD

level number

ESD 1

This shutdown level is automatically initiated by fire major gas leak or a detected

toxic atmosphere in the process area of the plant or manually from CCR A level 1

shutdown will cause all production to cease close all emergency shutdown

valves stop the process and shutdown of the main power generation The

emergency vent valves to the stack will open and in addition all equipment of zone 1

certified will be isolated This is the highest level of ESD and will cause the following

to occur

All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close All slowdown Valves (BDVs) on the process facility will open

All Main Gas Driven Generators will be tripped

Emergency Diesel Generator will start

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close Upper Master Valve

(UMV) Close

ESD 2

This shutdown level is activated automatically if a major process or utility failure

occurs or manually from CCR All production to the plant from the wellhead is

stopped All emergency shutdown valves trip to their fail safe position

Venting shall be as specified This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

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All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valve Close Wing Valves Close and Upper Master Valve(UMV) Close

ESD 3

The level 3 shutdown isolates and stops a single process train only Production

continues via the other train This ESD level is initiated by process conditions or

operator at local panel This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

ESD 3A Train 1 production to cease

ESD 3B Train 2 production to cease

All online wellhead choke valves go to minimum flow ie (1O )

ESD 4

A level 4 shutdown shall cease all production from an entire field either

Kadanwari or Miano upstream of the associated slug catchers ESD 4K for

Kadanwari amp ESD 4M for Miano This ESD level is initiated automatically by slug

catcher abnormal process conditions This level of ESD will cause the following

to occur

All SDVs close isolating the relevant slug catcher and its upstream gas

production facility from the Kadanwari Gas Processing Plant

All Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close and Upper MasterValves (UMV) of the relevant gas production facility Close

A parallel timer is provided to close within 10 second if not closed in given

time SSSV seals the well

ESD 5

A level 5 shutdown represents equipment shutdown for the protection of the

individual equipment without any change in the process This level of ESD is for the

protection of various pieces of equipment and is initiated by its own inputs eg

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How membrane work

The basic principle of separation is selectivity of certain components of a mixture

for the membrane For example the cellulose acetate membrane has very high

selectivity for CO2 and H2S as compared to CH4 Therefore such type of

membrane can be used in gas sweetening process

The selectivity is directly related to the Permeability of gas which accounts that

which gas can pass across the membrane more easily In simple words

membranes being polymer materials are made of long chains of molecules The

different structure of polymer materials only allow selective molecules to pass

through them depending upon chemical and physical compatibility Thus

permeability depends upon choice of polymer

The permeability is determined by permeability coefficient (P) and is product of

solubility (S) and diffusivity (D)

P = S D

Solubility

The solubility is mainly determined by ease of condensation Heavy molecules

are more readily condensed Therefore higher molecular weighted molecules will

more easily condensed and therefore have greater solubility

Molecule Molecular weight

CH4 16

H2S 34

CO2 44

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Diffusivity

Diffusivity is ease of molecule to penetrate into some material It depends on size

of gas molecule Here size of molecule is not to be confused by molecular weight

it is the size of the structure Eg the size of O2 molecule is smaller than N2

Molecule Molecular Diameter (Ao)

CO2 33

H2S 36

Ch4 40

For cellulose acetate

DCO2DCH4 S CO2S CH4 P CO2P CH4

45 73 308

Chemical degradation

Cellulose acetate polymer is chemically degraded by a process called hydrolysis

which means breaking apart by the addition of water This is a chemical reaction

in which water is added to the cellulose acetate polymer causing the release of

acetic acid molecules This process proceeds stepwise until all the acetate

groups are released resulting in the reformation of cellulose Moreover alcohols

aromatic hydrocarbons or solvents with chlorine nitro benzene or similar

aromatic solvents will harm the membrane It will expand and lose plastification in

contact with them

Effect of Temperature

The permeation rates of all gases increases with increasing temperature

however membrane selectivity for CO2 over hydrocarbon decreases at higher

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temperature Consequently CO2 removal will improve as operating temperature

increases but hydro carbon recovery will decrease

Primary Membrane

The primary membranes comprise of two trains Each train consists of two

sections AB and CD each section consists of a 30 tube membrane skid (A and

C) followed by a 25 tube skid (B and D) The conditioned gas (after pre-

treatment) enters the primary membrane via the particulate filter adjacent to the

skid The gas is fed to the membranes through a common inlet manifold which

supplies primary membranes skids A and C A pressure control loop located

upstream of the manual inlet isolation valve is provided to maintain a constant

supply pressure to the membrane skid and to allow for preheating at the inlet

prior to skid start-up This pressure control loop can also be used during start-up

to control the pressurization of the pretreatment skid and associated pipes to the

primary membranes

The gas passes through membrane skid A the residual gas exiting the membrane

skid is sent to skid B and the permeate to common permeate discharge header An

identical arrangement is provide on the inlet to skid C as provided on skid A Theresidual gas from skid B combines with the residual gas from skid D in a common

discharge header and is then sent to the H2S polishing towers via the feed coolers

on the pre-treatment skid The permeate from skid B is sent to the common

permeate discharge header The permeate discharge header sends the gas to

either the recycle compressor or the vent header via a pressure control loop

Overpressure protection for the membranes is provided by a pressure safety valve

on the supply header to the membrane banks

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Secondary (Recycle) Membrane

The recycle membranes comprise of a single train with two skids each with four

banks of membrane tubes The conditioned gas from the discharge of the recycle

pre-treatment skid is routed to the first recycle membrane skid The gas passes

through the membranes the residual gas is fed to primary membrane (skid A) inlet

via feed gas cooler and permeate to the common permeate discharge header An

identical arrangement is provide on the inlet to skid B Permeate from the recycle

membrane skids A and B is routed to the vent header Some portion of permeate is

heated and sent for regeneration in Mem-Guard units Nitrogen purge can be

connected downstream of the inlet isolation valve on each skid to enable the

membrane tubes to be purged and left pressurized during prolonged shutdown

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Figure Flow Diagram of Recycle membrane unit

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ADVANTAGES OF MEMBRANE SYSTEMS

Membrane systems have major advantages over more-traditional methods of

acid gas removal

Lower capital cost Membrane systems are skid mounted and so the

scope cost and time taken for site preparation are minimal Installation

costs are significantly lower than alternative technologies especially for

remote areas Furthermore no additional facilities for solvent storage and

water treatment needed by other processes are required

Lower operating costs The only major operating cost for single-stage

membrane systems is membrane replacement This cost is significantly

lower than the solvent replacement and energy costs associated with

traditional technologies The improvements in membrane and

pretreatment design allow a longer useful membrane life which further

reduces operating costs The energy costs of multistage systems with

large recycle compressors are usually comparable to those for traditionaltechnologies

Deferred capital investment Often contracted sales-gas flow rates

increase over time as more wells are brought on-line With traditional

technologies the system design needs to take this later production into

account immediately and so the majority of the equipment is installed

before it is even needed The modular nature of membrane systems

means that only the membranes that are needed at start-up need be

installed The rest can be added either into existing tubes or in new skids

only when they are required

Operational simplicity and high reliability Because single-stage

membrane systems have no moving parts they have almost no

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unscheduled downtime and are extremely simple to operate They can

operate unattended for long periods of time The addition of a recycle

compressor adds some complexity to the system but still much less than

with a solvent- or adsorbent-based technology Multistage systems can be

operated at full capacity as single-stage systems when the recycle

compressor is down

Good weight and space efficiency Skid construction can be optimized

to the space available This space efficiency is especially important for

offshore environments where deck area is at a premium and is the

reason why so many new offshore developments have chosen to use

membranes for acid gas removal Figure 6 illustrates the space efficiency

of membrane systems The membrane unit in the lower left corner

replaced all the amine and glycol plant equipment shown in the rest of the

picture

Adaptability Because membrane area is dictated by the percentage of

acid gas removal rather than absolute acid gas removal small variations

in feed acid gas content hardly change the sales-gas acid gas

specification For example a system designed for 10 down to 3 acid

gas removal produces a 35 product from a 12 feed gas and a 5

product from a 15 feed gas

Design efficiency The membrane and pretreatment systems integrate a

number of operations such as dehydration CO2 and H2S removal dew-

point control and mercury removal Traditional acid gas removal

technologies require all of these operations as separate processes and

may also require additional dehydration because some technologies

saturate the product stream with water

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Power generation The permeate gas from membrane systems can be

used to provide fuel gas for power generation either for a recycle

compressor or other equipment

Ideal for debottlenecking Because expanding solvent- or adsorbent-

based acid gas removal plants without adding additional trains is difficult

an ideal solution is to use membranes for bulk acid gas removal and leave

the existing plant for final cleanup An additional advantage is that the

permeate gas from the membrane system can often be used as fuel for

the existing plant thus avoiding significant increase in hydrocarbon

losses

Environmentally friendly Membrane systems do not involve the

periodic removal and handling of spent solvents or adsorbents Permeate

gases can be flared used as fuel or re-injected into the well Items thatdo need disposal such as spent membrane elements can be incinerated

Ideal for remote locations Many of the factors mentioned above make

membrane systems a highly desirable technology for remote locations

where spare parts are rare and labor unskilled Furthermore solvents

storage and trucking water supply power generation or extensive

infrastructure are not required

Re-injection optimizations Since the permeate stream from the

membrane system can be operated at elevated pressures it is possible to

further pressurize by re-injection compression train

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Sorption

Sorption is a physical and chemical process by which one substance becomes

attached to another

It is of two main types

1 Absorption

2 Adsorption

Absorption

Absorption is a physical or chemical phenomenon or process in which atoms

molecules or ions enter some bulk phase ndash gas liquid or solid material This is a

different process from adsorption since molecules undergoing absorption are

taken up by the volume not by the surface (as in the case for adsorption)

Absorption process may be chemical (reactive) or physical (non-reactive)

Physical absorption

Physical absorption or non-reactive absorption is made between two phases ofmatter a liquid absorbs a gas or a solid absorbs a liquid

When a liquid solvent absorbs a gas mixture or part of it a mass of gas moves

into the liquid For example water may absorb oxygen from the air This mass

transfer takes place at the interface between the liquid and the gas at a rate

depending on both the gas and the liquid This type of absorption depends on the

solubility of gases the pressure and the temperature The rate and amount of

absorption also depend on the surface area of the interface and its duration in

time

When a solid absorbs a liquid mixture or part of it a mass of liquid moves into the

solid For example a clay pot used to store water may absorb some of the water

This mass transfer takes place at the interface between the solid and the liquid

at a rate depending on both the solid and the liquid

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Chemical absorption

Chemical absorption or reactive absorption is a chemical reaction between the

absorbed and the absorbing substances Sometimes it combines with physical

absorption This type of absorption depends upon the stoichiometry of the

reaction and the concentration of its reactants

Adsorption

Adsorption is the adhesion of atoms ions or molecules from a gas liquid or

dissolved solid to a surface This process creates a film of the adsorbate on the

surface of the adsorbent The binding to the surface is usually weak and

reversible Compounds with color and those that have taste or odor tend to bind

strongly Compounds that vibrate at frequencies in the visible spectrum are very

often are strongly adsorbed on activated carbon

The most common industrial adsorbents are activated carbon silica gel and

alumina because they present enormous surface areas per unit weight

Depending on the nature of attractive forces existing between the adsorbate and

adsorbent adsorption can be classified as

i) Physical adsorption

ii) Chemical adsorption

i) Physical adsorption (Physisorption)

In physical adsorption the forces of attraction between the molecules of the

adsorbate and the adsorbent are of the weak van der Waals type Since the

forces of attraction are weak the process of physisorption can be easily reversed

by heating or decreasing the pressure of the adsorbate (as in the case of gases)

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ii) Chemical adsorption (Chemisorption)

In chemisorption the forces of attraction between the adsorbate and the

adsorbent are very strong the molecules of adsorbate form chemical bonds with

the molecules of the adsorbent present in the surface

Adsorption is generally accompanied by release of energy that is most

adsorption processes are exothermic in nature Adsorption is a spontaneous

process therefore its free energy change is negative (∆Glt0) However the

entropy change associated with adsorption is generally negative because the

adsorbate molecules lose their translation freedom when they get attached to the

surface of the adsorbent Therefore in order for ∆G to be negative the enthalpy

change (∆H) must be sufficiently negative such that (∆G=∆H-T∆S) lt 0 This

explanation accounts for exothermic adsorption processes In cases where

endothermic adsorption occurs the entropy change ∆S is sufficiently positive

such that ∆G remains negative

Pre treatment

The main function of pretreatment skid is to provide membrane inlet specification

gas as mentioned by the vendor UOP It removes the contaminants that would

poison the membranes like dust solids (adsorbent particles) lube oil heavy

hydrocarbons etc It consists of

Feed Cooler

Feed Gas Scrubber

Filter Coalescer

Feed Gas Heater

Activated Carbon Guard Filter

Particle Filter

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The regeneration is carried out by heated permeate gas from the recycle

membranes at 450oF The vessel is depressurized to 20 psi and heated gas is

introduced from top The gas carries out the adsorbed contaminants and leaves

the vessel from bottom cleaning the adsorbent This contaminated gas is burnt in

the flare

UOP the vendor of Memguard unit has never disclosed that what substance

MG3 and MG5 exactly are But as mentioned by vendor that both care class of

aluminosilicates Therefore MG3 can be potassium aluminosilicate and MG5 can

be Calcium aluminosilicate These are molecular sieves adsorbents Molecular

sieves are a microporous material which can selectively adsorb gases andliquids They are synthetic zeolites (crystalline metal aluminosilicates) which

upon dehydration can efficiently and selectively remove water or other

solvents The selectivity of a molecular sieve is determined by its pore size

molecules with a critical diameter which is less than the pore size will be

efficiently adsorbed while larger molecules will be excluded

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3A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

The 3A molecular sieve adsorbent has a 3 angstrom (3A) pore size which means

that any molecule that is larger than the 3 angstrom pores will not be adsorbed

The 3A molecular sieve is the potassium type of A crystalline structure and is a

form of alkali Aluminosilicate For a 3A molecular sieve the sequence rate that

adsorption occurs is He Ne N and H2O

Due to the crystalline structure molecular sieves that have a 3 angstrom pore

size have a very high rate of adsorption and properties that promote a longer life

for products treated by the sieve The most common use for the 3A molecular

sieve is to remove water and moisture from materials that are in gas and liquid

form

5A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

These are molecular sieve adsorbents with a pore size of 5 angstrom (5A) 5A

molecular sieves are unable to adsorb any molecules or impurities that are

smaller than 5A It is calcium form of type A crystalline structure and is form of analkali-aluminosilicate that is most commonly used to separate isomerous alkanes

from normal alkanes and to co-adsorb moisture and water along with carbon

dioxide from gases In additional 5A molecular sieves are used for gaseous

pressure swing adsorption (PSA)mdashthat is to separate particular gases from other

gases

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of C3H8 to C22H46

Adsorption of Freon-12 (dichlorodifluoromethane)

Natural gas drying

Normal- and iso-paraffin separation

Separation of aromatic

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Inlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1096

MEHTANE 8593

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008

N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGEN 076

WATER 007

Outlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1098

MEHTANE 8608

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGENT 076

WATER 000

H2S polisher

The H2S polishing unit has been designed to treat 187 MMscfday of natural gas

containing up to 11 CO2 and 21 ppm H2S where the level of the CO2 and H2S

is reduced using a MemGuard Membrane separation unit The unit is situated

down-stream of the membrane unit and will further reduce the level of H2S in the

processed gas to a sales gas specification of 38 ppm

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This process uses three non-regenerable fixed bed absorber vessels using a low

temperature high activity absorbent The absorbent is a mixture of activated

metal oxides (mainly zinc oxide) The three towers can are generally operated in

parallel arrangement but on demand can be used in series (any of alternate

arrangements of A B C vessels) as shown in figure

The higher sales gas flow rate increased the catalyst consumption and

replacement frequency

ZnO + H2S =gt ZnS + H20

Routine samples are taken from the beds to provide a check on each bed

performance and to follow the saturation profile during the absorbent life After

the adsorbent has been fully utilized the adsorption vessels are recharged with

new adsorbent discarding the utilized one in a safe manner

109oF

1215 psig

Before H2S Polishing After H2S Polishing

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Figure

H2S Tower

Inlet pipe

4 Drums of 19mm

ceramic Balls

6 Micron mesh

5 Drums of 50mmceramic

1 Drums of19mm ceramic

01 Drums of6mm ceramic

112 drums of

Catalist ZnO

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Recycle Compressor

The permeate gas of the primary membrane unit carries recoverable amount of

CH4 It is fed to recycle membrane unit for further CH 4 recovery But the

permeate pressure from primary membranes which has been reduced to 12 psi

must be regenerated to 1200 psi for the gas to be fed again to the system For

this purpose we have employed recycle compressor The compressor is a four

stage centrifugal compressor It is driven by gas turbine of 31200 HP It has 25

MW producing capacity

Figure Recycle Compressor Process Flow Diagram

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Sales Gas Compressor

Gas from H2S polishing unit is sent to sales gas compressor where its pressure

is enhanced to 1100 psi so it may be injected to SNGPL high pressure trunk line

Sales gas compressor is single stage gas turbine driven

Figure Process Flow of Sales Gas Compressor

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Cooling Towers

A cooling tower is a heat rejection device which extracts waste heat to theatmosphere through the cooling of a water stream to a lower temperature Hot

water from the system enters the cooling tower and is distributed over the fill

(heat transfer surface) Air is induced or forced through the fill causing a small

portion of the water to evaporate This evaporation removes heat from the

remaining water which is collected in the cold water basin and returned to the

system to absorb more heat Each cooling tower line although operating under

the same basic principle of operation is arranged a little differently

Types

Natural draft mdash Utilizes buoyancy via a tall chimney Warm moist air naturally

rises due to the density differential compared to the dry cooler outside air Warm

moist air is less dense than drier air at the same pressure This moist air

buoyancy produces an upwards current of air through the tower

Mechanical draft mdash Uses power-driven fan motors to force or draw airthrough the tower

o Induced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a fan at the

discharge (at the top) which pulls air up through the tower The fan

induces hot moist air out the discharge This produces low entering

and high exiting air velocities reducing the possibility of

recirculation in which discharged air flows back into the air intake

o Forced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a blower type fan at

the intake The fan forces air into the tower creating high entering

and low exiting air velocities The low exiting velocity is much more

susceptible to recirculation This fanfill geometry is also known as

blow-through

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Forced Draft Cooling Tower Vs Induced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower have the ability to handle large water flow

rate than Forced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower is suitable for large cell sizes and fan sizes

as compared with Forced Draft Larger fan size may result in greater

efficiency and consequently lower power and sound level

Forced Draft Cooling Tower can be square or rectangular type only

however Induced Draft Cooling Towers can be round square or

rectangular type

Induced Draft Cooling Tower uses more compact ground area than Forced

Draft Cooling Tower equivalent capacity due to absence of fan on one

side

Fan equipment is warm exhaust air is less liable to icing up in winter

operation (Cold Countries)

Higher velocity in Forced Draft Cooling Tower cause drop in suspension

and cause additional static resistance to system

Configuration

There are two main configurations of factory assembled cooling towers crossflow

and counterflow In crossflow cooling towers the water flows vertically down the

fill as air flows horizontally across In counterflow cooling towers the water flows

vertically down the fill as air flows vertically up

Crossflow Configuration Counterflow Configuration

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Drift mdash Water droplets that are carried out of the cooling tower with the exhaust

air Drift droplets have the same concentration of impurities as the water entering

the tower The drift rate is typically reduced by employing baffle-like devices

called drift eliminators through which the air must travel after leaving the fill and

spray zones of the tower

Blow-out mdash Water droplets blown out of the cooling tower by wind generally at

the air inlet openings Water may also be lost in the absence of wind through

splashing or misting Devices such as wind screens louvers splash deflectors

and water diverters are used to limit these losses

Blow-down mdash The portion of the circulating water flow that is removed (usually

discharged to a drain) in order to maintain the amount of Total Dissolved Solids

(TDS) and other impurities at an acceptably low level Higher TDS concentration

in solution may result from greater cooling tower efficiency However the higher

the TDS concentration the greater the risk of scale biological growth and

corrosion

Make-up mdash The water that must be added to the circulating water system in

order to compensate for water losses such as evaporation drift loss blow-out

blow-down etc

Approach mdash The approach is the difference in temperature between the cooled-

water temperature and the entering-air wet bulb temperature

Range mdash The range is the temperature difference between the warm water inlet

and cooled water exit

Fill mdash Inside the tower fills are added to increase contact surface as well as

contact time between air and water to provide better heat transfer The efficiency

of the tower depends on the selection and amount of fill

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There are two types of fills that may be used

o Film type fill (causes water to spread into a thin film)

o Splash type fill (breaks up falling stream of water and interrupts its

vertical progress)

Important

Scale build up is controlled by adding chemicals to the cooling loop and diluting

the concentration by blow down and make-up Following chemicals are added to

the Cooling to control CorrosionSale and microbial growth

Corrosion Inhibitor To control corrosion in the Cooling system

Dispersant To kept ions in suspension to avoid settle down and buildup

Sodium hypo Chlorite To Control microbial Growth

Acid To control Alkalinity in the system

High Stress Polymer To run the system at higher conductivity It is a

multifunctional polymer for Zinc amp Phosphate stabilization in cooling tower

Fin Fan Cooler

Fin fan heat exchanger is simply a pressure vessel which cools a circulating fluid

within finned tubes by forcing ambient air over the exterior of the tubes A

common example of an air cooler is a carrsquos radiator Fin Fan Coolers are used in

any application where large quantities of heat need to be transferred This

includes chemical and petrochemical industries power stations waste-to-energy

facilities as well as steelworks

Fin Fan Cooler are used for two primary reasons

They increase plant efficiency

They are a green solution as compared to cooling towers and shell and

tube heat exchangers because they do not require an auxiliary water

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supply (water lost due to drift and evaporation plus no water treatment

chemicals are required)

Figure General Overview of Fin Fan Cooler

Produced Water

The produced water system receives liquid from the equipment Miano slug

catcher train 1 and 2 inlet separators and is fed to three phase separator where

water oil and gas is separated The gases produced are burnt in incinerator

whereas hydrocarbon liquid is stored to be sold Liquid from compressors

recycle inlet separator recycle feed scrubber high and low pressure slug

catchers is passed to degasser Separated water is injected down the earth

Incinerator

The term incinerate means to burn something until nothing is left but ashes An

incinerator is a unit or facility used to burn trash and other types of waste until it is

reduced to ash An incinerator is constructed of heavy well-insulated materials

so that it does not give off extreme amounts of external heat The high levels of

heat are kept inside the furnace or unit so that the waste is burned quickly and

efficiently If the heat were allowed to escape the waste would not burn as

completely or as rapidly

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Control System

The plant is controlled at CCR (Central Control Room) by PLCs (Programmable

Logic Controllers) through fiber optic control line All control parameters are

received at LER (Local Equipment Room) via two optic fiber control lines One

being primary and other secondary operating in redundancy ie if primary fails

control shifts to secondary These control parameters are sent to CCR via single

optic fiber cable

Safety System

Wellheads and Gas Processing Plant have their own Fire amp Gas detection

systems emergency shutdown (ESD) Plant has a fault tolerant controller It is

based on Triple Modular Redundant (TMR) architecture manufactured by

Triconex The TMR system is based on three isolated parallel control systems

integrated into one system The system operates on a two out of three voting

principle which provides high integrity error free uninterrupted operation with no

single point of failure The TMR receives inputs from Process Sensors Manual

Switches Fire amp Gas Detectors Packaged Equipment Control Systems and

Product Exporting Facilities The TMR carries out cause and effect processing on

the data received and where necessary produces output signals Outputs from

the TMR are hard wired directly to ESD shutdown and blow down valve

solenoids motor control instrumentelectrical interfaces to control electrical

drives package equipment logic control systems manifold area as well as

telecoms

The operator in central control room is able to accept alarms and once the fault

has been cleared reset the input All the control systems are centralized to a

single interface All the PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers) communicate with

the servers and servers communicate with the clients through Ethernet connectivity

Centralization eases the navigation of different systems at a common interface

Emergency Shutdown

The ESD system receives inputs from field mounted instrumentation on the process

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and utility equipment and initiates executive actions appropriate to the level of ESD

The system is an Active system which is in standby and will activate when in an

alarm or fault condition The Kadanwari Gas Process Facility ESD system is

comprised of five (5) levels The emergency severity decreases with increasing ESD

level number

ESD 1

This shutdown level is automatically initiated by fire major gas leak or a detected

toxic atmosphere in the process area of the plant or manually from CCR A level 1

shutdown will cause all production to cease close all emergency shutdown

valves stop the process and shutdown of the main power generation The

emergency vent valves to the stack will open and in addition all equipment of zone 1

certified will be isolated This is the highest level of ESD and will cause the following

to occur

All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close All slowdown Valves (BDVs) on the process facility will open

All Main Gas Driven Generators will be tripped

Emergency Diesel Generator will start

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close Upper Master Valve

(UMV) Close

ESD 2

This shutdown level is activated automatically if a major process or utility failure

occurs or manually from CCR All production to the plant from the wellhead is

stopped All emergency shutdown valves trip to their fail safe position

Venting shall be as specified This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

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All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valve Close Wing Valves Close and Upper Master Valve(UMV) Close

ESD 3

The level 3 shutdown isolates and stops a single process train only Production

continues via the other train This ESD level is initiated by process conditions or

operator at local panel This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

ESD 3A Train 1 production to cease

ESD 3B Train 2 production to cease

All online wellhead choke valves go to minimum flow ie (1O )

ESD 4

A level 4 shutdown shall cease all production from an entire field either

Kadanwari or Miano upstream of the associated slug catchers ESD 4K for

Kadanwari amp ESD 4M for Miano This ESD level is initiated automatically by slug

catcher abnormal process conditions This level of ESD will cause the following

to occur

All SDVs close isolating the relevant slug catcher and its upstream gas

production facility from the Kadanwari Gas Processing Plant

All Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close and Upper MasterValves (UMV) of the relevant gas production facility Close

A parallel timer is provided to close within 10 second if not closed in given

time SSSV seals the well

ESD 5

A level 5 shutdown represents equipment shutdown for the protection of the

individual equipment without any change in the process This level of ESD is for the

protection of various pieces of equipment and is initiated by its own inputs eg

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Diffusivity

Diffusivity is ease of molecule to penetrate into some material It depends on size

of gas molecule Here size of molecule is not to be confused by molecular weight

it is the size of the structure Eg the size of O2 molecule is smaller than N2

Molecule Molecular Diameter (Ao)

CO2 33

H2S 36

Ch4 40

For cellulose acetate

DCO2DCH4 S CO2S CH4 P CO2P CH4

45 73 308

Chemical degradation

Cellulose acetate polymer is chemically degraded by a process called hydrolysis

which means breaking apart by the addition of water This is a chemical reaction

in which water is added to the cellulose acetate polymer causing the release of

acetic acid molecules This process proceeds stepwise until all the acetate

groups are released resulting in the reformation of cellulose Moreover alcohols

aromatic hydrocarbons or solvents with chlorine nitro benzene or similar

aromatic solvents will harm the membrane It will expand and lose plastification in

contact with them

Effect of Temperature

The permeation rates of all gases increases with increasing temperature

however membrane selectivity for CO2 over hydrocarbon decreases at higher

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temperature Consequently CO2 removal will improve as operating temperature

increases but hydro carbon recovery will decrease

Primary Membrane

The primary membranes comprise of two trains Each train consists of two

sections AB and CD each section consists of a 30 tube membrane skid (A and

C) followed by a 25 tube skid (B and D) The conditioned gas (after pre-

treatment) enters the primary membrane via the particulate filter adjacent to the

skid The gas is fed to the membranes through a common inlet manifold which

supplies primary membranes skids A and C A pressure control loop located

upstream of the manual inlet isolation valve is provided to maintain a constant

supply pressure to the membrane skid and to allow for preheating at the inlet

prior to skid start-up This pressure control loop can also be used during start-up

to control the pressurization of the pretreatment skid and associated pipes to the

primary membranes

The gas passes through membrane skid A the residual gas exiting the membrane

skid is sent to skid B and the permeate to common permeate discharge header An

identical arrangement is provide on the inlet to skid C as provided on skid A Theresidual gas from skid B combines with the residual gas from skid D in a common

discharge header and is then sent to the H2S polishing towers via the feed coolers

on the pre-treatment skid The permeate from skid B is sent to the common

permeate discharge header The permeate discharge header sends the gas to

either the recycle compressor or the vent header via a pressure control loop

Overpressure protection for the membranes is provided by a pressure safety valve

on the supply header to the membrane banks

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Secondary (Recycle) Membrane

The recycle membranes comprise of a single train with two skids each with four

banks of membrane tubes The conditioned gas from the discharge of the recycle

pre-treatment skid is routed to the first recycle membrane skid The gas passes

through the membranes the residual gas is fed to primary membrane (skid A) inlet

via feed gas cooler and permeate to the common permeate discharge header An

identical arrangement is provide on the inlet to skid B Permeate from the recycle

membrane skids A and B is routed to the vent header Some portion of permeate is

heated and sent for regeneration in Mem-Guard units Nitrogen purge can be

connected downstream of the inlet isolation valve on each skid to enable the

membrane tubes to be purged and left pressurized during prolonged shutdown

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Figure Flow Diagram of Recycle membrane unit

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ADVANTAGES OF MEMBRANE SYSTEMS

Membrane systems have major advantages over more-traditional methods of

acid gas removal

Lower capital cost Membrane systems are skid mounted and so the

scope cost and time taken for site preparation are minimal Installation

costs are significantly lower than alternative technologies especially for

remote areas Furthermore no additional facilities for solvent storage and

water treatment needed by other processes are required

Lower operating costs The only major operating cost for single-stage

membrane systems is membrane replacement This cost is significantly

lower than the solvent replacement and energy costs associated with

traditional technologies The improvements in membrane and

pretreatment design allow a longer useful membrane life which further

reduces operating costs The energy costs of multistage systems with

large recycle compressors are usually comparable to those for traditionaltechnologies

Deferred capital investment Often contracted sales-gas flow rates

increase over time as more wells are brought on-line With traditional

technologies the system design needs to take this later production into

account immediately and so the majority of the equipment is installed

before it is even needed The modular nature of membrane systems

means that only the membranes that are needed at start-up need be

installed The rest can be added either into existing tubes or in new skids

only when they are required

Operational simplicity and high reliability Because single-stage

membrane systems have no moving parts they have almost no

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unscheduled downtime and are extremely simple to operate They can

operate unattended for long periods of time The addition of a recycle

compressor adds some complexity to the system but still much less than

with a solvent- or adsorbent-based technology Multistage systems can be

operated at full capacity as single-stage systems when the recycle

compressor is down

Good weight and space efficiency Skid construction can be optimized

to the space available This space efficiency is especially important for

offshore environments where deck area is at a premium and is the

reason why so many new offshore developments have chosen to use

membranes for acid gas removal Figure 6 illustrates the space efficiency

of membrane systems The membrane unit in the lower left corner

replaced all the amine and glycol plant equipment shown in the rest of the

picture

Adaptability Because membrane area is dictated by the percentage of

acid gas removal rather than absolute acid gas removal small variations

in feed acid gas content hardly change the sales-gas acid gas

specification For example a system designed for 10 down to 3 acid

gas removal produces a 35 product from a 12 feed gas and a 5

product from a 15 feed gas

Design efficiency The membrane and pretreatment systems integrate a

number of operations such as dehydration CO2 and H2S removal dew-

point control and mercury removal Traditional acid gas removal

technologies require all of these operations as separate processes and

may also require additional dehydration because some technologies

saturate the product stream with water

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Power generation The permeate gas from membrane systems can be

used to provide fuel gas for power generation either for a recycle

compressor or other equipment

Ideal for debottlenecking Because expanding solvent- or adsorbent-

based acid gas removal plants without adding additional trains is difficult

an ideal solution is to use membranes for bulk acid gas removal and leave

the existing plant for final cleanup An additional advantage is that the

permeate gas from the membrane system can often be used as fuel for

the existing plant thus avoiding significant increase in hydrocarbon

losses

Environmentally friendly Membrane systems do not involve the

periodic removal and handling of spent solvents or adsorbents Permeate

gases can be flared used as fuel or re-injected into the well Items thatdo need disposal such as spent membrane elements can be incinerated

Ideal for remote locations Many of the factors mentioned above make

membrane systems a highly desirable technology for remote locations

where spare parts are rare and labor unskilled Furthermore solvents

storage and trucking water supply power generation or extensive

infrastructure are not required

Re-injection optimizations Since the permeate stream from the

membrane system can be operated at elevated pressures it is possible to

further pressurize by re-injection compression train

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Sorption

Sorption is a physical and chemical process by which one substance becomes

attached to another

It is of two main types

1 Absorption

2 Adsorption

Absorption

Absorption is a physical or chemical phenomenon or process in which atoms

molecules or ions enter some bulk phase ndash gas liquid or solid material This is a

different process from adsorption since molecules undergoing absorption are

taken up by the volume not by the surface (as in the case for adsorption)

Absorption process may be chemical (reactive) or physical (non-reactive)

Physical absorption

Physical absorption or non-reactive absorption is made between two phases ofmatter a liquid absorbs a gas or a solid absorbs a liquid

When a liquid solvent absorbs a gas mixture or part of it a mass of gas moves

into the liquid For example water may absorb oxygen from the air This mass

transfer takes place at the interface between the liquid and the gas at a rate

depending on both the gas and the liquid This type of absorption depends on the

solubility of gases the pressure and the temperature The rate and amount of

absorption also depend on the surface area of the interface and its duration in

time

When a solid absorbs a liquid mixture or part of it a mass of liquid moves into the

solid For example a clay pot used to store water may absorb some of the water

This mass transfer takes place at the interface between the solid and the liquid

at a rate depending on both the solid and the liquid

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Chemical absorption

Chemical absorption or reactive absorption is a chemical reaction between the

absorbed and the absorbing substances Sometimes it combines with physical

absorption This type of absorption depends upon the stoichiometry of the

reaction and the concentration of its reactants

Adsorption

Adsorption is the adhesion of atoms ions or molecules from a gas liquid or

dissolved solid to a surface This process creates a film of the adsorbate on the

surface of the adsorbent The binding to the surface is usually weak and

reversible Compounds with color and those that have taste or odor tend to bind

strongly Compounds that vibrate at frequencies in the visible spectrum are very

often are strongly adsorbed on activated carbon

The most common industrial adsorbents are activated carbon silica gel and

alumina because they present enormous surface areas per unit weight

Depending on the nature of attractive forces existing between the adsorbate and

adsorbent adsorption can be classified as

i) Physical adsorption

ii) Chemical adsorption

i) Physical adsorption (Physisorption)

In physical adsorption the forces of attraction between the molecules of the

adsorbate and the adsorbent are of the weak van der Waals type Since the

forces of attraction are weak the process of physisorption can be easily reversed

by heating or decreasing the pressure of the adsorbate (as in the case of gases)

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ii) Chemical adsorption (Chemisorption)

In chemisorption the forces of attraction between the adsorbate and the

adsorbent are very strong the molecules of adsorbate form chemical bonds with

the molecules of the adsorbent present in the surface

Adsorption is generally accompanied by release of energy that is most

adsorption processes are exothermic in nature Adsorption is a spontaneous

process therefore its free energy change is negative (∆Glt0) However the

entropy change associated with adsorption is generally negative because the

adsorbate molecules lose their translation freedom when they get attached to the

surface of the adsorbent Therefore in order for ∆G to be negative the enthalpy

change (∆H) must be sufficiently negative such that (∆G=∆H-T∆S) lt 0 This

explanation accounts for exothermic adsorption processes In cases where

endothermic adsorption occurs the entropy change ∆S is sufficiently positive

such that ∆G remains negative

Pre treatment

The main function of pretreatment skid is to provide membrane inlet specification

gas as mentioned by the vendor UOP It removes the contaminants that would

poison the membranes like dust solids (adsorbent particles) lube oil heavy

hydrocarbons etc It consists of

Feed Cooler

Feed Gas Scrubber

Filter Coalescer

Feed Gas Heater

Activated Carbon Guard Filter

Particle Filter

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The regeneration is carried out by heated permeate gas from the recycle

membranes at 450oF The vessel is depressurized to 20 psi and heated gas is

introduced from top The gas carries out the adsorbed contaminants and leaves

the vessel from bottom cleaning the adsorbent This contaminated gas is burnt in

the flare

UOP the vendor of Memguard unit has never disclosed that what substance

MG3 and MG5 exactly are But as mentioned by vendor that both care class of

aluminosilicates Therefore MG3 can be potassium aluminosilicate and MG5 can

be Calcium aluminosilicate These are molecular sieves adsorbents Molecular

sieves are a microporous material which can selectively adsorb gases andliquids They are synthetic zeolites (crystalline metal aluminosilicates) which

upon dehydration can efficiently and selectively remove water or other

solvents The selectivity of a molecular sieve is determined by its pore size

molecules with a critical diameter which is less than the pore size will be

efficiently adsorbed while larger molecules will be excluded

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3A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

The 3A molecular sieve adsorbent has a 3 angstrom (3A) pore size which means

that any molecule that is larger than the 3 angstrom pores will not be adsorbed

The 3A molecular sieve is the potassium type of A crystalline structure and is a

form of alkali Aluminosilicate For a 3A molecular sieve the sequence rate that

adsorption occurs is He Ne N and H2O

Due to the crystalline structure molecular sieves that have a 3 angstrom pore

size have a very high rate of adsorption and properties that promote a longer life

for products treated by the sieve The most common use for the 3A molecular

sieve is to remove water and moisture from materials that are in gas and liquid

form

5A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

These are molecular sieve adsorbents with a pore size of 5 angstrom (5A) 5A

molecular sieves are unable to adsorb any molecules or impurities that are

smaller than 5A It is calcium form of type A crystalline structure and is form of analkali-aluminosilicate that is most commonly used to separate isomerous alkanes

from normal alkanes and to co-adsorb moisture and water along with carbon

dioxide from gases In additional 5A molecular sieves are used for gaseous

pressure swing adsorption (PSA)mdashthat is to separate particular gases from other

gases

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of C3H8 to C22H46

Adsorption of Freon-12 (dichlorodifluoromethane)

Natural gas drying

Normal- and iso-paraffin separation

Separation of aromatic

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Inlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1096

MEHTANE 8593

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008

N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGEN 076

WATER 007

Outlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1098

MEHTANE 8608

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGENT 076

WATER 000

H2S polisher

The H2S polishing unit has been designed to treat 187 MMscfday of natural gas

containing up to 11 CO2 and 21 ppm H2S where the level of the CO2 and H2S

is reduced using a MemGuard Membrane separation unit The unit is situated

down-stream of the membrane unit and will further reduce the level of H2S in the

processed gas to a sales gas specification of 38 ppm

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This process uses three non-regenerable fixed bed absorber vessels using a low

temperature high activity absorbent The absorbent is a mixture of activated

metal oxides (mainly zinc oxide) The three towers can are generally operated in

parallel arrangement but on demand can be used in series (any of alternate

arrangements of A B C vessels) as shown in figure

The higher sales gas flow rate increased the catalyst consumption and

replacement frequency

ZnO + H2S =gt ZnS + H20

Routine samples are taken from the beds to provide a check on each bed

performance and to follow the saturation profile during the absorbent life After

the adsorbent has been fully utilized the adsorption vessels are recharged with

new adsorbent discarding the utilized one in a safe manner

109oF

1215 psig

Before H2S Polishing After H2S Polishing

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Figure

H2S Tower

Inlet pipe

4 Drums of 19mm

ceramic Balls

6 Micron mesh

5 Drums of 50mmceramic

1 Drums of19mm ceramic

01 Drums of6mm ceramic

112 drums of

Catalist ZnO

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Recycle Compressor

The permeate gas of the primary membrane unit carries recoverable amount of

CH4 It is fed to recycle membrane unit for further CH 4 recovery But the

permeate pressure from primary membranes which has been reduced to 12 psi

must be regenerated to 1200 psi for the gas to be fed again to the system For

this purpose we have employed recycle compressor The compressor is a four

stage centrifugal compressor It is driven by gas turbine of 31200 HP It has 25

MW producing capacity

Figure Recycle Compressor Process Flow Diagram

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Sales Gas Compressor

Gas from H2S polishing unit is sent to sales gas compressor where its pressure

is enhanced to 1100 psi so it may be injected to SNGPL high pressure trunk line

Sales gas compressor is single stage gas turbine driven

Figure Process Flow of Sales Gas Compressor

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Cooling Towers

A cooling tower is a heat rejection device which extracts waste heat to theatmosphere through the cooling of a water stream to a lower temperature Hot

water from the system enters the cooling tower and is distributed over the fill

(heat transfer surface) Air is induced or forced through the fill causing a small

portion of the water to evaporate This evaporation removes heat from the

remaining water which is collected in the cold water basin and returned to the

system to absorb more heat Each cooling tower line although operating under

the same basic principle of operation is arranged a little differently

Types

Natural draft mdash Utilizes buoyancy via a tall chimney Warm moist air naturally

rises due to the density differential compared to the dry cooler outside air Warm

moist air is less dense than drier air at the same pressure This moist air

buoyancy produces an upwards current of air through the tower

Mechanical draft mdash Uses power-driven fan motors to force or draw airthrough the tower

o Induced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a fan at the

discharge (at the top) which pulls air up through the tower The fan

induces hot moist air out the discharge This produces low entering

and high exiting air velocities reducing the possibility of

recirculation in which discharged air flows back into the air intake

o Forced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a blower type fan at

the intake The fan forces air into the tower creating high entering

and low exiting air velocities The low exiting velocity is much more

susceptible to recirculation This fanfill geometry is also known as

blow-through

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Forced Draft Cooling Tower Vs Induced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower have the ability to handle large water flow

rate than Forced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower is suitable for large cell sizes and fan sizes

as compared with Forced Draft Larger fan size may result in greater

efficiency and consequently lower power and sound level

Forced Draft Cooling Tower can be square or rectangular type only

however Induced Draft Cooling Towers can be round square or

rectangular type

Induced Draft Cooling Tower uses more compact ground area than Forced

Draft Cooling Tower equivalent capacity due to absence of fan on one

side

Fan equipment is warm exhaust air is less liable to icing up in winter

operation (Cold Countries)

Higher velocity in Forced Draft Cooling Tower cause drop in suspension

and cause additional static resistance to system

Configuration

There are two main configurations of factory assembled cooling towers crossflow

and counterflow In crossflow cooling towers the water flows vertically down the

fill as air flows horizontally across In counterflow cooling towers the water flows

vertically down the fill as air flows vertically up

Crossflow Configuration Counterflow Configuration

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Drift mdash Water droplets that are carried out of the cooling tower with the exhaust

air Drift droplets have the same concentration of impurities as the water entering

the tower The drift rate is typically reduced by employing baffle-like devices

called drift eliminators through which the air must travel after leaving the fill and

spray zones of the tower

Blow-out mdash Water droplets blown out of the cooling tower by wind generally at

the air inlet openings Water may also be lost in the absence of wind through

splashing or misting Devices such as wind screens louvers splash deflectors

and water diverters are used to limit these losses

Blow-down mdash The portion of the circulating water flow that is removed (usually

discharged to a drain) in order to maintain the amount of Total Dissolved Solids

(TDS) and other impurities at an acceptably low level Higher TDS concentration

in solution may result from greater cooling tower efficiency However the higher

the TDS concentration the greater the risk of scale biological growth and

corrosion

Make-up mdash The water that must be added to the circulating water system in

order to compensate for water losses such as evaporation drift loss blow-out

blow-down etc

Approach mdash The approach is the difference in temperature between the cooled-

water temperature and the entering-air wet bulb temperature

Range mdash The range is the temperature difference between the warm water inlet

and cooled water exit

Fill mdash Inside the tower fills are added to increase contact surface as well as

contact time between air and water to provide better heat transfer The efficiency

of the tower depends on the selection and amount of fill

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There are two types of fills that may be used

o Film type fill (causes water to spread into a thin film)

o Splash type fill (breaks up falling stream of water and interrupts its

vertical progress)

