Natural Gas Dehydration with TEG

Natural Gas Dehydration with TEG

2007 AspenTech All rights reserved. EA1031.06.09 138076293.doc

Natural Gas Dehydration with TEG

Workshop
At the wellhead, reservoir fluids generally are saturated with water. The water in the gas can present some problems: valves, fittings, or pipes Formation of solid hydrates can plug

The presence of water along with H2O or CO2 can cause corrosion problems Water can condense in the pipeline causing erosion or corrosion problems Generally, a dehydration unit is used in gas plants to meet a pipeline specification. There are several different processes available for dehydration: glycols, silica gel, or molecular sieves. The natural gas industry commonly uses tri-ethylene glycol (TEG) for gas dehydration where low gas dew point temperatures are required, such as in the design of offshore platforms in the Arctic or North Sea regions or for other cryogenic processes. In this example, the water dewpoint spec for the dry gas is -10C (14F) at 6200 kPa (900 psia).

Learning Objectives
After you have completed this section, you will be able to: Model a typical TEG dehydration unit Determine water dewpoint for a gas

Prerequisites
Before beginning this section, you need to be able to add streams, operations and columns.

Natural Gas Dehydration with TEG

Process Overview

Natural Gas Dehydration with TEG

Column Overview
TEG Contactor
Figure 1

TEG Regenerator
Figure 2

Natural Gas Dehydration with TEG

Building the Simulation

Defining the Simulation Basis
For this case, you will be using the Peng-Robinson EOS with the following components:
Nitrogen H2 S CO2 Methane Ethane Propane i-Butane n-Butane i-Pentane n-Pentane H2 O TEGlycol

Adding the feed streams

1. Add a Material stream for the inlet gas with the following values:
Enter... Inlet Gas 30C (85F) 6200 kPa (900 psia) 500 kgmole/h (10 MMSCFD) Mole Fraction 0.0010 0.0155 0.0284 0.8989 0.0310 0.0148 0.0059 0.0030 0.0010 0.0005 0.0000 0.0000

In this cell... Name Temperature Pressure Molar Flow Component Nitrogen H2S CO2 Methane Ethane Propane i-Butane n-Butane i-Pentane n-Pentane H2O TEGlycol

Natural Gas Dehydration with TEG

2.

Add a second Material stream for the TEG feed to the TEG Contactor with the listed values.
Enter... TEG Feed 50C (120F) 6200 kPa (900 psia) 0.5 m3/h (2 USGPM) Mass Fraction 0.01 0.99

In this cell... Name Temperature Dont forget to enter the composition using mass fractions! Pressure Std Ideal Liq Vol Flow Component H2O TEGlycol

The values for the stream TEG Feed will be updated after the Recycle operation is installed and has calculated.

Mixer Operation
The composition of the natural gas stream has been provided on a water-free basis. To ensure water saturation, the gas is mixed with water prior to entering the Contactor.

Natural Gas Dehydration with TEG

Add a Mixer to mix the Inlet Gas and Water to Saturate streams.
In this cell... Connections Name Inlets Saturate Inlet Gas Water to Saturate Outlet Parameters Automatic Pressure Assignment Worksheet Water to Saturate, Flowrate Water to Saturate, Composition Water to Saturate, Temperature 0.5 kgmole/h (1.1 lbmole/hr) 100% Water 30C (85F) Equalize All Gas + H2O Enter

What is the vapour fraction of the stream Gas+H20? (It should be less than 1.0 to ensure saturation) ___________________________________________________________________________ _

Separator Operation
Any free water carried with the gas is first removed in a separator operation, FWKO. Add a Separator and provide the following information:
In this cell... Connections Name Inlets Vapour Outlet Liquid Outlet FWKO TK Gas + H2O Gas to Contactor FWKO Enter...

Natural Gas Dehydration with TEG

How much water is removed by the Separator? _____________________________________ What is the hydrate temperature of Gas to Contactor?_______________________________

Contactor Operation
The TEG Contactor can now be simulated. Add an Absorber column operation with the following specifications and run the column.
In this cell... Connections Name No. of Stages Top Stage Inlet Bottom Stage Inlet Ovhd Vapour Outlet Bottoms Liquid Outlet Pressures Top Bottom 6190 kPa (897 psia) 6200 kPa (900 psia) TEG Contactor 8 TEG Feed Gas to Contactor Dry Gas Rich TEG Enter...

Valve Operation
The Rich TEG stream is flashed across the valve, VLV-100. The outlet pressure will be back calculated. Add a Valve with the following values:
In this cell... Connections Inlet Outlet Rich TEG LP TEG Enter...

