THURSDAY 19 NOVEMBER 2026
We will have 6 high quality presentations throughout the day.
** Please note that the schedule is subject to change - details are being updated on an ongoing basis, so please check back regularly for the latest status **
Adding Membranes to Amine Gas Sweetening: When Does It Pay Off?
Speaker: Aidyn Kairolla, Freiberg University of Mining and Technology
Amine-based carbon dioxide removal dominates gas processing, but its high heat demand drives operating costs that can challenge project economics, particularly for smaller installations. Membrane separation shifts this burden to electrical compression, introducing a different cost structure where feasibility hinges on partial-pressure driving force and local energy prices. This study uses Aspen Plus to compare standalone methyldiethanolamine (MDEA) absorption against an upstream-membrane-plus-MDEA configuration across feed carbon dioxide concentrations of 5–30 mol%, with membrane performance and the split of duty between membrane and absorber both varied rather than fixed.
Two membrane layouts are compared: a simple single-stage unit, and a two-stage arrangement that recompresses the permeate to recover lost hydrocarbons. The economic assessment covers capital and operating cost, hydrocarbon losses, and the associated Scope 1 and 2 emissions, identifying the conditions under which membrane integration offers an economical advantage.
Intensified Sulfur Recovery through Synergistic Integration with Water Electrolysis
Speaker: Filip Čejka, Bryan Research & Engineering
Gas souring, driven by thermochemical sulphate reduction in high-temperature reservoirs, is steadily increasing hydrogen sulfide concentrations in major gas fields. This rising acid gas loading can transform sulfur recovery units into critical throughput bottlenecks that limit overall plant capacity.
Oxygen enrichment offers an efficient debottlenecking strategy, replacing inert nitrogen with oxygen, thereby reducing the hydraulic load within existing equipment. Beyond traditional air separation or pressure swing adsorption, water electrolysis is emerging as a novel oxygen source.
This study evaluates water electrolysis for oxygen supply via two pathways:
Alkaline Water Electrolysis: Delivers high-purity oxygen for maximum inert gas reduction as a flexible, standalone system.
Solid Oxide Electrolysis: Suited for mild oxygen enrichment, achieving high electrical efficiency by utilizing internal process heat.
This paper provides a framework for integrating electrolysis-derived oxygen into sulfur recovery units, thereby alleviating capacity constraints. The evaluation demonstrates that sulfur recovery units can look beyond simple oxygen utilization. Specifically, Solid Oxide Electrolysis technology provides a unique thermal synergy, achieving the lowest overall electrical consumption to co-produce green hydrogen and the required oxygen, offering an efficient, low-emission framework for modern gas processing facilities.
A New Dehydration Process
Speaker: Gokhan Alptekin, SulfaTrap LLC
SulfaTrap LLC/TDA Research Inc. is developing a new sorbent material for gas dehydration. The new material can remove water vapor at low relative humidity with very high capacity and reduce the total moisture content of the gas to very low concentrations to allow the gas to meet the sale gas specifications. However, unlike the commercial zeolite sorbents that are widely used in current gas processing systems, the overall energy input needed for the sorbent regeneration is much lower in the new system as the water is binded to the surface via a weaker interaction. The regeneration can be carried out at lower temperatures (at around 100-120oC compared to the 280-320oC required for typical zeolite sorbents, while achieving similar water removal efficiency). The water uptake of the new sorbent is about 2X higher than a typical zeolite. These features result in a lower cost dehydration process and significant amounts of energy savings.
Eliminating the need for high temperature regeneration alleviates any structural stability concerns in the presence of acid gases and ignition concerns in the presence of oxygen (common issues encountered with the commercial zeolites).
The paper will summarize the results of the laboratory scale tests, potentially the results of an evaluation in a pilot-scale unit installed in a biogas plant and the results of a techno-economic analysis highlighting the cost savings against conventional dehydration technologies for a commercial application
Conservative or Insufficient? Rethinking Solid Formation Limits for modern electrified LNG
Speaker: Léo Gandrille, Technip Energies
Cryogenic distillation is commonly used to separate heavy hydrocarbons in LNG plants, where carryover into the LNG stream causes impurities to freeze out downstream in the NGL Recovery unit, MCHE, NRU, or LNG tanks. The methane-rich light stream is liquefied in the Main Cryogenic Heat Exchanger at around –161°C. With the current trend toward LNG plant electrification, the lightest components: nitrogen and non-condensables (hydrogen and helium, if present) can no longer be routed to a fuel gas network of fired gas turbines, and instead tend to accumulate in the LNG. Electrification therefore requires a Nitrogen Removal Unit (NRU), where temperatures can drop to –192°C, sharply amplifying the risk of trace-component crystallization.
Traditional specifications on C5+ and BTEX concentrations, based on solidification temperatures measured in pure methane and used since the 1970s, have long guarded against freezing. Recent Technip Energies (T.EN) studies suggest these specifications may be insufficient or overly conservative, depending on feed gas composition. Over the past decade, T.EN has gathered freeze-out data for methane-rich mixtures, studied how lighter and heavier components affect CO2 solidification in methane, and evaluated the solubility of various potential solid formers.
This paper reviews experimental and modeling work since the 1970s, highlights T.EN's latest research, and evaluates the thermodynamic tools used to predict freeze-out, focusing on NGL Recovery, the NRU, and the impact of non-condensables.
Modelling with an Integrated Process and Engineering Simulator
Speaker: Peter Kauders, CDE Projects
Work on an integrated process and engineering simulator, possibly the world’s first, has been underway for over a year. The program runtime is minutes, or just seconds for a minor flowsheet change. It runs much like a process simulator. The user works interactively with the program, building the process model, from which a heat and material balance will be reported. Fluid type processes can be modelled.
The engineering program undertakes process and mechanical design of equipment, materials’ selection, layout and hydraulics, quantifying the materials needed by size, material group and pressure class. This part is fully automated, and it leads to a cost estimate of unparalleled accuracy – all at the study stage of a project. An integral economic model reports NPV for the criteria specified in the design basis.
The program stores, and runs on, scientific data and is therefore of universal process application.
The principles behind the program will be outlined, the inherent advantages over AI reviewed, and the planned user interface displayed. The potential commercial implications will be discussed.