Important

Scale build up is controlled by adding chemicals to the cooling loop and diluting

the concentration by blow down and make-up Following chemicals are added to

the Cooling to control CorrosionSale and microbial growth

Corrosion Inhibitor To control corrosion in the Cooling system

Dispersant To kept ions in suspension to avoid settle down and buildup

Sodium hypo Chlorite To Control microbial Growth

Acid To control Alkalinity in the system

High Stress Polymer To run the system at higher conductivity It is a

multifunctional polymer for Zinc amp Phosphate stabilization in cooling tower

Fin Fan Cooler

Fin fan heat exchanger is simply a pressure vessel which cools a circulating fluid

within finned tubes by forcing ambient air over the exterior of the tubes A

common example of an air cooler is a carrsquos radiator Fin Fan Coolers are used in

any application where large quantities of heat need to be transferred This

includes chemical and petrochemical industries power stations waste-to-energy

facilities as well as steelworks

Fin Fan Cooler are used for two primary reasons

They increase plant efficiency

They are a green solution as compared to cooling towers and shell and

tube heat exchangers because they do not require an auxiliary water

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supply (water lost due to drift and evaporation plus no water treatment

chemicals are required)

Figure General Overview of Fin Fan Cooler

Produced Water

The produced water system receives liquid from the equipment Miano slug

catcher train 1 and 2 inlet separators and is fed to three phase separator where

water oil and gas is separated The gases produced are burnt in incinerator

whereas hydrocarbon liquid is stored to be sold Liquid from compressors

recycle inlet separator recycle feed scrubber high and low pressure slug

catchers is passed to degasser Separated water is injected down the earth

Incinerator

The term incinerate means to burn something until nothing is left but ashes An

incinerator is a unit or facility used to burn trash and other types of waste until it is

reduced to ash An incinerator is constructed of heavy well-insulated materials

so that it does not give off extreme amounts of external heat The high levels of

heat are kept inside the furnace or unit so that the waste is burned quickly and

efficiently If the heat were allowed to escape the waste would not burn as

completely or as rapidly

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Control System

The plant is controlled at CCR (Central Control Room) by PLCs (Programmable

Logic Controllers) through fiber optic control line All control parameters are

received at LER (Local Equipment Room) via two optic fiber control lines One

being primary and other secondary operating in redundancy ie if primary fails

control shifts to secondary These control parameters are sent to CCR via single

optic fiber cable

Safety System

Wellheads and Gas Processing Plant have their own Fire amp Gas detection

systems emergency shutdown (ESD) Plant has a fault tolerant controller It is

based on Triple Modular Redundant (TMR) architecture manufactured by

Triconex The TMR system is based on three isolated parallel control systems

integrated into one system The system operates on a two out of three voting

principle which provides high integrity error free uninterrupted operation with no

single point of failure The TMR receives inputs from Process Sensors Manual

Switches Fire amp Gas Detectors Packaged Equipment Control Systems and

Product Exporting Facilities The TMR carries out cause and effect processing on

the data received and where necessary produces output signals Outputs from

the TMR are hard wired directly to ESD shutdown and blow down valve

solenoids motor control instrumentelectrical interfaces to control electrical

drives package equipment logic control systems manifold area as well as

telecoms

The operator in central control room is able to accept alarms and once the fault

has been cleared reset the input All the control systems are centralized to a

single interface All the PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers) communicate with

the servers and servers communicate with the clients through Ethernet connectivity

Centralization eases the navigation of different systems at a common interface

Emergency Shutdown

The ESD system receives inputs from field mounted instrumentation on the process

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and utility equipment and initiates executive actions appropriate to the level of ESD

The system is an Active system which is in standby and will activate when in an

alarm or fault condition The Kadanwari Gas Process Facility ESD system is

comprised of five (5) levels The emergency severity decreases with increasing ESD

level number

ESD 1

This shutdown level is automatically initiated by fire major gas leak or a detected

toxic atmosphere in the process area of the plant or manually from CCR A level 1

shutdown will cause all production to cease close all emergency shutdown

valves stop the process and shutdown of the main power generation The

emergency vent valves to the stack will open and in addition all equipment of zone 1

certified will be isolated This is the highest level of ESD and will cause the following

to occur

All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close All slowdown Valves (BDVs) on the process facility will open

All Main Gas Driven Generators will be tripped

Emergency Diesel Generator will start

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close Upper Master Valve

(UMV) Close

ESD 2

This shutdown level is activated automatically if a major process or utility failure

occurs or manually from CCR All production to the plant from the wellhead is

stopped All emergency shutdown valves trip to their fail safe position

Venting shall be as specified This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

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All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valve Close Wing Valves Close and Upper Master Valve(UMV) Close

ESD 3

The level 3 shutdown isolates and stops a single process train only Production

continues via the other train This ESD level is initiated by process conditions or

operator at local panel This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

ESD 3A Train 1 production to cease

ESD 3B Train 2 production to cease

All online wellhead choke valves go to minimum flow ie (1O )

ESD 4

A level 4 shutdown shall cease all production from an entire field either

Kadanwari or Miano upstream of the associated slug catchers ESD 4K for

Kadanwari amp ESD 4M for Miano This ESD level is initiated automatically by slug

catcher abnormal process conditions This level of ESD will cause the following

to occur

All SDVs close isolating the relevant slug catcher and its upstream gas

production facility from the Kadanwari Gas Processing Plant

All Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close and Upper MasterValves (UMV) of the relevant gas production facility Close

A parallel timer is provided to close within 10 second if not closed in given

time SSSV seals the well

ESD 5

A level 5 shutdown represents equipment shutdown for the protection of the

individual equipment without any change in the process This level of ESD is for the

protection of various pieces of equipment and is initiated by its own inputs eg

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temperature Consequently CO2 removal will improve as operating temperature

increases but hydro carbon recovery will decrease

Primary Membrane

The primary membranes comprise of two trains Each train consists of two

sections AB and CD each section consists of a 30 tube membrane skid (A and

C) followed by a 25 tube skid (B and D) The conditioned gas (after pre-

treatment) enters the primary membrane via the particulate filter adjacent to the

skid The gas is fed to the membranes through a common inlet manifold which

supplies primary membranes skids A and C A pressure control loop located

upstream of the manual inlet isolation valve is provided to maintain a constant

supply pressure to the membrane skid and to allow for preheating at the inlet

prior to skid start-up This pressure control loop can also be used during start-up

to control the pressurization of the pretreatment skid and associated pipes to the

primary membranes

The gas passes through membrane skid A the residual gas exiting the membrane

skid is sent to skid B and the permeate to common permeate discharge header An

identical arrangement is provide on the inlet to skid C as provided on skid A Theresidual gas from skid B combines with the residual gas from skid D in a common

discharge header and is then sent to the H2S polishing towers via the feed coolers

on the pre-treatment skid The permeate from skid B is sent to the common

permeate discharge header The permeate discharge header sends the gas to

either the recycle compressor or the vent header via a pressure control loop

Overpressure protection for the membranes is provided by a pressure safety valve

on the supply header to the membrane banks

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Secondary (Recycle) Membrane

The recycle membranes comprise of a single train with two skids each with four

banks of membrane tubes The conditioned gas from the discharge of the recycle

pre-treatment skid is routed to the first recycle membrane skid The gas passes

through the membranes the residual gas is fed to primary membrane (skid A) inlet

via feed gas cooler and permeate to the common permeate discharge header An

identical arrangement is provide on the inlet to skid B Permeate from the recycle

membrane skids A and B is routed to the vent header Some portion of permeate is

heated and sent for regeneration in Mem-Guard units Nitrogen purge can be

connected downstream of the inlet isolation valve on each skid to enable the

membrane tubes to be purged and left pressurized during prolonged shutdown

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Figure Flow Diagram of Recycle membrane unit

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ADVANTAGES OF MEMBRANE SYSTEMS

Membrane systems have major advantages over more-traditional methods of

acid gas removal

Lower capital cost Membrane systems are skid mounted and so the

scope cost and time taken for site preparation are minimal Installation

costs are significantly lower than alternative technologies especially for

remote areas Furthermore no additional facilities for solvent storage and

water treatment needed by other processes are required

Lower operating costs The only major operating cost for single-stage

membrane systems is membrane replacement This cost is significantly

lower than the solvent replacement and energy costs associated with

traditional technologies The improvements in membrane and

pretreatment design allow a longer useful membrane life which further

reduces operating costs The energy costs of multistage systems with

large recycle compressors are usually comparable to those for traditionaltechnologies

Deferred capital investment Often contracted sales-gas flow rates

increase over time as more wells are brought on-line With traditional

technologies the system design needs to take this later production into

account immediately and so the majority of the equipment is installed

before it is even needed The modular nature of membrane systems

means that only the membranes that are needed at start-up need be

installed The rest can be added either into existing tubes or in new skids

only when they are required

Operational simplicity and high reliability Because single-stage

membrane systems have no moving parts they have almost no

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unscheduled downtime and are extremely simple to operate They can

operate unattended for long periods of time The addition of a recycle

compressor adds some complexity to the system but still much less than

with a solvent- or adsorbent-based technology Multistage systems can be

operated at full capacity as single-stage systems when the recycle

compressor is down

Good weight and space efficiency Skid construction can be optimized

to the space available This space efficiency is especially important for

offshore environments where deck area is at a premium and is the

reason why so many new offshore developments have chosen to use

membranes for acid gas removal Figure 6 illustrates the space efficiency

of membrane systems The membrane unit in the lower left corner

replaced all the amine and glycol plant equipment shown in the rest of the

picture

Adaptability Because membrane area is dictated by the percentage of

acid gas removal rather than absolute acid gas removal small variations

in feed acid gas content hardly change the sales-gas acid gas

specification For example a system designed for 10 down to 3 acid

gas removal produces a 35 product from a 12 feed gas and a 5

product from a 15 feed gas

Design efficiency The membrane and pretreatment systems integrate a

number of operations such as dehydration CO2 and H2S removal dew-

point control and mercury removal Traditional acid gas removal

technologies require all of these operations as separate processes and

may also require additional dehydration because some technologies

saturate the product stream with water

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Power generation The permeate gas from membrane systems can be

used to provide fuel gas for power generation either for a recycle

compressor or other equipment

Ideal for debottlenecking Because expanding solvent- or adsorbent-

based acid gas removal plants without adding additional trains is difficult

an ideal solution is to use membranes for bulk acid gas removal and leave

the existing plant for final cleanup An additional advantage is that the

permeate gas from the membrane system can often be used as fuel for

the existing plant thus avoiding significant increase in hydrocarbon

losses

Environmentally friendly Membrane systems do not involve the

periodic removal and handling of spent solvents or adsorbents Permeate

gases can be flared used as fuel or re-injected into the well Items thatdo need disposal such as spent membrane elements can be incinerated

Ideal for remote locations Many of the factors mentioned above make

membrane systems a highly desirable technology for remote locations

where spare parts are rare and labor unskilled Furthermore solvents

storage and trucking water supply power generation or extensive

infrastructure are not required

Re-injection optimizations Since the permeate stream from the

membrane system can be operated at elevated pressures it is possible to

further pressurize by re-injection compression train

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Sorption

Sorption is a physical and chemical process by which one substance becomes

attached to another

It is of two main types

1 Absorption

2 Adsorption

Absorption

Absorption is a physical or chemical phenomenon or process in which atoms

molecules or ions enter some bulk phase ndash gas liquid or solid material This is a

different process from adsorption since molecules undergoing absorption are

taken up by the volume not by the surface (as in the case for adsorption)

Absorption process may be chemical (reactive) or physical (non-reactive)

Physical absorption

Physical absorption or non-reactive absorption is made between two phases ofmatter a liquid absorbs a gas or a solid absorbs a liquid

When a liquid solvent absorbs a gas mixture or part of it a mass of gas moves

into the liquid For example water may absorb oxygen from the air This mass

transfer takes place at the interface between the liquid and the gas at a rate

depending on both the gas and the liquid This type of absorption depends on the

solubility of gases the pressure and the temperature The rate and amount of

absorption also depend on the surface area of the interface and its duration in

time

When a solid absorbs a liquid mixture or part of it a mass of liquid moves into the

solid For example a clay pot used to store water may absorb some of the water

This mass transfer takes place at the interface between the solid and the liquid

at a rate depending on both the solid and the liquid

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Chemical absorption

Chemical absorption or reactive absorption is a chemical reaction between the

absorbed and the absorbing substances Sometimes it combines with physical

absorption This type of absorption depends upon the stoichiometry of the

reaction and the concentration of its reactants

Adsorption

Adsorption is the adhesion of atoms ions or molecules from a gas liquid or

dissolved solid to a surface This process creates a film of the adsorbate on the

surface of the adsorbent The binding to the surface is usually weak and

reversible Compounds with color and those that have taste or odor tend to bind

strongly Compounds that vibrate at frequencies in the visible spectrum are very

often are strongly adsorbed on activated carbon

The most common industrial adsorbents are activated carbon silica gel and

alumina because they present enormous surface areas per unit weight

Depending on the nature of attractive forces existing between the adsorbate and

adsorbent adsorption can be classified as

i) Physical adsorption

ii) Chemical adsorption

i) Physical adsorption (Physisorption)

In physical adsorption the forces of attraction between the molecules of the

adsorbate and the adsorbent are of the weak van der Waals type Since the

forces of attraction are weak the process of physisorption can be easily reversed

by heating or decreasing the pressure of the adsorbate (as in the case of gases)

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ii) Chemical adsorption (Chemisorption)

In chemisorption the forces of attraction between the adsorbate and the

adsorbent are very strong the molecules of adsorbate form chemical bonds with

the molecules of the adsorbent present in the surface

Adsorption is generally accompanied by release of energy that is most

adsorption processes are exothermic in nature Adsorption is a spontaneous

process therefore its free energy change is negative (∆Glt0) However the

entropy change associated with adsorption is generally negative because the

adsorbate molecules lose their translation freedom when they get attached to the

surface of the adsorbent Therefore in order for ∆G to be negative the enthalpy

change (∆H) must be sufficiently negative such that (∆G=∆H-T∆S) lt 0 This

explanation accounts for exothermic adsorption processes In cases where

endothermic adsorption occurs the entropy change ∆S is sufficiently positive

such that ∆G remains negative

Pre treatment

The main function of pretreatment skid is to provide membrane inlet specification

gas as mentioned by the vendor UOP It removes the contaminants that would

poison the membranes like dust solids (adsorbent particles) lube oil heavy

hydrocarbons etc It consists of

Feed Cooler

Feed Gas Scrubber

Filter Coalescer

Feed Gas Heater

Activated Carbon Guard Filter

Particle Filter

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The regeneration is carried out by heated permeate gas from the recycle

membranes at 450oF The vessel is depressurized to 20 psi and heated gas is

introduced from top The gas carries out the adsorbed contaminants and leaves

the vessel from bottom cleaning the adsorbent This contaminated gas is burnt in

the flare

UOP the vendor of Memguard unit has never disclosed that what substance

MG3 and MG5 exactly are But as mentioned by vendor that both care class of

aluminosilicates Therefore MG3 can be potassium aluminosilicate and MG5 can

be Calcium aluminosilicate These are molecular sieves adsorbents Molecular

sieves are a microporous material which can selectively adsorb gases andliquids They are synthetic zeolites (crystalline metal aluminosilicates) which

upon dehydration can efficiently and selectively remove water or other

solvents The selectivity of a molecular sieve is determined by its pore size

molecules with a critical diameter which is less than the pore size will be

efficiently adsorbed while larger molecules will be excluded

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3A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

The 3A molecular sieve adsorbent has a 3 angstrom (3A) pore size which means

that any molecule that is larger than the 3 angstrom pores will not be adsorbed

The 3A molecular sieve is the potassium type of A crystalline structure and is a

form of alkali Aluminosilicate For a 3A molecular sieve the sequence rate that

adsorption occurs is He Ne N and H2O

Due to the crystalline structure molecular sieves that have a 3 angstrom pore

size have a very high rate of adsorption and properties that promote a longer life

for products treated by the sieve The most common use for the 3A molecular

sieve is to remove water and moisture from materials that are in gas and liquid

form

5A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

These are molecular sieve adsorbents with a pore size of 5 angstrom (5A) 5A

molecular sieves are unable to adsorb any molecules or impurities that are

smaller than 5A It is calcium form of type A crystalline structure and is form of analkali-aluminosilicate that is most commonly used to separate isomerous alkanes

from normal alkanes and to co-adsorb moisture and water along with carbon

dioxide from gases In additional 5A molecular sieves are used for gaseous

pressure swing adsorption (PSA)mdashthat is to separate particular gases from other

gases

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of C3H8 to C22H46

Adsorption of Freon-12 (dichlorodifluoromethane)

Natural gas drying

Normal- and iso-paraffin separation

Separation of aromatic

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Inlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1096

MEHTANE 8593

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008

N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGEN 076

WATER 007

Outlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1098

MEHTANE 8608

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGENT 076

WATER 000

H2S polisher

The H2S polishing unit has been designed to treat 187 MMscfday of natural gas

containing up to 11 CO2 and 21 ppm H2S where the level of the CO2 and H2S

is reduced using a MemGuard Membrane separation unit The unit is situated

down-stream of the membrane unit and will further reduce the level of H2S in the

processed gas to a sales gas specification of 38 ppm

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This process uses three non-regenerable fixed bed absorber vessels using a low

temperature high activity absorbent The absorbent is a mixture of activated

metal oxides (mainly zinc oxide) The three towers can are generally operated in

parallel arrangement but on demand can be used in series (any of alternate

arrangements of A B C vessels) as shown in figure

The higher sales gas flow rate increased the catalyst consumption and

replacement frequency

ZnO + H2S =gt ZnS + H20

Routine samples are taken from the beds to provide a check on each bed

performance and to follow the saturation profile during the absorbent life After

the adsorbent has been fully utilized the adsorption vessels are recharged with

new adsorbent discarding the utilized one in a safe manner

109oF

1215 psig

Before H2S Polishing After H2S Polishing

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Figure

H2S Tower

Inlet pipe

4 Drums of 19mm

ceramic Balls

6 Micron mesh

5 Drums of 50mmceramic

1 Drums of19mm ceramic

01 Drums of6mm ceramic

112 drums of

Catalist ZnO

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Recycle Compressor

The permeate gas of the primary membrane unit carries recoverable amount of

CH4 It is fed to recycle membrane unit for further CH 4 recovery But the

permeate pressure from primary membranes which has been reduced to 12 psi

must be regenerated to 1200 psi for the gas to be fed again to the system For

this purpose we have employed recycle compressor The compressor is a four

stage centrifugal compressor It is driven by gas turbine of 31200 HP It has 25

MW producing capacity

Figure Recycle Compressor Process Flow Diagram

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Sales Gas Compressor

Gas from H2S polishing unit is sent to sales gas compressor where its pressure

is enhanced to 1100 psi so it may be injected to SNGPL high pressure trunk line

Sales gas compressor is single stage gas turbine driven

Figure Process Flow of Sales Gas Compressor

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Cooling Towers

A cooling tower is a heat rejection device which extracts waste heat to theatmosphere through the cooling of a water stream to a lower temperature Hot

water from the system enters the cooling tower and is distributed over the fill

(heat transfer surface) Air is induced or forced through the fill causing a small

portion of the water to evaporate This evaporation removes heat from the

remaining water which is collected in the cold water basin and returned to the

system to absorb more heat Each cooling tower line although operating under

the same basic principle of operation is arranged a little differently

Types

Natural draft mdash Utilizes buoyancy via a tall chimney Warm moist air naturally

rises due to the density differential compared to the dry cooler outside air Warm

moist air is less dense than drier air at the same pressure This moist air

buoyancy produces an upwards current of air through the tower

Mechanical draft mdash Uses power-driven fan motors to force or draw airthrough the tower

o Induced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a fan at the

discharge (at the top) which pulls air up through the tower The fan

induces hot moist air out the discharge This produces low entering

and high exiting air velocities reducing the possibility of

recirculation in which discharged air flows back into the air intake

o Forced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a blower type fan at

the intake The fan forces air into the tower creating high entering

and low exiting air velocities The low exiting velocity is much more

susceptible to recirculation This fanfill geometry is also known as

blow-through

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Forced Draft Cooling Tower Vs Induced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower have the ability to handle large water flow

rate than Forced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower is suitable for large cell sizes and fan sizes

as compared with Forced Draft Larger fan size may result in greater

efficiency and consequently lower power and sound level

Forced Draft Cooling Tower can be square or rectangular type only

however Induced Draft Cooling Towers can be round square or

rectangular type

Induced Draft Cooling Tower uses more compact ground area than Forced

Draft Cooling Tower equivalent capacity due to absence of fan on one

side

Fan equipment is warm exhaust air is less liable to icing up in winter

operation (Cold Countries)

Higher velocity in Forced Draft Cooling Tower cause drop in suspension

and cause additional static resistance to system

Configuration

There are two main configurations of factory assembled cooling towers crossflow

and counterflow In crossflow cooling towers the water flows vertically down the

fill as air flows horizontally across In counterflow cooling towers the water flows

vertically down the fill as air flows vertically up

Crossflow Configuration Counterflow Configuration

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Drift mdash Water droplets that are carried out of the cooling tower with the exhaust

air Drift droplets have the same concentration of impurities as the water entering

the tower The drift rate is typically reduced by employing baffle-like devices

called drift eliminators through which the air must travel after leaving the fill and

spray zones of the tower

Blow-out mdash Water droplets blown out of the cooling tower by wind generally at

the air inlet openings Water may also be lost in the absence of wind through

splashing or misting Devices such as wind screens louvers splash deflectors

and water diverters are used to limit these losses

Blow-down mdash The portion of the circulating water flow that is removed (usually

discharged to a drain) in order to maintain the amount of Total Dissolved Solids

(TDS) and other impurities at an acceptably low level Higher TDS concentration

in solution may result from greater cooling tower efficiency However the higher

the TDS concentration the greater the risk of scale biological growth and

corrosion

Make-up mdash The water that must be added to the circulating water system in

order to compensate for water losses such as evaporation drift loss blow-out

blow-down etc

Approach mdash The approach is the difference in temperature between the cooled-

water temperature and the entering-air wet bulb temperature

Range mdash The range is the temperature difference between the warm water inlet

and cooled water exit

Fill mdash Inside the tower fills are added to increase contact surface as well as

contact time between air and water to provide better heat transfer The efficiency

of the tower depends on the selection and amount of fill

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There are two types of fills that may be used

o Film type fill (causes water to spread into a thin film)

o Splash type fill (breaks up falling stream of water and interrupts its

vertical progress)

Important

Scale build up is controlled by adding chemicals to the cooling loop and diluting

the concentration by blow down and make-up Following chemicals are added to

the Cooling to control CorrosionSale and microbial growth

Corrosion Inhibitor To control corrosion in the Cooling system

Dispersant To kept ions in suspension to avoid settle down and buildup

Sodium hypo Chlorite To Control microbial Growth

Acid To control Alkalinity in the system

High Stress Polymer To run the system at higher conductivity It is a

multifunctional polymer for Zinc amp Phosphate stabilization in cooling tower

Fin Fan Cooler

Fin fan heat exchanger is simply a pressure vessel which cools a circulating fluid

within finned tubes by forcing ambient air over the exterior of the tubes A

common example of an air cooler is a carrsquos radiator Fin Fan Coolers are used in

any application where large quantities of heat need to be transferred This

includes chemical and petrochemical industries power stations waste-to-energy

facilities as well as steelworks

Fin Fan Cooler are used for two primary reasons

They increase plant efficiency

They are a green solution as compared to cooling towers and shell and

tube heat exchangers because they do not require an auxiliary water

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supply (water lost due to drift and evaporation plus no water treatment

chemicals are required)

Figure General Overview of Fin Fan Cooler

Produced Water

The produced water system receives liquid from the equipment Miano slug

catcher train 1 and 2 inlet separators and is fed to three phase separator where

water oil and gas is separated The gases produced are burnt in incinerator

whereas hydrocarbon liquid is stored to be sold Liquid from compressors

recycle inlet separator recycle feed scrubber high and low pressure slug

catchers is passed to degasser Separated water is injected down the earth

Incinerator

The term incinerate means to burn something until nothing is left but ashes An

incinerator is a unit or facility used to burn trash and other types of waste until it is

reduced to ash An incinerator is constructed of heavy well-insulated materials

so that it does not give off extreme amounts of external heat The high levels of

heat are kept inside the furnace or unit so that the waste is burned quickly and

efficiently If the heat were allowed to escape the waste would not burn as

completely or as rapidly

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Control System

The plant is controlled at CCR (Central Control Room) by PLCs (Programmable

Logic Controllers) through fiber optic control line All control parameters are

received at LER (Local Equipment Room) via two optic fiber control lines One

being primary and other secondary operating in redundancy ie if primary fails

control shifts to secondary These control parameters are sent to CCR via single

optic fiber cable

Safety System

Wellheads and Gas Processing Plant have their own Fire amp Gas detection

systems emergency shutdown (ESD) Plant has a fault tolerant controller It is

based on Triple Modular Redundant (TMR) architecture manufactured by

Triconex The TMR system is based on three isolated parallel control systems

integrated into one system The system operates on a two out of three voting

principle which provides high integrity error free uninterrupted operation with no

single point of failure The TMR receives inputs from Process Sensors Manual

Switches Fire amp Gas Detectors Packaged Equipment Control Systems and

Product Exporting Facilities The TMR carries out cause and effect processing on

the data received and where necessary produces output signals Outputs from

the TMR are hard wired directly to ESD shutdown and blow down valve

solenoids motor control instrumentelectrical interfaces to control electrical

drives package equipment logic control systems manifold area as well as

telecoms

The operator in central control room is able to accept alarms and once the fault

has been cleared reset the input All the control systems are centralized to a

single interface All the PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers) communicate with

the servers and servers communicate with the clients through Ethernet connectivity

Centralization eases the navigation of different systems at a common interface

Emergency Shutdown

The ESD system receives inputs from field mounted instrumentation on the process

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and utility equipment and initiates executive actions appropriate to the level of ESD

The system is an Active system which is in standby and will activate when in an

alarm or fault condition The Kadanwari Gas Process Facility ESD system is

comprised of five (5) levels The emergency severity decreases with increasing ESD

level number

ESD 1

This shutdown level is automatically initiated by fire major gas leak or a detected

toxic atmosphere in the process area of the plant or manually from CCR A level 1

shutdown will cause all production to cease close all emergency shutdown

valves stop the process and shutdown of the main power generation The

emergency vent valves to the stack will open and in addition all equipment of zone 1

certified will be isolated This is the highest level of ESD and will cause the following

to occur

All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close All slowdown Valves (BDVs) on the process facility will open

All Main Gas Driven Generators will be tripped

Emergency Diesel Generator will start

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close Upper Master Valve

(UMV) Close

ESD 2

This shutdown level is activated automatically if a major process or utility failure

occurs or manually from CCR All production to the plant from the wellhead is

stopped All emergency shutdown valves trip to their fail safe position

Venting shall be as specified This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

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All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valve Close Wing Valves Close and Upper Master Valve(UMV) Close

ESD 3

The level 3 shutdown isolates and stops a single process train only Production

continues via the other train This ESD level is initiated by process conditions or

operator at local panel This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

ESD 3A Train 1 production to cease

ESD 3B Train 2 production to cease

All online wellhead choke valves go to minimum flow ie (1O )

ESD 4

A level 4 shutdown shall cease all production from an entire field either

Kadanwari or Miano upstream of the associated slug catchers ESD 4K for

Kadanwari amp ESD 4M for Miano This ESD level is initiated automatically by slug

catcher abnormal process conditions This level of ESD will cause the following

to occur

All SDVs close isolating the relevant slug catcher and its upstream gas

production facility from the Kadanwari Gas Processing Plant

All Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close and Upper MasterValves (UMV) of the relevant gas production facility Close

A parallel timer is provided to close within 10 second if not closed in given

time SSSV seals the well

ESD 5

A level 5 shutdown represents equipment shutdown for the protection of the

individual equipment without any change in the process This level of ESD is for the

protection of various pieces of equipment and is initiated by its own inputs eg

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Secondary (Recycle) Membrane

The recycle membranes comprise of a single train with two skids each with four

banks of membrane tubes The conditioned gas from the discharge of the recycle

pre-treatment skid is routed to the first recycle membrane skid The gas passes

through the membranes the residual gas is fed to primary membrane (skid A) inlet

via feed gas cooler and permeate to the common permeate discharge header An

identical arrangement is provide on the inlet to skid B Permeate from the recycle

membrane skids A and B is routed to the vent header Some portion of permeate is

heated and sent for regeneration in Mem-Guard units Nitrogen purge can be

connected downstream of the inlet isolation valve on each skid to enable the

membrane tubes to be purged and left pressurized during prolonged shutdown

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Figure Flow Diagram of Recycle membrane unit

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ADVANTAGES OF MEMBRANE SYSTEMS

Membrane systems have major advantages over more-traditional methods of

acid gas removal

Lower capital cost Membrane systems are skid mounted and so the

scope cost and time taken for site preparation are minimal Installation

costs are significantly lower than alternative technologies especially for

remote areas Furthermore no additional facilities for solvent storage and

water treatment needed by other processes are required

Lower operating costs The only major operating cost for single-stage

membrane systems is membrane replacement This cost is significantly

lower than the solvent replacement and energy costs associated with

traditional technologies The improvements in membrane and

pretreatment design allow a longer useful membrane life which further

reduces operating costs The energy costs of multistage systems with

large recycle compressors are usually comparable to those for traditionaltechnologies

Deferred capital investment Often contracted sales-gas flow rates

increase over time as more wells are brought on-line With traditional

technologies the system design needs to take this later production into

account immediately and so the majority of the equipment is installed

before it is even needed The modular nature of membrane systems

means that only the membranes that are needed at start-up need be

installed The rest can be added either into existing tubes or in new skids

only when they are required

Operational simplicity and high reliability Because single-stage

membrane systems have no moving parts they have almost no

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unscheduled downtime and are extremely simple to operate They can

operate unattended for long periods of time The addition of a recycle

compressor adds some complexity to the system but still much less than

with a solvent- or adsorbent-based technology Multistage systems can be

operated at full capacity as single-stage systems when the recycle

compressor is down

Good weight and space efficiency Skid construction can be optimized

to the space available This space efficiency is especially important for

offshore environments where deck area is at a premium and is the

reason why so many new offshore developments have chosen to use

membranes for acid gas removal Figure 6 illustrates the space efficiency

of membrane systems The membrane unit in the lower left corner

replaced all the amine and glycol plant equipment shown in the rest of the

picture

Adaptability Because membrane area is dictated by the percentage of

acid gas removal rather than absolute acid gas removal small variations

in feed acid gas content hardly change the sales-gas acid gas

specification For example a system designed for 10 down to 3 acid

gas removal produces a 35 product from a 12 feed gas and a 5

product from a 15 feed gas

Design efficiency The membrane and pretreatment systems integrate a

number of operations such as dehydration CO2 and H2S removal dew-

point control and mercury removal Traditional acid gas removal

technologies require all of these operations as separate processes and

may also require additional dehydration because some technologies

saturate the product stream with water

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Power generation The permeate gas from membrane systems can be

used to provide fuel gas for power generation either for a recycle

compressor or other equipment

Ideal for debottlenecking Because expanding solvent- or adsorbent-

based acid gas removal plants without adding additional trains is difficult

an ideal solution is to use membranes for bulk acid gas removal and leave

the existing plant for final cleanup An additional advantage is that the

permeate gas from the membrane system can often be used as fuel for

the existing plant thus avoiding significant increase in hydrocarbon

losses

Environmentally friendly Membrane systems do not involve the

periodic removal and handling of spent solvents or adsorbents Permeate

gases can be flared used as fuel or re-injected into the well Items thatdo need disposal such as spent membrane elements can be incinerated

Ideal for remote locations Many of the factors mentioned above make

membrane systems a highly desirable technology for remote locations

where spare parts are rare and labor unskilled Furthermore solvents

storage and trucking water supply power generation or extensive

infrastructure are not required

Re-injection optimizations Since the permeate stream from the

membrane system can be operated at elevated pressures it is possible to

further pressurize by re-injection compression train

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Sorption

Sorption is a physical and chemical process by which one substance becomes

attached to another

It is of two main types

1 Absorption

2 Adsorption

Absorption

Absorption is a physical or chemical phenomenon or process in which atoms

molecules or ions enter some bulk phase ndash gas liquid or solid material This is a

different process from adsorption since molecules undergoing absorption are

taken up by the volume not by the surface (as in the case for adsorption)

Absorption process may be chemical (reactive) or physical (non-reactive)

Physical absorption

Physical absorption or non-reactive absorption is made between two phases ofmatter a liquid absorbs a gas or a solid absorbs a liquid

When a liquid solvent absorbs a gas mixture or part of it a mass of gas moves

into the liquid For example water may absorb oxygen from the air This mass

transfer takes place at the interface between the liquid and the gas at a rate

depending on both the gas and the liquid This type of absorption depends on the

solubility of gases the pressure and the temperature The rate and amount of

absorption also depend on the surface area of the interface and its duration in

time

When a solid absorbs a liquid mixture or part of it a mass of liquid moves into the

solid For example a clay pot used to store water may absorb some of the water

This mass transfer takes place at the interface between the solid and the liquid

at a rate depending on both the solid and the liquid

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Chemical absorption

Chemical absorption or reactive absorption is a chemical reaction between the

absorbed and the absorbing substances Sometimes it combines with physical

absorption This type of absorption depends upon the stoichiometry of the

reaction and the concentration of its reactants

Adsorption

Adsorption is the adhesion of atoms ions or molecules from a gas liquid or

dissolved solid to a surface This process creates a film of the adsorbate on the

surface of the adsorbent The binding to the surface is usually weak and

reversible Compounds with color and those that have taste or odor tend to bind

strongly Compounds that vibrate at frequencies in the visible spectrum are very

often are strongly adsorbed on activated carbon

The most common industrial adsorbents are activated carbon silica gel and

alumina because they present enormous surface areas per unit weight

Depending on the nature of attractive forces existing between the adsorbate and

adsorbent adsorption can be classified as

i) Physical adsorption

ii) Chemical adsorption

i) Physical adsorption (Physisorption)

In physical adsorption the forces of attraction between the molecules of the

adsorbate and the adsorbent are of the weak van der Waals type Since the

forces of attraction are weak the process of physisorption can be easily reversed

by heating or decreasing the pressure of the adsorbate (as in the case of gases)

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ii) Chemical adsorption (Chemisorption)

In chemisorption the forces of attraction between the adsorbate and the

adsorbent are very strong the molecules of adsorbate form chemical bonds with

the molecules of the adsorbent present in the surface

Adsorption is generally accompanied by release of energy that is most

adsorption processes are exothermic in nature Adsorption is a spontaneous

process therefore its free energy change is negative (∆Glt0) However the

entropy change associated with adsorption is generally negative because the

adsorbate molecules lose their translation freedom when they get attached to the

surface of the adsorbent Therefore in order for ∆G to be negative the enthalpy

change (∆H) must be sufficiently negative such that (∆G=∆H-T∆S) lt 0 This

explanation accounts for exothermic adsorption processes In cases where

endothermic adsorption occurs the entropy change ∆S is sufficiently positive

such that ∆G remains negative

Pre treatment

The main function of pretreatment skid is to provide membrane inlet specification

gas as mentioned by the vendor UOP It removes the contaminants that would

poison the membranes like dust solids (adsorbent particles) lube oil heavy

hydrocarbons etc It consists of

Feed Cooler

Feed Gas Scrubber

Filter Coalescer

Feed Gas Heater

Activated Carbon Guard Filter

Particle Filter

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The regeneration is carried out by heated permeate gas from the recycle

membranes at 450oF The vessel is depressurized to 20 psi and heated gas is

introduced from top The gas carries out the adsorbed contaminants and leaves

the vessel from bottom cleaning the adsorbent This contaminated gas is burnt in

the flare

UOP the vendor of Memguard unit has never disclosed that what substance

MG3 and MG5 exactly are But as mentioned by vendor that both care class of

aluminosilicates Therefore MG3 can be potassium aluminosilicate and MG5 can

be Calcium aluminosilicate These are molecular sieves adsorbents Molecular

sieves are a microporous material which can selectively adsorb gases andliquids They are synthetic zeolites (crystalline metal aluminosilicates) which

upon dehydration can efficiently and selectively remove water or other

solvents The selectivity of a molecular sieve is determined by its pore size

molecules with a critical diameter which is less than the pore size will be

efficiently adsorbed while larger molecules will be excluded

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3A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

The 3A molecular sieve adsorbent has a 3 angstrom (3A) pore size which means

that any molecule that is larger than the 3 angstrom pores will not be adsorbed

The 3A molecular sieve is the potassium type of A crystalline structure and is a

form of alkali Aluminosilicate For a 3A molecular sieve the sequence rate that

adsorption occurs is He Ne N and H2O

Due to the crystalline structure molecular sieves that have a 3 angstrom pore

size have a very high rate of adsorption and properties that promote a longer life

for products treated by the sieve The most common use for the 3A molecular

sieve is to remove water and moisture from materials that are in gas and liquid

form

5A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

These are molecular sieve adsorbents with a pore size of 5 angstrom (5A) 5A

molecular sieves are unable to adsorb any molecules or impurities that are

smaller than 5A It is calcium form of type A crystalline structure and is form of analkali-aluminosilicate that is most commonly used to separate isomerous alkanes

from normal alkanes and to co-adsorb moisture and water along with carbon

dioxide from gases In additional 5A molecular sieves are used for gaseous

pressure swing adsorption (PSA)mdashthat is to separate particular gases from other

gases

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of C3H8 to C22H46

Adsorption of Freon-12 (dichlorodifluoromethane)

Natural gas drying

Normal- and iso-paraffin separation

Separation of aromatic

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Inlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1096

MEHTANE 8593

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008

N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGEN 076

WATER 007

Outlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1098

MEHTANE 8608

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGENT 076

WATER 000

H2S polisher

The H2S polishing unit has been designed to treat 187 MMscfday of natural gas

containing up to 11 CO2 and 21 ppm H2S where the level of the CO2 and H2S

is reduced using a MemGuard Membrane separation unit The unit is situated

down-stream of the membrane unit and will further reduce the level of H2S in the

processed gas to a sales gas specification of 38 ppm

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This process uses three non-regenerable fixed bed absorber vessels using a low

temperature high activity absorbent The absorbent is a mixture of activated

metal oxides (mainly zinc oxide) The three towers can are generally operated in

parallel arrangement but on demand can be used in series (any of alternate

arrangements of A B C vessels) as shown in figure

The higher sales gas flow rate increased the catalyst consumption and

replacement frequency

ZnO + H2S =gt ZnS + H20

Routine samples are taken from the beds to provide a check on each bed

performance and to follow the saturation profile during the absorbent life After

the adsorbent has been fully utilized the adsorption vessels are recharged with

new adsorbent discarding the utilized one in a safe manner

109oF

1215 psig

Before H2S Polishing After H2S Polishing

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Figure

H2S Tower

Inlet pipe

4 Drums of 19mm

ceramic Balls

6 Micron mesh

5 Drums of 50mmceramic

1 Drums of19mm ceramic

01 Drums of6mm ceramic

112 drums of

Catalist ZnO

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Recycle Compressor

The permeate gas of the primary membrane unit carries recoverable amount of

CH4 It is fed to recycle membrane unit for further CH 4 recovery But the

permeate pressure from primary membranes which has been reduced to 12 psi

must be regenerated to 1200 psi for the gas to be fed again to the system For

this purpose we have employed recycle compressor The compressor is a four

stage centrifugal compressor It is driven by gas turbine of 31200 HP It has 25

MW producing capacity

Figure Recycle Compressor Process Flow Diagram

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Sales Gas Compressor

Gas from H2S polishing unit is sent to sales gas compressor where its pressure

is enhanced to 1100 psi so it may be injected to SNGPL high pressure trunk line

Sales gas compressor is single stage gas turbine driven

Figure Process Flow of Sales Gas Compressor

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Cooling Towers

A cooling tower is a heat rejection device which extracts waste heat to theatmosphere through the cooling of a water stream to a lower temperature Hot

water from the system enters the cooling tower and is distributed over the fill

(heat transfer surface) Air is induced or forced through the fill causing a small

portion of the water to evaporate This evaporation removes heat from the

remaining water which is collected in the cold water basin and returned to the

system to absorb more heat Each cooling tower line although operating under

the same basic principle of operation is arranged a little differently

Types

Natural draft mdash Utilizes buoyancy via a tall chimney Warm moist air naturally

rises due to the density differential compared to the dry cooler outside air Warm

moist air is less dense than drier air at the same pressure This moist air

buoyancy produces an upwards current of air through the tower

Mechanical draft mdash Uses power-driven fan motors to force or draw airthrough the tower

o Induced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a fan at the

discharge (at the top) which pulls air up through the tower The fan

induces hot moist air out the discharge This produces low entering

and high exiting air velocities reducing the possibility of

recirculation in which discharged air flows back into the air intake

o Forced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a blower type fan at

the intake The fan forces air into the tower creating high entering

and low exiting air velocities The low exiting velocity is much more

susceptible to recirculation This fanfill geometry is also known as

blow-through

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Forced Draft Cooling Tower Vs Induced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower have the ability to handle large water flow

rate than Forced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower is suitable for large cell sizes and fan sizes

as compared with Forced Draft Larger fan size may result in greater

efficiency and consequently lower power and sound level

Forced Draft Cooling Tower can be square or rectangular type only

however Induced Draft Cooling Towers can be round square or

rectangular type

Induced Draft Cooling Tower uses more compact ground area than Forced

Draft Cooling Tower equivalent capacity due to absence of fan on one

side

Fan equipment is warm exhaust air is less liable to icing up in winter

operation (Cold Countries)

Higher velocity in Forced Draft Cooling Tower cause drop in suspension

and cause additional static resistance to system

Configuration

There are two main configurations of factory assembled cooling towers crossflow

and counterflow In crossflow cooling towers the water flows vertically down the

fill as air flows horizontally across In counterflow cooling towers the water flows

vertically down the fill as air flows vertically up

Crossflow Configuration Counterflow Configuration

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Drift mdash Water droplets that are carried out of the cooling tower with the exhaust

air Drift droplets have the same concentration of impurities as the water entering

the tower The drift rate is typically reduced by employing baffle-like devices

called drift eliminators through which the air must travel after leaving the fill and

spray zones of the tower

Blow-out mdash Water droplets blown out of the cooling tower by wind generally at

the air inlet openings Water may also be lost in the absence of wind through

splashing or misting Devices such as wind screens louvers splash deflectors

and water diverters are used to limit these losses

Blow-down mdash The portion of the circulating water flow that is removed (usually

discharged to a drain) in order to maintain the amount of Total Dissolved Solids

(TDS) and other impurities at an acceptably low level Higher TDS concentration

in solution may result from greater cooling tower efficiency However the higher

the TDS concentration the greater the risk of scale biological growth and

corrosion

Make-up mdash The water that must be added to the circulating water system in

order to compensate for water losses such as evaporation drift loss blow-out

blow-down etc

Approach mdash The approach is the difference in temperature between the cooled-

water temperature and the entering-air wet bulb temperature

Range mdash The range is the temperature difference between the warm water inlet

and cooled water exit

Fill mdash Inside the tower fills are added to increase contact surface as well as

contact time between air and water to provide better heat transfer The efficiency

of the tower depends on the selection and amount of fill

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There are two types of fills that may be used

o Film type fill (causes water to spread into a thin film)

o Splash type fill (breaks up falling stream of water and interrupts its

vertical progress)

Important

Scale build up is controlled by adding chemicals to the cooling loop and diluting

the concentration by blow down and make-up Following chemicals are added to

the Cooling to control CorrosionSale and microbial growth

Corrosion Inhibitor To control corrosion in the Cooling system

Dispersant To kept ions in suspension to avoid settle down and buildup

Sodium hypo Chlorite To Control microbial Growth

Acid To control Alkalinity in the system

High Stress Polymer To run the system at higher conductivity It is a

multifunctional polymer for Zinc amp Phosphate stabilization in cooling tower

Fin Fan Cooler

Fin fan heat exchanger is simply a pressure vessel which cools a circulating fluid

within finned tubes by forcing ambient air over the exterior of the tubes A

common example of an air cooler is a carrsquos radiator Fin Fan Coolers are used in

any application where large quantities of heat need to be transferred This

includes chemical and petrochemical industries power stations waste-to-energy

facilities as well as steelworks

Fin Fan Cooler are used for two primary reasons

They increase plant efficiency

They are a green solution as compared to cooling towers and shell and

tube heat exchangers because they do not require an auxiliary water

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supply (water lost due to drift and evaporation plus no water treatment

chemicals are required)