Natural Gas Dehydration with TEG

Heat Exchanger Operation

Regen Feed is heated to 105C (220F) in the lean/rich exchanger, L/R HEX, before entering the Regenerator. Add a Heat Exchanger with the following values:
In this cell... Connections Name Tube Side Inlet Tube Side Outlet Shell Side Inlet Shell Side Outlet Parameters Tubeside Delta P Shellside Delta P Worksheet Regen Feed, Temperature Regen Feed, Pressure 105C (220F) 110 kPa (16 psia) 70 kPa (10 psi) 70 kPa (10 psi) L/R HEX Regen Bttms Lean from L/R LP TEG Regen Feed Enter...

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Natural Gas Dehydration with TEG

Regenerator Operation
The TEG Regenerator is simulated as a Distillation Column. The TEG Regenerator consists of a condenser, a reboiler and one ideal stage. 1. Add a Distillation Column to the case.
Enter...

In this cell... Connections Name No. of Stages Inlet Stream You can turn off the Column Input Experts in Tools | Preferences on the Simulation tab by unchecking the Use Input Experts box. Condenser Type Ovhd Vapour Outlet Bottoms Liquid Outlet Condenser Energy Stream Reboiler Energy Stream Pressures Delta P Cond Condenser Reboiler Specs First Spec - Column Temperature Stage Spec Value Status Second Spec - Column Temperature Stage Spec Value Status Third Spec - Reflux Ratio Spec Value Status Fourth Spec - Column Draw Rate Draw Spec Value Status

TEG Regenerator 1 Regen Feed Full Reflux Sour Gas Regen Bttms Cond Q Reb Q

2 kPa (1 psia) 101 kPa (14 psia) 103 kPa (15 psia)

Condenser 102C (215F) Active

Reboiler 205C (400F) Active

1.0 Molar Estimate

Sour Gas @ COL2 1 kgmole/h (0.02 MMSCFD) Estimate

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Natural Gas Dehydration with TEG

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2.

Set the Damping Factor (on the Solver page) to Adaptive. This will result in much faster convergence for this column.

Figure 3

For more information about Damping factor, please refer to Aspen HYSYS Operation Guide, Chapter 2.4 Column Property View 3. Run the Column.

Mixer Operation
TEG is lost in small quantities, so a makeup stream is required to ensure that the material balance is maintained. 1.
Dont forget to enter the compositions using mass fractions!

Add a Material stream.

Enter...

In this cell... Connections Name Temperature Component H2O TEGlycol

Makeup TEG 15C (60F) Mass Fraction 0.01 0.99

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Natural Gas Dehydration with TEG

2.

Add a Mixer with the following information:

Enter...

In this cell... Connections Inlets

Makeup TEG Lean from L/R

Outlet Parameters Automatic Pressure Assignment Worksheet Std Ideal Liq Vol Flow, TEG to Pump

TEG to Pump

Equalize All

0.5 m3/h (2 USGPM)

What is the flowrate of Makeup TEG? ___________________________________________

Pump Operation
A pump is installed to raise the pressure of the TEG before it enters the Contactor. Add a Pump with the following information:
In this cell... Connections Inlet Outlet Energy Worksheet Pump Out, Pressure 6275 kPa (910 psia) TEG to Pump Pump Out Pump Q Enter...

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Natural Gas Dehydration with TEG

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Heat Exchanger
A second heat exchanger is added to cool the TEG returning to the Contactor. Add a Heat Exchanger with the following information.
In this cell... Connections Tube Side Inlet Tube Side Outlet Shell Side Inlet Shell Side Outlet Parameters Tube Side Delta P Shell Side Delta P Worksheet TEG to Recycle, Temperature 50C (120F) 70 kPa (10 psi) 35 kPa (5 psi) Pump Out TEG to Recycle Dry Gas Sales Gas Enter...

Recycle Operation
The Recycle installs a theoretical block in the process stream. The feed into the block is termed the calculated recycle stream, and the product is the assumed recycle stream. The following steps take place during the convergence process: Aspen HYSYS uses the conditions of the assumed stream and solves the Flowsheet up to the calculated stream. Aspen HYSYS then compares the values of the calculated stream to those of the assumed stream. Based on the difference between the values, Aspen HYSYS modifies the values in the assumed stream. The calculation process repeats until the values in the calculated stream match those in the assumed stream within specified tolerances. In this case, the lean TEG (TEG Feed) stream which was originally estimated will be replaced with the new calculated lean TEG (TEG to Recycle) stream and the Contactor and Regenerator will be run until the recycle loop converges. 1. Double-click the Recycle icon. On the Connections tab, select the connections from the drop-down boxes.

Recycle Button

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Natural Gas Dehydration with TEG

Figure 4

2. Switch to the Variables page on the Parameters tab. Complete the page as shown in the following figure. The tolerances for Flow, Enthalpy, and Composition need to be tightened.
The TEG concentration is very high, so it is necessary to tighten the tolerances, especially on composition, to ensure accurate solutions. Figure 5

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Natural Gas Dehydration with TEG

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What is the hydrate temperature of Sales Gas? _____________________________________ How does this compare with the hydrate temperature of Gas to Contactor? ___________________________________________________________________________ _
Stream Gas to Contactor Sales Gas Hydrate Temp Water Dewpoint

Hydrate Formation Utility

There are three ways to attach utilities to streams in Aspen HYSYS. Click the Tools menu and select Utilities. The Available Utilities view displays. Utilities view displays. Press Ctrl+U and the Available

Double-click a stream. On the Attachments tab, select Utilities. Click the Create button and the Available Utilities view displays.

