Richard Ochieng, Petroleum Institute, Abu Dhabi
This paper was presented at the Annual Conference held in Berlin 4 - 25 May 2012
Natural Gas processing plants, an essential part of the energy industry, provide one of the cleanest-burning fuels and valuable chemical feedstock. The importance and complexity of gas processing plants have increased over the years to increase their energy efficiency and their integration with petrochemical plants. The advantages of computer simulation models as tools for designing and troubleshooting gas treating plants is increasingly obvious.
This paper will discuss the major problems faced in operation of the Benfield HiPure process at Abu Dhabi Gas Liquefaction Company Limited (ADGAS) and the use of a process simulation tool, ProMax®, to investigate and suggest ways of overcoming some of these problems. At ADGAS’ Train 3 plant in Das Island, high pressure natural gas containing 6 to 7 mole% acid gas first comes into contact with a 30 weight % Potassium Carbonate (K2CO3) solution promoted with 3 weight % Diethanolamine (DEA). The gas is then contacted with a 20 weight % DEA solution downstream.
The results from the simulations show a close match with the plant operating data. The simulation model was also used to provide physical insight on how the changes in process parameters can affect ADGAS’ plant performance, so as to suggest ways of improving or avoiding some these changes.
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