Figure General Overview of Fin Fan Cooler

Produced Water

The produced water system receives liquid from the equipment Miano slug

catcher train 1 and 2 inlet separators and is fed to three phase separator where

water oil and gas is separated The gases produced are burnt in incinerator

whereas hydrocarbon liquid is stored to be sold Liquid from compressors

recycle inlet separator recycle feed scrubber high and low pressure slug

catchers is passed to degasser Separated water is injected down the earth

Incinerator

The term incinerate means to burn something until nothing is left but ashes An

incinerator is a unit or facility used to burn trash and other types of waste until it is

reduced to ash An incinerator is constructed of heavy well-insulated materials

so that it does not give off extreme amounts of external heat The high levels of

heat are kept inside the furnace or unit so that the waste is burned quickly and

efficiently If the heat were allowed to escape the waste would not burn as

completely or as rapidly

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Control System

The plant is controlled at CCR (Central Control Room) by PLCs (Programmable

Logic Controllers) through fiber optic control line All control parameters are

received at LER (Local Equipment Room) via two optic fiber control lines One

being primary and other secondary operating in redundancy ie if primary fails

control shifts to secondary These control parameters are sent to CCR via single

optic fiber cable

Safety System

Wellheads and Gas Processing Plant have their own Fire amp Gas detection

systems emergency shutdown (ESD) Plant has a fault tolerant controller It is

based on Triple Modular Redundant (TMR) architecture manufactured by

Triconex The TMR system is based on three isolated parallel control systems

integrated into one system The system operates on a two out of three voting

principle which provides high integrity error free uninterrupted operation with no

single point of failure The TMR receives inputs from Process Sensors Manual

Switches Fire amp Gas Detectors Packaged Equipment Control Systems and

Product Exporting Facilities The TMR carries out cause and effect processing on

the data received and where necessary produces output signals Outputs from

the TMR are hard wired directly to ESD shutdown and blow down valve

solenoids motor control instrumentelectrical interfaces to control electrical

drives package equipment logic control systems manifold area as well as

telecoms

The operator in central control room is able to accept alarms and once the fault

has been cleared reset the input All the control systems are centralized to a

single interface All the PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers) communicate with

the servers and servers communicate with the clients through Ethernet connectivity

Centralization eases the navigation of different systems at a common interface

Emergency Shutdown

The ESD system receives inputs from field mounted instrumentation on the process

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and utility equipment and initiates executive actions appropriate to the level of ESD

The system is an Active system which is in standby and will activate when in an

alarm or fault condition The Kadanwari Gas Process Facility ESD system is

comprised of five (5) levels The emergency severity decreases with increasing ESD

level number

ESD 1

This shutdown level is automatically initiated by fire major gas leak or a detected

toxic atmosphere in the process area of the plant or manually from CCR A level 1

shutdown will cause all production to cease close all emergency shutdown

valves stop the process and shutdown of the main power generation The

emergency vent valves to the stack will open and in addition all equipment of zone 1

certified will be isolated This is the highest level of ESD and will cause the following

to occur

All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close All slowdown Valves (BDVs) on the process facility will open

All Main Gas Driven Generators will be tripped

Emergency Diesel Generator will start

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close Upper Master Valve

(UMV) Close

ESD 2

This shutdown level is activated automatically if a major process or utility failure

occurs or manually from CCR All production to the plant from the wellhead is

stopped All emergency shutdown valves trip to their fail safe position

Venting shall be as specified This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

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All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valve Close Wing Valves Close and Upper Master Valve(UMV) Close

ESD 3

The level 3 shutdown isolates and stops a single process train only Production

continues via the other train This ESD level is initiated by process conditions or

operator at local panel This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

ESD 3A Train 1 production to cease

ESD 3B Train 2 production to cease

All online wellhead choke valves go to minimum flow ie (1O )

ESD 4

A level 4 shutdown shall cease all production from an entire field either

Kadanwari or Miano upstream of the associated slug catchers ESD 4K for

Kadanwari amp ESD 4M for Miano This ESD level is initiated automatically by slug

catcher abnormal process conditions This level of ESD will cause the following

to occur

All SDVs close isolating the relevant slug catcher and its upstream gas

production facility from the Kadanwari Gas Processing Plant

All Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close and Upper MasterValves (UMV) of the relevant gas production facility Close

A parallel timer is provided to close within 10 second if not closed in given

time SSSV seals the well

ESD 5

A level 5 shutdown represents equipment shutdown for the protection of the

individual equipment without any change in the process This level of ESD is for the

protection of various pieces of equipment and is initiated by its own inputs eg

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Figure Flow Diagram of Recycle membrane unit

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ADVANTAGES OF MEMBRANE SYSTEMS

Membrane systems have major advantages over more-traditional methods of

acid gas removal

Lower capital cost Membrane systems are skid mounted and so the

scope cost and time taken for site preparation are minimal Installation

costs are significantly lower than alternative technologies especially for

remote areas Furthermore no additional facilities for solvent storage and

water treatment needed by other processes are required

Lower operating costs The only major operating cost for single-stage

membrane systems is membrane replacement This cost is significantly

lower than the solvent replacement and energy costs associated with

traditional technologies The improvements in membrane and

pretreatment design allow a longer useful membrane life which further

reduces operating costs The energy costs of multistage systems with

large recycle compressors are usually comparable to those for traditionaltechnologies

Deferred capital investment Often contracted sales-gas flow rates

increase over time as more wells are brought on-line With traditional

technologies the system design needs to take this later production into

account immediately and so the majority of the equipment is installed

before it is even needed The modular nature of membrane systems

means that only the membranes that are needed at start-up need be

installed The rest can be added either into existing tubes or in new skids

only when they are required

Operational simplicity and high reliability Because single-stage

membrane systems have no moving parts they have almost no

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unscheduled downtime and are extremely simple to operate They can

operate unattended for long periods of time The addition of a recycle

compressor adds some complexity to the system but still much less than

with a solvent- or adsorbent-based technology Multistage systems can be

operated at full capacity as single-stage systems when the recycle

compressor is down

Good weight and space efficiency Skid construction can be optimized

to the space available This space efficiency is especially important for

offshore environments where deck area is at a premium and is the

reason why so many new offshore developments have chosen to use

membranes for acid gas removal Figure 6 illustrates the space efficiency

of membrane systems The membrane unit in the lower left corner

replaced all the amine and glycol plant equipment shown in the rest of the

picture

Adaptability Because membrane area is dictated by the percentage of

acid gas removal rather than absolute acid gas removal small variations

in feed acid gas content hardly change the sales-gas acid gas

specification For example a system designed for 10 down to 3 acid

gas removal produces a 35 product from a 12 feed gas and a 5

product from a 15 feed gas

Design efficiency The membrane and pretreatment systems integrate a

number of operations such as dehydration CO2 and H2S removal dew-

point control and mercury removal Traditional acid gas removal

technologies require all of these operations as separate processes and

may also require additional dehydration because some technologies

saturate the product stream with water

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Power generation The permeate gas from membrane systems can be

used to provide fuel gas for power generation either for a recycle

compressor or other equipment

Ideal for debottlenecking Because expanding solvent- or adsorbent-

based acid gas removal plants without adding additional trains is difficult

an ideal solution is to use membranes for bulk acid gas removal and leave

the existing plant for final cleanup An additional advantage is that the

permeate gas from the membrane system can often be used as fuel for

the existing plant thus avoiding significant increase in hydrocarbon

losses

Environmentally friendly Membrane systems do not involve the

periodic removal and handling of spent solvents or adsorbents Permeate

gases can be flared used as fuel or re-injected into the well Items thatdo need disposal such as spent membrane elements can be incinerated

Ideal for remote locations Many of the factors mentioned above make

membrane systems a highly desirable technology for remote locations

where spare parts are rare and labor unskilled Furthermore solvents

storage and trucking water supply power generation or extensive

infrastructure are not required

Re-injection optimizations Since the permeate stream from the

membrane system can be operated at elevated pressures it is possible to

further pressurize by re-injection compression train

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Sorption

Sorption is a physical and chemical process by which one substance becomes

attached to another

It is of two main types

1 Absorption

2 Adsorption

Absorption

Absorption is a physical or chemical phenomenon or process in which atoms

molecules or ions enter some bulk phase ndash gas liquid or solid material This is a

different process from adsorption since molecules undergoing absorption are

taken up by the volume not by the surface (as in the case for adsorption)

Absorption process may be chemical (reactive) or physical (non-reactive)

Physical absorption

Physical absorption or non-reactive absorption is made between two phases ofmatter a liquid absorbs a gas or a solid absorbs a liquid

When a liquid solvent absorbs a gas mixture or part of it a mass of gas moves

into the liquid For example water may absorb oxygen from the air This mass

transfer takes place at the interface between the liquid and the gas at a rate

depending on both the gas and the liquid This type of absorption depends on the

solubility of gases the pressure and the temperature The rate and amount of

absorption also depend on the surface area of the interface and its duration in

time

When a solid absorbs a liquid mixture or part of it a mass of liquid moves into the

solid For example a clay pot used to store water may absorb some of the water

This mass transfer takes place at the interface between the solid and the liquid

at a rate depending on both the solid and the liquid

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Chemical absorption

Chemical absorption or reactive absorption is a chemical reaction between the

absorbed and the absorbing substances Sometimes it combines with physical

absorption This type of absorption depends upon the stoichiometry of the

reaction and the concentration of its reactants

Adsorption

Adsorption is the adhesion of atoms ions or molecules from a gas liquid or

dissolved solid to a surface This process creates a film of the adsorbate on the

surface of the adsorbent The binding to the surface is usually weak and

reversible Compounds with color and those that have taste or odor tend to bind

strongly Compounds that vibrate at frequencies in the visible spectrum are very

often are strongly adsorbed on activated carbon

The most common industrial adsorbents are activated carbon silica gel and

alumina because they present enormous surface areas per unit weight

Depending on the nature of attractive forces existing between the adsorbate and

adsorbent adsorption can be classified as

i) Physical adsorption

ii) Chemical adsorption

i) Physical adsorption (Physisorption)

In physical adsorption the forces of attraction between the molecules of the

adsorbate and the adsorbent are of the weak van der Waals type Since the

forces of attraction are weak the process of physisorption can be easily reversed

by heating or decreasing the pressure of the adsorbate (as in the case of gases)

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ii) Chemical adsorption (Chemisorption)

In chemisorption the forces of attraction between the adsorbate and the

adsorbent are very strong the molecules of adsorbate form chemical bonds with

the molecules of the adsorbent present in the surface

Adsorption is generally accompanied by release of energy that is most

adsorption processes are exothermic in nature Adsorption is a spontaneous

process therefore its free energy change is negative (∆Glt0) However the

entropy change associated with adsorption is generally negative because the

adsorbate molecules lose their translation freedom when they get attached to the

surface of the adsorbent Therefore in order for ∆G to be negative the enthalpy

change (∆H) must be sufficiently negative such that (∆G=∆H-T∆S) lt 0 This

explanation accounts for exothermic adsorption processes In cases where

endothermic adsorption occurs the entropy change ∆S is sufficiently positive

such that ∆G remains negative

Pre treatment

The main function of pretreatment skid is to provide membrane inlet specification

gas as mentioned by the vendor UOP It removes the contaminants that would

poison the membranes like dust solids (adsorbent particles) lube oil heavy

hydrocarbons etc It consists of

Feed Cooler

Feed Gas Scrubber

Filter Coalescer

Feed Gas Heater

Activated Carbon Guard Filter

Particle Filter

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The regeneration is carried out by heated permeate gas from the recycle

membranes at 450oF The vessel is depressurized to 20 psi and heated gas is

introduced from top The gas carries out the adsorbed contaminants and leaves

the vessel from bottom cleaning the adsorbent This contaminated gas is burnt in

the flare

UOP the vendor of Memguard unit has never disclosed that what substance

MG3 and MG5 exactly are But as mentioned by vendor that both care class of

aluminosilicates Therefore MG3 can be potassium aluminosilicate and MG5 can

be Calcium aluminosilicate These are molecular sieves adsorbents Molecular

sieves are a microporous material which can selectively adsorb gases andliquids They are synthetic zeolites (crystalline metal aluminosilicates) which

upon dehydration can efficiently and selectively remove water or other

solvents The selectivity of a molecular sieve is determined by its pore size

molecules with a critical diameter which is less than the pore size will be

efficiently adsorbed while larger molecules will be excluded

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3A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

The 3A molecular sieve adsorbent has a 3 angstrom (3A) pore size which means

that any molecule that is larger than the 3 angstrom pores will not be adsorbed

The 3A molecular sieve is the potassium type of A crystalline structure and is a

form of alkali Aluminosilicate For a 3A molecular sieve the sequence rate that

adsorption occurs is He Ne N and H2O

Due to the crystalline structure molecular sieves that have a 3 angstrom pore

size have a very high rate of adsorption and properties that promote a longer life

for products treated by the sieve The most common use for the 3A molecular

sieve is to remove water and moisture from materials that are in gas and liquid

form

5A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

These are molecular sieve adsorbents with a pore size of 5 angstrom (5A) 5A

molecular sieves are unable to adsorb any molecules or impurities that are

smaller than 5A It is calcium form of type A crystalline structure and is form of analkali-aluminosilicate that is most commonly used to separate isomerous alkanes

from normal alkanes and to co-adsorb moisture and water along with carbon

dioxide from gases In additional 5A molecular sieves are used for gaseous

pressure swing adsorption (PSA)mdashthat is to separate particular gases from other

gases

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of C3H8 to C22H46

Adsorption of Freon-12 (dichlorodifluoromethane)

Natural gas drying

Normal- and iso-paraffin separation

Separation of aromatic

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Inlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1096

MEHTANE 8593

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008

N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGEN 076

WATER 007

Outlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1098

MEHTANE 8608

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGENT 076

WATER 000

H2S polisher

The H2S polishing unit has been designed to treat 187 MMscfday of natural gas

containing up to 11 CO2 and 21 ppm H2S where the level of the CO2 and H2S

is reduced using a MemGuard Membrane separation unit The unit is situated

down-stream of the membrane unit and will further reduce the level of H2S in the

processed gas to a sales gas specification of 38 ppm

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This process uses three non-regenerable fixed bed absorber vessels using a low

temperature high activity absorbent The absorbent is a mixture of activated

metal oxides (mainly zinc oxide) The three towers can are generally operated in

parallel arrangement but on demand can be used in series (any of alternate

arrangements of A B C vessels) as shown in figure

The higher sales gas flow rate increased the catalyst consumption and

replacement frequency

ZnO + H2S =gt ZnS + H20

Routine samples are taken from the beds to provide a check on each bed

performance and to follow the saturation profile during the absorbent life After

the adsorbent has been fully utilized the adsorption vessels are recharged with

new adsorbent discarding the utilized one in a safe manner

109oF

1215 psig

Before H2S Polishing After H2S Polishing

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Figure

H2S Tower

Inlet pipe

4 Drums of 19mm

ceramic Balls

6 Micron mesh

5 Drums of 50mmceramic

1 Drums of19mm ceramic

01 Drums of6mm ceramic

112 drums of

Catalist ZnO

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Recycle Compressor

The permeate gas of the primary membrane unit carries recoverable amount of

CH4 It is fed to recycle membrane unit for further CH 4 recovery But the

permeate pressure from primary membranes which has been reduced to 12 psi

must be regenerated to 1200 psi for the gas to be fed again to the system For

this purpose we have employed recycle compressor The compressor is a four

stage centrifugal compressor It is driven by gas turbine of 31200 HP It has 25

MW producing capacity

Figure Recycle Compressor Process Flow Diagram

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Sales Gas Compressor

Gas from H2S polishing unit is sent to sales gas compressor where its pressure

is enhanced to 1100 psi so it may be injected to SNGPL high pressure trunk line

Sales gas compressor is single stage gas turbine driven

Figure Process Flow of Sales Gas Compressor

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Cooling Towers

A cooling tower is a heat rejection device which extracts waste heat to theatmosphere through the cooling of a water stream to a lower temperature Hot

water from the system enters the cooling tower and is distributed over the fill

(heat transfer surface) Air is induced or forced through the fill causing a small

portion of the water to evaporate This evaporation removes heat from the

remaining water which is collected in the cold water basin and returned to the

system to absorb more heat Each cooling tower line although operating under

the same basic principle of operation is arranged a little differently

Types

Natural draft mdash Utilizes buoyancy via a tall chimney Warm moist air naturally

rises due to the density differential compared to the dry cooler outside air Warm

moist air is less dense than drier air at the same pressure This moist air

buoyancy produces an upwards current of air through the tower

Mechanical draft mdash Uses power-driven fan motors to force or draw airthrough the tower

o Induced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a fan at the

discharge (at the top) which pulls air up through the tower The fan

induces hot moist air out the discharge This produces low entering

and high exiting air velocities reducing the possibility of

recirculation in which discharged air flows back into the air intake

o Forced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a blower type fan at

the intake The fan forces air into the tower creating high entering

and low exiting air velocities The low exiting velocity is much more

susceptible to recirculation This fanfill geometry is also known as

blow-through

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Forced Draft Cooling Tower Vs Induced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower have the ability to handle large water flow

rate than Forced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower is suitable for large cell sizes and fan sizes

as compared with Forced Draft Larger fan size may result in greater

efficiency and consequently lower power and sound level

Forced Draft Cooling Tower can be square or rectangular type only

however Induced Draft Cooling Towers can be round square or

rectangular type

Induced Draft Cooling Tower uses more compact ground area than Forced

Draft Cooling Tower equivalent capacity due to absence of fan on one

side

Fan equipment is warm exhaust air is less liable to icing up in winter

operation (Cold Countries)

Higher velocity in Forced Draft Cooling Tower cause drop in suspension

and cause additional static resistance to system

Configuration

There are two main configurations of factory assembled cooling towers crossflow

and counterflow In crossflow cooling towers the water flows vertically down the

fill as air flows horizontally across In counterflow cooling towers the water flows

vertically down the fill as air flows vertically up

Crossflow Configuration Counterflow Configuration

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Drift mdash Water droplets that are carried out of the cooling tower with the exhaust

air Drift droplets have the same concentration of impurities as the water entering

the tower The drift rate is typically reduced by employing baffle-like devices

called drift eliminators through which the air must travel after leaving the fill and

spray zones of the tower

Blow-out mdash Water droplets blown out of the cooling tower by wind generally at

the air inlet openings Water may also be lost in the absence of wind through

splashing or misting Devices such as wind screens louvers splash deflectors

and water diverters are used to limit these losses

Blow-down mdash The portion of the circulating water flow that is removed (usually

discharged to a drain) in order to maintain the amount of Total Dissolved Solids

(TDS) and other impurities at an acceptably low level Higher TDS concentration

in solution may result from greater cooling tower efficiency However the higher

the TDS concentration the greater the risk of scale biological growth and

corrosion

Make-up mdash The water that must be added to the circulating water system in

order to compensate for water losses such as evaporation drift loss blow-out

blow-down etc

Approach mdash The approach is the difference in temperature between the cooled-

water temperature and the entering-air wet bulb temperature

Range mdash The range is the temperature difference between the warm water inlet

and cooled water exit

Fill mdash Inside the tower fills are added to increase contact surface as well as

contact time between air and water to provide better heat transfer The efficiency

of the tower depends on the selection and amount of fill

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There are two types of fills that may be used

o Film type fill (causes water to spread into a thin film)

o Splash type fill (breaks up falling stream of water and interrupts its

vertical progress)

Important

Scale build up is controlled by adding chemicals to the cooling loop and diluting

the concentration by blow down and make-up Following chemicals are added to

the Cooling to control CorrosionSale and microbial growth

Corrosion Inhibitor To control corrosion in the Cooling system

Dispersant To kept ions in suspension to avoid settle down and buildup

Sodium hypo Chlorite To Control microbial Growth

Acid To control Alkalinity in the system

High Stress Polymer To run the system at higher conductivity It is a

multifunctional polymer for Zinc amp Phosphate stabilization in cooling tower

Fin Fan Cooler

Fin fan heat exchanger is simply a pressure vessel which cools a circulating fluid

within finned tubes by forcing ambient air over the exterior of the tubes A

common example of an air cooler is a carrsquos radiator Fin Fan Coolers are used in

any application where large quantities of heat need to be transferred This

includes chemical and petrochemical industries power stations waste-to-energy

facilities as well as steelworks

Fin Fan Cooler are used for two primary reasons

They increase plant efficiency

They are a green solution as compared to cooling towers and shell and

tube heat exchangers because they do not require an auxiliary water

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supply (water lost due to drift and evaporation plus no water treatment

chemicals are required)

Figure General Overview of Fin Fan Cooler

Produced Water

The produced water system receives liquid from the equipment Miano slug

catcher train 1 and 2 inlet separators and is fed to three phase separator where

water oil and gas is separated The gases produced are burnt in incinerator

whereas hydrocarbon liquid is stored to be sold Liquid from compressors

recycle inlet separator recycle feed scrubber high and low pressure slug

catchers is passed to degasser Separated water is injected down the earth

Incinerator

The term incinerate means to burn something until nothing is left but ashes An

incinerator is a unit or facility used to burn trash and other types of waste until it is

reduced to ash An incinerator is constructed of heavy well-insulated materials

so that it does not give off extreme amounts of external heat The high levels of

heat are kept inside the furnace or unit so that the waste is burned quickly and

efficiently If the heat were allowed to escape the waste would not burn as

completely or as rapidly

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Control System

The plant is controlled at CCR (Central Control Room) by PLCs (Programmable

Logic Controllers) through fiber optic control line All control parameters are

received at LER (Local Equipment Room) via two optic fiber control lines One

being primary and other secondary operating in redundancy ie if primary fails

control shifts to secondary These control parameters are sent to CCR via single

optic fiber cable

Safety System

Wellheads and Gas Processing Plant have their own Fire amp Gas detection

systems emergency shutdown (ESD) Plant has a fault tolerant controller It is

based on Triple Modular Redundant (TMR) architecture manufactured by

Triconex The TMR system is based on three isolated parallel control systems

integrated into one system The system operates on a two out of three voting

principle which provides high integrity error free uninterrupted operation with no

single point of failure The TMR receives inputs from Process Sensors Manual

Switches Fire amp Gas Detectors Packaged Equipment Control Systems and

Product Exporting Facilities The TMR carries out cause and effect processing on

the data received and where necessary produces output signals Outputs from

the TMR are hard wired directly to ESD shutdown and blow down valve

solenoids motor control instrumentelectrical interfaces to control electrical

drives package equipment logic control systems manifold area as well as

telecoms

The operator in central control room is able to accept alarms and once the fault

has been cleared reset the input All the control systems are centralized to a

single interface All the PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers) communicate with

the servers and servers communicate with the clients through Ethernet connectivity

Centralization eases the navigation of different systems at a common interface

Emergency Shutdown

The ESD system receives inputs from field mounted instrumentation on the process

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and utility equipment and initiates executive actions appropriate to the level of ESD

The system is an Active system which is in standby and will activate when in an

alarm or fault condition The Kadanwari Gas Process Facility ESD system is

comprised of five (5) levels The emergency severity decreases with increasing ESD

level number

ESD 1

This shutdown level is automatically initiated by fire major gas leak or a detected

toxic atmosphere in the process area of the plant or manually from CCR A level 1

shutdown will cause all production to cease close all emergency shutdown

valves stop the process and shutdown of the main power generation The

emergency vent valves to the stack will open and in addition all equipment of zone 1

certified will be isolated This is the highest level of ESD and will cause the following

to occur

All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close All slowdown Valves (BDVs) on the process facility will open

All Main Gas Driven Generators will be tripped

Emergency Diesel Generator will start

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close Upper Master Valve

(UMV) Close

ESD 2

This shutdown level is activated automatically if a major process or utility failure

occurs or manually from CCR All production to the plant from the wellhead is

stopped All emergency shutdown valves trip to their fail safe position

Venting shall be as specified This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

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All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valve Close Wing Valves Close and Upper Master Valve(UMV) Close

ESD 3

The level 3 shutdown isolates and stops a single process train only Production

continues via the other train This ESD level is initiated by process conditions or

operator at local panel This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

ESD 3A Train 1 production to cease

ESD 3B Train 2 production to cease

All online wellhead choke valves go to minimum flow ie (1O )

ESD 4

A level 4 shutdown shall cease all production from an entire field either

Kadanwari or Miano upstream of the associated slug catchers ESD 4K for

Kadanwari amp ESD 4M for Miano This ESD level is initiated automatically by slug

catcher abnormal process conditions This level of ESD will cause the following

to occur

All SDVs close isolating the relevant slug catcher and its upstream gas

production facility from the Kadanwari Gas Processing Plant

All Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close and Upper MasterValves (UMV) of the relevant gas production facility Close

A parallel timer is provided to close within 10 second if not closed in given

time SSSV seals the well

ESD 5

A level 5 shutdown represents equipment shutdown for the protection of the

individual equipment without any change in the process This level of ESD is for the

protection of various pieces of equipment and is initiated by its own inputs eg

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ADVANTAGES OF MEMBRANE SYSTEMS

Membrane systems have major advantages over more-traditional methods of

acid gas removal

Lower capital cost Membrane systems are skid mounted and so the

scope cost and time taken for site preparation are minimal Installation

costs are significantly lower than alternative technologies especially for

remote areas Furthermore no additional facilities for solvent storage and

water treatment needed by other processes are required

Lower operating costs The only major operating cost for single-stage

membrane systems is membrane replacement This cost is significantly

lower than the solvent replacement and energy costs associated with

traditional technologies The improvements in membrane and

pretreatment design allow a longer useful membrane life which further

reduces operating costs The energy costs of multistage systems with

large recycle compressors are usually comparable to those for traditionaltechnologies

Deferred capital investment Often contracted sales-gas flow rates

increase over time as more wells are brought on-line With traditional

technologies the system design needs to take this later production into

account immediately and so the majority of the equipment is installed

before it is even needed The modular nature of membrane systems

means that only the membranes that are needed at start-up need be

installed The rest can be added either into existing tubes or in new skids

only when they are required

Operational simplicity and high reliability Because single-stage

membrane systems have no moving parts they have almost no

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unscheduled downtime and are extremely simple to operate They can

operate unattended for long periods of time The addition of a recycle

compressor adds some complexity to the system but still much less than

with a solvent- or adsorbent-based technology Multistage systems can be

operated at full capacity as single-stage systems when the recycle

compressor is down

Good weight and space efficiency Skid construction can be optimized

to the space available This space efficiency is especially important for

offshore environments where deck area is at a premium and is the

reason why so many new offshore developments have chosen to use

membranes for acid gas removal Figure 6 illustrates the space efficiency

of membrane systems The membrane unit in the lower left corner

replaced all the amine and glycol plant equipment shown in the rest of the

picture

Adaptability Because membrane area is dictated by the percentage of

acid gas removal rather than absolute acid gas removal small variations

in feed acid gas content hardly change the sales-gas acid gas

specification For example a system designed for 10 down to 3 acid

gas removal produces a 35 product from a 12 feed gas and a 5

product from a 15 feed gas

Design efficiency The membrane and pretreatment systems integrate a

number of operations such as dehydration CO2 and H2S removal dew-

point control and mercury removal Traditional acid gas removal

technologies require all of these operations as separate processes and

may also require additional dehydration because some technologies

saturate the product stream with water

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Power generation The permeate gas from membrane systems can be

used to provide fuel gas for power generation either for a recycle

compressor or other equipment

Ideal for debottlenecking Because expanding solvent- or adsorbent-

based acid gas removal plants without adding additional trains is difficult

an ideal solution is to use membranes for bulk acid gas removal and leave

the existing plant for final cleanup An additional advantage is that the

permeate gas from the membrane system can often be used as fuel for

the existing plant thus avoiding significant increase in hydrocarbon

losses

Environmentally friendly Membrane systems do not involve the

periodic removal and handling of spent solvents or adsorbents Permeate

gases can be flared used as fuel or re-injected into the well Items thatdo need disposal such as spent membrane elements can be incinerated

Ideal for remote locations Many of the factors mentioned above make

membrane systems a highly desirable technology for remote locations

where spare parts are rare and labor unskilled Furthermore solvents

storage and trucking water supply power generation or extensive

infrastructure are not required

Re-injection optimizations Since the permeate stream from the

membrane system can be operated at elevated pressures it is possible to

further pressurize by re-injection compression train

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Sorption

Sorption is a physical and chemical process by which one substance becomes

attached to another

It is of two main types

1 Absorption

2 Adsorption

Absorption

Absorption is a physical or chemical phenomenon or process in which atoms

molecules or ions enter some bulk phase ndash gas liquid or solid material This is a

different process from adsorption since molecules undergoing absorption are

taken up by the volume not by the surface (as in the case for adsorption)

Absorption process may be chemical (reactive) or physical (non-reactive)

Physical absorption

Physical absorption or non-reactive absorption is made between two phases ofmatter a liquid absorbs a gas or a solid absorbs a liquid

When a liquid solvent absorbs a gas mixture or part of it a mass of gas moves

into the liquid For example water may absorb oxygen from the air This mass

transfer takes place at the interface between the liquid and the gas at a rate

depending on both the gas and the liquid This type of absorption depends on the

solubility of gases the pressure and the temperature The rate and amount of

absorption also depend on the surface area of the interface and its duration in

time

When a solid absorbs a liquid mixture or part of it a mass of liquid moves into the

solid For example a clay pot used to store water may absorb some of the water

This mass transfer takes place at the interface between the solid and the liquid

at a rate depending on both the solid and the liquid

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Chemical absorption

Chemical absorption or reactive absorption is a chemical reaction between the

absorbed and the absorbing substances Sometimes it combines with physical

absorption This type of absorption depends upon the stoichiometry of the

reaction and the concentration of its reactants

Adsorption

Adsorption is the adhesion of atoms ions or molecules from a gas liquid or

dissolved solid to a surface This process creates a film of the adsorbate on the

surface of the adsorbent The binding to the surface is usually weak and

reversible Compounds with color and those that have taste or odor tend to bind

strongly Compounds that vibrate at frequencies in the visible spectrum are very

often are strongly adsorbed on activated carbon

The most common industrial adsorbents are activated carbon silica gel and

alumina because they present enormous surface areas per unit weight

Depending on the nature of attractive forces existing between the adsorbate and

adsorbent adsorption can be classified as

i) Physical adsorption

ii) Chemical adsorption

i) Physical adsorption (Physisorption)

In physical adsorption the forces of attraction between the molecules of the

adsorbate and the adsorbent are of the weak van der Waals type Since the

forces of attraction are weak the process of physisorption can be easily reversed

by heating or decreasing the pressure of the adsorbate (as in the case of gases)

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ii) Chemical adsorption (Chemisorption)

In chemisorption the forces of attraction between the adsorbate and the

adsorbent are very strong the molecules of adsorbate form chemical bonds with

the molecules of the adsorbent present in the surface

Adsorption is generally accompanied by release of energy that is most

adsorption processes are exothermic in nature Adsorption is a spontaneous

process therefore its free energy change is negative (∆Glt0) However the

entropy change associated with adsorption is generally negative because the

adsorbate molecules lose their translation freedom when they get attached to the

surface of the adsorbent Therefore in order for ∆G to be negative the enthalpy

change (∆H) must be sufficiently negative such that (∆G=∆H-T∆S) lt 0 This

explanation accounts for exothermic adsorption processes In cases where

endothermic adsorption occurs the entropy change ∆S is sufficiently positive

such that ∆G remains negative

Pre treatment

The main function of pretreatment skid is to provide membrane inlet specification

gas as mentioned by the vendor UOP It removes the contaminants that would

poison the membranes like dust solids (adsorbent particles) lube oil heavy

hydrocarbons etc It consists of

Feed Cooler

Feed Gas Scrubber

Filter Coalescer

Feed Gas Heater

Activated Carbon Guard Filter

Particle Filter

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The regeneration is carried out by heated permeate gas from the recycle

membranes at 450oF The vessel is depressurized to 20 psi and heated gas is

introduced from top The gas carries out the adsorbed contaminants and leaves

the vessel from bottom cleaning the adsorbent This contaminated gas is burnt in

the flare

UOP the vendor of Memguard unit has never disclosed that what substance

MG3 and MG5 exactly are But as mentioned by vendor that both care class of

aluminosilicates Therefore MG3 can be potassium aluminosilicate and MG5 can

be Calcium aluminosilicate These are molecular sieves adsorbents Molecular

sieves are a microporous material which can selectively adsorb gases andliquids They are synthetic zeolites (crystalline metal aluminosilicates) which

upon dehydration can efficiently and selectively remove water or other

solvents The selectivity of a molecular sieve is determined by its pore size

molecules with a critical diameter which is less than the pore size will be

efficiently adsorbed while larger molecules will be excluded

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3A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

The 3A molecular sieve adsorbent has a 3 angstrom (3A) pore size which means

that any molecule that is larger than the 3 angstrom pores will not be adsorbed

The 3A molecular sieve is the potassium type of A crystalline structure and is a

form of alkali Aluminosilicate For a 3A molecular sieve the sequence rate that

adsorption occurs is He Ne N and H2O

Due to the crystalline structure molecular sieves that have a 3 angstrom pore

size have a very high rate of adsorption and properties that promote a longer life

for products treated by the sieve The most common use for the 3A molecular

sieve is to remove water and moisture from materials that are in gas and liquid

form

5A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

These are molecular sieve adsorbents with a pore size of 5 angstrom (5A) 5A

molecular sieves are unable to adsorb any molecules or impurities that are

smaller than 5A It is calcium form of type A crystalline structure and is form of analkali-aluminosilicate that is most commonly used to separate isomerous alkanes

from normal alkanes and to co-adsorb moisture and water along with carbon

dioxide from gases In additional 5A molecular sieves are used for gaseous

pressure swing adsorption (PSA)mdashthat is to separate particular gases from other

gases

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of C3H8 to C22H46

Adsorption of Freon-12 (dichlorodifluoromethane)

Natural gas drying

Normal- and iso-paraffin separation

Separation of aromatic

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Inlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1096

MEHTANE 8593

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008

N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGEN 076

WATER 007

Outlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1098

MEHTANE 8608

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGENT 076

WATER 000

H2S polisher

The H2S polishing unit has been designed to treat 187 MMscfday of natural gas

containing up to 11 CO2 and 21 ppm H2S where the level of the CO2 and H2S

is reduced using a MemGuard Membrane separation unit The unit is situated

down-stream of the membrane unit and will further reduce the level of H2S in the

processed gas to a sales gas specification of 38 ppm

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This process uses three non-regenerable fixed bed absorber vessels using a low

temperature high activity absorbent The absorbent is a mixture of activated

metal oxides (mainly zinc oxide) The three towers can are generally operated in

parallel arrangement but on demand can be used in series (any of alternate

arrangements of A B C vessels) as shown in figure

The higher sales gas flow rate increased the catalyst consumption and

replacement frequency

ZnO + H2S =gt ZnS + H20

Routine samples are taken from the beds to provide a check on each bed

performance and to follow the saturation profile during the absorbent life After

the adsorbent has been fully utilized the adsorption vessels are recharged with

new adsorbent discarding the utilized one in a safe manner

109oF

1215 psig

Before H2S Polishing After H2S Polishing

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Figure

H2S Tower

Inlet pipe

4 Drums of 19mm

ceramic Balls

6 Micron mesh

5 Drums of 50mmceramic

1 Drums of19mm ceramic

01 Drums of6mm ceramic

112 drums of

Catalist ZnO

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Recycle Compressor

The permeate gas of the primary membrane unit carries recoverable amount of

CH4 It is fed to recycle membrane unit for further CH 4 recovery But the

permeate pressure from primary membranes which has been reduced to 12 psi

must be regenerated to 1200 psi for the gas to be fed again to the system For

this purpose we have employed recycle compressor The compressor is a four

stage centrifugal compressor It is driven by gas turbine of 31200 HP It has 25

MW producing capacity

Figure Recycle Compressor Process Flow Diagram

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Sales Gas Compressor

Gas from H2S polishing unit is sent to sales gas compressor where its pressure

is enhanced to 1100 psi so it may be injected to SNGPL high pressure trunk line

Sales gas compressor is single stage gas turbine driven

Figure Process Flow of Sales Gas Compressor

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Cooling Towers

A cooling tower is a heat rejection device which extracts waste heat to theatmosphere through the cooling of a water stream to a lower temperature Hot

water from the system enters the cooling tower and is distributed over the fill

(heat transfer surface) Air is induced or forced through the fill causing a small

portion of the water to evaporate This evaporation removes heat from the

remaining water which is collected in the cold water basin and returned to the

system to absorb more heat Each cooling tower line although operating under

the same basic principle of operation is arranged a little differently

Types

Natural draft mdash Utilizes buoyancy via a tall chimney Warm moist air naturally

rises due to the density differential compared to the dry cooler outside air Warm

moist air is less dense than drier air at the same pressure This moist air

buoyancy produces an upwards current of air through the tower

Mechanical draft mdash Uses power-driven fan motors to force or draw airthrough the tower

o Induced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a fan at the

discharge (at the top) which pulls air up through the tower The fan

induces hot moist air out the discharge This produces low entering

and high exiting air velocities reducing the possibility of

recirculation in which discharged air flows back into the air intake

o Forced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a blower type fan at

the intake The fan forces air into the tower creating high entering

and low exiting air velocities The low exiting velocity is much more

susceptible to recirculation This fanfill geometry is also known as

blow-through

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Forced Draft Cooling Tower Vs Induced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower have the ability to handle large water flow

rate than Forced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower is suitable for large cell sizes and fan sizes

as compared with Forced Draft Larger fan size may result in greater

efficiency and consequently lower power and sound level

Forced Draft Cooling Tower can be square or rectangular type only

however Induced Draft Cooling Towers can be round square or

rectangular type

Induced Draft Cooling Tower uses more compact ground area than Forced

Draft Cooling Tower equivalent capacity due to absence of fan on one

side

Fan equipment is warm exhaust air is less liable to icing up in winter

operation (Cold Countries)

Higher velocity in Forced Draft Cooling Tower cause drop in suspension

and cause additional static resistance to system

Configuration

There are two main configurations of factory assembled cooling towers crossflow

and counterflow In crossflow cooling towers the water flows vertically down the

fill as air flows horizontally across In counterflow cooling towers the water flows

vertically down the fill as air flows vertically up

Crossflow Configuration Counterflow Configuration

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Drift mdash Water droplets that are carried out of the cooling tower with the exhaust

air Drift droplets have the same concentration of impurities as the water entering

the tower The drift rate is typically reduced by employing baffle-like devices

called drift eliminators through which the air must travel after leaving the fill and

spray zones of the tower

Blow-out mdash Water droplets blown out of the cooling tower by wind generally at

the air inlet openings Water may also be lost in the absence of wind through

splashing or misting Devices such as wind screens louvers splash deflectors

and water diverters are used to limit these losses

Blow-down mdash The portion of the circulating water flow that is removed (usually

discharged to a drain) in order to maintain the amount of Total Dissolved Solids

(TDS) and other impurities at an acceptably low level Higher TDS concentration

in solution may result from greater cooling tower efficiency However the higher

the TDS concentration the greater the risk of scale biological growth and

corrosion

Make-up mdash The water that must be added to the circulating water system in

order to compensate for water losses such as evaporation drift loss blow-out

blow-down etc

Approach mdash The approach is the difference in temperature between the cooled-

water temperature and the entering-air wet bulb temperature

Range mdash The range is the temperature difference between the warm water inlet

and cooled water exit

Fill mdash Inside the tower fills are added to increase contact surface as well as

contact time between air and water to provide better heat transfer The efficiency

of the tower depends on the selection and amount of fill

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There are two types of fills that may be used

o Film type fill (causes water to spread into a thin film)

o Splash type fill (breaks up falling stream of water and interrupts its

vertical progress)

Important

Scale build up is controlled by adding chemicals to the cooling loop and diluting

the concentration by blow down and make-up Following chemicals are added to

the Cooling to control CorrosionSale and microbial growth

Corrosion Inhibitor To control corrosion in the Cooling system

Dispersant To kept ions in suspension to avoid settle down and buildup

Sodium hypo Chlorite To Control microbial Growth

Acid To control Alkalinity in the system

High Stress Polymer To run the system at higher conductivity It is a

multifunctional polymer for Zinc amp Phosphate stabilization in cooling tower

Fin Fan Cooler

Fin fan heat exchanger is simply a pressure vessel which cools a circulating fluid

within finned tubes by forcing ambient air over the exterior of the tubes A

common example of an air cooler is a carrsquos radiator Fin Fan Coolers are used in

any application where large quantities of heat need to be transferred This

includes chemical and petrochemical industries power stations waste-to-energy

facilities as well as steelworks

Fin Fan Cooler are used for two primary reasons

They increase plant efficiency

They are a green solution as compared to cooling towers and shell and

tube heat exchangers because they do not require an auxiliary water

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supply (water lost due to drift and evaporation plus no water treatment

chemicals are required)

Figure General Overview of Fin Fan Cooler

Produced Water

The produced water system receives liquid from the equipment Miano slug

catcher train 1 and 2 inlet separators and is fed to three phase separator where

water oil and gas is separated The gases produced are burnt in incinerator

whereas hydrocarbon liquid is stored to be sold Liquid from compressors

recycle inlet separator recycle feed scrubber high and low pressure slug

catchers is passed to degasser Separated water is injected down the earth

Incinerator

The term incinerate means to burn something until nothing is left but ashes An

incinerator is a unit or facility used to burn trash and other types of waste until it is

reduced to ash An incinerator is constructed of heavy well-insulated materials

so that it does not give off extreme amounts of external heat The high levels of

heat are kept inside the furnace or unit so that the waste is burned quickly and

efficiently If the heat were allowed to escape the waste would not burn as

completely or as rapidly

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Control System

The plant is controlled at CCR (Central Control Room) by PLCs (Programmable

Logic Controllers) through fiber optic control line All control parameters are

received at LER (Local Equipment Room) via two optic fiber control lines One

being primary and other secondary operating in redundancy ie if primary fails

control shifts to secondary These control parameters are sent to CCR via single

optic fiber cable

Safety System

Wellheads and Gas Processing Plant have their own Fire amp Gas detection

systems emergency shutdown (ESD) Plant has a fault tolerant controller It is

based on Triple Modular Redundant (TMR) architecture manufactured by

Triconex The TMR system is based on three isolated parallel control systems

integrated into one system The system operates on a two out of three voting

principle which provides high integrity error free uninterrupted operation with no

single point of failure The TMR receives inputs from Process Sensors Manual

Switches Fire amp Gas Detectors Packaged Equipment Control Systems and

Product Exporting Facilities The TMR carries out cause and effect processing on

the data received and where necessary produces output signals Outputs from

the TMR are hard wired directly to ESD shutdown and blow down valve

solenoids motor control instrumentelectrical interfaces to control electrical

drives package equipment logic control systems manifold area as well as

telecoms

The operator in central control room is able to accept alarms and once the fault

has been cleared reset the input All the control systems are centralized to a

single interface All the PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers) communicate with

the servers and servers communicate with the clients through Ethernet connectivity

Centralization eases the navigation of different systems at a common interface

Emergency Shutdown

The ESD system receives inputs from field mounted instrumentation on the process

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and utility equipment and initiates executive actions appropriate to the level of ESD

The system is an Active system which is in standby and will activate when in an

alarm or fault condition The Kadanwari Gas Process Facility ESD system is

comprised of five (5) levels The emergency severity decreases with increasing ESD

level number

ESD 1

This shutdown level is automatically initiated by fire major gas leak or a detected

toxic atmosphere in the process area of the plant or manually from CCR A level 1

shutdown will cause all production to cease close all emergency shutdown

valves stop the process and shutdown of the main power generation The

emergency vent valves to the stack will open and in addition all equipment of zone 1

certified will be isolated This is the highest level of ESD and will cause the following

to occur

All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close All slowdown Valves (BDVs) on the process facility will open

All Main Gas Driven Generators will be tripped

Emergency Diesel Generator will start

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close Upper Master Valve

(UMV) Close

ESD 2

This shutdown level is activated automatically if a major process or utility failure

occurs or manually from CCR All production to the plant from the wellhead is

stopped All emergency shutdown valves trip to their fail safe position

Venting shall be as specified This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

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All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valve Close Wing Valves Close and Upper Master Valve(UMV) Close

ESD 3

The level 3 shutdown isolates and stops a single process train only Production

continues via the other train This ESD level is initiated by process conditions or

operator at local panel This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