Attach a Hydrate Formation Utility to Stream Sales Gas

1. In the Available Utilities view, select the Hydrate Formation Utility and click the Add Utility button. If the utility is not already associated with a stream, then the Hydrate Formation Utility view displays. Click the Select Stream button and select the stream Sales Gas. Click OK. Note that no hydrate will form at current stream conditions.

2.

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Natural Gas Dehydration with TEG

Figure 6

3.

Switch to the Performance tab. Here you note the temperature and pressure at which hydrate formation occurs given current conditions, as well as the type of hydrate formed.

Figure 7

Save your case!

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Natural Gas Dehydration with TEG

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Analyzing the Results

One of the criteria used to determine the efficiency of a dehydration facility is the water dewpoint of the dry gas. This can easily be checked by finding the temperature at which water will just begin to condense. First, all traces of TEG must be removed from the stream being tested because TEG affects the H2O dewpoint. This is accomplished by the use of a Component Splitter. The resulting stream is then cooled and its outlet temperature is varied by an Adjust operation to find the point at which water just forms. 1. Add a Component Splitter with the following values:
Enter...

The Component Splitter does not do a flash to separate components. The separation is specified by the user.

In this cell... Connections Component Splitter icon Name Inlet Overhead Outlet Bottoms Outlet Energy Parameters TEG Only, Temperature TEG Only, Pressure Water Dewpoint Temperature Water Dewpoint Pressure Accept defaults

Remove TEG Sales Gas TEG Only Water Dewpoint Split Q

10C (50F) 6155 kPa (893 psia) -10C (-14F) 6155 kPa (893 psia) Use Stream Flash Specifications Use Stream Pressure Specifications

Splits Stream TEG Only, TEGlycol Stream TEG Only, all other components 1.0 0.0

2.

Add a Separator to remove the condensed water

Enter...

In this cell... Connections Feed Vapour Outlet Liquid Outlet

Water Dewpoint Gas Out XS H2O

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Natural Gas Dehydration with TEG

3.
Adjust Button

An Adjust operation will vary the temperature of Water Dewpoint until the dewpoint specification is met for the stream Gas Out. Add an Adjust operation to manipulate the temperature of the Water Dewpoint stream until the flow of the XS H2O stream is just greater than 0; a value of 0.01 kg/h works well here.
Enter...

In this cell... Connections Adjusted Variable Variable Target Variable The tolerance must be small here as the target value is close to 0, but an XS H2O flow of 0 means that the dewpoint has not been reached yet. Object Variable Target Value Source Target Value Parameters Method Tolerance Step Size

Water Dewpoint Temperature

XS H2O Comp. Mass Flow - H2O

User Supplied 0.01 kg/h (0.022 lb/h)

Secant 0.005 kg/h (0.011 lb/h) 5C (10F)

The resultant temperature of the Water Dewpoint stream will then be the dewpoint of that stream. 4. Click the Start button to run the Adjust operation.
Hydrate Temp Water Dewpoint

Stream Sales Gas Water Dewpoint (no TEG)

Save your case!

Notice that the Water Dewpoint for the Sales Gas stream is from TEG dewing, not water.

The correlation manager allows you to select what properties you want to see associated with all the streams in your case. To access this feature, select Correlation Manager from the Tools menu.
How can the correlation manager be used to calculate the sales gas hydrate temperature without using an adjust? ___________________________________________________________________________ _

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Natural Gas Dehydration with TEG

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Exploring the Simulation

Exercise 1: Stripping Gas
The addition of stripping gas (slipstream from Sales Gas) will enhance the ability of the Regenerator to remove water from the rich TEG. A Tee operation is used to split Sales Gas into 2 streams. lbmole/hr) Strip Gas flow = 50 kgmole/h (110

The stream pressure is 6155 kPa, which is too high for the Regenerator. Use a Mole balance to transfer the flow and composition of Strip Gas to a new stream called SG to Regen. Specify the following additional parameters for SG to Regen: T = 70C (160F) P = 110 kPa (15 psia)

SG to Regen enters as a feed to the Regenerator Reboiler. Does the TEG concentration in Regen Bttms increase? ___________________________________________________________________________ _ Hint: You should ignore the adjust, as the sales gas will now exceed the dewpoint specification easily.

Recommended Reading
Knowledge Base Solution 119882: Technical Paper Using a More Thermodynamically Adapted Model Improves Modelling of TEG Dehydration Units - Allows Better Operation and Efficiency

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