ESD 3A Train 1 production to cease

ESD 3B Train 2 production to cease

All online wellhead choke valves go to minimum flow ie (1O )

ESD 4

A level 4 shutdown shall cease all production from an entire field either

Kadanwari or Miano upstream of the associated slug catchers ESD 4K for

Kadanwari amp ESD 4M for Miano This ESD level is initiated automatically by slug

catcher abnormal process conditions This level of ESD will cause the following

to occur

All SDVs close isolating the relevant slug catcher and its upstream gas

production facility from the Kadanwari Gas Processing Plant

All Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close and Upper MasterValves (UMV) of the relevant gas production facility Close

A parallel timer is provided to close within 10 second if not closed in given

time SSSV seals the well

ESD 5

A level 5 shutdown represents equipment shutdown for the protection of the

individual equipment without any change in the process This level of ESD is for the

protection of various pieces of equipment and is initiated by its own inputs eg

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unscheduled downtime and are extremely simple to operate They can

operate unattended for long periods of time The addition of a recycle

compressor adds some complexity to the system but still much less than

with a solvent- or adsorbent-based technology Multistage systems can be

operated at full capacity as single-stage systems when the recycle

compressor is down

Good weight and space efficiency Skid construction can be optimized

to the space available This space efficiency is especially important for

offshore environments where deck area is at a premium and is the

reason why so many new offshore developments have chosen to use

membranes for acid gas removal Figure 6 illustrates the space efficiency

of membrane systems The membrane unit in the lower left corner

replaced all the amine and glycol plant equipment shown in the rest of the

picture

Adaptability Because membrane area is dictated by the percentage of

acid gas removal rather than absolute acid gas removal small variations

in feed acid gas content hardly change the sales-gas acid gas

specification For example a system designed for 10 down to 3 acid

gas removal produces a 35 product from a 12 feed gas and a 5

product from a 15 feed gas

Design efficiency The membrane and pretreatment systems integrate a

number of operations such as dehydration CO2 and H2S removal dew-

point control and mercury removal Traditional acid gas removal

technologies require all of these operations as separate processes and

may also require additional dehydration because some technologies

saturate the product stream with water

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Power generation The permeate gas from membrane systems can be

used to provide fuel gas for power generation either for a recycle

compressor or other equipment

Ideal for debottlenecking Because expanding solvent- or adsorbent-

based acid gas removal plants without adding additional trains is difficult

an ideal solution is to use membranes for bulk acid gas removal and leave

the existing plant for final cleanup An additional advantage is that the

permeate gas from the membrane system can often be used as fuel for

the existing plant thus avoiding significant increase in hydrocarbon

losses

Environmentally friendly Membrane systems do not involve the

periodic removal and handling of spent solvents or adsorbents Permeate

gases can be flared used as fuel or re-injected into the well Items thatdo need disposal such as spent membrane elements can be incinerated

Ideal for remote locations Many of the factors mentioned above make

membrane systems a highly desirable technology for remote locations

where spare parts are rare and labor unskilled Furthermore solvents

storage and trucking water supply power generation or extensive

infrastructure are not required

Re-injection optimizations Since the permeate stream from the

membrane system can be operated at elevated pressures it is possible to

further pressurize by re-injection compression train

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P a g e | 39

Sorption

Sorption is a physical and chemical process by which one substance becomes

attached to another

It is of two main types

1 Absorption

2 Adsorption

Absorption

Absorption is a physical or chemical phenomenon or process in which atoms

molecules or ions enter some bulk phase ndash gas liquid or solid material This is a

different process from adsorption since molecules undergoing absorption are

taken up by the volume not by the surface (as in the case for adsorption)

Absorption process may be chemical (reactive) or physical (non-reactive)

Physical absorption

Physical absorption or non-reactive absorption is made between two phases ofmatter a liquid absorbs a gas or a solid absorbs a liquid

When a liquid solvent absorbs a gas mixture or part of it a mass of gas moves

into the liquid For example water may absorb oxygen from the air This mass

transfer takes place at the interface between the liquid and the gas at a rate

depending on both the gas and the liquid This type of absorption depends on the

solubility of gases the pressure and the temperature The rate and amount of

absorption also depend on the surface area of the interface and its duration in

time

When a solid absorbs a liquid mixture or part of it a mass of liquid moves into the

solid For example a clay pot used to store water may absorb some of the water

This mass transfer takes place at the interface between the solid and the liquid

at a rate depending on both the solid and the liquid

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Chemical absorption

Chemical absorption or reactive absorption is a chemical reaction between the

absorbed and the absorbing substances Sometimes it combines with physical

absorption This type of absorption depends upon the stoichiometry of the

reaction and the concentration of its reactants

Adsorption

Adsorption is the adhesion of atoms ions or molecules from a gas liquid or

dissolved solid to a surface This process creates a film of the adsorbate on the

surface of the adsorbent The binding to the surface is usually weak and

reversible Compounds with color and those that have taste or odor tend to bind

strongly Compounds that vibrate at frequencies in the visible spectrum are very

often are strongly adsorbed on activated carbon

The most common industrial adsorbents are activated carbon silica gel and

alumina because they present enormous surface areas per unit weight

Depending on the nature of attractive forces existing between the adsorbate and

adsorbent adsorption can be classified as

i) Physical adsorption

ii) Chemical adsorption

i) Physical adsorption (Physisorption)

In physical adsorption the forces of attraction between the molecules of the

adsorbate and the adsorbent are of the weak van der Waals type Since the

forces of attraction are weak the process of physisorption can be easily reversed

by heating or decreasing the pressure of the adsorbate (as in the case of gases)

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ii) Chemical adsorption (Chemisorption)

In chemisorption the forces of attraction between the adsorbate and the

adsorbent are very strong the molecules of adsorbate form chemical bonds with

the molecules of the adsorbent present in the surface

Adsorption is generally accompanied by release of energy that is most

adsorption processes are exothermic in nature Adsorption is a spontaneous

process therefore its free energy change is negative (∆Glt0) However the

entropy change associated with adsorption is generally negative because the

adsorbate molecules lose their translation freedom when they get attached to the

surface of the adsorbent Therefore in order for ∆G to be negative the enthalpy

change (∆H) must be sufficiently negative such that (∆G=∆H-T∆S) lt 0 This

explanation accounts for exothermic adsorption processes In cases where

endothermic adsorption occurs the entropy change ∆S is sufficiently positive

such that ∆G remains negative

Pre treatment

The main function of pretreatment skid is to provide membrane inlet specification

gas as mentioned by the vendor UOP It removes the contaminants that would

poison the membranes like dust solids (adsorbent particles) lube oil heavy

hydrocarbons etc It consists of

Feed Cooler

Feed Gas Scrubber

Filter Coalescer

Feed Gas Heater

Activated Carbon Guard Filter

Particle Filter

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The regeneration is carried out by heated permeate gas from the recycle

membranes at 450oF The vessel is depressurized to 20 psi and heated gas is

introduced from top The gas carries out the adsorbed contaminants and leaves

the vessel from bottom cleaning the adsorbent This contaminated gas is burnt in

the flare

UOP the vendor of Memguard unit has never disclosed that what substance

MG3 and MG5 exactly are But as mentioned by vendor that both care class of

aluminosilicates Therefore MG3 can be potassium aluminosilicate and MG5 can

be Calcium aluminosilicate These are molecular sieves adsorbents Molecular

sieves are a microporous material which can selectively adsorb gases andliquids They are synthetic zeolites (crystalline metal aluminosilicates) which

upon dehydration can efficiently and selectively remove water or other

solvents The selectivity of a molecular sieve is determined by its pore size

molecules with a critical diameter which is less than the pore size will be

efficiently adsorbed while larger molecules will be excluded

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3A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

The 3A molecular sieve adsorbent has a 3 angstrom (3A) pore size which means

that any molecule that is larger than the 3 angstrom pores will not be adsorbed

The 3A molecular sieve is the potassium type of A crystalline structure and is a

form of alkali Aluminosilicate For a 3A molecular sieve the sequence rate that

adsorption occurs is He Ne N and H2O

Due to the crystalline structure molecular sieves that have a 3 angstrom pore

size have a very high rate of adsorption and properties that promote a longer life

for products treated by the sieve The most common use for the 3A molecular

sieve is to remove water and moisture from materials that are in gas and liquid

form

5A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

These are molecular sieve adsorbents with a pore size of 5 angstrom (5A) 5A

molecular sieves are unable to adsorb any molecules or impurities that are

smaller than 5A It is calcium form of type A crystalline structure and is form of analkali-aluminosilicate that is most commonly used to separate isomerous alkanes

from normal alkanes and to co-adsorb moisture and water along with carbon

dioxide from gases In additional 5A molecular sieves are used for gaseous

pressure swing adsorption (PSA)mdashthat is to separate particular gases from other

gases

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of C3H8 to C22H46

Adsorption of Freon-12 (dichlorodifluoromethane)

Natural gas drying

Normal- and iso-paraffin separation

Separation of aromatic

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Inlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1096

MEHTANE 8593

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008

N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGEN 076

WATER 007

Outlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1098

MEHTANE 8608

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGENT 076

WATER 000

H2S polisher

The H2S polishing unit has been designed to treat 187 MMscfday of natural gas

containing up to 11 CO2 and 21 ppm H2S where the level of the CO2 and H2S

is reduced using a MemGuard Membrane separation unit The unit is situated

down-stream of the membrane unit and will further reduce the level of H2S in the

processed gas to a sales gas specification of 38 ppm

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This process uses three non-regenerable fixed bed absorber vessels using a low

temperature high activity absorbent The absorbent is a mixture of activated

metal oxides (mainly zinc oxide) The three towers can are generally operated in

parallel arrangement but on demand can be used in series (any of alternate

arrangements of A B C vessels) as shown in figure

The higher sales gas flow rate increased the catalyst consumption and

replacement frequency

ZnO + H2S =gt ZnS + H20

Routine samples are taken from the beds to provide a check on each bed

performance and to follow the saturation profile during the absorbent life After

the adsorbent has been fully utilized the adsorption vessels are recharged with

new adsorbent discarding the utilized one in a safe manner

109oF

1215 psig

Before H2S Polishing After H2S Polishing

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Figure

H2S Tower

Inlet pipe

4 Drums of 19mm

ceramic Balls

6 Micron mesh

5 Drums of 50mmceramic

1 Drums of19mm ceramic

01 Drums of6mm ceramic

112 drums of

Catalist ZnO

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Recycle Compressor

The permeate gas of the primary membrane unit carries recoverable amount of

CH4 It is fed to recycle membrane unit for further CH 4 recovery But the

permeate pressure from primary membranes which has been reduced to 12 psi

must be regenerated to 1200 psi for the gas to be fed again to the system For

this purpose we have employed recycle compressor The compressor is a four

stage centrifugal compressor It is driven by gas turbine of 31200 HP It has 25

MW producing capacity

Figure Recycle Compressor Process Flow Diagram

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Sales Gas Compressor

Gas from H2S polishing unit is sent to sales gas compressor where its pressure

is enhanced to 1100 psi so it may be injected to SNGPL high pressure trunk line

Sales gas compressor is single stage gas turbine driven

Figure Process Flow of Sales Gas Compressor

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Cooling Towers

A cooling tower is a heat rejection device which extracts waste heat to theatmosphere through the cooling of a water stream to a lower temperature Hot

water from the system enters the cooling tower and is distributed over the fill

(heat transfer surface) Air is induced or forced through the fill causing a small

portion of the water to evaporate This evaporation removes heat from the

remaining water which is collected in the cold water basin and returned to the

system to absorb more heat Each cooling tower line although operating under

the same basic principle of operation is arranged a little differently

Types

Natural draft mdash Utilizes buoyancy via a tall chimney Warm moist air naturally

rises due to the density differential compared to the dry cooler outside air Warm

moist air is less dense than drier air at the same pressure This moist air

buoyancy produces an upwards current of air through the tower

Mechanical draft mdash Uses power-driven fan motors to force or draw airthrough the tower

o Induced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a fan at the

discharge (at the top) which pulls air up through the tower The fan

induces hot moist air out the discharge This produces low entering

and high exiting air velocities reducing the possibility of

recirculation in which discharged air flows back into the air intake

o Forced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a blower type fan at

the intake The fan forces air into the tower creating high entering

and low exiting air velocities The low exiting velocity is much more

susceptible to recirculation This fanfill geometry is also known as

blow-through

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Forced Draft Cooling Tower Vs Induced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower have the ability to handle large water flow

rate than Forced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower is suitable for large cell sizes and fan sizes

as compared with Forced Draft Larger fan size may result in greater

efficiency and consequently lower power and sound level

Forced Draft Cooling Tower can be square or rectangular type only

however Induced Draft Cooling Towers can be round square or

rectangular type

Induced Draft Cooling Tower uses more compact ground area than Forced

Draft Cooling Tower equivalent capacity due to absence of fan on one

side

Fan equipment is warm exhaust air is less liable to icing up in winter

operation (Cold Countries)

Higher velocity in Forced Draft Cooling Tower cause drop in suspension

and cause additional static resistance to system

Configuration

There are two main configurations of factory assembled cooling towers crossflow

and counterflow In crossflow cooling towers the water flows vertically down the

fill as air flows horizontally across In counterflow cooling towers the water flows

vertically down the fill as air flows vertically up

Crossflow Configuration Counterflow Configuration

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Drift mdash Water droplets that are carried out of the cooling tower with the exhaust

air Drift droplets have the same concentration of impurities as the water entering

the tower The drift rate is typically reduced by employing baffle-like devices

called drift eliminators through which the air must travel after leaving the fill and

spray zones of the tower

Blow-out mdash Water droplets blown out of the cooling tower by wind generally at

the air inlet openings Water may also be lost in the absence of wind through

splashing or misting Devices such as wind screens louvers splash deflectors

and water diverters are used to limit these losses

Blow-down mdash The portion of the circulating water flow that is removed (usually

discharged to a drain) in order to maintain the amount of Total Dissolved Solids

(TDS) and other impurities at an acceptably low level Higher TDS concentration

in solution may result from greater cooling tower efficiency However the higher

the TDS concentration the greater the risk of scale biological growth and

corrosion

Make-up mdash The water that must be added to the circulating water system in

order to compensate for water losses such as evaporation drift loss blow-out

blow-down etc

Approach mdash The approach is the difference in temperature between the cooled-

water temperature and the entering-air wet bulb temperature

Range mdash The range is the temperature difference between the warm water inlet

and cooled water exit

Fill mdash Inside the tower fills are added to increase contact surface as well as

contact time between air and water to provide better heat transfer The efficiency

of the tower depends on the selection and amount of fill

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There are two types of fills that may be used

o Film type fill (causes water to spread into a thin film)

o Splash type fill (breaks up falling stream of water and interrupts its

vertical progress)

Important

Scale build up is controlled by adding chemicals to the cooling loop and diluting

the concentration by blow down and make-up Following chemicals are added to

the Cooling to control CorrosionSale and microbial growth

Corrosion Inhibitor To control corrosion in the Cooling system

Dispersant To kept ions in suspension to avoid settle down and buildup

Sodium hypo Chlorite To Control microbial Growth

Acid To control Alkalinity in the system

High Stress Polymer To run the system at higher conductivity It is a

multifunctional polymer for Zinc amp Phosphate stabilization in cooling tower

Fin Fan Cooler

Fin fan heat exchanger is simply a pressure vessel which cools a circulating fluid

within finned tubes by forcing ambient air over the exterior of the tubes A

common example of an air cooler is a carrsquos radiator Fin Fan Coolers are used in

any application where large quantities of heat need to be transferred This

includes chemical and petrochemical industries power stations waste-to-energy

facilities as well as steelworks

Fin Fan Cooler are used for two primary reasons

They increase plant efficiency

They are a green solution as compared to cooling towers and shell and

tube heat exchangers because they do not require an auxiliary water

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supply (water lost due to drift and evaporation plus no water treatment

chemicals are required)

Figure General Overview of Fin Fan Cooler

Produced Water

The produced water system receives liquid from the equipment Miano slug

catcher train 1 and 2 inlet separators and is fed to three phase separator where

water oil and gas is separated The gases produced are burnt in incinerator

whereas hydrocarbon liquid is stored to be sold Liquid from compressors

recycle inlet separator recycle feed scrubber high and low pressure slug

catchers is passed to degasser Separated water is injected down the earth

Incinerator

The term incinerate means to burn something until nothing is left but ashes An

incinerator is a unit or facility used to burn trash and other types of waste until it is

reduced to ash An incinerator is constructed of heavy well-insulated materials

so that it does not give off extreme amounts of external heat The high levels of

heat are kept inside the furnace or unit so that the waste is burned quickly and

efficiently If the heat were allowed to escape the waste would not burn as

completely or as rapidly

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Control System

The plant is controlled at CCR (Central Control Room) by PLCs (Programmable

Logic Controllers) through fiber optic control line All control parameters are

received at LER (Local Equipment Room) via two optic fiber control lines One

being primary and other secondary operating in redundancy ie if primary fails

control shifts to secondary These control parameters are sent to CCR via single

optic fiber cable

Safety System

Wellheads and Gas Processing Plant have their own Fire amp Gas detection

systems emergency shutdown (ESD) Plant has a fault tolerant controller It is

based on Triple Modular Redundant (TMR) architecture manufactured by

Triconex The TMR system is based on three isolated parallel control systems

integrated into one system The system operates on a two out of three voting

principle which provides high integrity error free uninterrupted operation with no

single point of failure The TMR receives inputs from Process Sensors Manual

Switches Fire amp Gas Detectors Packaged Equipment Control Systems and

Product Exporting Facilities The TMR carries out cause and effect processing on

the data received and where necessary produces output signals Outputs from

the TMR are hard wired directly to ESD shutdown and blow down valve

solenoids motor control instrumentelectrical interfaces to control electrical

drives package equipment logic control systems manifold area as well as

telecoms

The operator in central control room is able to accept alarms and once the fault

has been cleared reset the input All the control systems are centralized to a

single interface All the PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers) communicate with

the servers and servers communicate with the clients through Ethernet connectivity

Centralization eases the navigation of different systems at a common interface

Emergency Shutdown

The ESD system receives inputs from field mounted instrumentation on the process

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and utility equipment and initiates executive actions appropriate to the level of ESD

The system is an Active system which is in standby and will activate when in an

alarm or fault condition The Kadanwari Gas Process Facility ESD system is

comprised of five (5) levels The emergency severity decreases with increasing ESD

level number

ESD 1

This shutdown level is automatically initiated by fire major gas leak or a detected

toxic atmosphere in the process area of the plant or manually from CCR A level 1

shutdown will cause all production to cease close all emergency shutdown

valves stop the process and shutdown of the main power generation The

emergency vent valves to the stack will open and in addition all equipment of zone 1

certified will be isolated This is the highest level of ESD and will cause the following

to occur

All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close All slowdown Valves (BDVs) on the process facility will open

All Main Gas Driven Generators will be tripped

Emergency Diesel Generator will start

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close Upper Master Valve

(UMV) Close

ESD 2

This shutdown level is activated automatically if a major process or utility failure

occurs or manually from CCR All production to the plant from the wellhead is

stopped All emergency shutdown valves trip to their fail safe position

Venting shall be as specified This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

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All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valve Close Wing Valves Close and Upper Master Valve(UMV) Close

ESD 3

The level 3 shutdown isolates and stops a single process train only Production

continues via the other train This ESD level is initiated by process conditions or

operator at local panel This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

ESD 3A Train 1 production to cease

ESD 3B Train 2 production to cease

All online wellhead choke valves go to minimum flow ie (1O )

ESD 4

A level 4 shutdown shall cease all production from an entire field either

Kadanwari or Miano upstream of the associated slug catchers ESD 4K for

Kadanwari amp ESD 4M for Miano This ESD level is initiated automatically by slug

catcher abnormal process conditions This level of ESD will cause the following

to occur

All SDVs close isolating the relevant slug catcher and its upstream gas

production facility from the Kadanwari Gas Processing Plant

All Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close and Upper MasterValves (UMV) of the relevant gas production facility Close

A parallel timer is provided to close within 10 second if not closed in given

time SSSV seals the well

ESD 5

A level 5 shutdown represents equipment shutdown for the protection of the

individual equipment without any change in the process This level of ESD is for the

protection of various pieces of equipment and is initiated by its own inputs eg

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Power generation The permeate gas from membrane systems can be

used to provide fuel gas for power generation either for a recycle

compressor or other equipment

Ideal for debottlenecking Because expanding solvent- or adsorbent-

based acid gas removal plants without adding additional trains is difficult

an ideal solution is to use membranes for bulk acid gas removal and leave

the existing plant for final cleanup An additional advantage is that the

permeate gas from the membrane system can often be used as fuel for

the existing plant thus avoiding significant increase in hydrocarbon

losses

Environmentally friendly Membrane systems do not involve the

periodic removal and handling of spent solvents or adsorbents Permeate

gases can be flared used as fuel or re-injected into the well Items thatdo need disposal such as spent membrane elements can be incinerated

Ideal for remote locations Many of the factors mentioned above make

membrane systems a highly desirable technology for remote locations

where spare parts are rare and labor unskilled Furthermore solvents

storage and trucking water supply power generation or extensive

infrastructure are not required

Re-injection optimizations Since the permeate stream from the

membrane system can be operated at elevated pressures it is possible to

further pressurize by re-injection compression train

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Sorption

Sorption is a physical and chemical process by which one substance becomes

attached to another

It is of two main types

1 Absorption

2 Adsorption

Absorption

Absorption is a physical or chemical phenomenon or process in which atoms

molecules or ions enter some bulk phase ndash gas liquid or solid material This is a

different process from adsorption since molecules undergoing absorption are

taken up by the volume not by the surface (as in the case for adsorption)

Absorption process may be chemical (reactive) or physical (non-reactive)

Physical absorption

Physical absorption or non-reactive absorption is made between two phases ofmatter a liquid absorbs a gas or a solid absorbs a liquid

When a liquid solvent absorbs a gas mixture or part of it a mass of gas moves

into the liquid For example water may absorb oxygen from the air This mass

transfer takes place at the interface between the liquid and the gas at a rate

depending on both the gas and the liquid This type of absorption depends on the

solubility of gases the pressure and the temperature The rate and amount of

absorption also depend on the surface area of the interface and its duration in

time

When a solid absorbs a liquid mixture or part of it a mass of liquid moves into the

solid For example a clay pot used to store water may absorb some of the water

This mass transfer takes place at the interface between the solid and the liquid

at a rate depending on both the solid and the liquid

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Chemical absorption

Chemical absorption or reactive absorption is a chemical reaction between the

absorbed and the absorbing substances Sometimes it combines with physical

absorption This type of absorption depends upon the stoichiometry of the

reaction and the concentration of its reactants

Adsorption

Adsorption is the adhesion of atoms ions or molecules from a gas liquid or

dissolved solid to a surface This process creates a film of the adsorbate on the

surface of the adsorbent The binding to the surface is usually weak and

reversible Compounds with color and those that have taste or odor tend to bind

strongly Compounds that vibrate at frequencies in the visible spectrum are very

often are strongly adsorbed on activated carbon

The most common industrial adsorbents are activated carbon silica gel and

alumina because they present enormous surface areas per unit weight

Depending on the nature of attractive forces existing between the adsorbate and

adsorbent adsorption can be classified as

i) Physical adsorption

ii) Chemical adsorption

i) Physical adsorption (Physisorption)

In physical adsorption the forces of attraction between the molecules of the

adsorbate and the adsorbent are of the weak van der Waals type Since the

forces of attraction are weak the process of physisorption can be easily reversed

by heating or decreasing the pressure of the adsorbate (as in the case of gases)

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ii) Chemical adsorption (Chemisorption)

In chemisorption the forces of attraction between the adsorbate and the

adsorbent are very strong the molecules of adsorbate form chemical bonds with

the molecules of the adsorbent present in the surface

Adsorption is generally accompanied by release of energy that is most

adsorption processes are exothermic in nature Adsorption is a spontaneous

process therefore its free energy change is negative (∆Glt0) However the

entropy change associated with adsorption is generally negative because the

adsorbate molecules lose their translation freedom when they get attached to the

surface of the adsorbent Therefore in order for ∆G to be negative the enthalpy

change (∆H) must be sufficiently negative such that (∆G=∆H-T∆S) lt 0 This

explanation accounts for exothermic adsorption processes In cases where

endothermic adsorption occurs the entropy change ∆S is sufficiently positive

such that ∆G remains negative

Pre treatment

The main function of pretreatment skid is to provide membrane inlet specification

gas as mentioned by the vendor UOP It removes the contaminants that would

poison the membranes like dust solids (adsorbent particles) lube oil heavy

hydrocarbons etc It consists of

Feed Cooler

Feed Gas Scrubber

Filter Coalescer

Feed Gas Heater

Activated Carbon Guard Filter

Particle Filter

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The regeneration is carried out by heated permeate gas from the recycle

membranes at 450oF The vessel is depressurized to 20 psi and heated gas is

introduced from top The gas carries out the adsorbed contaminants and leaves

the vessel from bottom cleaning the adsorbent This contaminated gas is burnt in

the flare

UOP the vendor of Memguard unit has never disclosed that what substance

MG3 and MG5 exactly are But as mentioned by vendor that both care class of

aluminosilicates Therefore MG3 can be potassium aluminosilicate and MG5 can

be Calcium aluminosilicate These are molecular sieves adsorbents Molecular

sieves are a microporous material which can selectively adsorb gases andliquids They are synthetic zeolites (crystalline metal aluminosilicates) which

upon dehydration can efficiently and selectively remove water or other

solvents The selectivity of a molecular sieve is determined by its pore size

molecules with a critical diameter which is less than the pore size will be

efficiently adsorbed while larger molecules will be excluded

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3A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

The 3A molecular sieve adsorbent has a 3 angstrom (3A) pore size which means

that any molecule that is larger than the 3 angstrom pores will not be adsorbed

The 3A molecular sieve is the potassium type of A crystalline structure and is a

form of alkali Aluminosilicate For a 3A molecular sieve the sequence rate that

adsorption occurs is He Ne N and H2O

Due to the crystalline structure molecular sieves that have a 3 angstrom pore

size have a very high rate of adsorption and properties that promote a longer life

for products treated by the sieve The most common use for the 3A molecular

sieve is to remove water and moisture from materials that are in gas and liquid

form

5A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

These are molecular sieve adsorbents with a pore size of 5 angstrom (5A) 5A

molecular sieves are unable to adsorb any molecules or impurities that are

smaller than 5A It is calcium form of type A crystalline structure and is form of analkali-aluminosilicate that is most commonly used to separate isomerous alkanes

from normal alkanes and to co-adsorb moisture and water along with carbon

dioxide from gases In additional 5A molecular sieves are used for gaseous

pressure swing adsorption (PSA)mdashthat is to separate particular gases from other

gases

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of C3H8 to C22H46

Adsorption of Freon-12 (dichlorodifluoromethane)

Natural gas drying

Normal- and iso-paraffin separation

Separation of aromatic

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 45

Inlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1096

MEHTANE 8593

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008

N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGEN 076

WATER 007

Outlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1098

MEHTANE 8608

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGENT 076

WATER 000

H2S polisher

The H2S polishing unit has been designed to treat 187 MMscfday of natural gas

containing up to 11 CO2 and 21 ppm H2S where the level of the CO2 and H2S

is reduced using a MemGuard Membrane separation unit The unit is situated

down-stream of the membrane unit and will further reduce the level of H2S in the

processed gas to a sales gas specification of 38 ppm

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 46

This process uses three non-regenerable fixed bed absorber vessels using a low

temperature high activity absorbent The absorbent is a mixture of activated

metal oxides (mainly zinc oxide) The three towers can are generally operated in

parallel arrangement but on demand can be used in series (any of alternate

arrangements of A B C vessels) as shown in figure

The higher sales gas flow rate increased the catalyst consumption and

replacement frequency

ZnO + H2S =gt ZnS + H20

Routine samples are taken from the beds to provide a check on each bed

performance and to follow the saturation profile during the absorbent life After

the adsorbent has been fully utilized the adsorption vessels are recharged with

new adsorbent discarding the utilized one in a safe manner

109oF

1215 psig

Before H2S Polishing After H2S Polishing

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 47

Figure

H2S Tower

Inlet pipe

4 Drums of 19mm

ceramic Balls

6 Micron mesh

5 Drums of 50mmceramic

1 Drums of19mm ceramic

01 Drums of6mm ceramic

112 drums of

Catalist ZnO

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 48

Recycle Compressor

The permeate gas of the primary membrane unit carries recoverable amount of

CH4 It is fed to recycle membrane unit for further CH 4 recovery But the

permeate pressure from primary membranes which has been reduced to 12 psi

must be regenerated to 1200 psi for the gas to be fed again to the system For

this purpose we have employed recycle compressor The compressor is a four

stage centrifugal compressor It is driven by gas turbine of 31200 HP It has 25

MW producing capacity

Figure Recycle Compressor Process Flow Diagram

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Sales Gas Compressor

Gas from H2S polishing unit is sent to sales gas compressor where its pressure

is enhanced to 1100 psi so it may be injected to SNGPL high pressure trunk line

Sales gas compressor is single stage gas turbine driven

Figure Process Flow of Sales Gas Compressor

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Cooling Towers

A cooling tower is a heat rejection device which extracts waste heat to theatmosphere through the cooling of a water stream to a lower temperature Hot

water from the system enters the cooling tower and is distributed over the fill

(heat transfer surface) Air is induced or forced through the fill causing a small

portion of the water to evaporate This evaporation removes heat from the

remaining water which is collected in the cold water basin and returned to the

system to absorb more heat Each cooling tower line although operating under

the same basic principle of operation is arranged a little differently

Types

Natural draft mdash Utilizes buoyancy via a tall chimney Warm moist air naturally

rises due to the density differential compared to the dry cooler outside air Warm

moist air is less dense than drier air at the same pressure This moist air

buoyancy produces an upwards current of air through the tower

Mechanical draft mdash Uses power-driven fan motors to force or draw airthrough the tower

o Induced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a fan at the

discharge (at the top) which pulls air up through the tower The fan

induces hot moist air out the discharge This produces low entering

and high exiting air velocities reducing the possibility of

recirculation in which discharged air flows back into the air intake

o Forced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a blower type fan at

the intake The fan forces air into the tower creating high entering

and low exiting air velocities The low exiting velocity is much more

susceptible to recirculation This fanfill geometry is also known as

blow-through

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Forced Draft Cooling Tower Vs Induced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower have the ability to handle large water flow

rate than Forced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower is suitable for large cell sizes and fan sizes

as compared with Forced Draft Larger fan size may result in greater

efficiency and consequently lower power and sound level

Forced Draft Cooling Tower can be square or rectangular type only

however Induced Draft Cooling Towers can be round square or

rectangular type

Induced Draft Cooling Tower uses more compact ground area than Forced

Draft Cooling Tower equivalent capacity due to absence of fan on one

side

Fan equipment is warm exhaust air is less liable to icing up in winter

operation (Cold Countries)

Higher velocity in Forced Draft Cooling Tower cause drop in suspension

and cause additional static resistance to system

Configuration

There are two main configurations of factory assembled cooling towers crossflow

and counterflow In crossflow cooling towers the water flows vertically down the

fill as air flows horizontally across In counterflow cooling towers the water flows

vertically down the fill as air flows vertically up

Crossflow Configuration Counterflow Configuration

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Drift mdash Water droplets that are carried out of the cooling tower with the exhaust

air Drift droplets have the same concentration of impurities as the water entering

the tower The drift rate is typically reduced by employing baffle-like devices

called drift eliminators through which the air must travel after leaving the fill and

spray zones of the tower

Blow-out mdash Water droplets blown out of the cooling tower by wind generally at

the air inlet openings Water may also be lost in the absence of wind through

splashing or misting Devices such as wind screens louvers splash deflectors

and water diverters are used to limit these losses

Blow-down mdash The portion of the circulating water flow that is removed (usually

discharged to a drain) in order to maintain the amount of Total Dissolved Solids

(TDS) and other impurities at an acceptably low level Higher TDS concentration

in solution may result from greater cooling tower efficiency However the higher

the TDS concentration the greater the risk of scale biological growth and

corrosion

Make-up mdash The water that must be added to the circulating water system in

order to compensate for water losses such as evaporation drift loss blow-out

blow-down etc

Approach mdash The approach is the difference in temperature between the cooled-

water temperature and the entering-air wet bulb temperature

Range mdash The range is the temperature difference between the warm water inlet

and cooled water exit

Fill mdash Inside the tower fills are added to increase contact surface as well as

contact time between air and water to provide better heat transfer The efficiency

of the tower depends on the selection and amount of fill

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There are two types of fills that may be used

o Film type fill (causes water to spread into a thin film)

o Splash type fill (breaks up falling stream of water and interrupts its

vertical progress)

Important

Scale build up is controlled by adding chemicals to the cooling loop and diluting

the concentration by blow down and make-up Following chemicals are added to

the Cooling to control CorrosionSale and microbial growth

Corrosion Inhibitor To control corrosion in the Cooling system

Dispersant To kept ions in suspension to avoid settle down and buildup

Sodium hypo Chlorite To Control microbial Growth

Acid To control Alkalinity in the system

High Stress Polymer To run the system at higher conductivity It is a

multifunctional polymer for Zinc amp Phosphate stabilization in cooling tower

Fin Fan Cooler

Fin fan heat exchanger is simply a pressure vessel which cools a circulating fluid

within finned tubes by forcing ambient air over the exterior of the tubes A

common example of an air cooler is a carrsquos radiator Fin Fan Coolers are used in

any application where large quantities of heat need to be transferred This

includes chemical and petrochemical industries power stations waste-to-energy

facilities as well as steelworks

Fin Fan Cooler are used for two primary reasons

They increase plant efficiency

They are a green solution as compared to cooling towers and shell and

tube heat exchangers because they do not require an auxiliary water

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supply (water lost due to drift and evaporation plus no water treatment

chemicals are required)

Figure General Overview of Fin Fan Cooler

Produced Water

The produced water system receives liquid from the equipment Miano slug

catcher train 1 and 2 inlet separators and is fed to three phase separator where

water oil and gas is separated The gases produced are burnt in incinerator

whereas hydrocarbon liquid is stored to be sold Liquid from compressors

recycle inlet separator recycle feed scrubber high and low pressure slug

catchers is passed to degasser Separated water is injected down the earth

Incinerator

The term incinerate means to burn something until nothing is left but ashes An

incinerator is a unit or facility used to burn trash and other types of waste until it is

reduced to ash An incinerator is constructed of heavy well-insulated materials

so that it does not give off extreme amounts of external heat The high levels of

heat are kept inside the furnace or unit so that the waste is burned quickly and

efficiently If the heat were allowed to escape the waste would not burn as

completely or as rapidly

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Control System

The plant is controlled at CCR (Central Control Room) by PLCs (Programmable

Logic Controllers) through fiber optic control line All control parameters are

received at LER (Local Equipment Room) via two optic fiber control lines One

being primary and other secondary operating in redundancy ie if primary fails

control shifts to secondary These control parameters are sent to CCR via single

optic fiber cable

Safety System

Wellheads and Gas Processing Plant have their own Fire amp Gas detection

systems emergency shutdown (ESD) Plant has a fault tolerant controller It is

based on Triple Modular Redundant (TMR) architecture manufactured by

Triconex The TMR system is based on three isolated parallel control systems

integrated into one system The system operates on a two out of three voting

principle which provides high integrity error free uninterrupted operation with no

single point of failure The TMR receives inputs from Process Sensors Manual

Switches Fire amp Gas Detectors Packaged Equipment Control Systems and

Product Exporting Facilities The TMR carries out cause and effect processing on

the data received and where necessary produces output signals Outputs from

the TMR are hard wired directly to ESD shutdown and blow down valve

solenoids motor control instrumentelectrical interfaces to control electrical

drives package equipment logic control systems manifold area as well as

telecoms

The operator in central control room is able to accept alarms and once the fault

has been cleared reset the input All the control systems are centralized to a

single interface All the PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers) communicate with

the servers and servers communicate with the clients through Ethernet connectivity

Centralization eases the navigation of different systems at a common interface

Emergency Shutdown

The ESD system receives inputs from field mounted instrumentation on the process

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and utility equipment and initiates executive actions appropriate to the level of ESD

The system is an Active system which is in standby and will activate when in an

alarm or fault condition The Kadanwari Gas Process Facility ESD system is

comprised of five (5) levels The emergency severity decreases with increasing ESD

level number

ESD 1

This shutdown level is automatically initiated by fire major gas leak or a detected

toxic atmosphere in the process area of the plant or manually from CCR A level 1

shutdown will cause all production to cease close all emergency shutdown

valves stop the process and shutdown of the main power generation The

emergency vent valves to the stack will open and in addition all equipment of zone 1

certified will be isolated This is the highest level of ESD and will cause the following

to occur

All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close All slowdown Valves (BDVs) on the process facility will open

All Main Gas Driven Generators will be tripped

Emergency Diesel Generator will start

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close Upper Master Valve

(UMV) Close

ESD 2

This shutdown level is activated automatically if a major process or utility failure

occurs or manually from CCR All production to the plant from the wellhead is

stopped All emergency shutdown valves trip to their fail safe position

Venting shall be as specified This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

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All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valve Close Wing Valves Close and Upper Master Valve(UMV) Close

ESD 3

The level 3 shutdown isolates and stops a single process train only Production

continues via the other train This ESD level is initiated by process conditions or

operator at local panel This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

ESD 3A Train 1 production to cease

ESD 3B Train 2 production to cease

All online wellhead choke valves go to minimum flow ie (1O )

ESD 4

A level 4 shutdown shall cease all production from an entire field either

Kadanwari or Miano upstream of the associated slug catchers ESD 4K for

Kadanwari amp ESD 4M for Miano This ESD level is initiated automatically by slug

catcher abnormal process conditions This level of ESD will cause the following

to occur

All SDVs close isolating the relevant slug catcher and its upstream gas

production facility from the Kadanwari Gas Processing Plant

All Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close and Upper MasterValves (UMV) of the relevant gas production facility Close

A parallel timer is provided to close within 10 second if not closed in given

time SSSV seals the well

ESD 5

A level 5 shutdown represents equipment shutdown for the protection of the

individual equipment without any change in the process This level of ESD is for the

protection of various pieces of equipment and is initiated by its own inputs eg

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Sorption

Sorption is a physical and chemical process by which one substance becomes

attached to another

It is of two main types

1 Absorption

2 Adsorption

Absorption

Absorption is a physical or chemical phenomenon or process in which atoms

molecules or ions enter some bulk phase ndash gas liquid or solid material This is a

different process from adsorption since molecules undergoing absorption are

taken up by the volume not by the surface (as in the case for adsorption)

Absorption process may be chemical (reactive) or physical (non-reactive)

Physical absorption

Physical absorption or non-reactive absorption is made between two phases ofmatter a liquid absorbs a gas or a solid absorbs a liquid

When a liquid solvent absorbs a gas mixture or part of it a mass of gas moves

into the liquid For example water may absorb oxygen from the air This mass

transfer takes place at the interface between the liquid and the gas at a rate

depending on both the gas and the liquid This type of absorption depends on the

solubility of gases the pressure and the temperature The rate and amount of

absorption also depend on the surface area of the interface and its duration in

time

When a solid absorbs a liquid mixture or part of it a mass of liquid moves into the

solid For example a clay pot used to store water may absorb some of the water

This mass transfer takes place at the interface between the solid and the liquid

at a rate depending on both the solid and the liquid

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Chemical absorption

Chemical absorption or reactive absorption is a chemical reaction between the

absorbed and the absorbing substances Sometimes it combines with physical

absorption This type of absorption depends upon the stoichiometry of the

reaction and the concentration of its reactants

Adsorption

Adsorption is the adhesion of atoms ions or molecules from a gas liquid or

dissolved solid to a surface This process creates a film of the adsorbate on the

surface of the adsorbent The binding to the surface is usually weak and

reversible Compounds with color and those that have taste or odor tend to bind

strongly Compounds that vibrate at frequencies in the visible spectrum are very

often are strongly adsorbed on activated carbon

The most common industrial adsorbents are activated carbon silica gel and

alumina because they present enormous surface areas per unit weight

Depending on the nature of attractive forces existing between the adsorbate and

adsorbent adsorption can be classified as

i) Physical adsorption

ii) Chemical adsorption

i) Physical adsorption (Physisorption)

In physical adsorption the forces of attraction between the molecules of the

adsorbate and the adsorbent are of the weak van der Waals type Since the

forces of attraction are weak the process of physisorption can be easily reversed

by heating or decreasing the pressure of the adsorbate (as in the case of gases)

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ii) Chemical adsorption (Chemisorption)

In chemisorption the forces of attraction between the adsorbate and the

adsorbent are very strong the molecules of adsorbate form chemical bonds with

the molecules of the adsorbent present in the surface

Adsorption is generally accompanied by release of energy that is most

adsorption processes are exothermic in nature Adsorption is a spontaneous

process therefore its free energy change is negative (∆Glt0) However the

entropy change associated with adsorption is generally negative because the

adsorbate molecules lose their translation freedom when they get attached to the

surface of the adsorbent Therefore in order for ∆G to be negative the enthalpy

change (∆H) must be sufficiently negative such that (∆G=∆H-T∆S) lt 0 This

explanation accounts for exothermic adsorption processes In cases where

endothermic adsorption occurs the entropy change ∆S is sufficiently positive

such that ∆G remains negative

Pre treatment

The main function of pretreatment skid is to provide membrane inlet specification

gas as mentioned by the vendor UOP It removes the contaminants that would

poison the membranes like dust solids (adsorbent particles) lube oil heavy

hydrocarbons etc It consists of

Feed Cooler

Feed Gas Scrubber

Filter Coalescer

Feed Gas Heater

Activated Carbon Guard Filter

Particle Filter

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The regeneration is carried out by heated permeate gas from the recycle

membranes at 450oF The vessel is depressurized to 20 psi and heated gas is

introduced from top The gas carries out the adsorbed contaminants and leaves

the vessel from bottom cleaning the adsorbent This contaminated gas is burnt in

the flare

UOP the vendor of Memguard unit has never disclosed that what substance

MG3 and MG5 exactly are But as mentioned by vendor that both care class of

aluminosilicates Therefore MG3 can be potassium aluminosilicate and MG5 can

be Calcium aluminosilicate These are molecular sieves adsorbents Molecular

sieves are a microporous material which can selectively adsorb gases andliquids They are synthetic zeolites (crystalline metal aluminosilicates) which

upon dehydration can efficiently and selectively remove water or other

solvents The selectivity of a molecular sieve is determined by its pore size

molecules with a critical diameter which is less than the pore size will be

efficiently adsorbed while larger molecules will be excluded

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3A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

The 3A molecular sieve adsorbent has a 3 angstrom (3A) pore size which means

that any molecule that is larger than the 3 angstrom pores will not be adsorbed

The 3A molecular sieve is the potassium type of A crystalline structure and is a

form of alkali Aluminosilicate For a 3A molecular sieve the sequence rate that

adsorption occurs is He Ne N and H2O

Due to the crystalline structure molecular sieves that have a 3 angstrom pore

size have a very high rate of adsorption and properties that promote a longer life

for products treated by the sieve The most common use for the 3A molecular

sieve is to remove water and moisture from materials that are in gas and liquid

form

5A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

These are molecular sieve adsorbents with a pore size of 5 angstrom (5A) 5A

molecular sieves are unable to adsorb any molecules or impurities that are

smaller than 5A It is calcium form of type A crystalline structure and is form of analkali-aluminosilicate that is most commonly used to separate isomerous alkanes

from normal alkanes and to co-adsorb moisture and water along with carbon

dioxide from gases In additional 5A molecular sieves are used for gaseous

pressure swing adsorption (PSA)mdashthat is to separate particular gases from other

gases

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of C3H8 to C22H46

Adsorption of Freon-12 (dichlorodifluoromethane)

Natural gas drying

Normal- and iso-paraffin separation

Separation of aromatic

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P a g e | 45

Inlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1096

MEHTANE 8593

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008

N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGEN 076

WATER 007

Outlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1098

MEHTANE 8608

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGENT 076

WATER 000

H2S polisher

The H2S polishing unit has been designed to treat 187 MMscfday of natural gas

containing up to 11 CO2 and 21 ppm H2S where the level of the CO2 and H2S

is reduced using a MemGuard Membrane separation unit The unit is situated

down-stream of the membrane unit and will further reduce the level of H2S in the

processed gas to a sales gas specification of 38 ppm

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This process uses three non-regenerable fixed bed absorber vessels using a low

temperature high activity absorbent The absorbent is a mixture of activated

metal oxides (mainly zinc oxide) The three towers can are generally operated in

parallel arrangement but on demand can be used in series (any of alternate

arrangements of A B C vessels) as shown in figure

The higher sales gas flow rate increased the catalyst consumption and

replacement frequency

ZnO + H2S =gt ZnS + H20

Routine samples are taken from the beds to provide a check on each bed

performance and to follow the saturation profile during the absorbent life After

the adsorbent has been fully utilized the adsorption vessels are recharged with

new adsorbent discarding the utilized one in a safe manner

109oF

1215 psig

Before H2S Polishing After H2S Polishing

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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Figure

H2S Tower

Inlet pipe

4 Drums of 19mm

ceramic Balls

6 Micron mesh

5 Drums of 50mmceramic

1 Drums of19mm ceramic

01 Drums of6mm ceramic

112 drums of

Catalist ZnO

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 48

Recycle Compressor

The permeate gas of the primary membrane unit carries recoverable amount of

CH4 It is fed to recycle membrane unit for further CH 4 recovery But the

permeate pressure from primary membranes which has been reduced to 12 psi

must be regenerated to 1200 psi for the gas to be fed again to the system For

this purpose we have employed recycle compressor The compressor is a four

stage centrifugal compressor It is driven by gas turbine of 31200 HP It has 25

MW producing capacity

Figure Recycle Compressor Process Flow Diagram

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Sales Gas Compressor

Gas from H2S polishing unit is sent to sales gas compressor where its pressure

is enhanced to 1100 psi so it may be injected to SNGPL high pressure trunk line

Sales gas compressor is single stage gas turbine driven

Figure Process Flow of Sales Gas Compressor

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Cooling Towers

A cooling tower is a heat rejection device which extracts waste heat to theatmosphere through the cooling of a water stream to a lower temperature Hot

water from the system enters the cooling tower and is distributed over the fill

(heat transfer surface) Air is induced or forced through the fill causing a small

portion of the water to evaporate This evaporation removes heat from the

remaining water which is collected in the cold water basin and returned to the

system to absorb more heat Each cooling tower line although operating under

the same basic principle of operation is arranged a little differently

Types

Natural draft mdash Utilizes buoyancy via a tall chimney Warm moist air naturally

rises due to the density differential compared to the dry cooler outside air Warm

moist air is less dense than drier air at the same pressure This moist air

buoyancy produces an upwards current of air through the tower

Mechanical draft mdash Uses power-driven fan motors to force or draw airthrough the tower

o Induced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a fan at the

discharge (at the top) which pulls air up through the tower The fan

induces hot moist air out the discharge This produces low entering

and high exiting air velocities reducing the possibility of

recirculation in which discharged air flows back into the air intake

o Forced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a blower type fan at

the intake The fan forces air into the tower creating high entering

and low exiting air velocities The low exiting velocity is much more

susceptible to recirculation This fanfill geometry is also known as

blow-through

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Forced Draft Cooling Tower Vs Induced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower have the ability to handle large water flow

rate than Forced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower is suitable for large cell sizes and fan sizes

as compared with Forced Draft Larger fan size may result in greater

efficiency and consequently lower power and sound level

Forced Draft Cooling Tower can be square or rectangular type only

however Induced Draft Cooling Towers can be round square or

rectangular type

Induced Draft Cooling Tower uses more compact ground area than Forced

Draft Cooling Tower equivalent capacity due to absence of fan on one

side

Fan equipment is warm exhaust air is less liable to icing up in winter

operation (Cold Countries)

Higher velocity in Forced Draft Cooling Tower cause drop in suspension

and cause additional static resistance to system

Configuration

There are two main configurations of factory assembled cooling towers crossflow

and counterflow In crossflow cooling towers the water flows vertically down the

fill as air flows horizontally across In counterflow cooling towers the water flows

vertically down the fill as air flows vertically up

Crossflow Configuration Counterflow Configuration

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Drift mdash Water droplets that are carried out of the cooling tower with the exhaust

air Drift droplets have the same concentration of impurities as the water entering

the tower The drift rate is typically reduced by employing baffle-like devices

called drift eliminators through which the air must travel after leaving the fill and

spray zones of the tower

Blow-out mdash Water droplets blown out of the cooling tower by wind generally at

the air inlet openings Water may also be lost in the absence of wind through

splashing or misting Devices such as wind screens louvers splash deflectors

and water diverters are used to limit these losses

Blow-down mdash The portion of the circulating water flow that is removed (usually

discharged to a drain) in order to maintain the amount of Total Dissolved Solids

(TDS) and other impurities at an acceptably low level Higher TDS concentration

in solution may result from greater cooling tower efficiency However the higher

the TDS concentration the greater the risk of scale biological growth and

corrosion

Make-up mdash The water that must be added to the circulating water system in

order to compensate for water losses such as evaporation drift loss blow-out

blow-down etc

Approach mdash The approach is the difference in temperature between the cooled-

water temperature and the entering-air wet bulb temperature

Range mdash The range is the temperature difference between the warm water inlet

and cooled water exit

Fill mdash Inside the tower fills are added to increase contact surface as well as

contact time between air and water to provide better heat transfer The efficiency

of the tower depends on the selection and amount of fill

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 53

There are two types of fills that may be used

o Film type fill (causes water to spread into a thin film)

o Splash type fill (breaks up falling stream of water and interrupts its

vertical progress)

Important

Scale build up is controlled by adding chemicals to the cooling loop and diluting

the concentration by blow down and make-up Following chemicals are added to

the Cooling to control CorrosionSale and microbial growth

Corrosion Inhibitor To control corrosion in the Cooling system

Dispersant To kept ions in suspension to avoid settle down and buildup

Sodium hypo Chlorite To Control microbial Growth

Acid To control Alkalinity in the system

High Stress Polymer To run the system at higher conductivity It is a

multifunctional polymer for Zinc amp Phosphate stabilization in cooling tower

Fin Fan Cooler

Fin fan heat exchanger is simply a pressure vessel which cools a circulating fluid

within finned tubes by forcing ambient air over the exterior of the tubes A

common example of an air cooler is a carrsquos radiator Fin Fan Coolers are used in

any application where large quantities of heat need to be transferred This

includes chemical and petrochemical industries power stations waste-to-energy

facilities as well as steelworks

Fin Fan Cooler are used for two primary reasons

They increase plant efficiency

They are a green solution as compared to cooling towers and shell and

tube heat exchangers because they do not require an auxiliary water

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 54

supply (water lost due to drift and evaporation plus no water treatment

chemicals are required)

Figure General Overview of Fin Fan Cooler

Produced Water

The produced water system receives liquid from the equipment Miano slug

catcher train 1 and 2 inlet separators and is fed to three phase separator where

water oil and gas is separated The gases produced are burnt in incinerator

whereas hydrocarbon liquid is stored to be sold Liquid from compressors

recycle inlet separator recycle feed scrubber high and low pressure slug

catchers is passed to degasser Separated water is injected down the earth

Incinerator

The term incinerate means to burn something until nothing is left but ashes An

incinerator is a unit or facility used to burn trash and other types of waste until it is

reduced to ash An incinerator is constructed of heavy well-insulated materials

so that it does not give off extreme amounts of external heat The high levels of

heat are kept inside the furnace or unit so that the waste is burned quickly and

efficiently If the heat were allowed to escape the waste would not burn as

completely or as rapidly

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 55

Control System

The plant is controlled at CCR (Central Control Room) by PLCs (Programmable

Logic Controllers) through fiber optic control line All control parameters are

received at LER (Local Equipment Room) via two optic fiber control lines One

being primary and other secondary operating in redundancy ie if primary fails

control shifts to secondary These control parameters are sent to CCR via single

optic fiber cable

Safety System

Wellheads and Gas Processing Plant have their own Fire amp Gas detection

systems emergency shutdown (ESD) Plant has a fault tolerant controller It is

based on Triple Modular Redundant (TMR) architecture manufactured by

Triconex The TMR system is based on three isolated parallel control systems

integrated into one system The system operates on a two out of three voting

principle which provides high integrity error free uninterrupted operation with no

single point of failure The TMR receives inputs from Process Sensors Manual

Switches Fire amp Gas Detectors Packaged Equipment Control Systems and

Product Exporting Facilities The TMR carries out cause and effect processing on

the data received and where necessary produces output signals Outputs from

the TMR are hard wired directly to ESD shutdown and blow down valve

solenoids motor control instrumentelectrical interfaces to control electrical

drives package equipment logic control systems manifold area as well as

telecoms

The operator in central control room is able to accept alarms and once the fault

has been cleared reset the input All the control systems are centralized to a

single interface All the PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers) communicate with

the servers and servers communicate with the clients through Ethernet connectivity

Centralization eases the navigation of different systems at a common interface

Emergency Shutdown

The ESD system receives inputs from field mounted instrumentation on the process

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 6062

P a g e | 56

and utility equipment and initiates executive actions appropriate to the level of ESD

The system is an Active system which is in standby and will activate when in an

alarm or fault condition The Kadanwari Gas Process Facility ESD system is

comprised of five (5) levels The emergency severity decreases with increasing ESD

level number

ESD 1

This shutdown level is automatically initiated by fire major gas leak or a detected

toxic atmosphere in the process area of the plant or manually from CCR A level 1

shutdown will cause all production to cease close all emergency shutdown

valves stop the process and shutdown of the main power generation The

emergency vent valves to the stack will open and in addition all equipment of zone 1

certified will be isolated This is the highest level of ESD and will cause the following

to occur

All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close All slowdown Valves (BDVs) on the process facility will open

All Main Gas Driven Generators will be tripped

Emergency Diesel Generator will start

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close Upper Master Valve

(UMV) Close

ESD 2

This shutdown level is activated automatically if a major process or utility failure

occurs or manually from CCR All production to the plant from the wellhead is

stopped All emergency shutdown valves trip to their fail safe position

Venting shall be as specified This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 57

All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valve Close Wing Valves Close and Upper Master Valve(UMV) Close

ESD 3

The level 3 shutdown isolates and stops a single process train only Production

continues via the other train This ESD level is initiated by process conditions or

operator at local panel This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

ESD 3A Train 1 production to cease

ESD 3B Train 2 production to cease

All online wellhead choke valves go to minimum flow ie (1O )

ESD 4

A level 4 shutdown shall cease all production from an entire field either

Kadanwari or Miano upstream of the associated slug catchers ESD 4K for

Kadanwari amp ESD 4M for Miano This ESD level is initiated automatically by slug

catcher abnormal process conditions This level of ESD will cause the following

to occur

All SDVs close isolating the relevant slug catcher and its upstream gas

production facility from the Kadanwari Gas Processing Plant

All Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close and Upper MasterValves (UMV) of the relevant gas production facility Close

A parallel timer is provided to close within 10 second if not closed in given

time SSSV seals the well

ESD 5

A level 5 shutdown represents equipment shutdown for the protection of the

individual equipment without any change in the process This level of ESD is for the

protection of various pieces of equipment and is initiated by its own inputs eg

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 40

Chemical absorption

Chemical absorption or reactive absorption is a chemical reaction between the

absorbed and the absorbing substances Sometimes it combines with physical

absorption This type of absorption depends upon the stoichiometry of the

reaction and the concentration of its reactants

Adsorption

Adsorption is the adhesion of atoms ions or molecules from a gas liquid or

dissolved solid to a surface This process creates a film of the adsorbate on the

surface of the adsorbent The binding to the surface is usually weak and

reversible Compounds with color and those that have taste or odor tend to bind

strongly Compounds that vibrate at frequencies in the visible spectrum are very

often are strongly adsorbed on activated carbon

The most common industrial adsorbents are activated carbon silica gel and

alumina because they present enormous surface areas per unit weight

Depending on the nature of attractive forces existing between the adsorbate and

adsorbent adsorption can be classified as

i) Physical adsorption

ii) Chemical adsorption

i) Physical adsorption (Physisorption)

In physical adsorption the forces of attraction between the molecules of the

adsorbate and the adsorbent are of the weak van der Waals type Since the

forces of attraction are weak the process of physisorption can be easily reversed

by heating or decreasing the pressure of the adsorbate (as in the case of gases)

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 41

ii) Chemical adsorption (Chemisorption)

In chemisorption the forces of attraction between the adsorbate and the

adsorbent are very strong the molecules of adsorbate form chemical bonds with

the molecules of the adsorbent present in the surface

Adsorption is generally accompanied by release of energy that is most

adsorption processes are exothermic in nature Adsorption is a spontaneous

process therefore its free energy change is negative (∆Glt0) However the

entropy change associated with adsorption is generally negative because the

adsorbate molecules lose their translation freedom when they get attached to the

surface of the adsorbent Therefore in order for ∆G to be negative the enthalpy

change (∆H) must be sufficiently negative such that (∆G=∆H-T∆S) lt 0 This

explanation accounts for exothermic adsorption processes In cases where

endothermic adsorption occurs the entropy change ∆S is sufficiently positive

such that ∆G remains negative

Pre treatment

The main function of pretreatment skid is to provide membrane inlet specification

gas as mentioned by the vendor UOP It removes the contaminants that would

poison the membranes like dust solids (adsorbent particles) lube oil heavy

hydrocarbons etc It consists of

Feed Cooler

Feed Gas Scrubber

Filter Coalescer

Feed Gas Heater

Activated Carbon Guard Filter

Particle Filter

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 43

The regeneration is carried out by heated permeate gas from the recycle

membranes at 450oF The vessel is depressurized to 20 psi and heated gas is

introduced from top The gas carries out the adsorbed contaminants and leaves

the vessel from bottom cleaning the adsorbent This contaminated gas is burnt in

the flare

UOP the vendor of Memguard unit has never disclosed that what substance

MG3 and MG5 exactly are But as mentioned by vendor that both care class of

aluminosilicates Therefore MG3 can be potassium aluminosilicate and MG5 can

be Calcium aluminosilicate These are molecular sieves adsorbents Molecular

sieves are a microporous material which can selectively adsorb gases andliquids They are synthetic zeolites (crystalline metal aluminosilicates) which

upon dehydration can efficiently and selectively remove water or other

solvents The selectivity of a molecular sieve is determined by its pore size

molecules with a critical diameter which is less than the pore size will be

efficiently adsorbed while larger molecules will be excluded

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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3A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

The 3A molecular sieve adsorbent has a 3 angstrom (3A) pore size which means

that any molecule that is larger than the 3 angstrom pores will not be adsorbed

The 3A molecular sieve is the potassium type of A crystalline structure and is a

form of alkali Aluminosilicate For a 3A molecular sieve the sequence rate that

adsorption occurs is He Ne N and H2O

Due to the crystalline structure molecular sieves that have a 3 angstrom pore

size have a very high rate of adsorption and properties that promote a longer life

for products treated by the sieve The most common use for the 3A molecular

sieve is to remove water and moisture from materials that are in gas and liquid

form

5A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

These are molecular sieve adsorbents with a pore size of 5 angstrom (5A) 5A

molecular sieves are unable to adsorb any molecules or impurities that are

smaller than 5A It is calcium form of type A crystalline structure and is form of analkali-aluminosilicate that is most commonly used to separate isomerous alkanes

from normal alkanes and to co-adsorb moisture and water along with carbon

dioxide from gases In additional 5A molecular sieves are used for gaseous

pressure swing adsorption (PSA)mdashthat is to separate particular gases from other

gases

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of C3H8 to C22H46

Adsorption of Freon-12 (dichlorodifluoromethane)

Natural gas drying

Normal- and iso-paraffin separation

Separation of aromatic

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 45

Inlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1096

MEHTANE 8593

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008

N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGEN 076

WATER 007

Outlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1098

MEHTANE 8608

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGENT 076

WATER 000

H2S polisher

The H2S polishing unit has been designed to treat 187 MMscfday of natural gas

containing up to 11 CO2 and 21 ppm H2S where the level of the CO2 and H2S

is reduced using a MemGuard Membrane separation unit The unit is situated

down-stream of the membrane unit and will further reduce the level of H2S in the

processed gas to a sales gas specification of 38 ppm

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 46

This process uses three non-regenerable fixed bed absorber vessels using a low

temperature high activity absorbent The absorbent is a mixture of activated

metal oxides (mainly zinc oxide) The three towers can are generally operated in

parallel arrangement but on demand can be used in series (any of alternate

arrangements of A B C vessels) as shown in figure

The higher sales gas flow rate increased the catalyst consumption and

replacement frequency

ZnO + H2S =gt ZnS + H20

Routine samples are taken from the beds to provide a check on each bed

performance and to follow the saturation profile during the absorbent life After

the adsorbent has been fully utilized the adsorption vessels are recharged with

new adsorbent discarding the utilized one in a safe manner

109oF

1215 psig

Before H2S Polishing After H2S Polishing

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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Figure

H2S Tower

Inlet pipe

4 Drums of 19mm

ceramic Balls

6 Micron mesh

5 Drums of 50mmceramic

1 Drums of19mm ceramic

01 Drums of6mm ceramic

112 drums of

Catalist ZnO

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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Recycle Compressor

The permeate gas of the primary membrane unit carries recoverable amount of

CH4 It is fed to recycle membrane unit for further CH 4 recovery But the

permeate pressure from primary membranes which has been reduced to 12 psi

must be regenerated to 1200 psi for the gas to be fed again to the system For

this purpose we have employed recycle compressor The compressor is a four

stage centrifugal compressor It is driven by gas turbine of 31200 HP It has 25

MW producing capacity

Figure Recycle Compressor Process Flow Diagram

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Sales Gas Compressor

Gas from H2S polishing unit is sent to sales gas compressor where its pressure

is enhanced to 1100 psi so it may be injected to SNGPL high pressure trunk line

Sales gas compressor is single stage gas turbine driven

Figure Process Flow of Sales Gas Compressor

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Cooling Towers

A cooling tower is a heat rejection device which extracts waste heat to theatmosphere through the cooling of a water stream to a lower temperature Hot

water from the system enters the cooling tower and is distributed over the fill

(heat transfer surface) Air is induced or forced through the fill causing a small

portion of the water to evaporate This evaporation removes heat from the

remaining water which is collected in the cold water basin and returned to the

system to absorb more heat Each cooling tower line although operating under

the same basic principle of operation is arranged a little differently

Types

Natural draft mdash Utilizes buoyancy via a tall chimney Warm moist air naturally

rises due to the density differential compared to the dry cooler outside air Warm

moist air is less dense than drier air at the same pressure This moist air

buoyancy produces an upwards current of air through the tower

Mechanical draft mdash Uses power-driven fan motors to force or draw airthrough the tower

o Induced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a fan at the

discharge (at the top) which pulls air up through the tower The fan

induces hot moist air out the discharge This produces low entering

and high exiting air velocities reducing the possibility of

recirculation in which discharged air flows back into the air intake

o Forced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a blower type fan at

the intake The fan forces air into the tower creating high entering

and low exiting air velocities The low exiting velocity is much more

susceptible to recirculation This fanfill geometry is also known as

blow-through

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Forced Draft Cooling Tower Vs Induced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower have the ability to handle large water flow

rate than Forced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower is suitable for large cell sizes and fan sizes

as compared with Forced Draft Larger fan size may result in greater

efficiency and consequently lower power and sound level

Forced Draft Cooling Tower can be square or rectangular type only

however Induced Draft Cooling Towers can be round square or

rectangular type

Induced Draft Cooling Tower uses more compact ground area than Forced

Draft Cooling Tower equivalent capacity due to absence of fan on one

side

Fan equipment is warm exhaust air is less liable to icing up in winter

operation (Cold Countries)

Higher velocity in Forced Draft Cooling Tower cause drop in suspension

and cause additional static resistance to system

Configuration

There are two main configurations of factory assembled cooling towers crossflow

and counterflow In crossflow cooling towers the water flows vertically down the

fill as air flows horizontally across In counterflow cooling towers the water flows

vertically down the fill as air flows vertically up

Crossflow Configuration Counterflow Configuration

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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Drift mdash Water droplets that are carried out of the cooling tower with the exhaust

air Drift droplets have the same concentration of impurities as the water entering

the tower The drift rate is typically reduced by employing baffle-like devices

called drift eliminators through which the air must travel after leaving the fill and

spray zones of the tower

Blow-out mdash Water droplets blown out of the cooling tower by wind generally at

the air inlet openings Water may also be lost in the absence of wind through

splashing or misting Devices such as wind screens louvers splash deflectors

and water diverters are used to limit these losses

Blow-down mdash The portion of the circulating water flow that is removed (usually

discharged to a drain) in order to maintain the amount of Total Dissolved Solids

(TDS) and other impurities at an acceptably low level Higher TDS concentration

in solution may result from greater cooling tower efficiency However the higher

the TDS concentration the greater the risk of scale biological growth and

corrosion

Make-up mdash The water that must be added to the circulating water system in

order to compensate for water losses such as evaporation drift loss blow-out

blow-down etc

Approach mdash The approach is the difference in temperature between the cooled-

water temperature and the entering-air wet bulb temperature

Range mdash The range is the temperature difference between the warm water inlet

and cooled water exit

Fill mdash Inside the tower fills are added to increase contact surface as well as

contact time between air and water to provide better heat transfer The efficiency

of the tower depends on the selection and amount of fill

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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There are two types of fills that may be used

o Film type fill (causes water to spread into a thin film)

o Splash type fill (breaks up falling stream of water and interrupts its

vertical progress)

Important

Scale build up is controlled by adding chemicals to the cooling loop and diluting

the concentration by blow down and make-up Following chemicals are added to

the Cooling to control CorrosionSale and microbial growth

Corrosion Inhibitor To control corrosion in the Cooling system

Dispersant To kept ions in suspension to avoid settle down and buildup

Sodium hypo Chlorite To Control microbial Growth

Acid To control Alkalinity in the system

High Stress Polymer To run the system at higher conductivity It is a

multifunctional polymer for Zinc amp Phosphate stabilization in cooling tower

Fin Fan Cooler

Fin fan heat exchanger is simply a pressure vessel which cools a circulating fluid

within finned tubes by forcing ambient air over the exterior of the tubes A

common example of an air cooler is a carrsquos radiator Fin Fan Coolers are used in

any application where large quantities of heat need to be transferred This

includes chemical and petrochemical industries power stations waste-to-energy

facilities as well as steelworks

Fin Fan Cooler are used for two primary reasons

They increase plant efficiency

They are a green solution as compared to cooling towers and shell and

tube heat exchangers because they do not require an auxiliary water

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 5862

P a g e | 54

supply (water lost due to drift and evaporation plus no water treatment

chemicals are required)

Figure General Overview of Fin Fan Cooler

Produced Water

The produced water system receives liquid from the equipment Miano slug

catcher train 1 and 2 inlet separators and is fed to three phase separator where

water oil and gas is separated The gases produced are burnt in incinerator

whereas hydrocarbon liquid is stored to be sold Liquid from compressors

recycle inlet separator recycle feed scrubber high and low pressure slug

catchers is passed to degasser Separated water is injected down the earth

Incinerator

The term incinerate means to burn something until nothing is left but ashes An

incinerator is a unit or facility used to burn trash and other types of waste until it is

reduced to ash An incinerator is constructed of heavy well-insulated materials

so that it does not give off extreme amounts of external heat The high levels of

heat are kept inside the furnace or unit so that the waste is burned quickly and

efficiently If the heat were allowed to escape the waste would not burn as

completely or as rapidly

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 5962

P a g e | 55

Control System

The plant is controlled at CCR (Central Control Room) by PLCs (Programmable

Logic Controllers) through fiber optic control line All control parameters are

received at LER (Local Equipment Room) via two optic fiber control lines One

being primary and other secondary operating in redundancy ie if primary fails

control shifts to secondary These control parameters are sent to CCR via single

optic fiber cable

Safety System

Wellheads and Gas Processing Plant have their own Fire amp Gas detection

systems emergency shutdown (ESD) Plant has a fault tolerant controller It is

based on Triple Modular Redundant (TMR) architecture manufactured by

Triconex The TMR system is based on three isolated parallel control systems

integrated into one system The system operates on a two out of three voting

principle which provides high integrity error free uninterrupted operation with no

single point of failure The TMR receives inputs from Process Sensors Manual

Switches Fire amp Gas Detectors Packaged Equipment Control Systems and

Product Exporting Facilities The TMR carries out cause and effect processing on

the data received and where necessary produces output signals Outputs from

the TMR are hard wired directly to ESD shutdown and blow down valve

solenoids motor control instrumentelectrical interfaces to control electrical

drives package equipment logic control systems manifold area as well as

telecoms

The operator in central control room is able to accept alarms and once the fault

has been cleared reset the input All the control systems are centralized to a

single interface All the PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers) communicate with

the servers and servers communicate with the clients through Ethernet connectivity

Centralization eases the navigation of different systems at a common interface

Emergency Shutdown

The ESD system receives inputs from field mounted instrumentation on the process

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 56

and utility equipment and initiates executive actions appropriate to the level of ESD

The system is an Active system which is in standby and will activate when in an

alarm or fault condition The Kadanwari Gas Process Facility ESD system is

comprised of five (5) levels The emergency severity decreases with increasing ESD

level number

ESD 1

This shutdown level is automatically initiated by fire major gas leak or a detected

toxic atmosphere in the process area of the plant or manually from CCR A level 1

shutdown will cause all production to cease close all emergency shutdown

valves stop the process and shutdown of the main power generation The

emergency vent valves to the stack will open and in addition all equipment of zone 1

certified will be isolated This is the highest level of ESD and will cause the following

to occur

All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close All slowdown Valves (BDVs) on the process facility will open

All Main Gas Driven Generators will be tripped

Emergency Diesel Generator will start

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close Upper Master Valve

(UMV) Close

ESD 2

This shutdown level is activated automatically if a major process or utility failure

occurs or manually from CCR All production to the plant from the wellhead is

stopped All emergency shutdown valves trip to their fail safe position

Venting shall be as specified This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valve Close Wing Valves Close and Upper Master Valve(UMV) Close

ESD 3

The level 3 shutdown isolates and stops a single process train only Production

continues via the other train This ESD level is initiated by process conditions or

operator at local panel This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

ESD 3A Train 1 production to cease

ESD 3B Train 2 production to cease

All online wellhead choke valves go to minimum flow ie (1O )

ESD 4

A level 4 shutdown shall cease all production from an entire field either

Kadanwari or Miano upstream of the associated slug catchers ESD 4K for

Kadanwari amp ESD 4M for Miano This ESD level is initiated automatically by slug

catcher abnormal process conditions This level of ESD will cause the following

to occur

All SDVs close isolating the relevant slug catcher and its upstream gas

production facility from the Kadanwari Gas Processing Plant

All Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close and Upper MasterValves (UMV) of the relevant gas production facility Close

A parallel timer is provided to close within 10 second if not closed in given

time SSSV seals the well

ESD 5

A level 5 shutdown represents equipment shutdown for the protection of the

individual equipment without any change in the process This level of ESD is for the

protection of various pieces of equipment and is initiated by its own inputs eg

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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ii) Chemical adsorption (Chemisorption)

In chemisorption the forces of attraction between the adsorbate and the

adsorbent are very strong the molecules of adsorbate form chemical bonds with

the molecules of the adsorbent present in the surface

Adsorption is generally accompanied by release of energy that is most

adsorption processes are exothermic in nature Adsorption is a spontaneous

process therefore its free energy change is negative (∆Glt0) However the

entropy change associated with adsorption is generally negative because the

adsorbate molecules lose their translation freedom when they get attached to the

surface of the adsorbent Therefore in order for ∆G to be negative the enthalpy

change (∆H) must be sufficiently negative such that (∆G=∆H-T∆S) lt 0 This

explanation accounts for exothermic adsorption processes In cases where

endothermic adsorption occurs the entropy change ∆S is sufficiently positive

such that ∆G remains negative

Pre treatment

The main function of pretreatment skid is to provide membrane inlet specification

gas as mentioned by the vendor UOP It removes the contaminants that would

poison the membranes like dust solids (adsorbent particles) lube oil heavy

hydrocarbons etc It consists of

Feed Cooler

Feed Gas Scrubber

Filter Coalescer

Feed Gas Heater

Activated Carbon Guard Filter

Particle Filter

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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The regeneration is carried out by heated permeate gas from the recycle

membranes at 450oF The vessel is depressurized to 20 psi and heated gas is

introduced from top The gas carries out the adsorbed contaminants and leaves

the vessel from bottom cleaning the adsorbent This contaminated gas is burnt in

the flare

UOP the vendor of Memguard unit has never disclosed that what substance

MG3 and MG5 exactly are But as mentioned by vendor that both care class of

aluminosilicates Therefore MG3 can be potassium aluminosilicate and MG5 can

be Calcium aluminosilicate These are molecular sieves adsorbents Molecular

sieves are a microporous material which can selectively adsorb gases andliquids They are synthetic zeolites (crystalline metal aluminosilicates) which

upon dehydration can efficiently and selectively remove water or other

solvents The selectivity of a molecular sieve is determined by its pore size

molecules with a critical diameter which is less than the pore size will be

efficiently adsorbed while larger molecules will be excluded

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 44

3A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

The 3A molecular sieve adsorbent has a 3 angstrom (3A) pore size which means

that any molecule that is larger than the 3 angstrom pores will not be adsorbed

The 3A molecular sieve is the potassium type of A crystalline structure and is a

form of alkali Aluminosilicate For a 3A molecular sieve the sequence rate that

adsorption occurs is He Ne N and H2O

Due to the crystalline structure molecular sieves that have a 3 angstrom pore

size have a very high rate of adsorption and properties that promote a longer life

for products treated by the sieve The most common use for the 3A molecular

sieve is to remove water and moisture from materials that are in gas and liquid

form

5A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

These are molecular sieve adsorbents with a pore size of 5 angstrom (5A) 5A

molecular sieves are unable to adsorb any molecules or impurities that are

smaller than 5A It is calcium form of type A crystalline structure and is form of analkali-aluminosilicate that is most commonly used to separate isomerous alkanes

from normal alkanes and to co-adsorb moisture and water along with carbon

dioxide from gases In additional 5A molecular sieves are used for gaseous

pressure swing adsorption (PSA)mdashthat is to separate particular gases from other

gases

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of C3H8 to C22H46

Adsorption of Freon-12 (dichlorodifluoromethane)

Natural gas drying

Normal- and iso-paraffin separation

Separation of aromatic

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 45

Inlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1096

MEHTANE 8593

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008

N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGEN 076

WATER 007

Outlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1098

MEHTANE 8608

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGENT 076

WATER 000

H2S polisher

The H2S polishing unit has been designed to treat 187 MMscfday of natural gas

containing up to 11 CO2 and 21 ppm H2S where the level of the CO2 and H2S

is reduced using a MemGuard Membrane separation unit The unit is situated

down-stream of the membrane unit and will further reduce the level of H2S in the

processed gas to a sales gas specification of 38 ppm

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 46

This process uses three non-regenerable fixed bed absorber vessels using a low

temperature high activity absorbent The absorbent is a mixture of activated

metal oxides (mainly zinc oxide) The three towers can are generally operated in

parallel arrangement but on demand can be used in series (any of alternate

arrangements of A B C vessels) as shown in figure

The higher sales gas flow rate increased the catalyst consumption and

replacement frequency

ZnO + H2S =gt ZnS + H20

Routine samples are taken from the beds to provide a check on each bed

performance and to follow the saturation profile during the absorbent life After

the adsorbent has been fully utilized the adsorption vessels are recharged with

new adsorbent discarding the utilized one in a safe manner

109oF

1215 psig

Before H2S Polishing After H2S Polishing

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 47

Figure

H2S Tower

Inlet pipe

4 Drums of 19mm

ceramic Balls

6 Micron mesh

5 Drums of 50mmceramic

1 Drums of19mm ceramic

01 Drums of6mm ceramic

112 drums of

Catalist ZnO

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 5262

P a g e | 48

Recycle Compressor

The permeate gas of the primary membrane unit carries recoverable amount of

CH4 It is fed to recycle membrane unit for further CH 4 recovery But the

permeate pressure from primary membranes which has been reduced to 12 psi

must be regenerated to 1200 psi for the gas to be fed again to the system For

this purpose we have employed recycle compressor The compressor is a four

stage centrifugal compressor It is driven by gas turbine of 31200 HP It has 25

MW producing capacity

Figure Recycle Compressor Process Flow Diagram

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 49

Sales Gas Compressor

Gas from H2S polishing unit is sent to sales gas compressor where its pressure

is enhanced to 1100 psi so it may be injected to SNGPL high pressure trunk line

Sales gas compressor is single stage gas turbine driven

Figure Process Flow of Sales Gas Compressor

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 50

Cooling Towers

A cooling tower is a heat rejection device which extracts waste heat to theatmosphere through the cooling of a water stream to a lower temperature Hot

water from the system enters the cooling tower and is distributed over the fill

(heat transfer surface) Air is induced or forced through the fill causing a small

portion of the water to evaporate This evaporation removes heat from the

remaining water which is collected in the cold water basin and returned to the

system to absorb more heat Each cooling tower line although operating under

the same basic principle of operation is arranged a little differently

Types

Natural draft mdash Utilizes buoyancy via a tall chimney Warm moist air naturally

rises due to the density differential compared to the dry cooler outside air Warm

moist air is less dense than drier air at the same pressure This moist air

buoyancy produces an upwards current of air through the tower

Mechanical draft mdash Uses power-driven fan motors to force or draw airthrough the tower

o Induced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a fan at the

discharge (at the top) which pulls air up through the tower The fan

induces hot moist air out the discharge This produces low entering

and high exiting air velocities reducing the possibility of

recirculation in which discharged air flows back into the air intake

o Forced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a blower type fan at

the intake The fan forces air into the tower creating high entering

and low exiting air velocities The low exiting velocity is much more

susceptible to recirculation This fanfill geometry is also known as

blow-through

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 51

Forced Draft Cooling Tower Vs Induced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower have the ability to handle large water flow

rate than Forced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower is suitable for large cell sizes and fan sizes

as compared with Forced Draft Larger fan size may result in greater

efficiency and consequently lower power and sound level

Forced Draft Cooling Tower can be square or rectangular type only

however Induced Draft Cooling Towers can be round square or

rectangular type

Induced Draft Cooling Tower uses more compact ground area than Forced

Draft Cooling Tower equivalent capacity due to absence of fan on one

side

Fan equipment is warm exhaust air is less liable to icing up in winter

operation (Cold Countries)

Higher velocity in Forced Draft Cooling Tower cause drop in suspension

and cause additional static resistance to system

Configuration

There are two main configurations of factory assembled cooling towers crossflow

and counterflow In crossflow cooling towers the water flows vertically down the

fill as air flows horizontally across In counterflow cooling towers the water flows

vertically down the fill as air flows vertically up

Crossflow Configuration Counterflow Configuration

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 52

Drift mdash Water droplets that are carried out of the cooling tower with the exhaust

air Drift droplets have the same concentration of impurities as the water entering

the tower The drift rate is typically reduced by employing baffle-like devices

called drift eliminators through which the air must travel after leaving the fill and

spray zones of the tower

Blow-out mdash Water droplets blown out of the cooling tower by wind generally at

the air inlet openings Water may also be lost in the absence of wind through

splashing or misting Devices such as wind screens louvers splash deflectors

and water diverters are used to limit these losses

Blow-down mdash The portion of the circulating water flow that is removed (usually

discharged to a drain) in order to maintain the amount of Total Dissolved Solids

(TDS) and other impurities at an acceptably low level Higher TDS concentration

in solution may result from greater cooling tower efficiency However the higher

the TDS concentration the greater the risk of scale biological growth and

corrosion

Make-up mdash The water that must be added to the circulating water system in

order to compensate for water losses such as evaporation drift loss blow-out

blow-down etc

Approach mdash The approach is the difference in temperature between the cooled-

water temperature and the entering-air wet bulb temperature

Range mdash The range is the temperature difference between the warm water inlet

and cooled water exit

Fill mdash Inside the tower fills are added to increase contact surface as well as

contact time between air and water to provide better heat transfer The efficiency

of the tower depends on the selection and amount of fill

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 53

There are two types of fills that may be used

o Film type fill (causes water to spread into a thin film)

o Splash type fill (breaks up falling stream of water and interrupts its

vertical progress)

Important

Scale build up is controlled by adding chemicals to the cooling loop and diluting

the concentration by blow down and make-up Following chemicals are added to

the Cooling to control CorrosionSale and microbial growth

Corrosion Inhibitor To control corrosion in the Cooling system

Dispersant To kept ions in suspension to avoid settle down and buildup

Sodium hypo Chlorite To Control microbial Growth

Acid To control Alkalinity in the system

High Stress Polymer To run the system at higher conductivity It is a

multifunctional polymer for Zinc amp Phosphate stabilization in cooling tower

Fin Fan Cooler

Fin fan heat exchanger is simply a pressure vessel which cools a circulating fluid

within finned tubes by forcing ambient air over the exterior of the tubes A

common example of an air cooler is a carrsquos radiator Fin Fan Coolers are used in

any application where large quantities of heat need to be transferred This

includes chemical and petrochemical industries power stations waste-to-energy

facilities as well as steelworks

Fin Fan Cooler are used for two primary reasons

They increase plant efficiency

They are a green solution as compared to cooling towers and shell and

tube heat exchangers because they do not require an auxiliary water

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 5862

P a g e | 54

supply (water lost due to drift and evaporation plus no water treatment

chemicals are required)

Figure General Overview of Fin Fan Cooler

Produced Water

The produced water system receives liquid from the equipment Miano slug

catcher train 1 and 2 inlet separators and is fed to three phase separator where

water oil and gas is separated The gases produced are burnt in incinerator

whereas hydrocarbon liquid is stored to be sold Liquid from compressors

recycle inlet separator recycle feed scrubber high and low pressure slug

catchers is passed to degasser Separated water is injected down the earth

Incinerator

The term incinerate means to burn something until nothing is left but ashes An

incinerator is a unit or facility used to burn trash and other types of waste until it is

reduced to ash An incinerator is constructed of heavy well-insulated materials

so that it does not give off extreme amounts of external heat The high levels of

heat are kept inside the furnace or unit so that the waste is burned quickly and

efficiently If the heat were allowed to escape the waste would not burn as

completely or as rapidly

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 55

Control System

The plant is controlled at CCR (Central Control Room) by PLCs (Programmable

Logic Controllers) through fiber optic control line All control parameters are

received at LER (Local Equipment Room) via two optic fiber control lines One

being primary and other secondary operating in redundancy ie if primary fails

control shifts to secondary These control parameters are sent to CCR via single

optic fiber cable

Safety System

Wellheads and Gas Processing Plant have their own Fire amp Gas detection

systems emergency shutdown (ESD) Plant has a fault tolerant controller It is

based on Triple Modular Redundant (TMR) architecture manufactured by

Triconex The TMR system is based on three isolated parallel control systems

integrated into one system The system operates on a two out of three voting

principle which provides high integrity error free uninterrupted operation with no

single point of failure The TMR receives inputs from Process Sensors Manual

Switches Fire amp Gas Detectors Packaged Equipment Control Systems and

Product Exporting Facilities The TMR carries out cause and effect processing on

the data received and where necessary produces output signals Outputs from

the TMR are hard wired directly to ESD shutdown and blow down valve

solenoids motor control instrumentelectrical interfaces to control electrical

drives package equipment logic control systems manifold area as well as

telecoms

The operator in central control room is able to accept alarms and once the fault

has been cleared reset the input All the control systems are centralized to a

single interface All the PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers) communicate with

the servers and servers communicate with the clients through Ethernet connectivity

Centralization eases the navigation of different systems at a common interface

Emergency Shutdown

The ESD system receives inputs from field mounted instrumentation on the process

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 56

and utility equipment and initiates executive actions appropriate to the level of ESD

The system is an Active system which is in standby and will activate when in an

alarm or fault condition The Kadanwari Gas Process Facility ESD system is

comprised of five (5) levels The emergency severity decreases with increasing ESD

level number

ESD 1

This shutdown level is automatically initiated by fire major gas leak or a detected

toxic atmosphere in the process area of the plant or manually from CCR A level 1

shutdown will cause all production to cease close all emergency shutdown

valves stop the process and shutdown of the main power generation The

emergency vent valves to the stack will open and in addition all equipment of zone 1

certified will be isolated This is the highest level of ESD and will cause the following

to occur

All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close All slowdown Valves (BDVs) on the process facility will open

All Main Gas Driven Generators will be tripped

Emergency Diesel Generator will start

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close Upper Master Valve

(UMV) Close

ESD 2

This shutdown level is activated automatically if a major process or utility failure

occurs or manually from CCR All production to the plant from the wellhead is

stopped All emergency shutdown valves trip to their fail safe position

Venting shall be as specified This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 57

All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valve Close Wing Valves Close and Upper Master Valve(UMV) Close

ESD 3

The level 3 shutdown isolates and stops a single process train only Production

continues via the other train This ESD level is initiated by process conditions or

operator at local panel This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

ESD 3A Train 1 production to cease

ESD 3B Train 2 production to cease

All online wellhead choke valves go to minimum flow ie (1O )

ESD 4

A level 4 shutdown shall cease all production from an entire field either

Kadanwari or Miano upstream of the associated slug catchers ESD 4K for

Kadanwari amp ESD 4M for Miano This ESD level is initiated automatically by slug

catcher abnormal process conditions This level of ESD will cause the following

to occur

All SDVs close isolating the relevant slug catcher and its upstream gas

production facility from the Kadanwari Gas Processing Plant

All Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close and Upper MasterValves (UMV) of the relevant gas production facility Close

A parallel timer is provided to close within 10 second if not closed in given

time SSSV seals the well

ESD 5

A level 5 shutdown represents equipment shutdown for the protection of the

individual equipment without any change in the process This level of ESD is for the

protection of various pieces of equipment and is initiated by its own inputs eg

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 4662

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 43

The regeneration is carried out by heated permeate gas from the recycle

membranes at 450oF The vessel is depressurized to 20 psi and heated gas is

introduced from top The gas carries out the adsorbed contaminants and leaves

the vessel from bottom cleaning the adsorbent This contaminated gas is burnt in

the flare

UOP the vendor of Memguard unit has never disclosed that what substance

MG3 and MG5 exactly are But as mentioned by vendor that both care class of

aluminosilicates Therefore MG3 can be potassium aluminosilicate and MG5 can

be Calcium aluminosilicate These are molecular sieves adsorbents Molecular

sieves are a microporous material which can selectively adsorb gases andliquids They are synthetic zeolites (crystalline metal aluminosilicates) which

upon dehydration can efficiently and selectively remove water or other

solvents The selectivity of a molecular sieve is determined by its pore size

molecules with a critical diameter which is less than the pore size will be

efficiently adsorbed while larger molecules will be excluded

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 44

3A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

The 3A molecular sieve adsorbent has a 3 angstrom (3A) pore size which means

that any molecule that is larger than the 3 angstrom pores will not be adsorbed

The 3A molecular sieve is the potassium type of A crystalline structure and is a

form of alkali Aluminosilicate For a 3A molecular sieve the sequence rate that

adsorption occurs is He Ne N and H2O

Due to the crystalline structure molecular sieves that have a 3 angstrom pore

size have a very high rate of adsorption and properties that promote a longer life

for products treated by the sieve The most common use for the 3A molecular

sieve is to remove water and moisture from materials that are in gas and liquid

form

5A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

These are molecular sieve adsorbents with a pore size of 5 angstrom (5A) 5A

molecular sieves are unable to adsorb any molecules or impurities that are

smaller than 5A It is calcium form of type A crystalline structure and is form of analkali-aluminosilicate that is most commonly used to separate isomerous alkanes

from normal alkanes and to co-adsorb moisture and water along with carbon

dioxide from gases In additional 5A molecular sieves are used for gaseous

pressure swing adsorption (PSA)mdashthat is to separate particular gases from other

gases

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of C3H8 to C22H46

Adsorption of Freon-12 (dichlorodifluoromethane)

Natural gas drying

Normal- and iso-paraffin separation

Separation of aromatic

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 4962

P a g e | 45

Inlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1096

MEHTANE 8593

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008

N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGEN 076

WATER 007

Outlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1098

MEHTANE 8608

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGENT 076

WATER 000

H2S polisher

The H2S polishing unit has been designed to treat 187 MMscfday of natural gas

containing up to 11 CO2 and 21 ppm H2S where the level of the CO2 and H2S

is reduced using a MemGuard Membrane separation unit The unit is situated

down-stream of the membrane unit and will further reduce the level of H2S in the

processed gas to a sales gas specification of 38 ppm

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 5062

P a g e | 46

This process uses three non-regenerable fixed bed absorber vessels using a low

temperature high activity absorbent The absorbent is a mixture of activated

metal oxides (mainly zinc oxide) The three towers can are generally operated in

parallel arrangement but on demand can be used in series (any of alternate

arrangements of A B C vessels) as shown in figure

The higher sales gas flow rate increased the catalyst consumption and

replacement frequency

ZnO + H2S =gt ZnS + H20

Routine samples are taken from the beds to provide a check on each bed

performance and to follow the saturation profile during the absorbent life After

the adsorbent has been fully utilized the adsorption vessels are recharged with

new adsorbent discarding the utilized one in a safe manner

109oF

1215 psig

Before H2S Polishing After H2S Polishing

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 5162

P a g e | 47

Figure

H2S Tower

Inlet pipe

4 Drums of 19mm

ceramic Balls

6 Micron mesh

5 Drums of 50mmceramic

1 Drums of19mm ceramic

01 Drums of6mm ceramic

112 drums of

Catalist ZnO

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 5262

P a g e | 48

Recycle Compressor

The permeate gas of the primary membrane unit carries recoverable amount of

CH4 It is fed to recycle membrane unit for further CH 4 recovery But the

permeate pressure from primary membranes which has been reduced to 12 psi

must be regenerated to 1200 psi for the gas to be fed again to the system For

this purpose we have employed recycle compressor The compressor is a four

stage centrifugal compressor It is driven by gas turbine of 31200 HP It has 25

MW producing capacity

Figure Recycle Compressor Process Flow Diagram

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 49

Sales Gas Compressor

Gas from H2S polishing unit is sent to sales gas compressor where its pressure

is enhanced to 1100 psi so it may be injected to SNGPL high pressure trunk line

Sales gas compressor is single stage gas turbine driven

Figure Process Flow of Sales Gas Compressor

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P a g e | 50

Cooling Towers

A cooling tower is a heat rejection device which extracts waste heat to theatmosphere through the cooling of a water stream to a lower temperature Hot

water from the system enters the cooling tower and is distributed over the fill

(heat transfer surface) Air is induced or forced through the fill causing a small

portion of the water to evaporate This evaporation removes heat from the

remaining water which is collected in the cold water basin and returned to the

system to absorb more heat Each cooling tower line although operating under

the same basic principle of operation is arranged a little differently

Types

Natural draft mdash Utilizes buoyancy via a tall chimney Warm moist air naturally

rises due to the density differential compared to the dry cooler outside air Warm

moist air is less dense than drier air at the same pressure This moist air

buoyancy produces an upwards current of air through the tower

Mechanical draft mdash Uses power-driven fan motors to force or draw airthrough the tower

o Induced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a fan at the

discharge (at the top) which pulls air up through the tower The fan

induces hot moist air out the discharge This produces low entering

and high exiting air velocities reducing the possibility of

recirculation in which discharged air flows back into the air intake

o Forced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a blower type fan at

the intake The fan forces air into the tower creating high entering

and low exiting air velocities The low exiting velocity is much more

susceptible to recirculation This fanfill geometry is also known as

blow-through

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 51

Forced Draft Cooling Tower Vs Induced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower have the ability to handle large water flow

rate than Forced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower is suitable for large cell sizes and fan sizes

as compared with Forced Draft Larger fan size may result in greater

efficiency and consequently lower power and sound level

Forced Draft Cooling Tower can be square or rectangular type only

however Induced Draft Cooling Towers can be round square or

rectangular type

Induced Draft Cooling Tower uses more compact ground area than Forced

Draft Cooling Tower equivalent capacity due to absence of fan on one

side

Fan equipment is warm exhaust air is less liable to icing up in winter

operation (Cold Countries)

Higher velocity in Forced Draft Cooling Tower cause drop in suspension

and cause additional static resistance to system

Configuration

There are two main configurations of factory assembled cooling towers crossflow

and counterflow In crossflow cooling towers the water flows vertically down the

fill as air flows horizontally across In counterflow cooling towers the water flows

vertically down the fill as air flows vertically up

Crossflow Configuration Counterflow Configuration

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 52

Drift mdash Water droplets that are carried out of the cooling tower with the exhaust

air Drift droplets have the same concentration of impurities as the water entering

the tower The drift rate is typically reduced by employing baffle-like devices

called drift eliminators through which the air must travel after leaving the fill and

spray zones of the tower

Blow-out mdash Water droplets blown out of the cooling tower by wind generally at

the air inlet openings Water may also be lost in the absence of wind through

splashing or misting Devices such as wind screens louvers splash deflectors

and water diverters are used to limit these losses

Blow-down mdash The portion of the circulating water flow that is removed (usually

discharged to a drain) in order to maintain the amount of Total Dissolved Solids

(TDS) and other impurities at an acceptably low level Higher TDS concentration

in solution may result from greater cooling tower efficiency However the higher

the TDS concentration the greater the risk of scale biological growth and

corrosion

Make-up mdash The water that must be added to the circulating water system in

order to compensate for water losses such as evaporation drift loss blow-out

blow-down etc

Approach mdash The approach is the difference in temperature between the cooled-

water temperature and the entering-air wet bulb temperature

Range mdash The range is the temperature difference between the warm water inlet

and cooled water exit

Fill mdash Inside the tower fills are added to increase contact surface as well as

contact time between air and water to provide better heat transfer The efficiency

of the tower depends on the selection and amount of fill

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 5762

P a g e | 53

There are two types of fills that may be used

o Film type fill (causes water to spread into a thin film)

o Splash type fill (breaks up falling stream of water and interrupts its

vertical progress)

Important

Scale build up is controlled by adding chemicals to the cooling loop and diluting

the concentration by blow down and make-up Following chemicals are added to

the Cooling to control CorrosionSale and microbial growth

Corrosion Inhibitor To control corrosion in the Cooling system

Dispersant To kept ions in suspension to avoid settle down and buildup

Sodium hypo Chlorite To Control microbial Growth

Acid To control Alkalinity in the system

High Stress Polymer To run the system at higher conductivity It is a

multifunctional polymer for Zinc amp Phosphate stabilization in cooling tower

Fin Fan Cooler

Fin fan heat exchanger is simply a pressure vessel which cools a circulating fluid

within finned tubes by forcing ambient air over the exterior of the tubes A

common example of an air cooler is a carrsquos radiator Fin Fan Coolers are used in

any application where large quantities of heat need to be transferred This

includes chemical and petrochemical industries power stations waste-to-energy

facilities as well as steelworks

Fin Fan Cooler are used for two primary reasons

They increase plant efficiency

They are a green solution as compared to cooling towers and shell and

tube heat exchangers because they do not require an auxiliary water

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 5862

P a g e | 54

supply (water lost due to drift and evaporation plus no water treatment

chemicals are required)

Figure General Overview of Fin Fan Cooler

Produced Water

The produced water system receives liquid from the equipment Miano slug

catcher train 1 and 2 inlet separators and is fed to three phase separator where

water oil and gas is separated The gases produced are burnt in incinerator

whereas hydrocarbon liquid is stored to be sold Liquid from compressors

recycle inlet separator recycle feed scrubber high and low pressure slug

catchers is passed to degasser Separated water is injected down the earth

Incinerator

The term incinerate means to burn something until nothing is left but ashes An

incinerator is a unit or facility used to burn trash and other types of waste until it is

reduced to ash An incinerator is constructed of heavy well-insulated materials

so that it does not give off extreme amounts of external heat The high levels of

heat are kept inside the furnace or unit so that the waste is burned quickly and

efficiently If the heat were allowed to escape the waste would not burn as

completely or as rapidly

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 5962

P a g e | 55

Control System

The plant is controlled at CCR (Central Control Room) by PLCs (Programmable

Logic Controllers) through fiber optic control line All control parameters are

received at LER (Local Equipment Room) via two optic fiber control lines One

being primary and other secondary operating in redundancy ie if primary fails

control shifts to secondary These control parameters are sent to CCR via single

optic fiber cable

Safety System

Wellheads and Gas Processing Plant have their own Fire amp Gas detection

systems emergency shutdown (ESD) Plant has a fault tolerant controller It is

based on Triple Modular Redundant (TMR) architecture manufactured by

Triconex The TMR system is based on three isolated parallel control systems

integrated into one system The system operates on a two out of three voting

principle which provides high integrity error free uninterrupted operation with no

single point of failure The TMR receives inputs from Process Sensors Manual

Switches Fire amp Gas Detectors Packaged Equipment Control Systems and

Product Exporting Facilities The TMR carries out cause and effect processing on

the data received and where necessary produces output signals Outputs from

the TMR are hard wired directly to ESD shutdown and blow down valve

solenoids motor control instrumentelectrical interfaces to control electrical

drives package equipment logic control systems manifold area as well as

telecoms

The operator in central control room is able to accept alarms and once the fault

has been cleared reset the input All the control systems are centralized to a

single interface All the PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers) communicate with

the servers and servers communicate with the clients through Ethernet connectivity

Centralization eases the navigation of different systems at a common interface

Emergency Shutdown

The ESD system receives inputs from field mounted instrumentation on the process

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 6062

P a g e | 56

and utility equipment and initiates executive actions appropriate to the level of ESD

The system is an Active system which is in standby and will activate when in an

alarm or fault condition The Kadanwari Gas Process Facility ESD system is

comprised of five (5) levels The emergency severity decreases with increasing ESD

level number

ESD 1

This shutdown level is automatically initiated by fire major gas leak or a detected

toxic atmosphere in the process area of the plant or manually from CCR A level 1

shutdown will cause all production to cease close all emergency shutdown

valves stop the process and shutdown of the main power generation The

emergency vent valves to the stack will open and in addition all equipment of zone 1

certified will be isolated This is the highest level of ESD and will cause the following

to occur

All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close All slowdown Valves (BDVs) on the process facility will open

All Main Gas Driven Generators will be tripped

Emergency Diesel Generator will start

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close Upper Master Valve

(UMV) Close

ESD 2

This shutdown level is activated automatically if a major process or utility failure

occurs or manually from CCR All production to the plant from the wellhead is

stopped All emergency shutdown valves trip to their fail safe position

Venting shall be as specified This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 57

All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valve Close Wing Valves Close and Upper Master Valve(UMV) Close

ESD 3

The level 3 shutdown isolates and stops a single process train only Production

continues via the other train This ESD level is initiated by process conditions or

operator at local panel This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

ESD 3A Train 1 production to cease

ESD 3B Train 2 production to cease

All online wellhead choke valves go to minimum flow ie (1O )

ESD 4

A level 4 shutdown shall cease all production from an entire field either

Kadanwari or Miano upstream of the associated slug catchers ESD 4K for

Kadanwari amp ESD 4M for Miano This ESD level is initiated automatically by slug

catcher abnormal process conditions This level of ESD will cause the following

to occur

All SDVs close isolating the relevant slug catcher and its upstream gas

production facility from the Kadanwari Gas Processing Plant

All Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close and Upper MasterValves (UMV) of the relevant gas production facility Close

A parallel timer is provided to close within 10 second if not closed in given

time SSSV seals the well

ESD 5

A level 5 shutdown represents equipment shutdown for the protection of the

individual equipment without any change in the process This level of ESD is for the

protection of various pieces of equipment and is initiated by its own inputs eg

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 43

The regeneration is carried out by heated permeate gas from the recycle

membranes at 450oF The vessel is depressurized to 20 psi and heated gas is

introduced from top The gas carries out the adsorbed contaminants and leaves

the vessel from bottom cleaning the adsorbent This contaminated gas is burnt in

the flare

UOP the vendor of Memguard unit has never disclosed that what substance

MG3 and MG5 exactly are But as mentioned by vendor that both care class of

aluminosilicates Therefore MG3 can be potassium aluminosilicate and MG5 can

be Calcium aluminosilicate These are molecular sieves adsorbents Molecular

sieves are a microporous material which can selectively adsorb gases andliquids They are synthetic zeolites (crystalline metal aluminosilicates) which

upon dehydration can efficiently and selectively remove water or other

solvents The selectivity of a molecular sieve is determined by its pore size

molecules with a critical diameter which is less than the pore size will be

efficiently adsorbed while larger molecules will be excluded

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 44

3A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

The 3A molecular sieve adsorbent has a 3 angstrom (3A) pore size which means

that any molecule that is larger than the 3 angstrom pores will not be adsorbed

The 3A molecular sieve is the potassium type of A crystalline structure and is a

form of alkali Aluminosilicate For a 3A molecular sieve the sequence rate that

adsorption occurs is He Ne N and H2O

Due to the crystalline structure molecular sieves that have a 3 angstrom pore

size have a very high rate of adsorption and properties that promote a longer life

for products treated by the sieve The most common use for the 3A molecular

sieve is to remove water and moisture from materials that are in gas and liquid

form

5A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

These are molecular sieve adsorbents with a pore size of 5 angstrom (5A) 5A

molecular sieves are unable to adsorb any molecules or impurities that are

smaller than 5A It is calcium form of type A crystalline structure and is form of analkali-aluminosilicate that is most commonly used to separate isomerous alkanes

from normal alkanes and to co-adsorb moisture and water along with carbon

dioxide from gases In additional 5A molecular sieves are used for gaseous

pressure swing adsorption (PSA)mdashthat is to separate particular gases from other

gases

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of C3H8 to C22H46

Adsorption of Freon-12 (dichlorodifluoromethane)

Natural gas drying

Normal- and iso-paraffin separation

Separation of aromatic

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 45

Inlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1096

MEHTANE 8593

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008

N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGEN 076

WATER 007

Outlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1098

MEHTANE 8608

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGENT 076

WATER 000

H2S polisher

The H2S polishing unit has been designed to treat 187 MMscfday of natural gas

containing up to 11 CO2 and 21 ppm H2S where the level of the CO2 and H2S

is reduced using a MemGuard Membrane separation unit The unit is situated

down-stream of the membrane unit and will further reduce the level of H2S in the

processed gas to a sales gas specification of 38 ppm

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 5062

P a g e | 46

This process uses three non-regenerable fixed bed absorber vessels using a low

temperature high activity absorbent The absorbent is a mixture of activated

metal oxides (mainly zinc oxide) The three towers can are generally operated in

parallel arrangement but on demand can be used in series (any of alternate

arrangements of A B C vessels) as shown in figure

The higher sales gas flow rate increased the catalyst consumption and

replacement frequency

ZnO + H2S =gt ZnS + H20

Routine samples are taken from the beds to provide a check on each bed

performance and to follow the saturation profile during the absorbent life After

the adsorbent has been fully utilized the adsorption vessels are recharged with

new adsorbent discarding the utilized one in a safe manner

109oF

1215 psig

Before H2S Polishing After H2S Polishing

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 5162

P a g e | 47

Figure

H2S Tower

Inlet pipe

4 Drums of 19mm

ceramic Balls

6 Micron mesh

5 Drums of 50mmceramic

1 Drums of19mm ceramic

01 Drums of6mm ceramic

112 drums of

Catalist ZnO

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 48

Recycle Compressor

The permeate gas of the primary membrane unit carries recoverable amount of

CH4 It is fed to recycle membrane unit for further CH 4 recovery But the

permeate pressure from primary membranes which has been reduced to 12 psi

must be regenerated to 1200 psi for the gas to be fed again to the system For

this purpose we have employed recycle compressor The compressor is a four

stage centrifugal compressor It is driven by gas turbine of 31200 HP It has 25

MW producing capacity

Figure Recycle Compressor Process Flow Diagram

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 49

Sales Gas Compressor

Gas from H2S polishing unit is sent to sales gas compressor where its pressure

is enhanced to 1100 psi so it may be injected to SNGPL high pressure trunk line

Sales gas compressor is single stage gas turbine driven

Figure Process Flow of Sales Gas Compressor

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 50

Cooling Towers

A cooling tower is a heat rejection device which extracts waste heat to theatmosphere through the cooling of a water stream to a lower temperature Hot

water from the system enters the cooling tower and is distributed over the fill

(heat transfer surface) Air is induced or forced through the fill causing a small

portion of the water to evaporate This evaporation removes heat from the

remaining water which is collected in the cold water basin and returned to the

system to absorb more heat Each cooling tower line although operating under

the same basic principle of operation is arranged a little differently

Types

Natural draft mdash Utilizes buoyancy via a tall chimney Warm moist air naturally

rises due to the density differential compared to the dry cooler outside air Warm

moist air is less dense than drier air at the same pressure This moist air

buoyancy produces an upwards current of air through the tower

Mechanical draft mdash Uses power-driven fan motors to force or draw airthrough the tower

o Induced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a fan at the

discharge (at the top) which pulls air up through the tower The fan

induces hot moist air out the discharge This produces low entering

and high exiting air velocities reducing the possibility of

recirculation in which discharged air flows back into the air intake

o Forced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a blower type fan at

the intake The fan forces air into the tower creating high entering

and low exiting air velocities The low exiting velocity is much more

susceptible to recirculation This fanfill geometry is also known as

blow-through

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 5562

P a g e | 51

Forced Draft Cooling Tower Vs Induced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower have the ability to handle large water flow

rate than Forced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower is suitable for large cell sizes and fan sizes

as compared with Forced Draft Larger fan size may result in greater

efficiency and consequently lower power and sound level

Forced Draft Cooling Tower can be square or rectangular type only

however Induced Draft Cooling Towers can be round square or

rectangular type

Induced Draft Cooling Tower uses more compact ground area than Forced

Draft Cooling Tower equivalent capacity due to absence of fan on one

side

Fan equipment is warm exhaust air is less liable to icing up in winter

operation (Cold Countries)

Higher velocity in Forced Draft Cooling Tower cause drop in suspension

and cause additional static resistance to system

Configuration

There are two main configurations of factory assembled cooling towers crossflow

and counterflow In crossflow cooling towers the water flows vertically down the

fill as air flows horizontally across In counterflow cooling towers the water flows

vertically down the fill as air flows vertically up

Crossflow Configuration Counterflow Configuration

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 52

Drift mdash Water droplets that are carried out of the cooling tower with the exhaust

air Drift droplets have the same concentration of impurities as the water entering

the tower The drift rate is typically reduced by employing baffle-like devices

called drift eliminators through which the air must travel after leaving the fill and

spray zones of the tower

Blow-out mdash Water droplets blown out of the cooling tower by wind generally at

the air inlet openings Water may also be lost in the absence of wind through

splashing or misting Devices such as wind screens louvers splash deflectors

and water diverters are used to limit these losses

Blow-down mdash The portion of the circulating water flow that is removed (usually

discharged to a drain) in order to maintain the amount of Total Dissolved Solids

(TDS) and other impurities at an acceptably low level Higher TDS concentration

in solution may result from greater cooling tower efficiency However the higher

the TDS concentration the greater the risk of scale biological growth and

corrosion

Make-up mdash The water that must be added to the circulating water system in

order to compensate for water losses such as evaporation drift loss blow-out

blow-down etc

Approach mdash The approach is the difference in temperature between the cooled-

water temperature and the entering-air wet bulb temperature

Range mdash The range is the temperature difference between the warm water inlet

and cooled water exit

Fill mdash Inside the tower fills are added to increase contact surface as well as

contact time between air and water to provide better heat transfer The efficiency

of the tower depends on the selection and amount of fill

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 53

There are two types of fills that may be used

o Film type fill (causes water to spread into a thin film)

o Splash type fill (breaks up falling stream of water and interrupts its

vertical progress)

Important

Scale build up is controlled by adding chemicals to the cooling loop and diluting

the concentration by blow down and make-up Following chemicals are added to

the Cooling to control CorrosionSale and microbial growth

Corrosion Inhibitor To control corrosion in the Cooling system

Dispersant To kept ions in suspension to avoid settle down and buildup

Sodium hypo Chlorite To Control microbial Growth

Acid To control Alkalinity in the system

High Stress Polymer To run the system at higher conductivity It is a

multifunctional polymer for Zinc amp Phosphate stabilization in cooling tower

Fin Fan Cooler

Fin fan heat exchanger is simply a pressure vessel which cools a circulating fluid

within finned tubes by forcing ambient air over the exterior of the tubes A

common example of an air cooler is a carrsquos radiator Fin Fan Coolers are used in

any application where large quantities of heat need to be transferred This

includes chemical and petrochemical industries power stations waste-to-energy

facilities as well as steelworks

Fin Fan Cooler are used for two primary reasons

They increase plant efficiency

They are a green solution as compared to cooling towers and shell and

tube heat exchangers because they do not require an auxiliary water

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 5862

P a g e | 54

supply (water lost due to drift and evaporation plus no water treatment

chemicals are required)

Figure General Overview of Fin Fan Cooler

Produced Water

The produced water system receives liquid from the equipment Miano slug

catcher train 1 and 2 inlet separators and is fed to three phase separator where

water oil and gas is separated The gases produced are burnt in incinerator

whereas hydrocarbon liquid is stored to be sold Liquid from compressors

recycle inlet separator recycle feed scrubber high and low pressure slug

catchers is passed to degasser Separated water is injected down the earth

Incinerator

The term incinerate means to burn something until nothing is left but ashes An

incinerator is a unit or facility used to burn trash and other types of waste until it is

reduced to ash An incinerator is constructed of heavy well-insulated materials

so that it does not give off extreme amounts of external heat The high levels of

heat are kept inside the furnace or unit so that the waste is burned quickly and

efficiently If the heat were allowed to escape the waste would not burn as

completely or as rapidly

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 55

Control System

The plant is controlled at CCR (Central Control Room) by PLCs (Programmable

Logic Controllers) through fiber optic control line All control parameters are

received at LER (Local Equipment Room) via two optic fiber control lines One

being primary and other secondary operating in redundancy ie if primary fails

control shifts to secondary These control parameters are sent to CCR via single

optic fiber cable

Safety System

Wellheads and Gas Processing Plant have their own Fire amp Gas detection

systems emergency shutdown (ESD) Plant has a fault tolerant controller It is

based on Triple Modular Redundant (TMR) architecture manufactured by

Triconex The TMR system is based on three isolated parallel control systems

integrated into one system The system operates on a two out of three voting

principle which provides high integrity error free uninterrupted operation with no

single point of failure The TMR receives inputs from Process Sensors Manual

Switches Fire amp Gas Detectors Packaged Equipment Control Systems and

Product Exporting Facilities The TMR carries out cause and effect processing on

the data received and where necessary produces output signals Outputs from

the TMR are hard wired directly to ESD shutdown and blow down valve

solenoids motor control instrumentelectrical interfaces to control electrical

drives package equipment logic control systems manifold area as well as

telecoms

The operator in central control room is able to accept alarms and once the fault

has been cleared reset the input All the control systems are centralized to a

single interface All the PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers) communicate with

the servers and servers communicate with the clients through Ethernet connectivity

Centralization eases the navigation of different systems at a common interface

Emergency Shutdown

The ESD system receives inputs from field mounted instrumentation on the process

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 56

and utility equipment and initiates executive actions appropriate to the level of ESD

The system is an Active system which is in standby and will activate when in an

alarm or fault condition The Kadanwari Gas Process Facility ESD system is

comprised of five (5) levels The emergency severity decreases with increasing ESD

level number

ESD 1

This shutdown level is automatically initiated by fire major gas leak or a detected

toxic atmosphere in the process area of the plant or manually from CCR A level 1

shutdown will cause all production to cease close all emergency shutdown

valves stop the process and shutdown of the main power generation The

emergency vent valves to the stack will open and in addition all equipment of zone 1

certified will be isolated This is the highest level of ESD and will cause the following

to occur

All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close All slowdown Valves (BDVs) on the process facility will open

All Main Gas Driven Generators will be tripped

Emergency Diesel Generator will start

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close Upper Master Valve

(UMV) Close

ESD 2

This shutdown level is activated automatically if a major process or utility failure

occurs or manually from CCR All production to the plant from the wellhead is

stopped All emergency shutdown valves trip to their fail safe position

Venting shall be as specified This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 57

All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valve Close Wing Valves Close and Upper Master Valve(UMV) Close

ESD 3

The level 3 shutdown isolates and stops a single process train only Production

continues via the other train This ESD level is initiated by process conditions or

operator at local panel This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

ESD 3A Train 1 production to cease

ESD 3B Train 2 production to cease

All online wellhead choke valves go to minimum flow ie (1O )

ESD 4

A level 4 shutdown shall cease all production from an entire field either

Kadanwari or Miano upstream of the associated slug catchers ESD 4K for

Kadanwari amp ESD 4M for Miano This ESD level is initiated automatically by slug

catcher abnormal process conditions This level of ESD will cause the following

to occur

All SDVs close isolating the relevant slug catcher and its upstream gas

production facility from the Kadanwari Gas Processing Plant

All Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close and Upper MasterValves (UMV) of the relevant gas production facility Close

A parallel timer is provided to close within 10 second if not closed in given

time SSSV seals the well

ESD 5

A level 5 shutdown represents equipment shutdown for the protection of the

individual equipment without any change in the process This level of ESD is for the

protection of various pieces of equipment and is initiated by its own inputs eg

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 44

3A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

The 3A molecular sieve adsorbent has a 3 angstrom (3A) pore size which means

that any molecule that is larger than the 3 angstrom pores will not be adsorbed

The 3A molecular sieve is the potassium type of A crystalline structure and is a

form of alkali Aluminosilicate For a 3A molecular sieve the sequence rate that

adsorption occurs is He Ne N and H2O

Due to the crystalline structure molecular sieves that have a 3 angstrom pore

size have a very high rate of adsorption and properties that promote a longer life

for products treated by the sieve The most common use for the 3A molecular

sieve is to remove water and moisture from materials that are in gas and liquid

form

5A Molecular Sieve Adsorbent

These are molecular sieve adsorbents with a pore size of 5 angstrom (5A) 5A

molecular sieves are unable to adsorb any molecules or impurities that are

smaller than 5A It is calcium form of type A crystalline structure and is form of analkali-aluminosilicate that is most commonly used to separate isomerous alkanes

from normal alkanes and to co-adsorb moisture and water along with carbon

dioxide from gases In additional 5A molecular sieves are used for gaseous

pressure swing adsorption (PSA)mdashthat is to separate particular gases from other

gases

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of nC4H10

Adsorption of C3H8 to C22H46

Adsorption of Freon-12 (dichlorodifluoromethane)

Natural gas drying

Normal- and iso-paraffin separation

Separation of aromatic

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 4962

P a g e | 45

Inlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1096

MEHTANE 8593

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008

N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGEN 076

WATER 007

Outlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1098

MEHTANE 8608

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGENT 076

WATER 000

H2S polisher

The H2S polishing unit has been designed to treat 187 MMscfday of natural gas

containing up to 11 CO2 and 21 ppm H2S where the level of the CO2 and H2S

is reduced using a MemGuard Membrane separation unit The unit is situated

down-stream of the membrane unit and will further reduce the level of H2S in the

processed gas to a sales gas specification of 38 ppm

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 5062

P a g e | 46

This process uses three non-regenerable fixed bed absorber vessels using a low

temperature high activity absorbent The absorbent is a mixture of activated

metal oxides (mainly zinc oxide) The three towers can are generally operated in

parallel arrangement but on demand can be used in series (any of alternate

arrangements of A B C vessels) as shown in figure

The higher sales gas flow rate increased the catalyst consumption and

replacement frequency

ZnO + H2S =gt ZnS + H20

Routine samples are taken from the beds to provide a check on each bed

performance and to follow the saturation profile during the absorbent life After

the adsorbent has been fully utilized the adsorption vessels are recharged with

new adsorbent discarding the utilized one in a safe manner

109oF

1215 psig

Before H2S Polishing After H2S Polishing

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 5162

P a g e | 47

Figure

H2S Tower

Inlet pipe

4 Drums of 19mm

ceramic Balls

6 Micron mesh

5 Drums of 50mmceramic

1 Drums of19mm ceramic

01 Drums of6mm ceramic

112 drums of

Catalist ZnO

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 5262

P a g e | 48

Recycle Compressor

The permeate gas of the primary membrane unit carries recoverable amount of

CH4 It is fed to recycle membrane unit for further CH 4 recovery But the

permeate pressure from primary membranes which has been reduced to 12 psi

must be regenerated to 1200 psi for the gas to be fed again to the system For

this purpose we have employed recycle compressor The compressor is a four

stage centrifugal compressor It is driven by gas turbine of 31200 HP It has 25

MW producing capacity

Figure Recycle Compressor Process Flow Diagram

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 49

Sales Gas Compressor

Gas from H2S polishing unit is sent to sales gas compressor where its pressure

is enhanced to 1100 psi so it may be injected to SNGPL high pressure trunk line

Sales gas compressor is single stage gas turbine driven

Figure Process Flow of Sales Gas Compressor

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 50

Cooling Towers

A cooling tower is a heat rejection device which extracts waste heat to theatmosphere through the cooling of a water stream to a lower temperature Hot

water from the system enters the cooling tower and is distributed over the fill

(heat transfer surface) Air is induced or forced through the fill causing a small

portion of the water to evaporate This evaporation removes heat from the

remaining water which is collected in the cold water basin and returned to the

system to absorb more heat Each cooling tower line although operating under

the same basic principle of operation is arranged a little differently

Types

Natural draft mdash Utilizes buoyancy via a tall chimney Warm moist air naturally

rises due to the density differential compared to the dry cooler outside air Warm

moist air is less dense than drier air at the same pressure This moist air

buoyancy produces an upwards current of air through the tower

Mechanical draft mdash Uses power-driven fan motors to force or draw airthrough the tower

o Induced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a fan at the

discharge (at the top) which pulls air up through the tower The fan

induces hot moist air out the discharge This produces low entering

and high exiting air velocities reducing the possibility of

recirculation in which discharged air flows back into the air intake

o Forced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a blower type fan at

the intake The fan forces air into the tower creating high entering

and low exiting air velocities The low exiting velocity is much more

susceptible to recirculation This fanfill geometry is also known as

blow-through

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 5562

P a g e | 51

Forced Draft Cooling Tower Vs Induced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower have the ability to handle large water flow

rate than Forced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower is suitable for large cell sizes and fan sizes

as compared with Forced Draft Larger fan size may result in greater

efficiency and consequently lower power and sound level

Forced Draft Cooling Tower can be square or rectangular type only

however Induced Draft Cooling Towers can be round square or

rectangular type

Induced Draft Cooling Tower uses more compact ground area than Forced

Draft Cooling Tower equivalent capacity due to absence of fan on one

side

Fan equipment is warm exhaust air is less liable to icing up in winter

operation (Cold Countries)

Higher velocity in Forced Draft Cooling Tower cause drop in suspension

and cause additional static resistance to system

Configuration

There are two main configurations of factory assembled cooling towers crossflow

and counterflow In crossflow cooling towers the water flows vertically down the

fill as air flows horizontally across In counterflow cooling towers the water flows

vertically down the fill as air flows vertically up

Crossflow Configuration Counterflow Configuration

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 52

Drift mdash Water droplets that are carried out of the cooling tower with the exhaust

air Drift droplets have the same concentration of impurities as the water entering

the tower The drift rate is typically reduced by employing baffle-like devices

called drift eliminators through which the air must travel after leaving the fill and

spray zones of the tower

Blow-out mdash Water droplets blown out of the cooling tower by wind generally at

the air inlet openings Water may also be lost in the absence of wind through

splashing or misting Devices such as wind screens louvers splash deflectors

and water diverters are used to limit these losses

Blow-down mdash The portion of the circulating water flow that is removed (usually

discharged to a drain) in order to maintain the amount of Total Dissolved Solids

(TDS) and other impurities at an acceptably low level Higher TDS concentration

in solution may result from greater cooling tower efficiency However the higher

the TDS concentration the greater the risk of scale biological growth and

corrosion

Make-up mdash The water that must be added to the circulating water system in

order to compensate for water losses such as evaporation drift loss blow-out

blow-down etc

Approach mdash The approach is the difference in temperature between the cooled-

water temperature and the entering-air wet bulb temperature

Range mdash The range is the temperature difference between the warm water inlet

and cooled water exit

Fill mdash Inside the tower fills are added to increase contact surface as well as

contact time between air and water to provide better heat transfer The efficiency

of the tower depends on the selection and amount of fill

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 5762

P a g e | 53

There are two types of fills that may be used

o Film type fill (causes water to spread into a thin film)

o Splash type fill (breaks up falling stream of water and interrupts its

vertical progress)

Important

Scale build up is controlled by adding chemicals to the cooling loop and diluting

the concentration by blow down and make-up Following chemicals are added to

the Cooling to control CorrosionSale and microbial growth

Corrosion Inhibitor To control corrosion in the Cooling system

Dispersant To kept ions in suspension to avoid settle down and buildup

Sodium hypo Chlorite To Control microbial Growth

Acid To control Alkalinity in the system

High Stress Polymer To run the system at higher conductivity It is a

multifunctional polymer for Zinc amp Phosphate stabilization in cooling tower

Fin Fan Cooler

Fin fan heat exchanger is simply a pressure vessel which cools a circulating fluid

within finned tubes by forcing ambient air over the exterior of the tubes A

common example of an air cooler is a carrsquos radiator Fin Fan Coolers are used in

any application where large quantities of heat need to be transferred This

includes chemical and petrochemical industries power stations waste-to-energy

facilities as well as steelworks

Fin Fan Cooler are used for two primary reasons

They increase plant efficiency

They are a green solution as compared to cooling towers and shell and

tube heat exchangers because they do not require an auxiliary water

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 5862

P a g e | 54

supply (water lost due to drift and evaporation plus no water treatment

chemicals are required)

Figure General Overview of Fin Fan Cooler

Produced Water

The produced water system receives liquid from the equipment Miano slug

catcher train 1 and 2 inlet separators and is fed to three phase separator where

water oil and gas is separated The gases produced are burnt in incinerator

whereas hydrocarbon liquid is stored to be sold Liquid from compressors

recycle inlet separator recycle feed scrubber high and low pressure slug

catchers is passed to degasser Separated water is injected down the earth

Incinerator

The term incinerate means to burn something until nothing is left but ashes An

incinerator is a unit or facility used to burn trash and other types of waste until it is

reduced to ash An incinerator is constructed of heavy well-insulated materials

so that it does not give off extreme amounts of external heat The high levels of

heat are kept inside the furnace or unit so that the waste is burned quickly and

efficiently If the heat were allowed to escape the waste would not burn as

completely or as rapidly

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 5962

P a g e | 55

Control System

The plant is controlled at CCR (Central Control Room) by PLCs (Programmable

Logic Controllers) through fiber optic control line All control parameters are

received at LER (Local Equipment Room) via two optic fiber control lines One

being primary and other secondary operating in redundancy ie if primary fails

control shifts to secondary These control parameters are sent to CCR via single

optic fiber cable

Safety System

Wellheads and Gas Processing Plant have their own Fire amp Gas detection

systems emergency shutdown (ESD) Plant has a fault tolerant controller It is

based on Triple Modular Redundant (TMR) architecture manufactured by

Triconex The TMR system is based on three isolated parallel control systems

integrated into one system The system operates on a two out of three voting

principle which provides high integrity error free uninterrupted operation with no

single point of failure The TMR receives inputs from Process Sensors Manual

Switches Fire amp Gas Detectors Packaged Equipment Control Systems and

Product Exporting Facilities The TMR carries out cause and effect processing on

the data received and where necessary produces output signals Outputs from

the TMR are hard wired directly to ESD shutdown and blow down valve

solenoids motor control instrumentelectrical interfaces to control electrical

drives package equipment logic control systems manifold area as well as

telecoms

The operator in central control room is able to accept alarms and once the fault

has been cleared reset the input All the control systems are centralized to a

single interface All the PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers) communicate with

the servers and servers communicate with the clients through Ethernet connectivity

Centralization eases the navigation of different systems at a common interface

Emergency Shutdown

The ESD system receives inputs from field mounted instrumentation on the process

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 6062

P a g e | 56

and utility equipment and initiates executive actions appropriate to the level of ESD

The system is an Active system which is in standby and will activate when in an

alarm or fault condition The Kadanwari Gas Process Facility ESD system is

comprised of five (5) levels The emergency severity decreases with increasing ESD

level number

ESD 1

This shutdown level is automatically initiated by fire major gas leak or a detected

toxic atmosphere in the process area of the plant or manually from CCR A level 1

shutdown will cause all production to cease close all emergency shutdown

valves stop the process and shutdown of the main power generation The

emergency vent valves to the stack will open and in addition all equipment of zone 1

certified will be isolated This is the highest level of ESD and will cause the following

to occur

All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close All slowdown Valves (BDVs) on the process facility will open

All Main Gas Driven Generators will be tripped

Emergency Diesel Generator will start

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close Upper Master Valve

(UMV) Close

ESD 2

This shutdown level is activated automatically if a major process or utility failure

occurs or manually from CCR All production to the plant from the wellhead is

stopped All emergency shutdown valves trip to their fail safe position

Venting shall be as specified This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 57

All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valve Close Wing Valves Close and Upper Master Valve(UMV) Close

ESD 3

The level 3 shutdown isolates and stops a single process train only Production

continues via the other train This ESD level is initiated by process conditions or

operator at local panel This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

ESD 3A Train 1 production to cease

ESD 3B Train 2 production to cease

All online wellhead choke valves go to minimum flow ie (1O )

ESD 4

A level 4 shutdown shall cease all production from an entire field either

Kadanwari or Miano upstream of the associated slug catchers ESD 4K for

Kadanwari amp ESD 4M for Miano This ESD level is initiated automatically by slug

catcher abnormal process conditions This level of ESD will cause the following

to occur

All SDVs close isolating the relevant slug catcher and its upstream gas

production facility from the Kadanwari Gas Processing Plant

All Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close and Upper MasterValves (UMV) of the relevant gas production facility Close

A parallel timer is provided to close within 10 second if not closed in given

time SSSV seals the well

ESD 5

A level 5 shutdown represents equipment shutdown for the protection of the

individual equipment without any change in the process This level of ESD is for the

protection of various pieces of equipment and is initiated by its own inputs eg

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 6262

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 4962

P a g e | 45

Inlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1096

MEHTANE 8593

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008

N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGEN 076

WATER 007

Outlet Composition of Memguard vessel

COMPSOSITION MOLE

CARBON DIOXIDE 1098

MEHTANE 8608

ETHANE 173

PROPANE 023

I-BUTANE 008N BUTANE 004

PENTANES 004

HEXANE + 000

NITROGENT 076

WATER 000

H2S polisher

The H2S polishing unit has been designed to treat 187 MMscfday of natural gas

containing up to 11 CO2 and 21 ppm H2S where the level of the CO2 and H2S

is reduced using a MemGuard Membrane separation unit The unit is situated

down-stream of the membrane unit and will further reduce the level of H2S in the

processed gas to a sales gas specification of 38 ppm

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 5062

P a g e | 46

This process uses three non-regenerable fixed bed absorber vessels using a low

temperature high activity absorbent The absorbent is a mixture of activated

metal oxides (mainly zinc oxide) The three towers can are generally operated in

parallel arrangement but on demand can be used in series (any of alternate

arrangements of A B C vessels) as shown in figure

The higher sales gas flow rate increased the catalyst consumption and

replacement frequency

ZnO + H2S =gt ZnS + H20

Routine samples are taken from the beds to provide a check on each bed

performance and to follow the saturation profile during the absorbent life After

the adsorbent has been fully utilized the adsorption vessels are recharged with

new adsorbent discarding the utilized one in a safe manner

109oF

1215 psig

Before H2S Polishing After H2S Polishing

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 5162

P a g e | 47

Figure

H2S Tower

Inlet pipe

4 Drums of 19mm

ceramic Balls

6 Micron mesh

5 Drums of 50mmceramic

1 Drums of19mm ceramic

01 Drums of6mm ceramic

112 drums of

Catalist ZnO

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 5262

P a g e | 48

Recycle Compressor

The permeate gas of the primary membrane unit carries recoverable amount of

CH4 It is fed to recycle membrane unit for further CH 4 recovery But the

permeate pressure from primary membranes which has been reduced to 12 psi

must be regenerated to 1200 psi for the gas to be fed again to the system For

this purpose we have employed recycle compressor The compressor is a four

stage centrifugal compressor It is driven by gas turbine of 31200 HP It has 25

MW producing capacity

Figure Recycle Compressor Process Flow Diagram

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 49

Sales Gas Compressor

Gas from H2S polishing unit is sent to sales gas compressor where its pressure

is enhanced to 1100 psi so it may be injected to SNGPL high pressure trunk line

Sales gas compressor is single stage gas turbine driven

Figure Process Flow of Sales Gas Compressor

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 5462

P a g e | 50

Cooling Towers

A cooling tower is a heat rejection device which extracts waste heat to theatmosphere through the cooling of a water stream to a lower temperature Hot

water from the system enters the cooling tower and is distributed over the fill

(heat transfer surface) Air is induced or forced through the fill causing a small

portion of the water to evaporate This evaporation removes heat from the

remaining water which is collected in the cold water basin and returned to the

system to absorb more heat Each cooling tower line although operating under

the same basic principle of operation is arranged a little differently

Types

Natural draft mdash Utilizes buoyancy via a tall chimney Warm moist air naturally

rises due to the density differential compared to the dry cooler outside air Warm

moist air is less dense than drier air at the same pressure This moist air

buoyancy produces an upwards current of air through the tower

Mechanical draft mdash Uses power-driven fan motors to force or draw airthrough the tower

o Induced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a fan at the

discharge (at the top) which pulls air up through the tower The fan

induces hot moist air out the discharge This produces low entering

and high exiting air velocities reducing the possibility of

recirculation in which discharged air flows back into the air intake

o Forced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a blower type fan at

the intake The fan forces air into the tower creating high entering

and low exiting air velocities The low exiting velocity is much more

susceptible to recirculation This fanfill geometry is also known as

blow-through

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 5562

P a g e | 51

Forced Draft Cooling Tower Vs Induced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower have the ability to handle large water flow

rate than Forced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower is suitable for large cell sizes and fan sizes

as compared with Forced Draft Larger fan size may result in greater

efficiency and consequently lower power and sound level

Forced Draft Cooling Tower can be square or rectangular type only

however Induced Draft Cooling Towers can be round square or

rectangular type

Induced Draft Cooling Tower uses more compact ground area than Forced

Draft Cooling Tower equivalent capacity due to absence of fan on one

side

Fan equipment is warm exhaust air is less liable to icing up in winter

operation (Cold Countries)

Higher velocity in Forced Draft Cooling Tower cause drop in suspension

and cause additional static resistance to system

Configuration

There are two main configurations of factory assembled cooling towers crossflow

and counterflow In crossflow cooling towers the water flows vertically down the

fill as air flows horizontally across In counterflow cooling towers the water flows

vertically down the fill as air flows vertically up

Crossflow Configuration Counterflow Configuration

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 52

Drift mdash Water droplets that are carried out of the cooling tower with the exhaust

air Drift droplets have the same concentration of impurities as the water entering

the tower The drift rate is typically reduced by employing baffle-like devices

called drift eliminators through which the air must travel after leaving the fill and

spray zones of the tower

Blow-out mdash Water droplets blown out of the cooling tower by wind generally at

the air inlet openings Water may also be lost in the absence of wind through

splashing or misting Devices such as wind screens louvers splash deflectors

and water diverters are used to limit these losses

Blow-down mdash The portion of the circulating water flow that is removed (usually

discharged to a drain) in order to maintain the amount of Total Dissolved Solids

(TDS) and other impurities at an acceptably low level Higher TDS concentration

in solution may result from greater cooling tower efficiency However the higher

the TDS concentration the greater the risk of scale biological growth and

corrosion

Make-up mdash The water that must be added to the circulating water system in

order to compensate for water losses such as evaporation drift loss blow-out

blow-down etc

Approach mdash The approach is the difference in temperature between the cooled-

water temperature and the entering-air wet bulb temperature

Range mdash The range is the temperature difference between the warm water inlet

and cooled water exit

Fill mdash Inside the tower fills are added to increase contact surface as well as

contact time between air and water to provide better heat transfer The efficiency

of the tower depends on the selection and amount of fill

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 5762

P a g e | 53

There are two types of fills that may be used

o Film type fill (causes water to spread into a thin film)

o Splash type fill (breaks up falling stream of water and interrupts its

vertical progress)

Important

Scale build up is controlled by adding chemicals to the cooling loop and diluting

the concentration by blow down and make-up Following chemicals are added to

the Cooling to control CorrosionSale and microbial growth

Corrosion Inhibitor To control corrosion in the Cooling system

Dispersant To kept ions in suspension to avoid settle down and buildup

Sodium hypo Chlorite To Control microbial Growth

Acid To control Alkalinity in the system

High Stress Polymer To run the system at higher conductivity It is a

multifunctional polymer for Zinc amp Phosphate stabilization in cooling tower

Fin Fan Cooler

Fin fan heat exchanger is simply a pressure vessel which cools a circulating fluid

within finned tubes by forcing ambient air over the exterior of the tubes A

common example of an air cooler is a carrsquos radiator Fin Fan Coolers are used in

any application where large quantities of heat need to be transferred This

includes chemical and petrochemical industries power stations waste-to-energy

facilities as well as steelworks

Fin Fan Cooler are used for two primary reasons

They increase plant efficiency

They are a green solution as compared to cooling towers and shell and

tube heat exchangers because they do not require an auxiliary water

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 5862

P a g e | 54

supply (water lost due to drift and evaporation plus no water treatment

chemicals are required)

Figure General Overview of Fin Fan Cooler

Produced Water

The produced water system receives liquid from the equipment Miano slug

catcher train 1 and 2 inlet separators and is fed to three phase separator where

water oil and gas is separated The gases produced are burnt in incinerator

whereas hydrocarbon liquid is stored to be sold Liquid from compressors

recycle inlet separator recycle feed scrubber high and low pressure slug

catchers is passed to degasser Separated water is injected down the earth

Incinerator

The term incinerate means to burn something until nothing is left but ashes An

incinerator is a unit or facility used to burn trash and other types of waste until it is

reduced to ash An incinerator is constructed of heavy well-insulated materials

so that it does not give off extreme amounts of external heat The high levels of

heat are kept inside the furnace or unit so that the waste is burned quickly and

efficiently If the heat were allowed to escape the waste would not burn as

completely or as rapidly

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 5962

P a g e | 55

Control System

The plant is controlled at CCR (Central Control Room) by PLCs (Programmable

Logic Controllers) through fiber optic control line All control parameters are

received at LER (Local Equipment Room) via two optic fiber control lines One

being primary and other secondary operating in redundancy ie if primary fails

control shifts to secondary These control parameters are sent to CCR via single

optic fiber cable

Safety System

Wellheads and Gas Processing Plant have their own Fire amp Gas detection

systems emergency shutdown (ESD) Plant has a fault tolerant controller It is

based on Triple Modular Redundant (TMR) architecture manufactured by

Triconex The TMR system is based on three isolated parallel control systems

integrated into one system The system operates on a two out of three voting

principle which provides high integrity error free uninterrupted operation with no

single point of failure The TMR receives inputs from Process Sensors Manual

Switches Fire amp Gas Detectors Packaged Equipment Control Systems and

Product Exporting Facilities The TMR carries out cause and effect processing on

the data received and where necessary produces output signals Outputs from

the TMR are hard wired directly to ESD shutdown and blow down valve

solenoids motor control instrumentelectrical interfaces to control electrical

drives package equipment logic control systems manifold area as well as

telecoms

The operator in central control room is able to accept alarms and once the fault

has been cleared reset the input All the control systems are centralized to a

single interface All the PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers) communicate with

the servers and servers communicate with the clients through Ethernet connectivity

Centralization eases the navigation of different systems at a common interface

Emergency Shutdown

The ESD system receives inputs from field mounted instrumentation on the process

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 6062

P a g e | 56

and utility equipment and initiates executive actions appropriate to the level of ESD

The system is an Active system which is in standby and will activate when in an

alarm or fault condition The Kadanwari Gas Process Facility ESD system is

comprised of five (5) levels The emergency severity decreases with increasing ESD

level number

ESD 1

This shutdown level is automatically initiated by fire major gas leak or a detected

toxic atmosphere in the process area of the plant or manually from CCR A level 1

shutdown will cause all production to cease close all emergency shutdown

valves stop the process and shutdown of the main power generation The

emergency vent valves to the stack will open and in addition all equipment of zone 1

certified will be isolated This is the highest level of ESD and will cause the following

to occur

All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close All slowdown Valves (BDVs) on the process facility will open

All Main Gas Driven Generators will be tripped

Emergency Diesel Generator will start

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close Upper Master Valve

(UMV) Close

ESD 2

This shutdown level is activated automatically if a major process or utility failure

occurs or manually from CCR All production to the plant from the wellhead is

stopped All emergency shutdown valves trip to their fail safe position

Venting shall be as specified This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 57

All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valve Close Wing Valves Close and Upper Master Valve(UMV) Close

ESD 3

The level 3 shutdown isolates and stops a single process train only Production

continues via the other train This ESD level is initiated by process conditions or

operator at local panel This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

ESD 3A Train 1 production to cease

ESD 3B Train 2 production to cease

All online wellhead choke valves go to minimum flow ie (1O )

ESD 4

A level 4 shutdown shall cease all production from an entire field either

Kadanwari or Miano upstream of the associated slug catchers ESD 4K for

Kadanwari amp ESD 4M for Miano This ESD level is initiated automatically by slug

catcher abnormal process conditions This level of ESD will cause the following

to occur

All SDVs close isolating the relevant slug catcher and its upstream gas

production facility from the Kadanwari Gas Processing Plant

All Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close and Upper MasterValves (UMV) of the relevant gas production facility Close

A parallel timer is provided to close within 10 second if not closed in given

time SSSV seals the well

ESD 5

A level 5 shutdown represents equipment shutdown for the protection of the

individual equipment without any change in the process This level of ESD is for the

protection of various pieces of equipment and is initiated by its own inputs eg

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 6262

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 5062

P a g e | 46

This process uses three non-regenerable fixed bed absorber vessels using a low

temperature high activity absorbent The absorbent is a mixture of activated

metal oxides (mainly zinc oxide) The three towers can are generally operated in

parallel arrangement but on demand can be used in series (any of alternate

arrangements of A B C vessels) as shown in figure

The higher sales gas flow rate increased the catalyst consumption and

replacement frequency

ZnO + H2S =gt ZnS + H20

Routine samples are taken from the beds to provide a check on each bed

performance and to follow the saturation profile during the absorbent life After

the adsorbent has been fully utilized the adsorption vessels are recharged with

new adsorbent discarding the utilized one in a safe manner

109oF

1215 psig

Before H2S Polishing After H2S Polishing

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 5162

P a g e | 47

Figure

H2S Tower

Inlet pipe

4 Drums of 19mm

ceramic Balls

6 Micron mesh

5 Drums of 50mmceramic

1 Drums of19mm ceramic

01 Drums of6mm ceramic

112 drums of

Catalist ZnO

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 5262

P a g e | 48

Recycle Compressor

The permeate gas of the primary membrane unit carries recoverable amount of

CH4 It is fed to recycle membrane unit for further CH 4 recovery But the

permeate pressure from primary membranes which has been reduced to 12 psi

must be regenerated to 1200 psi for the gas to be fed again to the system For

this purpose we have employed recycle compressor The compressor is a four

stage centrifugal compressor It is driven by gas turbine of 31200 HP It has 25

MW producing capacity

Figure Recycle Compressor Process Flow Diagram

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 5362

P a g e | 49

Sales Gas Compressor

Gas from H2S polishing unit is sent to sales gas compressor where its pressure

is enhanced to 1100 psi so it may be injected to SNGPL high pressure trunk line

Sales gas compressor is single stage gas turbine driven

Figure Process Flow of Sales Gas Compressor

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 5462

P a g e | 50

Cooling Towers

A cooling tower is a heat rejection device which extracts waste heat to theatmosphere through the cooling of a water stream to a lower temperature Hot

water from the system enters the cooling tower and is distributed over the fill

(heat transfer surface) Air is induced or forced through the fill causing a small

portion of the water to evaporate This evaporation removes heat from the

remaining water which is collected in the cold water basin and returned to the

system to absorb more heat Each cooling tower line although operating under

the same basic principle of operation is arranged a little differently

Types

Natural draft mdash Utilizes buoyancy via a tall chimney Warm moist air naturally

rises due to the density differential compared to the dry cooler outside air Warm

moist air is less dense than drier air at the same pressure This moist air

buoyancy produces an upwards current of air through the tower

Mechanical draft mdash Uses power-driven fan motors to force or draw airthrough the tower

o Induced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a fan at the

discharge (at the top) which pulls air up through the tower The fan

induces hot moist air out the discharge This produces low entering

and high exiting air velocities reducing the possibility of

recirculation in which discharged air flows back into the air intake

o Forced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a blower type fan at

the intake The fan forces air into the tower creating high entering

and low exiting air velocities The low exiting velocity is much more

susceptible to recirculation This fanfill geometry is also known as

blow-through

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 5562

P a g e | 51

Forced Draft Cooling Tower Vs Induced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower have the ability to handle large water flow

rate than Forced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower is suitable for large cell sizes and fan sizes

as compared with Forced Draft Larger fan size may result in greater

efficiency and consequently lower power and sound level

Forced Draft Cooling Tower can be square or rectangular type only

however Induced Draft Cooling Towers can be round square or

rectangular type

Induced Draft Cooling Tower uses more compact ground area than Forced

Draft Cooling Tower equivalent capacity due to absence of fan on one

side

Fan equipment is warm exhaust air is less liable to icing up in winter

operation (Cold Countries)

Higher velocity in Forced Draft Cooling Tower cause drop in suspension

and cause additional static resistance to system

Configuration

There are two main configurations of factory assembled cooling towers crossflow

and counterflow In crossflow cooling towers the water flows vertically down the

fill as air flows horizontally across In counterflow cooling towers the water flows

vertically down the fill as air flows vertically up

Crossflow Configuration Counterflow Configuration

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 5662

P a g e | 52

Drift mdash Water droplets that are carried out of the cooling tower with the exhaust

air Drift droplets have the same concentration of impurities as the water entering

the tower The drift rate is typically reduced by employing baffle-like devices

called drift eliminators through which the air must travel after leaving the fill and

spray zones of the tower

Blow-out mdash Water droplets blown out of the cooling tower by wind generally at

the air inlet openings Water may also be lost in the absence of wind through

splashing or misting Devices such as wind screens louvers splash deflectors

and water diverters are used to limit these losses

Blow-down mdash The portion of the circulating water flow that is removed (usually

discharged to a drain) in order to maintain the amount of Total Dissolved Solids

(TDS) and other impurities at an acceptably low level Higher TDS concentration

in solution may result from greater cooling tower efficiency However the higher

the TDS concentration the greater the risk of scale biological growth and

corrosion

Make-up mdash The water that must be added to the circulating water system in

order to compensate for water losses such as evaporation drift loss blow-out

blow-down etc

Approach mdash The approach is the difference in temperature between the cooled-

water temperature and the entering-air wet bulb temperature

Range mdash The range is the temperature difference between the warm water inlet

and cooled water exit

Fill mdash Inside the tower fills are added to increase contact surface as well as

contact time between air and water to provide better heat transfer The efficiency

of the tower depends on the selection and amount of fill

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 5762

P a g e | 53

There are two types of fills that may be used

o Film type fill (causes water to spread into a thin film)

o Splash type fill (breaks up falling stream of water and interrupts its

vertical progress)

Important

Scale build up is controlled by adding chemicals to the cooling loop and diluting

the concentration by blow down and make-up Following chemicals are added to

the Cooling to control CorrosionSale and microbial growth

Corrosion Inhibitor To control corrosion in the Cooling system

Dispersant To kept ions in suspension to avoid settle down and buildup

Sodium hypo Chlorite To Control microbial Growth

Acid To control Alkalinity in the system

High Stress Polymer To run the system at higher conductivity It is a

multifunctional polymer for Zinc amp Phosphate stabilization in cooling tower

Fin Fan Cooler

Fin fan heat exchanger is simply a pressure vessel which cools a circulating fluid

within finned tubes by forcing ambient air over the exterior of the tubes A

common example of an air cooler is a carrsquos radiator Fin Fan Coolers are used in

any application where large quantities of heat need to be transferred This

includes chemical and petrochemical industries power stations waste-to-energy

facilities as well as steelworks

Fin Fan Cooler are used for two primary reasons

They increase plant efficiency

They are a green solution as compared to cooling towers and shell and

tube heat exchangers because they do not require an auxiliary water

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 5862

P a g e | 54

supply (water lost due to drift and evaporation plus no water treatment

chemicals are required)

Figure General Overview of Fin Fan Cooler

Produced Water

The produced water system receives liquid from the equipment Miano slug

catcher train 1 and 2 inlet separators and is fed to three phase separator where

water oil and gas is separated The gases produced are burnt in incinerator

whereas hydrocarbon liquid is stored to be sold Liquid from compressors

recycle inlet separator recycle feed scrubber high and low pressure slug

catchers is passed to degasser Separated water is injected down the earth

Incinerator

The term incinerate means to burn something until nothing is left but ashes An

incinerator is a unit or facility used to burn trash and other types of waste until it is

reduced to ash An incinerator is constructed of heavy well-insulated materials

so that it does not give off extreme amounts of external heat The high levels of

heat are kept inside the furnace or unit so that the waste is burned quickly and

efficiently If the heat were allowed to escape the waste would not burn as

completely or as rapidly

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 5962

P a g e | 55

Control System

The plant is controlled at CCR (Central Control Room) by PLCs (Programmable

Logic Controllers) through fiber optic control line All control parameters are

received at LER (Local Equipment Room) via two optic fiber control lines One

being primary and other secondary operating in redundancy ie if primary fails

control shifts to secondary These control parameters are sent to CCR via single

optic fiber cable

Safety System

Wellheads and Gas Processing Plant have their own Fire amp Gas detection

systems emergency shutdown (ESD) Plant has a fault tolerant controller It is

based on Triple Modular Redundant (TMR) architecture manufactured by

Triconex The TMR system is based on three isolated parallel control systems

integrated into one system The system operates on a two out of three voting

principle which provides high integrity error free uninterrupted operation with no

single point of failure The TMR receives inputs from Process Sensors Manual

Switches Fire amp Gas Detectors Packaged Equipment Control Systems and

Product Exporting Facilities The TMR carries out cause and effect processing on

the data received and where necessary produces output signals Outputs from

the TMR are hard wired directly to ESD shutdown and blow down valve

solenoids motor control instrumentelectrical interfaces to control electrical

drives package equipment logic control systems manifold area as well as

telecoms

The operator in central control room is able to accept alarms and once the fault

has been cleared reset the input All the control systems are centralized to a

single interface All the PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers) communicate with

the servers and servers communicate with the clients through Ethernet connectivity

Centralization eases the navigation of different systems at a common interface

Emergency Shutdown

The ESD system receives inputs from field mounted instrumentation on the process

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 56

and utility equipment and initiates executive actions appropriate to the level of ESD

The system is an Active system which is in standby and will activate when in an

alarm or fault condition The Kadanwari Gas Process Facility ESD system is

comprised of five (5) levels The emergency severity decreases with increasing ESD

level number

ESD 1

This shutdown level is automatically initiated by fire major gas leak or a detected

toxic atmosphere in the process area of the plant or manually from CCR A level 1

shutdown will cause all production to cease close all emergency shutdown

valves stop the process and shutdown of the main power generation The

emergency vent valves to the stack will open and in addition all equipment of zone 1

certified will be isolated This is the highest level of ESD and will cause the following

to occur

All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close All slowdown Valves (BDVs) on the process facility will open

All Main Gas Driven Generators will be tripped

Emergency Diesel Generator will start

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close Upper Master Valve

(UMV) Close

ESD 2

This shutdown level is activated automatically if a major process or utility failure

occurs or manually from CCR All production to the plant from the wellhead is

stopped All emergency shutdown valves trip to their fail safe position

Venting shall be as specified This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 57

All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valve Close Wing Valves Close and Upper Master Valve(UMV) Close

ESD 3

The level 3 shutdown isolates and stops a single process train only Production

continues via the other train This ESD level is initiated by process conditions or

operator at local panel This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

ESD 3A Train 1 production to cease

ESD 3B Train 2 production to cease

All online wellhead choke valves go to minimum flow ie (1O )

ESD 4

A level 4 shutdown shall cease all production from an entire field either

Kadanwari or Miano upstream of the associated slug catchers ESD 4K for

Kadanwari amp ESD 4M for Miano This ESD level is initiated automatically by slug

catcher abnormal process conditions This level of ESD will cause the following

to occur

All SDVs close isolating the relevant slug catcher and its upstream gas

production facility from the Kadanwari Gas Processing Plant

All Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close and Upper MasterValves (UMV) of the relevant gas production facility Close

A parallel timer is provided to close within 10 second if not closed in given

time SSSV seals the well

ESD 5

A level 5 shutdown represents equipment shutdown for the protection of the

individual equipment without any change in the process This level of ESD is for the

protection of various pieces of equipment and is initiated by its own inputs eg

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 47

Figure

H2S Tower

Inlet pipe

4 Drums of 19mm

ceramic Balls

6 Micron mesh

5 Drums of 50mmceramic

1 Drums of19mm ceramic

01 Drums of6mm ceramic

112 drums of

Catalist ZnO

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 48

Recycle Compressor

The permeate gas of the primary membrane unit carries recoverable amount of

CH4 It is fed to recycle membrane unit for further CH 4 recovery But the

permeate pressure from primary membranes which has been reduced to 12 psi

must be regenerated to 1200 psi for the gas to be fed again to the system For

this purpose we have employed recycle compressor The compressor is a four

stage centrifugal compressor It is driven by gas turbine of 31200 HP It has 25

MW producing capacity

Figure Recycle Compressor Process Flow Diagram

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 49

Sales Gas Compressor

Gas from H2S polishing unit is sent to sales gas compressor where its pressure

is enhanced to 1100 psi so it may be injected to SNGPL high pressure trunk line

Sales gas compressor is single stage gas turbine driven

Figure Process Flow of Sales Gas Compressor

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 50

Cooling Towers

A cooling tower is a heat rejection device which extracts waste heat to theatmosphere through the cooling of a water stream to a lower temperature Hot

water from the system enters the cooling tower and is distributed over the fill

(heat transfer surface) Air is induced or forced through the fill causing a small

portion of the water to evaporate This evaporation removes heat from the

remaining water which is collected in the cold water basin and returned to the

system to absorb more heat Each cooling tower line although operating under

the same basic principle of operation is arranged a little differently

Types

Natural draft mdash Utilizes buoyancy via a tall chimney Warm moist air naturally

rises due to the density differential compared to the dry cooler outside air Warm

moist air is less dense than drier air at the same pressure This moist air

buoyancy produces an upwards current of air through the tower

Mechanical draft mdash Uses power-driven fan motors to force or draw airthrough the tower

o Induced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a fan at the

discharge (at the top) which pulls air up through the tower The fan

induces hot moist air out the discharge This produces low entering

and high exiting air velocities reducing the possibility of

recirculation in which discharged air flows back into the air intake

o Forced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a blower type fan at

the intake The fan forces air into the tower creating high entering

and low exiting air velocities The low exiting velocity is much more

susceptible to recirculation This fanfill geometry is also known as

blow-through

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 51

Forced Draft Cooling Tower Vs Induced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower have the ability to handle large water flow

rate than Forced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower is suitable for large cell sizes and fan sizes

as compared with Forced Draft Larger fan size may result in greater

efficiency and consequently lower power and sound level

Forced Draft Cooling Tower can be square or rectangular type only

however Induced Draft Cooling Towers can be round square or

rectangular type

Induced Draft Cooling Tower uses more compact ground area than Forced

Draft Cooling Tower equivalent capacity due to absence of fan on one

side

Fan equipment is warm exhaust air is less liable to icing up in winter

operation (Cold Countries)

Higher velocity in Forced Draft Cooling Tower cause drop in suspension

and cause additional static resistance to system

Configuration

There are two main configurations of factory assembled cooling towers crossflow

and counterflow In crossflow cooling towers the water flows vertically down the

fill as air flows horizontally across In counterflow cooling towers the water flows

vertically down the fill as air flows vertically up

Crossflow Configuration Counterflow Configuration

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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Drift mdash Water droplets that are carried out of the cooling tower with the exhaust

air Drift droplets have the same concentration of impurities as the water entering

the tower The drift rate is typically reduced by employing baffle-like devices

called drift eliminators through which the air must travel after leaving the fill and

spray zones of the tower

Blow-out mdash Water droplets blown out of the cooling tower by wind generally at

the air inlet openings Water may also be lost in the absence of wind through

splashing or misting Devices such as wind screens louvers splash deflectors

and water diverters are used to limit these losses

Blow-down mdash The portion of the circulating water flow that is removed (usually

discharged to a drain) in order to maintain the amount of Total Dissolved Solids

(TDS) and other impurities at an acceptably low level Higher TDS concentration

in solution may result from greater cooling tower efficiency However the higher

the TDS concentration the greater the risk of scale biological growth and

corrosion

Make-up mdash The water that must be added to the circulating water system in

order to compensate for water losses such as evaporation drift loss blow-out

blow-down etc

Approach mdash The approach is the difference in temperature between the cooled-

water temperature and the entering-air wet bulb temperature

Range mdash The range is the temperature difference between the warm water inlet

and cooled water exit

Fill mdash Inside the tower fills are added to increase contact surface as well as

contact time between air and water to provide better heat transfer The efficiency

of the tower depends on the selection and amount of fill

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 53

There are two types of fills that may be used

o Film type fill (causes water to spread into a thin film)

o Splash type fill (breaks up falling stream of water and interrupts its

vertical progress)

Important

Scale build up is controlled by adding chemicals to the cooling loop and diluting

the concentration by blow down and make-up Following chemicals are added to

the Cooling to control CorrosionSale and microbial growth

Corrosion Inhibitor To control corrosion in the Cooling system

Dispersant To kept ions in suspension to avoid settle down and buildup

Sodium hypo Chlorite To Control microbial Growth

Acid To control Alkalinity in the system

High Stress Polymer To run the system at higher conductivity It is a

multifunctional polymer for Zinc amp Phosphate stabilization in cooling tower

Fin Fan Cooler

Fin fan heat exchanger is simply a pressure vessel which cools a circulating fluid

within finned tubes by forcing ambient air over the exterior of the tubes A

common example of an air cooler is a carrsquos radiator Fin Fan Coolers are used in

any application where large quantities of heat need to be transferred This

includes chemical and petrochemical industries power stations waste-to-energy

facilities as well as steelworks

Fin Fan Cooler are used for two primary reasons

They increase plant efficiency

They are a green solution as compared to cooling towers and shell and

tube heat exchangers because they do not require an auxiliary water

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 54

supply (water lost due to drift and evaporation plus no water treatment

chemicals are required)

Figure General Overview of Fin Fan Cooler

Produced Water

The produced water system receives liquid from the equipment Miano slug

catcher train 1 and 2 inlet separators and is fed to three phase separator where

water oil and gas is separated The gases produced are burnt in incinerator

whereas hydrocarbon liquid is stored to be sold Liquid from compressors

recycle inlet separator recycle feed scrubber high and low pressure slug

catchers is passed to degasser Separated water is injected down the earth

Incinerator

The term incinerate means to burn something until nothing is left but ashes An

incinerator is a unit or facility used to burn trash and other types of waste until it is

reduced to ash An incinerator is constructed of heavy well-insulated materials

so that it does not give off extreme amounts of external heat The high levels of

heat are kept inside the furnace or unit so that the waste is burned quickly and

efficiently If the heat were allowed to escape the waste would not burn as

completely or as rapidly

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 55

Control System

The plant is controlled at CCR (Central Control Room) by PLCs (Programmable

Logic Controllers) through fiber optic control line All control parameters are

received at LER (Local Equipment Room) via two optic fiber control lines One

being primary and other secondary operating in redundancy ie if primary fails

control shifts to secondary These control parameters are sent to CCR via single

optic fiber cable

Safety System

Wellheads and Gas Processing Plant have their own Fire amp Gas detection

systems emergency shutdown (ESD) Plant has a fault tolerant controller It is

based on Triple Modular Redundant (TMR) architecture manufactured by

Triconex The TMR system is based on three isolated parallel control systems

integrated into one system The system operates on a two out of three voting

principle which provides high integrity error free uninterrupted operation with no

single point of failure The TMR receives inputs from Process Sensors Manual

Switches Fire amp Gas Detectors Packaged Equipment Control Systems and

Product Exporting Facilities The TMR carries out cause and effect processing on

the data received and where necessary produces output signals Outputs from

the TMR are hard wired directly to ESD shutdown and blow down valve

solenoids motor control instrumentelectrical interfaces to control electrical

drives package equipment logic control systems manifold area as well as

telecoms

The operator in central control room is able to accept alarms and once the fault

has been cleared reset the input All the control systems are centralized to a

single interface All the PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers) communicate with

the servers and servers communicate with the clients through Ethernet connectivity

Centralization eases the navigation of different systems at a common interface

Emergency Shutdown

The ESD system receives inputs from field mounted instrumentation on the process

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 6062

P a g e | 56

and utility equipment and initiates executive actions appropriate to the level of ESD

The system is an Active system which is in standby and will activate when in an

alarm or fault condition The Kadanwari Gas Process Facility ESD system is

comprised of five (5) levels The emergency severity decreases with increasing ESD

level number

ESD 1

This shutdown level is automatically initiated by fire major gas leak or a detected

toxic atmosphere in the process area of the plant or manually from CCR A level 1

shutdown will cause all production to cease close all emergency shutdown

valves stop the process and shutdown of the main power generation The

emergency vent valves to the stack will open and in addition all equipment of zone 1

certified will be isolated This is the highest level of ESD and will cause the following

to occur

All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close All slowdown Valves (BDVs) on the process facility will open

All Main Gas Driven Generators will be tripped

Emergency Diesel Generator will start

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close Upper Master Valve

(UMV) Close

ESD 2

This shutdown level is activated automatically if a major process or utility failure

occurs or manually from CCR All production to the plant from the wellhead is

stopped All emergency shutdown valves trip to their fail safe position

Venting shall be as specified This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 57

All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valve Close Wing Valves Close and Upper Master Valve(UMV) Close

ESD 3

The level 3 shutdown isolates and stops a single process train only Production

continues via the other train This ESD level is initiated by process conditions or

operator at local panel This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

ESD 3A Train 1 production to cease

ESD 3B Train 2 production to cease

All online wellhead choke valves go to minimum flow ie (1O )

ESD 4

A level 4 shutdown shall cease all production from an entire field either

Kadanwari or Miano upstream of the associated slug catchers ESD 4K for

Kadanwari amp ESD 4M for Miano This ESD level is initiated automatically by slug

catcher abnormal process conditions This level of ESD will cause the following

to occur

All SDVs close isolating the relevant slug catcher and its upstream gas

production facility from the Kadanwari Gas Processing Plant

All Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close and Upper MasterValves (UMV) of the relevant gas production facility Close

A parallel timer is provided to close within 10 second if not closed in given

time SSSV seals the well

ESD 5

A level 5 shutdown represents equipment shutdown for the protection of the

individual equipment without any change in the process This level of ESD is for the

protection of various pieces of equipment and is initiated by its own inputs eg

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 48

Recycle Compressor

The permeate gas of the primary membrane unit carries recoverable amount of

CH4 It is fed to recycle membrane unit for further CH 4 recovery But the

permeate pressure from primary membranes which has been reduced to 12 psi

must be regenerated to 1200 psi for the gas to be fed again to the system For

this purpose we have employed recycle compressor The compressor is a four

stage centrifugal compressor It is driven by gas turbine of 31200 HP It has 25

MW producing capacity

Figure Recycle Compressor Process Flow Diagram

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 49

Sales Gas Compressor

Gas from H2S polishing unit is sent to sales gas compressor where its pressure

is enhanced to 1100 psi so it may be injected to SNGPL high pressure trunk line

Sales gas compressor is single stage gas turbine driven

Figure Process Flow of Sales Gas Compressor

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 50

Cooling Towers

A cooling tower is a heat rejection device which extracts waste heat to theatmosphere through the cooling of a water stream to a lower temperature Hot

water from the system enters the cooling tower and is distributed over the fill

(heat transfer surface) Air is induced or forced through the fill causing a small

portion of the water to evaporate This evaporation removes heat from the

remaining water which is collected in the cold water basin and returned to the

system to absorb more heat Each cooling tower line although operating under

the same basic principle of operation is arranged a little differently

Types

Natural draft mdash Utilizes buoyancy via a tall chimney Warm moist air naturally

rises due to the density differential compared to the dry cooler outside air Warm

moist air is less dense than drier air at the same pressure This moist air

buoyancy produces an upwards current of air through the tower

Mechanical draft mdash Uses power-driven fan motors to force or draw airthrough the tower

o Induced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a fan at the

discharge (at the top) which pulls air up through the tower The fan

induces hot moist air out the discharge This produces low entering

and high exiting air velocities reducing the possibility of

recirculation in which discharged air flows back into the air intake

o Forced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a blower type fan at

the intake The fan forces air into the tower creating high entering

and low exiting air velocities The low exiting velocity is much more

susceptible to recirculation This fanfill geometry is also known as

blow-through

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 51

Forced Draft Cooling Tower Vs Induced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower have the ability to handle large water flow

rate than Forced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower is suitable for large cell sizes and fan sizes

as compared with Forced Draft Larger fan size may result in greater

efficiency and consequently lower power and sound level

Forced Draft Cooling Tower can be square or rectangular type only

however Induced Draft Cooling Towers can be round square or

rectangular type

Induced Draft Cooling Tower uses more compact ground area than Forced

Draft Cooling Tower equivalent capacity due to absence of fan on one

side

Fan equipment is warm exhaust air is less liable to icing up in winter

operation (Cold Countries)

Higher velocity in Forced Draft Cooling Tower cause drop in suspension

and cause additional static resistance to system

Configuration

There are two main configurations of factory assembled cooling towers crossflow

and counterflow In crossflow cooling towers the water flows vertically down the

fill as air flows horizontally across In counterflow cooling towers the water flows

vertically down the fill as air flows vertically up

Crossflow Configuration Counterflow Configuration

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 52

Drift mdash Water droplets that are carried out of the cooling tower with the exhaust

air Drift droplets have the same concentration of impurities as the water entering

the tower The drift rate is typically reduced by employing baffle-like devices

called drift eliminators through which the air must travel after leaving the fill and

spray zones of the tower

Blow-out mdash Water droplets blown out of the cooling tower by wind generally at

the air inlet openings Water may also be lost in the absence of wind through

splashing or misting Devices such as wind screens louvers splash deflectors

and water diverters are used to limit these losses

Blow-down mdash The portion of the circulating water flow that is removed (usually

discharged to a drain) in order to maintain the amount of Total Dissolved Solids

(TDS) and other impurities at an acceptably low level Higher TDS concentration

in solution may result from greater cooling tower efficiency However the higher

the TDS concentration the greater the risk of scale biological growth and

corrosion

Make-up mdash The water that must be added to the circulating water system in

order to compensate for water losses such as evaporation drift loss blow-out

blow-down etc

Approach mdash The approach is the difference in temperature between the cooled-

water temperature and the entering-air wet bulb temperature

Range mdash The range is the temperature difference between the warm water inlet

and cooled water exit

Fill mdash Inside the tower fills are added to increase contact surface as well as

contact time between air and water to provide better heat transfer The efficiency

of the tower depends on the selection and amount of fill

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 53

There are two types of fills that may be used

o Film type fill (causes water to spread into a thin film)

o Splash type fill (breaks up falling stream of water and interrupts its

vertical progress)

Important

Scale build up is controlled by adding chemicals to the cooling loop and diluting

the concentration by blow down and make-up Following chemicals are added to

the Cooling to control CorrosionSale and microbial growth

Corrosion Inhibitor To control corrosion in the Cooling system

Dispersant To kept ions in suspension to avoid settle down and buildup

Sodium hypo Chlorite To Control microbial Growth

Acid To control Alkalinity in the system

High Stress Polymer To run the system at higher conductivity It is a

multifunctional polymer for Zinc amp Phosphate stabilization in cooling tower

Fin Fan Cooler

Fin fan heat exchanger is simply a pressure vessel which cools a circulating fluid

within finned tubes by forcing ambient air over the exterior of the tubes A

common example of an air cooler is a carrsquos radiator Fin Fan Coolers are used in

any application where large quantities of heat need to be transferred This

includes chemical and petrochemical industries power stations waste-to-energy

facilities as well as steelworks

Fin Fan Cooler are used for two primary reasons

They increase plant efficiency

They are a green solution as compared to cooling towers and shell and

tube heat exchangers because they do not require an auxiliary water

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 5862

P a g e | 54

supply (water lost due to drift and evaporation plus no water treatment

chemicals are required)

Figure General Overview of Fin Fan Cooler

Produced Water

The produced water system receives liquid from the equipment Miano slug

catcher train 1 and 2 inlet separators and is fed to three phase separator where

water oil and gas is separated The gases produced are burnt in incinerator

whereas hydrocarbon liquid is stored to be sold Liquid from compressors

recycle inlet separator recycle feed scrubber high and low pressure slug

catchers is passed to degasser Separated water is injected down the earth

Incinerator

The term incinerate means to burn something until nothing is left but ashes An

incinerator is a unit or facility used to burn trash and other types of waste until it is

reduced to ash An incinerator is constructed of heavy well-insulated materials

so that it does not give off extreme amounts of external heat The high levels of

heat are kept inside the furnace or unit so that the waste is burned quickly and

efficiently If the heat were allowed to escape the waste would not burn as

completely or as rapidly

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 5962

P a g e | 55

Control System

The plant is controlled at CCR (Central Control Room) by PLCs (Programmable

Logic Controllers) through fiber optic control line All control parameters are

received at LER (Local Equipment Room) via two optic fiber control lines One

being primary and other secondary operating in redundancy ie if primary fails

control shifts to secondary These control parameters are sent to CCR via single

optic fiber cable

Safety System

Wellheads and Gas Processing Plant have their own Fire amp Gas detection

systems emergency shutdown (ESD) Plant has a fault tolerant controller It is

based on Triple Modular Redundant (TMR) architecture manufactured by

Triconex The TMR system is based on three isolated parallel control systems

integrated into one system The system operates on a two out of three voting

principle which provides high integrity error free uninterrupted operation with no

single point of failure The TMR receives inputs from Process Sensors Manual

Switches Fire amp Gas Detectors Packaged Equipment Control Systems and

Product Exporting Facilities The TMR carries out cause and effect processing on

the data received and where necessary produces output signals Outputs from

the TMR are hard wired directly to ESD shutdown and blow down valve

solenoids motor control instrumentelectrical interfaces to control electrical

drives package equipment logic control systems manifold area as well as

telecoms

The operator in central control room is able to accept alarms and once the fault

has been cleared reset the input All the control systems are centralized to a

single interface All the PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers) communicate with

the servers and servers communicate with the clients through Ethernet connectivity

Centralization eases the navigation of different systems at a common interface

Emergency Shutdown

The ESD system receives inputs from field mounted instrumentation on the process

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 6062

P a g e | 56

and utility equipment and initiates executive actions appropriate to the level of ESD

The system is an Active system which is in standby and will activate when in an

alarm or fault condition The Kadanwari Gas Process Facility ESD system is

comprised of five (5) levels The emergency severity decreases with increasing ESD

level number

ESD 1

This shutdown level is automatically initiated by fire major gas leak or a detected

toxic atmosphere in the process area of the plant or manually from CCR A level 1

shutdown will cause all production to cease close all emergency shutdown

valves stop the process and shutdown of the main power generation The

emergency vent valves to the stack will open and in addition all equipment of zone 1

certified will be isolated This is the highest level of ESD and will cause the following

to occur

All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close All slowdown Valves (BDVs) on the process facility will open

All Main Gas Driven Generators will be tripped

Emergency Diesel Generator will start

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close Upper Master Valve

(UMV) Close

ESD 2

This shutdown level is activated automatically if a major process or utility failure

occurs or manually from CCR All production to the plant from the wellhead is

stopped All emergency shutdown valves trip to their fail safe position

Venting shall be as specified This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 57

All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valve Close Wing Valves Close and Upper Master Valve(UMV) Close

ESD 3

The level 3 shutdown isolates and stops a single process train only Production

continues via the other train This ESD level is initiated by process conditions or

operator at local panel This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

ESD 3A Train 1 production to cease

ESD 3B Train 2 production to cease

All online wellhead choke valves go to minimum flow ie (1O )

ESD 4

A level 4 shutdown shall cease all production from an entire field either

Kadanwari or Miano upstream of the associated slug catchers ESD 4K for

Kadanwari amp ESD 4M for Miano This ESD level is initiated automatically by slug

catcher abnormal process conditions This level of ESD will cause the following

to occur

All SDVs close isolating the relevant slug catcher and its upstream gas

production facility from the Kadanwari Gas Processing Plant

All Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close and Upper MasterValves (UMV) of the relevant gas production facility Close

A parallel timer is provided to close within 10 second if not closed in given

time SSSV seals the well

ESD 5

A level 5 shutdown represents equipment shutdown for the protection of the

individual equipment without any change in the process This level of ESD is for the

protection of various pieces of equipment and is initiated by its own inputs eg

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 6262

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 49

Sales Gas Compressor

Gas from H2S polishing unit is sent to sales gas compressor where its pressure

is enhanced to 1100 psi so it may be injected to SNGPL high pressure trunk line

Sales gas compressor is single stage gas turbine driven

Figure Process Flow of Sales Gas Compressor

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 5462

P a g e | 50

Cooling Towers

A cooling tower is a heat rejection device which extracts waste heat to theatmosphere through the cooling of a water stream to a lower temperature Hot

water from the system enters the cooling tower and is distributed over the fill

(heat transfer surface) Air is induced or forced through the fill causing a small

portion of the water to evaporate This evaporation removes heat from the

remaining water which is collected in the cold water basin and returned to the

system to absorb more heat Each cooling tower line although operating under

the same basic principle of operation is arranged a little differently

Types

Natural draft mdash Utilizes buoyancy via a tall chimney Warm moist air naturally

rises due to the density differential compared to the dry cooler outside air Warm

moist air is less dense than drier air at the same pressure This moist air

buoyancy produces an upwards current of air through the tower

Mechanical draft mdash Uses power-driven fan motors to force or draw airthrough the tower

o Induced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a fan at the

discharge (at the top) which pulls air up through the tower The fan

induces hot moist air out the discharge This produces low entering

and high exiting air velocities reducing the possibility of

recirculation in which discharged air flows back into the air intake

o Forced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a blower type fan at

the intake The fan forces air into the tower creating high entering

and low exiting air velocities The low exiting velocity is much more

susceptible to recirculation This fanfill geometry is also known as

blow-through

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 51

Forced Draft Cooling Tower Vs Induced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower have the ability to handle large water flow

rate than Forced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower is suitable for large cell sizes and fan sizes

as compared with Forced Draft Larger fan size may result in greater

efficiency and consequently lower power and sound level

Forced Draft Cooling Tower can be square or rectangular type only

however Induced Draft Cooling Towers can be round square or

rectangular type

Induced Draft Cooling Tower uses more compact ground area than Forced

Draft Cooling Tower equivalent capacity due to absence of fan on one

side

Fan equipment is warm exhaust air is less liable to icing up in winter

operation (Cold Countries)

Higher velocity in Forced Draft Cooling Tower cause drop in suspension

and cause additional static resistance to system

Configuration

There are two main configurations of factory assembled cooling towers crossflow

and counterflow In crossflow cooling towers the water flows vertically down the

fill as air flows horizontally across In counterflow cooling towers the water flows

vertically down the fill as air flows vertically up

Crossflow Configuration Counterflow Configuration

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 52

Drift mdash Water droplets that are carried out of the cooling tower with the exhaust

air Drift droplets have the same concentration of impurities as the water entering

the tower The drift rate is typically reduced by employing baffle-like devices

called drift eliminators through which the air must travel after leaving the fill and

spray zones of the tower

Blow-out mdash Water droplets blown out of the cooling tower by wind generally at

the air inlet openings Water may also be lost in the absence of wind through

splashing or misting Devices such as wind screens louvers splash deflectors

and water diverters are used to limit these losses

Blow-down mdash The portion of the circulating water flow that is removed (usually

discharged to a drain) in order to maintain the amount of Total Dissolved Solids

(TDS) and other impurities at an acceptably low level Higher TDS concentration

in solution may result from greater cooling tower efficiency However the higher

the TDS concentration the greater the risk of scale biological growth and

corrosion

Make-up mdash The water that must be added to the circulating water system in

order to compensate for water losses such as evaporation drift loss blow-out

blow-down etc

Approach mdash The approach is the difference in temperature between the cooled-

water temperature and the entering-air wet bulb temperature

Range mdash The range is the temperature difference between the warm water inlet

and cooled water exit

Fill mdash Inside the tower fills are added to increase contact surface as well as

contact time between air and water to provide better heat transfer The efficiency

of the tower depends on the selection and amount of fill

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 5762

P a g e | 53

There are two types of fills that may be used

o Film type fill (causes water to spread into a thin film)

o Splash type fill (breaks up falling stream of water and interrupts its

vertical progress)

Important

Scale build up is controlled by adding chemicals to the cooling loop and diluting

the concentration by blow down and make-up Following chemicals are added to

the Cooling to control CorrosionSale and microbial growth

Corrosion Inhibitor To control corrosion in the Cooling system

Dispersant To kept ions in suspension to avoid settle down and buildup

Sodium hypo Chlorite To Control microbial Growth

Acid To control Alkalinity in the system

High Stress Polymer To run the system at higher conductivity It is a

multifunctional polymer for Zinc amp Phosphate stabilization in cooling tower

Fin Fan Cooler

Fin fan heat exchanger is simply a pressure vessel which cools a circulating fluid

within finned tubes by forcing ambient air over the exterior of the tubes A

common example of an air cooler is a carrsquos radiator Fin Fan Coolers are used in

any application where large quantities of heat need to be transferred This

includes chemical and petrochemical industries power stations waste-to-energy

facilities as well as steelworks

Fin Fan Cooler are used for two primary reasons

They increase plant efficiency

They are a green solution as compared to cooling towers and shell and

tube heat exchangers because they do not require an auxiliary water

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 5862

P a g e | 54

supply (water lost due to drift and evaporation plus no water treatment

chemicals are required)

Figure General Overview of Fin Fan Cooler

Produced Water

The produced water system receives liquid from the equipment Miano slug

catcher train 1 and 2 inlet separators and is fed to three phase separator where

water oil and gas is separated The gases produced are burnt in incinerator

whereas hydrocarbon liquid is stored to be sold Liquid from compressors

recycle inlet separator recycle feed scrubber high and low pressure slug

catchers is passed to degasser Separated water is injected down the earth

Incinerator

The term incinerate means to burn something until nothing is left but ashes An

incinerator is a unit or facility used to burn trash and other types of waste until it is

reduced to ash An incinerator is constructed of heavy well-insulated materials

so that it does not give off extreme amounts of external heat The high levels of

heat are kept inside the furnace or unit so that the waste is burned quickly and

efficiently If the heat were allowed to escape the waste would not burn as

completely or as rapidly

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 5962

P a g e | 55

Control System

The plant is controlled at CCR (Central Control Room) by PLCs (Programmable

Logic Controllers) through fiber optic control line All control parameters are

received at LER (Local Equipment Room) via two optic fiber control lines One

being primary and other secondary operating in redundancy ie if primary fails

control shifts to secondary These control parameters are sent to CCR via single

optic fiber cable

Safety System

Wellheads and Gas Processing Plant have their own Fire amp Gas detection

systems emergency shutdown (ESD) Plant has a fault tolerant controller It is

based on Triple Modular Redundant (TMR) architecture manufactured by

Triconex The TMR system is based on three isolated parallel control systems

integrated into one system The system operates on a two out of three voting

principle which provides high integrity error free uninterrupted operation with no

single point of failure The TMR receives inputs from Process Sensors Manual

Switches Fire amp Gas Detectors Packaged Equipment Control Systems and

Product Exporting Facilities The TMR carries out cause and effect processing on

the data received and where necessary produces output signals Outputs from

the TMR are hard wired directly to ESD shutdown and blow down valve

solenoids motor control instrumentelectrical interfaces to control electrical

drives package equipment logic control systems manifold area as well as

telecoms

The operator in central control room is able to accept alarms and once the fault

has been cleared reset the input All the control systems are centralized to a

single interface All the PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers) communicate with

the servers and servers communicate with the clients through Ethernet connectivity

Centralization eases the navigation of different systems at a common interface

Emergency Shutdown

The ESD system receives inputs from field mounted instrumentation on the process

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 6062

P a g e | 56

and utility equipment and initiates executive actions appropriate to the level of ESD

The system is an Active system which is in standby and will activate when in an

alarm or fault condition The Kadanwari Gas Process Facility ESD system is

comprised of five (5) levels The emergency severity decreases with increasing ESD

level number

ESD 1

This shutdown level is automatically initiated by fire major gas leak or a detected

toxic atmosphere in the process area of the plant or manually from CCR A level 1

shutdown will cause all production to cease close all emergency shutdown

valves stop the process and shutdown of the main power generation The

emergency vent valves to the stack will open and in addition all equipment of zone 1

certified will be isolated This is the highest level of ESD and will cause the following

to occur

All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close All slowdown Valves (BDVs) on the process facility will open

All Main Gas Driven Generators will be tripped

Emergency Diesel Generator will start

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close Upper Master Valve

(UMV) Close

ESD 2

This shutdown level is activated automatically if a major process or utility failure

occurs or manually from CCR All production to the plant from the wellhead is

stopped All emergency shutdown valves trip to their fail safe position

Venting shall be as specified This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 57

All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valve Close Wing Valves Close and Upper Master Valve(UMV) Close

ESD 3

The level 3 shutdown isolates and stops a single process train only Production

continues via the other train This ESD level is initiated by process conditions or

operator at local panel This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

ESD 3A Train 1 production to cease

ESD 3B Train 2 production to cease

All online wellhead choke valves go to minimum flow ie (1O )

ESD 4

A level 4 shutdown shall cease all production from an entire field either

Kadanwari or Miano upstream of the associated slug catchers ESD 4K for

Kadanwari amp ESD 4M for Miano This ESD level is initiated automatically by slug

catcher abnormal process conditions This level of ESD will cause the following

to occur

All SDVs close isolating the relevant slug catcher and its upstream gas

production facility from the Kadanwari Gas Processing Plant

All Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close and Upper MasterValves (UMV) of the relevant gas production facility Close

A parallel timer is provided to close within 10 second if not closed in given

time SSSV seals the well

ESD 5

A level 5 shutdown represents equipment shutdown for the protection of the

individual equipment without any change in the process This level of ESD is for the

protection of various pieces of equipment and is initiated by its own inputs eg

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 6262

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 5462

P a g e | 50

Cooling Towers

A cooling tower is a heat rejection device which extracts waste heat to theatmosphere through the cooling of a water stream to a lower temperature Hot

water from the system enters the cooling tower and is distributed over the fill

(heat transfer surface) Air is induced or forced through the fill causing a small

portion of the water to evaporate This evaporation removes heat from the

remaining water which is collected in the cold water basin and returned to the

system to absorb more heat Each cooling tower line although operating under

the same basic principle of operation is arranged a little differently

Types

Natural draft mdash Utilizes buoyancy via a tall chimney Warm moist air naturally

rises due to the density differential compared to the dry cooler outside air Warm

moist air is less dense than drier air at the same pressure This moist air

buoyancy produces an upwards current of air through the tower

Mechanical draft mdash Uses power-driven fan motors to force or draw airthrough the tower

o Induced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a fan at the

discharge (at the top) which pulls air up through the tower The fan

induces hot moist air out the discharge This produces low entering

and high exiting air velocities reducing the possibility of

recirculation in which discharged air flows back into the air intake

o Forced draft mdash A mechanical draft tower with a blower type fan at

the intake The fan forces air into the tower creating high entering

and low exiting air velocities The low exiting velocity is much more

susceptible to recirculation This fanfill geometry is also known as

blow-through

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 51

Forced Draft Cooling Tower Vs Induced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower have the ability to handle large water flow

rate than Forced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower is suitable for large cell sizes and fan sizes

as compared with Forced Draft Larger fan size may result in greater

efficiency and consequently lower power and sound level

Forced Draft Cooling Tower can be square or rectangular type only

however Induced Draft Cooling Towers can be round square or

rectangular type

Induced Draft Cooling Tower uses more compact ground area than Forced

Draft Cooling Tower equivalent capacity due to absence of fan on one

side

Fan equipment is warm exhaust air is less liable to icing up in winter

operation (Cold Countries)

Higher velocity in Forced Draft Cooling Tower cause drop in suspension

and cause additional static resistance to system

Configuration

There are two main configurations of factory assembled cooling towers crossflow

and counterflow In crossflow cooling towers the water flows vertically down the

fill as air flows horizontally across In counterflow cooling towers the water flows

vertically down the fill as air flows vertically up

Crossflow Configuration Counterflow Configuration

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 52

Drift mdash Water droplets that are carried out of the cooling tower with the exhaust

air Drift droplets have the same concentration of impurities as the water entering

the tower The drift rate is typically reduced by employing baffle-like devices

called drift eliminators through which the air must travel after leaving the fill and

spray zones of the tower

Blow-out mdash Water droplets blown out of the cooling tower by wind generally at

the air inlet openings Water may also be lost in the absence of wind through

splashing or misting Devices such as wind screens louvers splash deflectors

and water diverters are used to limit these losses

Blow-down mdash The portion of the circulating water flow that is removed (usually

discharged to a drain) in order to maintain the amount of Total Dissolved Solids

(TDS) and other impurities at an acceptably low level Higher TDS concentration

in solution may result from greater cooling tower efficiency However the higher

the TDS concentration the greater the risk of scale biological growth and

corrosion

Make-up mdash The water that must be added to the circulating water system in

order to compensate for water losses such as evaporation drift loss blow-out

blow-down etc

Approach mdash The approach is the difference in temperature between the cooled-

water temperature and the entering-air wet bulb temperature

Range mdash The range is the temperature difference between the warm water inlet

and cooled water exit

Fill mdash Inside the tower fills are added to increase contact surface as well as

contact time between air and water to provide better heat transfer The efficiency

of the tower depends on the selection and amount of fill

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 5762

P a g e | 53

There are two types of fills that may be used

o Film type fill (causes water to spread into a thin film)

o Splash type fill (breaks up falling stream of water and interrupts its

vertical progress)

Important

Scale build up is controlled by adding chemicals to the cooling loop and diluting

the concentration by blow down and make-up Following chemicals are added to

the Cooling to control CorrosionSale and microbial growth

Corrosion Inhibitor To control corrosion in the Cooling system

Dispersant To kept ions in suspension to avoid settle down and buildup

Sodium hypo Chlorite To Control microbial Growth

Acid To control Alkalinity in the system

High Stress Polymer To run the system at higher conductivity It is a

multifunctional polymer for Zinc amp Phosphate stabilization in cooling tower

Fin Fan Cooler

Fin fan heat exchanger is simply a pressure vessel which cools a circulating fluid

within finned tubes by forcing ambient air over the exterior of the tubes A

common example of an air cooler is a carrsquos radiator Fin Fan Coolers are used in

any application where large quantities of heat need to be transferred This

includes chemical and petrochemical industries power stations waste-to-energy

facilities as well as steelworks

Fin Fan Cooler are used for two primary reasons

They increase plant efficiency

They are a green solution as compared to cooling towers and shell and

tube heat exchangers because they do not require an auxiliary water

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 5862

P a g e | 54

supply (water lost due to drift and evaporation plus no water treatment

chemicals are required)

Figure General Overview of Fin Fan Cooler

Produced Water

The produced water system receives liquid from the equipment Miano slug

catcher train 1 and 2 inlet separators and is fed to three phase separator where

water oil and gas is separated The gases produced are burnt in incinerator

whereas hydrocarbon liquid is stored to be sold Liquid from compressors

recycle inlet separator recycle feed scrubber high and low pressure slug

catchers is passed to degasser Separated water is injected down the earth

Incinerator

The term incinerate means to burn something until nothing is left but ashes An

incinerator is a unit or facility used to burn trash and other types of waste until it is

reduced to ash An incinerator is constructed of heavy well-insulated materials

so that it does not give off extreme amounts of external heat The high levels of

heat are kept inside the furnace or unit so that the waste is burned quickly and

efficiently If the heat were allowed to escape the waste would not burn as

completely or as rapidly

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 5962

P a g e | 55

Control System

The plant is controlled at CCR (Central Control Room) by PLCs (Programmable

Logic Controllers) through fiber optic control line All control parameters are

received at LER (Local Equipment Room) via two optic fiber control lines One

being primary and other secondary operating in redundancy ie if primary fails

control shifts to secondary These control parameters are sent to CCR via single

optic fiber cable

Safety System

Wellheads and Gas Processing Plant have their own Fire amp Gas detection

systems emergency shutdown (ESD) Plant has a fault tolerant controller It is

based on Triple Modular Redundant (TMR) architecture manufactured by

Triconex The TMR system is based on three isolated parallel control systems

integrated into one system The system operates on a two out of three voting

principle which provides high integrity error free uninterrupted operation with no

single point of failure The TMR receives inputs from Process Sensors Manual

Switches Fire amp Gas Detectors Packaged Equipment Control Systems and

Product Exporting Facilities The TMR carries out cause and effect processing on

the data received and where necessary produces output signals Outputs from

the TMR are hard wired directly to ESD shutdown and blow down valve

solenoids motor control instrumentelectrical interfaces to control electrical

drives package equipment logic control systems manifold area as well as

telecoms

The operator in central control room is able to accept alarms and once the fault

has been cleared reset the input All the control systems are centralized to a

single interface All the PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers) communicate with

the servers and servers communicate with the clients through Ethernet connectivity

Centralization eases the navigation of different systems at a common interface

Emergency Shutdown

The ESD system receives inputs from field mounted instrumentation on the process

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 6062

P a g e | 56

and utility equipment and initiates executive actions appropriate to the level of ESD

The system is an Active system which is in standby and will activate when in an

alarm or fault condition The Kadanwari Gas Process Facility ESD system is

comprised of five (5) levels The emergency severity decreases with increasing ESD

level number

ESD 1

This shutdown level is automatically initiated by fire major gas leak or a detected

toxic atmosphere in the process area of the plant or manually from CCR A level 1

shutdown will cause all production to cease close all emergency shutdown

valves stop the process and shutdown of the main power generation The

emergency vent valves to the stack will open and in addition all equipment of zone 1

certified will be isolated This is the highest level of ESD and will cause the following

to occur

All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close All slowdown Valves (BDVs) on the process facility will open

All Main Gas Driven Generators will be tripped

Emergency Diesel Generator will start

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close Upper Master Valve

(UMV) Close

ESD 2

This shutdown level is activated automatically if a major process or utility failure

occurs or manually from CCR All production to the plant from the wellhead is

stopped All emergency shutdown valves trip to their fail safe position

Venting shall be as specified This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 57

All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valve Close Wing Valves Close and Upper Master Valve(UMV) Close

ESD 3

The level 3 shutdown isolates and stops a single process train only Production

continues via the other train This ESD level is initiated by process conditions or

operator at local panel This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

ESD 3A Train 1 production to cease

ESD 3B Train 2 production to cease

All online wellhead choke valves go to minimum flow ie (1O )

ESD 4

A level 4 shutdown shall cease all production from an entire field either

Kadanwari or Miano upstream of the associated slug catchers ESD 4K for

Kadanwari amp ESD 4M for Miano This ESD level is initiated automatically by slug

catcher abnormal process conditions This level of ESD will cause the following

to occur

All SDVs close isolating the relevant slug catcher and its upstream gas

production facility from the Kadanwari Gas Processing Plant

All Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close and Upper MasterValves (UMV) of the relevant gas production facility Close

A parallel timer is provided to close within 10 second if not closed in given

time SSSV seals the well

ESD 5

A level 5 shutdown represents equipment shutdown for the protection of the

individual equipment without any change in the process This level of ESD is for the

protection of various pieces of equipment and is initiated by its own inputs eg

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 6262

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 5562

P a g e | 51

Forced Draft Cooling Tower Vs Induced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower have the ability to handle large water flow

rate than Forced Draft Cooling Tower

Induced Draft Cooling Tower is suitable for large cell sizes and fan sizes

as compared with Forced Draft Larger fan size may result in greater

efficiency and consequently lower power and sound level

Forced Draft Cooling Tower can be square or rectangular type only

however Induced Draft Cooling Towers can be round square or

rectangular type

Induced Draft Cooling Tower uses more compact ground area than Forced

Draft Cooling Tower equivalent capacity due to absence of fan on one

side

Fan equipment is warm exhaust air is less liable to icing up in winter

operation (Cold Countries)

Higher velocity in Forced Draft Cooling Tower cause drop in suspension

and cause additional static resistance to system

Configuration

There are two main configurations of factory assembled cooling towers crossflow

and counterflow In crossflow cooling towers the water flows vertically down the

fill as air flows horizontally across In counterflow cooling towers the water flows

vertically down the fill as air flows vertically up

Crossflow Configuration Counterflow Configuration

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 5662

P a g e | 52

Drift mdash Water droplets that are carried out of the cooling tower with the exhaust

air Drift droplets have the same concentration of impurities as the water entering

the tower The drift rate is typically reduced by employing baffle-like devices

called drift eliminators through which the air must travel after leaving the fill and

spray zones of the tower

Blow-out mdash Water droplets blown out of the cooling tower by wind generally at

the air inlet openings Water may also be lost in the absence of wind through

splashing or misting Devices such as wind screens louvers splash deflectors

and water diverters are used to limit these losses

Blow-down mdash The portion of the circulating water flow that is removed (usually

discharged to a drain) in order to maintain the amount of Total Dissolved Solids

(TDS) and other impurities at an acceptably low level Higher TDS concentration

in solution may result from greater cooling tower efficiency However the higher

the TDS concentration the greater the risk of scale biological growth and

corrosion

Make-up mdash The water that must be added to the circulating water system in

order to compensate for water losses such as evaporation drift loss blow-out

blow-down etc

Approach mdash The approach is the difference in temperature between the cooled-

water temperature and the entering-air wet bulb temperature

Range mdash The range is the temperature difference between the warm water inlet

and cooled water exit

Fill mdash Inside the tower fills are added to increase contact surface as well as

contact time between air and water to provide better heat transfer The efficiency

of the tower depends on the selection and amount of fill

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 5762

P a g e | 53

There are two types of fills that may be used

o Film type fill (causes water to spread into a thin film)

o Splash type fill (breaks up falling stream of water and interrupts its

vertical progress)

Important

Scale build up is controlled by adding chemicals to the cooling loop and diluting

the concentration by blow down and make-up Following chemicals are added to

the Cooling to control CorrosionSale and microbial growth

Corrosion Inhibitor To control corrosion in the Cooling system

Dispersant To kept ions in suspension to avoid settle down and buildup

Sodium hypo Chlorite To Control microbial Growth

Acid To control Alkalinity in the system

High Stress Polymer To run the system at higher conductivity It is a

multifunctional polymer for Zinc amp Phosphate stabilization in cooling tower

Fin Fan Cooler

Fin fan heat exchanger is simply a pressure vessel which cools a circulating fluid

within finned tubes by forcing ambient air over the exterior of the tubes A

common example of an air cooler is a carrsquos radiator Fin Fan Coolers are used in

any application where large quantities of heat need to be transferred This

includes chemical and petrochemical industries power stations waste-to-energy

facilities as well as steelworks

Fin Fan Cooler are used for two primary reasons

They increase plant efficiency

They are a green solution as compared to cooling towers and shell and

tube heat exchangers because they do not require an auxiliary water

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 5862

P a g e | 54

supply (water lost due to drift and evaporation plus no water treatment

chemicals are required)

Figure General Overview of Fin Fan Cooler

Produced Water

The produced water system receives liquid from the equipment Miano slug

catcher train 1 and 2 inlet separators and is fed to three phase separator where

water oil and gas is separated The gases produced are burnt in incinerator

whereas hydrocarbon liquid is stored to be sold Liquid from compressors

recycle inlet separator recycle feed scrubber high and low pressure slug

catchers is passed to degasser Separated water is injected down the earth

Incinerator

The term incinerate means to burn something until nothing is left but ashes An

incinerator is a unit or facility used to burn trash and other types of waste until it is

reduced to ash An incinerator is constructed of heavy well-insulated materials

so that it does not give off extreme amounts of external heat The high levels of

heat are kept inside the furnace or unit so that the waste is burned quickly and

efficiently If the heat were allowed to escape the waste would not burn as

completely or as rapidly

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 5962

P a g e | 55

Control System

The plant is controlled at CCR (Central Control Room) by PLCs (Programmable

Logic Controllers) through fiber optic control line All control parameters are

received at LER (Local Equipment Room) via two optic fiber control lines One

being primary and other secondary operating in redundancy ie if primary fails

control shifts to secondary These control parameters are sent to CCR via single

optic fiber cable

Safety System

Wellheads and Gas Processing Plant have their own Fire amp Gas detection

systems emergency shutdown (ESD) Plant has a fault tolerant controller It is

based on Triple Modular Redundant (TMR) architecture manufactured by

Triconex The TMR system is based on three isolated parallel control systems

integrated into one system The system operates on a two out of three voting

principle which provides high integrity error free uninterrupted operation with no

single point of failure The TMR receives inputs from Process Sensors Manual

Switches Fire amp Gas Detectors Packaged Equipment Control Systems and

Product Exporting Facilities The TMR carries out cause and effect processing on

the data received and where necessary produces output signals Outputs from

the TMR are hard wired directly to ESD shutdown and blow down valve

solenoids motor control instrumentelectrical interfaces to control electrical

drives package equipment logic control systems manifold area as well as

telecoms

The operator in central control room is able to accept alarms and once the fault

has been cleared reset the input All the control systems are centralized to a

single interface All the PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers) communicate with

the servers and servers communicate with the clients through Ethernet connectivity

Centralization eases the navigation of different systems at a common interface

Emergency Shutdown

The ESD system receives inputs from field mounted instrumentation on the process

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 6062

P a g e | 56

and utility equipment and initiates executive actions appropriate to the level of ESD

The system is an Active system which is in standby and will activate when in an

alarm or fault condition The Kadanwari Gas Process Facility ESD system is

comprised of five (5) levels The emergency severity decreases with increasing ESD

level number

ESD 1

This shutdown level is automatically initiated by fire major gas leak or a detected

toxic atmosphere in the process area of the plant or manually from CCR A level 1

shutdown will cause all production to cease close all emergency shutdown

valves stop the process and shutdown of the main power generation The

emergency vent valves to the stack will open and in addition all equipment of zone 1

certified will be isolated This is the highest level of ESD and will cause the following

to occur

All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close All slowdown Valves (BDVs) on the process facility will open

All Main Gas Driven Generators will be tripped

Emergency Diesel Generator will start

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close Upper Master Valve

(UMV) Close

ESD 2

This shutdown level is activated automatically if a major process or utility failure

occurs or manually from CCR All production to the plant from the wellhead is

stopped All emergency shutdown valves trip to their fail safe position

Venting shall be as specified This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 6162

P a g e | 57

All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valve Close Wing Valves Close and Upper Master Valve(UMV) Close

ESD 3

The level 3 shutdown isolates and stops a single process train only Production

continues via the other train This ESD level is initiated by process conditions or

operator at local panel This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

ESD 3A Train 1 production to cease

ESD 3B Train 2 production to cease

All online wellhead choke valves go to minimum flow ie (1O )

ESD 4

A level 4 shutdown shall cease all production from an entire field either

Kadanwari or Miano upstream of the associated slug catchers ESD 4K for

Kadanwari amp ESD 4M for Miano This ESD level is initiated automatically by slug

catcher abnormal process conditions This level of ESD will cause the following

to occur

All SDVs close isolating the relevant slug catcher and its upstream gas

production facility from the Kadanwari Gas Processing Plant

All Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close and Upper MasterValves (UMV) of the relevant gas production facility Close

A parallel timer is provided to close within 10 second if not closed in given

time SSSV seals the well

ESD 5

A level 5 shutdown represents equipment shutdown for the protection of the

individual equipment without any change in the process This level of ESD is for the

protection of various pieces of equipment and is initiated by its own inputs eg

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 52

Drift mdash Water droplets that are carried out of the cooling tower with the exhaust

air Drift droplets have the same concentration of impurities as the water entering

the tower The drift rate is typically reduced by employing baffle-like devices

called drift eliminators through which the air must travel after leaving the fill and

spray zones of the tower

Blow-out mdash Water droplets blown out of the cooling tower by wind generally at

the air inlet openings Water may also be lost in the absence of wind through

splashing or misting Devices such as wind screens louvers splash deflectors

and water diverters are used to limit these losses

Blow-down mdash The portion of the circulating water flow that is removed (usually

discharged to a drain) in order to maintain the amount of Total Dissolved Solids

(TDS) and other impurities at an acceptably low level Higher TDS concentration

in solution may result from greater cooling tower efficiency However the higher

the TDS concentration the greater the risk of scale biological growth and

corrosion

Make-up mdash The water that must be added to the circulating water system in

order to compensate for water losses such as evaporation drift loss blow-out

blow-down etc

Approach mdash The approach is the difference in temperature between the cooled-

water temperature and the entering-air wet bulb temperature

Range mdash The range is the temperature difference between the warm water inlet

and cooled water exit

Fill mdash Inside the tower fills are added to increase contact surface as well as

contact time between air and water to provide better heat transfer The efficiency

of the tower depends on the selection and amount of fill

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 53

There are two types of fills that may be used

o Film type fill (causes water to spread into a thin film)

o Splash type fill (breaks up falling stream of water and interrupts its

vertical progress)

Important

Scale build up is controlled by adding chemicals to the cooling loop and diluting

the concentration by blow down and make-up Following chemicals are added to

the Cooling to control CorrosionSale and microbial growth

Corrosion Inhibitor To control corrosion in the Cooling system

Dispersant To kept ions in suspension to avoid settle down and buildup

Sodium hypo Chlorite To Control microbial Growth

Acid To control Alkalinity in the system

High Stress Polymer To run the system at higher conductivity It is a

multifunctional polymer for Zinc amp Phosphate stabilization in cooling tower

Fin Fan Cooler

Fin fan heat exchanger is simply a pressure vessel which cools a circulating fluid

within finned tubes by forcing ambient air over the exterior of the tubes A

common example of an air cooler is a carrsquos radiator Fin Fan Coolers are used in

any application where large quantities of heat need to be transferred This

includes chemical and petrochemical industries power stations waste-to-energy

facilities as well as steelworks

Fin Fan Cooler are used for two primary reasons

They increase plant efficiency

They are a green solution as compared to cooling towers and shell and

tube heat exchangers because they do not require an auxiliary water

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 54

supply (water lost due to drift and evaporation plus no water treatment

chemicals are required)

Figure General Overview of Fin Fan Cooler

Produced Water

The produced water system receives liquid from the equipment Miano slug

catcher train 1 and 2 inlet separators and is fed to three phase separator where

water oil and gas is separated The gases produced are burnt in incinerator

whereas hydrocarbon liquid is stored to be sold Liquid from compressors

recycle inlet separator recycle feed scrubber high and low pressure slug

catchers is passed to degasser Separated water is injected down the earth

Incinerator

The term incinerate means to burn something until nothing is left but ashes An

incinerator is a unit or facility used to burn trash and other types of waste until it is

reduced to ash An incinerator is constructed of heavy well-insulated materials

so that it does not give off extreme amounts of external heat The high levels of

heat are kept inside the furnace or unit so that the waste is burned quickly and

efficiently If the heat were allowed to escape the waste would not burn as

completely or as rapidly

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 55

Control System

The plant is controlled at CCR (Central Control Room) by PLCs (Programmable

Logic Controllers) through fiber optic control line All control parameters are

received at LER (Local Equipment Room) via two optic fiber control lines One

being primary and other secondary operating in redundancy ie if primary fails

control shifts to secondary These control parameters are sent to CCR via single

optic fiber cable

Safety System

Wellheads and Gas Processing Plant have their own Fire amp Gas detection

systems emergency shutdown (ESD) Plant has a fault tolerant controller It is

based on Triple Modular Redundant (TMR) architecture manufactured by

Triconex The TMR system is based on three isolated parallel control systems

integrated into one system The system operates on a two out of three voting

principle which provides high integrity error free uninterrupted operation with no

single point of failure The TMR receives inputs from Process Sensors Manual

Switches Fire amp Gas Detectors Packaged Equipment Control Systems and

Product Exporting Facilities The TMR carries out cause and effect processing on

the data received and where necessary produces output signals Outputs from

the TMR are hard wired directly to ESD shutdown and blow down valve

solenoids motor control instrumentelectrical interfaces to control electrical

drives package equipment logic control systems manifold area as well as

telecoms

The operator in central control room is able to accept alarms and once the fault

has been cleared reset the input All the control systems are centralized to a

single interface All the PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers) communicate with

the servers and servers communicate with the clients through Ethernet connectivity

Centralization eases the navigation of different systems at a common interface

Emergency Shutdown

The ESD system receives inputs from field mounted instrumentation on the process

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 56

and utility equipment and initiates executive actions appropriate to the level of ESD

The system is an Active system which is in standby and will activate when in an

alarm or fault condition The Kadanwari Gas Process Facility ESD system is

comprised of five (5) levels The emergency severity decreases with increasing ESD

level number

ESD 1

This shutdown level is automatically initiated by fire major gas leak or a detected

toxic atmosphere in the process area of the plant or manually from CCR A level 1

shutdown will cause all production to cease close all emergency shutdown

valves stop the process and shutdown of the main power generation The

emergency vent valves to the stack will open and in addition all equipment of zone 1

certified will be isolated This is the highest level of ESD and will cause the following

to occur

All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close All slowdown Valves (BDVs) on the process facility will open

All Main Gas Driven Generators will be tripped

Emergency Diesel Generator will start

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close Upper Master Valve

(UMV) Close

ESD 2

This shutdown level is activated automatically if a major process or utility failure

occurs or manually from CCR All production to the plant from the wellhead is

stopped All emergency shutdown valves trip to their fail safe position

Venting shall be as specified This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 57

All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valve Close Wing Valves Close and Upper Master Valve(UMV) Close

ESD 3

The level 3 shutdown isolates and stops a single process train only Production

continues via the other train This ESD level is initiated by process conditions or

operator at local panel This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

ESD 3A Train 1 production to cease

ESD 3B Train 2 production to cease

All online wellhead choke valves go to minimum flow ie (1O )

ESD 4

A level 4 shutdown shall cease all production from an entire field either

Kadanwari or Miano upstream of the associated slug catchers ESD 4K for

Kadanwari amp ESD 4M for Miano This ESD level is initiated automatically by slug

catcher abnormal process conditions This level of ESD will cause the following

to occur

All SDVs close isolating the relevant slug catcher and its upstream gas

production facility from the Kadanwari Gas Processing Plant

All Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close and Upper MasterValves (UMV) of the relevant gas production facility Close

A parallel timer is provided to close within 10 second if not closed in given

time SSSV seals the well

ESD 5

A level 5 shutdown represents equipment shutdown for the protection of the

individual equipment without any change in the process This level of ESD is for the

protection of various pieces of equipment and is initiated by its own inputs eg

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 53

There are two types of fills that may be used

o Film type fill (causes water to spread into a thin film)

o Splash type fill (breaks up falling stream of water and interrupts its

vertical progress)

Important

Scale build up is controlled by adding chemicals to the cooling loop and diluting

the concentration by blow down and make-up Following chemicals are added to

the Cooling to control CorrosionSale and microbial growth

Corrosion Inhibitor To control corrosion in the Cooling system

Dispersant To kept ions in suspension to avoid settle down and buildup

Sodium hypo Chlorite To Control microbial Growth

Acid To control Alkalinity in the system

High Stress Polymer To run the system at higher conductivity It is a

multifunctional polymer for Zinc amp Phosphate stabilization in cooling tower

Fin Fan Cooler

Fin fan heat exchanger is simply a pressure vessel which cools a circulating fluid

within finned tubes by forcing ambient air over the exterior of the tubes A

common example of an air cooler is a carrsquos radiator Fin Fan Coolers are used in

any application where large quantities of heat need to be transferred This

includes chemical and petrochemical industries power stations waste-to-energy

facilities as well as steelworks

Fin Fan Cooler are used for two primary reasons

They increase plant efficiency

They are a green solution as compared to cooling towers and shell and

tube heat exchangers because they do not require an auxiliary water

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 5862

P a g e | 54

supply (water lost due to drift and evaporation plus no water treatment

chemicals are required)

Figure General Overview of Fin Fan Cooler

Produced Water

The produced water system receives liquid from the equipment Miano slug

catcher train 1 and 2 inlet separators and is fed to three phase separator where

water oil and gas is separated The gases produced are burnt in incinerator

whereas hydrocarbon liquid is stored to be sold Liquid from compressors

recycle inlet separator recycle feed scrubber high and low pressure slug

catchers is passed to degasser Separated water is injected down the earth

Incinerator

The term incinerate means to burn something until nothing is left but ashes An

incinerator is a unit or facility used to burn trash and other types of waste until it is

reduced to ash An incinerator is constructed of heavy well-insulated materials

so that it does not give off extreme amounts of external heat The high levels of

heat are kept inside the furnace or unit so that the waste is burned quickly and

efficiently If the heat were allowed to escape the waste would not burn as

completely or as rapidly

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 5962

P a g e | 55

Control System

The plant is controlled at CCR (Central Control Room) by PLCs (Programmable

Logic Controllers) through fiber optic control line All control parameters are

received at LER (Local Equipment Room) via two optic fiber control lines One

being primary and other secondary operating in redundancy ie if primary fails

control shifts to secondary These control parameters are sent to CCR via single

optic fiber cable

Safety System

Wellheads and Gas Processing Plant have their own Fire amp Gas detection

systems emergency shutdown (ESD) Plant has a fault tolerant controller It is

based on Triple Modular Redundant (TMR) architecture manufactured by

Triconex The TMR system is based on three isolated parallel control systems

integrated into one system The system operates on a two out of three voting

principle which provides high integrity error free uninterrupted operation with no

single point of failure The TMR receives inputs from Process Sensors Manual

Switches Fire amp Gas Detectors Packaged Equipment Control Systems and

Product Exporting Facilities The TMR carries out cause and effect processing on

the data received and where necessary produces output signals Outputs from

the TMR are hard wired directly to ESD shutdown and blow down valve

solenoids motor control instrumentelectrical interfaces to control electrical

drives package equipment logic control systems manifold area as well as

telecoms

The operator in central control room is able to accept alarms and once the fault

has been cleared reset the input All the control systems are centralized to a

single interface All the PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers) communicate with

the servers and servers communicate with the clients through Ethernet connectivity

Centralization eases the navigation of different systems at a common interface

Emergency Shutdown

The ESD system receives inputs from field mounted instrumentation on the process

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 6062

P a g e | 56

and utility equipment and initiates executive actions appropriate to the level of ESD

The system is an Active system which is in standby and will activate when in an

alarm or fault condition The Kadanwari Gas Process Facility ESD system is

comprised of five (5) levels The emergency severity decreases with increasing ESD

level number

ESD 1

This shutdown level is automatically initiated by fire major gas leak or a detected

toxic atmosphere in the process area of the plant or manually from CCR A level 1

shutdown will cause all production to cease close all emergency shutdown

valves stop the process and shutdown of the main power generation The

emergency vent valves to the stack will open and in addition all equipment of zone 1

certified will be isolated This is the highest level of ESD and will cause the following

to occur

All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close All slowdown Valves (BDVs) on the process facility will open

All Main Gas Driven Generators will be tripped

Emergency Diesel Generator will start

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close Upper Master Valve

(UMV) Close

ESD 2

This shutdown level is activated automatically if a major process or utility failure

occurs or manually from CCR All production to the plant from the wellhead is

stopped All emergency shutdown valves trip to their fail safe position

Venting shall be as specified This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 57

All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valve Close Wing Valves Close and Upper Master Valve(UMV) Close

ESD 3

The level 3 shutdown isolates and stops a single process train only Production

continues via the other train This ESD level is initiated by process conditions or

operator at local panel This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

ESD 3A Train 1 production to cease

ESD 3B Train 2 production to cease

All online wellhead choke valves go to minimum flow ie (1O )

ESD 4

A level 4 shutdown shall cease all production from an entire field either

Kadanwari or Miano upstream of the associated slug catchers ESD 4K for

Kadanwari amp ESD 4M for Miano This ESD level is initiated automatically by slug

catcher abnormal process conditions This level of ESD will cause the following

to occur

All SDVs close isolating the relevant slug catcher and its upstream gas

production facility from the Kadanwari Gas Processing Plant

All Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close and Upper MasterValves (UMV) of the relevant gas production facility Close

A parallel timer is provided to close within 10 second if not closed in given

time SSSV seals the well

ESD 5

A level 5 shutdown represents equipment shutdown for the protection of the

individual equipment without any change in the process This level of ESD is for the

protection of various pieces of equipment and is initiated by its own inputs eg

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 6262

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 5862

P a g e | 54

supply (water lost due to drift and evaporation plus no water treatment

chemicals are required)

Figure General Overview of Fin Fan Cooler

Produced Water

The produced water system receives liquid from the equipment Miano slug

catcher train 1 and 2 inlet separators and is fed to three phase separator where

water oil and gas is separated The gases produced are burnt in incinerator

whereas hydrocarbon liquid is stored to be sold Liquid from compressors

recycle inlet separator recycle feed scrubber high and low pressure slug

catchers is passed to degasser Separated water is injected down the earth

Incinerator

The term incinerate means to burn something until nothing is left but ashes An

incinerator is a unit or facility used to burn trash and other types of waste until it is

reduced to ash An incinerator is constructed of heavy well-insulated materials

so that it does not give off extreme amounts of external heat The high levels of

heat are kept inside the furnace or unit so that the waste is burned quickly and

efficiently If the heat were allowed to escape the waste would not burn as

completely or as rapidly

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 5962

P a g e | 55

Control System

The plant is controlled at CCR (Central Control Room) by PLCs (Programmable

Logic Controllers) through fiber optic control line All control parameters are

received at LER (Local Equipment Room) via two optic fiber control lines One

being primary and other secondary operating in redundancy ie if primary fails

control shifts to secondary These control parameters are sent to CCR via single

optic fiber cable

Safety System

Wellheads and Gas Processing Plant have their own Fire amp Gas detection

systems emergency shutdown (ESD) Plant has a fault tolerant controller It is

based on Triple Modular Redundant (TMR) architecture manufactured by

Triconex The TMR system is based on three isolated parallel control systems

integrated into one system The system operates on a two out of three voting

principle which provides high integrity error free uninterrupted operation with no

single point of failure The TMR receives inputs from Process Sensors Manual

Switches Fire amp Gas Detectors Packaged Equipment Control Systems and

Product Exporting Facilities The TMR carries out cause and effect processing on

the data received and where necessary produces output signals Outputs from

the TMR are hard wired directly to ESD shutdown and blow down valve

solenoids motor control instrumentelectrical interfaces to control electrical

drives package equipment logic control systems manifold area as well as

telecoms

The operator in central control room is able to accept alarms and once the fault

has been cleared reset the input All the control systems are centralized to a

single interface All the PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers) communicate with

the servers and servers communicate with the clients through Ethernet connectivity

Centralization eases the navigation of different systems at a common interface

Emergency Shutdown

The ESD system receives inputs from field mounted instrumentation on the process

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 6062

P a g e | 56

and utility equipment and initiates executive actions appropriate to the level of ESD

The system is an Active system which is in standby and will activate when in an

alarm or fault condition The Kadanwari Gas Process Facility ESD system is

comprised of five (5) levels The emergency severity decreases with increasing ESD

level number

ESD 1

This shutdown level is automatically initiated by fire major gas leak or a detected

toxic atmosphere in the process area of the plant or manually from CCR A level 1

shutdown will cause all production to cease close all emergency shutdown

valves stop the process and shutdown of the main power generation The

emergency vent valves to the stack will open and in addition all equipment of zone 1

certified will be isolated This is the highest level of ESD and will cause the following

to occur

All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close All slowdown Valves (BDVs) on the process facility will open

All Main Gas Driven Generators will be tripped

Emergency Diesel Generator will start

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close Upper Master Valve

(UMV) Close

ESD 2

This shutdown level is activated automatically if a major process or utility failure

occurs or manually from CCR All production to the plant from the wellhead is

stopped All emergency shutdown valves trip to their fail safe position

Venting shall be as specified This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

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P a g e | 57

All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valve Close Wing Valves Close and Upper Master Valve(UMV) Close

ESD 3

The level 3 shutdown isolates and stops a single process train only Production

continues via the other train This ESD level is initiated by process conditions or

operator at local panel This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

ESD 3A Train 1 production to cease

ESD 3B Train 2 production to cease

All online wellhead choke valves go to minimum flow ie (1O )

ESD 4

A level 4 shutdown shall cease all production from an entire field either

Kadanwari or Miano upstream of the associated slug catchers ESD 4K for

Kadanwari amp ESD 4M for Miano This ESD level is initiated automatically by slug

catcher abnormal process conditions This level of ESD will cause the following

to occur

All SDVs close isolating the relevant slug catcher and its upstream gas

production facility from the Kadanwari Gas Processing Plant

All Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close and Upper MasterValves (UMV) of the relevant gas production facility Close

A parallel timer is provided to close within 10 second if not closed in given

time SSSV seals the well

ESD 5

A level 5 shutdown represents equipment shutdown for the protection of the

individual equipment without any change in the process This level of ESD is for the

protection of various pieces of equipment and is initiated by its own inputs eg

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 6262

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 5962

P a g e | 55

Control System

The plant is controlled at CCR (Central Control Room) by PLCs (Programmable

Logic Controllers) through fiber optic control line All control parameters are

received at LER (Local Equipment Room) via two optic fiber control lines One

being primary and other secondary operating in redundancy ie if primary fails

control shifts to secondary These control parameters are sent to CCR via single

optic fiber cable

Safety System

Wellheads and Gas Processing Plant have their own Fire amp Gas detection

systems emergency shutdown (ESD) Plant has a fault tolerant controller It is

based on Triple Modular Redundant (TMR) architecture manufactured by

Triconex The TMR system is based on three isolated parallel control systems

integrated into one system The system operates on a two out of three voting

principle which provides high integrity error free uninterrupted operation with no

single point of failure The TMR receives inputs from Process Sensors Manual

Switches Fire amp Gas Detectors Packaged Equipment Control Systems and

Product Exporting Facilities The TMR carries out cause and effect processing on

the data received and where necessary produces output signals Outputs from

the TMR are hard wired directly to ESD shutdown and blow down valve

solenoids motor control instrumentelectrical interfaces to control electrical

drives package equipment logic control systems manifold area as well as

telecoms

The operator in central control room is able to accept alarms and once the fault

has been cleared reset the input All the control systems are centralized to a

single interface All the PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers) communicate with

the servers and servers communicate with the clients through Ethernet connectivity

Centralization eases the navigation of different systems at a common interface

Emergency Shutdown

The ESD system receives inputs from field mounted instrumentation on the process

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 6062

P a g e | 56

and utility equipment and initiates executive actions appropriate to the level of ESD

The system is an Active system which is in standby and will activate when in an

alarm or fault condition The Kadanwari Gas Process Facility ESD system is

comprised of five (5) levels The emergency severity decreases with increasing ESD

level number

ESD 1

This shutdown level is automatically initiated by fire major gas leak or a detected

toxic atmosphere in the process area of the plant or manually from CCR A level 1

shutdown will cause all production to cease close all emergency shutdown

valves stop the process and shutdown of the main power generation The

emergency vent valves to the stack will open and in addition all equipment of zone 1

certified will be isolated This is the highest level of ESD and will cause the following

to occur

All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close All slowdown Valves (BDVs) on the process facility will open

All Main Gas Driven Generators will be tripped

Emergency Diesel Generator will start

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close Upper Master Valve

(UMV) Close

ESD 2

This shutdown level is activated automatically if a major process or utility failure

occurs or manually from CCR All production to the plant from the wellhead is

stopped All emergency shutdown valves trip to their fail safe position

Venting shall be as specified This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 6162

P a g e | 57

All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valve Close Wing Valves Close and Upper Master Valve(UMV) Close

ESD 3

The level 3 shutdown isolates and stops a single process train only Production

continues via the other train This ESD level is initiated by process conditions or

operator at local panel This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

ESD 3A Train 1 production to cease

ESD 3B Train 2 production to cease

All online wellhead choke valves go to minimum flow ie (1O )

ESD 4

A level 4 shutdown shall cease all production from an entire field either

Kadanwari or Miano upstream of the associated slug catchers ESD 4K for

Kadanwari amp ESD 4M for Miano This ESD level is initiated automatically by slug

catcher abnormal process conditions This level of ESD will cause the following

to occur

All SDVs close isolating the relevant slug catcher and its upstream gas

production facility from the Kadanwari Gas Processing Plant

All Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close and Upper MasterValves (UMV) of the relevant gas production facility Close

A parallel timer is provided to close within 10 second if not closed in given

time SSSV seals the well

ESD 5

A level 5 shutdown represents equipment shutdown for the protection of the

individual equipment without any change in the process This level of ESD is for the

protection of various pieces of equipment and is initiated by its own inputs eg

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 6262

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 6062

P a g e | 56

and utility equipment and initiates executive actions appropriate to the level of ESD

The system is an Active system which is in standby and will activate when in an

alarm or fault condition The Kadanwari Gas Process Facility ESD system is

comprised of five (5) levels The emergency severity decreases with increasing ESD

level number

ESD 1

This shutdown level is automatically initiated by fire major gas leak or a detected

toxic atmosphere in the process area of the plant or manually from CCR A level 1

shutdown will cause all production to cease close all emergency shutdown

valves stop the process and shutdown of the main power generation The

emergency vent valves to the stack will open and in addition all equipment of zone 1

certified will be isolated This is the highest level of ESD and will cause the following

to occur

All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close All slowdown Valves (BDVs) on the process facility will open

All Main Gas Driven Generators will be tripped

Emergency Diesel Generator will start

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close Upper Master Valve

(UMV) Close

ESD 2

This shutdown level is activated automatically if a major process or utility failure

occurs or manually from CCR All production to the plant from the wellhead is

stopped All emergency shutdown valves trip to their fail safe position

Venting shall be as specified This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 6162

P a g e | 57

All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valve Close Wing Valves Close and Upper Master Valve(UMV) Close

ESD 3

The level 3 shutdown isolates and stops a single process train only Production

continues via the other train This ESD level is initiated by process conditions or

operator at local panel This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

ESD 3A Train 1 production to cease

ESD 3B Train 2 production to cease

All online wellhead choke valves go to minimum flow ie (1O )

ESD 4

A level 4 shutdown shall cease all production from an entire field either

Kadanwari or Miano upstream of the associated slug catchers ESD 4K for

Kadanwari amp ESD 4M for Miano This ESD level is initiated automatically by slug

catcher abnormal process conditions This level of ESD will cause the following

to occur

All SDVs close isolating the relevant slug catcher and its upstream gas

production facility from the Kadanwari Gas Processing Plant

All Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close and Upper MasterValves (UMV) of the relevant gas production facility Close

A parallel timer is provided to close within 10 second if not closed in given

time SSSV seals the well

ESD 5

A level 5 shutdown represents equipment shutdown for the protection of the

individual equipment without any change in the process This level of ESD is for the

protection of various pieces of equipment and is initiated by its own inputs eg

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 6262

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 6162

P a g e | 57

All Shutdown Valves (SDVs) on the process facility will close

All electrical power to process and utility rotating equipment will be

isolated

Wellhead Choke Valve Close Wing Valves Close and Upper Master Valve(UMV) Close

ESD 3

The level 3 shutdown isolates and stops a single process train only Production

continues via the other train This ESD level is initiated by process conditions or

operator at local panel This level of ESD will cause the following to occur

ESD 3A Train 1 production to cease

ESD 3B Train 2 production to cease

All online wellhead choke valves go to minimum flow ie (1O )

ESD 4

A level 4 shutdown shall cease all production from an entire field either

Kadanwari or Miano upstream of the associated slug catchers ESD 4K for

Kadanwari amp ESD 4M for Miano This ESD level is initiated automatically by slug

catcher abnormal process conditions This level of ESD will cause the following

to occur

All SDVs close isolating the relevant slug catcher and its upstream gas

production facility from the Kadanwari Gas Processing Plant

All Wellhead Choke Valves Close Wing Valves Close and Upper MasterValves (UMV) of the relevant gas production facility Close

A parallel timer is provided to close within 10 second if not closed in given

time SSSV seals the well

ESD 5

A level 5 shutdown represents equipment shutdown for the protection of the

individual equipment without any change in the process This level of ESD is for the

protection of various pieces of equipment and is initiated by its own inputs eg

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 6262

8102019 Gas sweetening Plant

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullgas-sweetening-plant 6262