COST-EFFECTIVE INTEGRATED GAS PLANT DESIGN
Sulfinol-M hot-flash enrichment solution for lean acid gas
Shell Global Solutions
AT A GLANCE
Customer driver: The need to reduce costs and
complexity for integrated sour gas projects
Solution: Implementation of Shell Global Solutions
Sulfinol-M hot-flash enrichment technology
Value delivered: High sulphur recovery efficiency through
cost-effective single-solvent acid gas removal and enrichment
The selective capability of Sulfinol-M
provides two key benefits. First, it enables
single-solvent, integrated solutions for
acid gas removal and enrichment.
Second, it facilitates optimised designs
across the AGRU, AGEU and SRU.
DISCOVER
An increasing number of natural gas fields are being
developed that contain contaminants such as benzene,
toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene (BTEX), and organic sulphur
compounds such as carbonyl sulphide (COS), carbon disulphide
(CS2) and mercaptans. This has resulted in a requirement for
more complex gas processing to bring the product to pipeline
specifications. In addition, the associated sulphur recovery units
(SRU) are also more complex owing to the quality of the acid
gas. For these facilities, it is essential to take into consideration
the impact that the design of the acid gas removal unit (AGRU)
can have on the SRU.
The reference plant discussed here is designed to process
2,500MMscf/d of non-associated gas. The raw natural gas
contains substantial concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2),
hydrogen sulphide (H2S), heavy hydrocarbons and organic
sulphur compounds.
DIAGNOSE
The original design of the reference plant consisted of four
parallel AGRUs using methyldiethanolamine (MDEA). The
resultant acid gas routed to the SRUs contained approximately
34mol% H2S, 600ppm of BTEX and hundreds of parts per
million of CS2 and mercaptans.
Owing to the low H2S content of the acid gas, the temperature
achieved in the reaction furnace of the SRU was insufficient to
destroy the BTEX. Several options were considered to overcome
this, including high-pressure steam preheating of the acid gas;
indirect fired heating of the combustion air; natural gas co-firing;
and installing a carbon bed for BTEX removal. Unfortunately, none
of these options provided the cost-effective, simple-to-operate and
sustainable solution required.
To enhance the content of H2S in the acid gas, Shell Global
Solutions and Jacobs Comprimo (an authorised licensor of
Sulfinol technology) proposed the use of a patented integrated
hot-flash enrichment gas-treating scheme employing Sulfinol-M.
DESIGN
Acid gas enrichment units (AGEU) are used to increase the acid
gass H2S concentration and alleviate problems associated with
a lean acid gas feed to the SRU. With a conventional AGEU,
it is not possible to achieve high sulphur recovery when COS,
CS2 and mercaptans are present. This is because the selective
treating solvents commonly utilised for acid gas enrichment do
not absorb these organic sulphur species and, consequently, they
slip to the incinerator, thus increasing the sulphur dioxide (SO2)
emissions.
The formulation of Sulfinol-M, which consists of MDEA, Sulfolane
and water, enables this solvent to be used for selective and non-
selective removal of H2S in the presence of CO2, depending on
the process conditions.
 Deliver
From cost calculations (50% cost estimate, Q4 2009 pricing,
Western Europe), it was estimated that designing the entire
gas processing portion of the plant using the Shell Global
Solutions integrated hot-flash Sulfinol-M enrichment scheme
could result in savings of up to $50 million per AGRU/SRU
In the non-selective main absorber, H2S, CO2 and trace sulphur train. In addition, operational complexity and costs are reduced
components are absorbed by the Sulfinol-M, with the treated gas because a BTEX removal unit is not required.
coming from the top of the absorber. In the selective enrichment
section, rich solvent coming from the bottom of the main absorber Contact us
via a hydrocarbon flash vessel is heated and flashed at reduced For more information about how we can help to improve your
pressure. The CO2-rich flash vapour flows to an enrichment operations, increase your yields and boost your revenues,
absorber where lean Sulfinol-M solvent preferentially absorbs H2S visit us at www.shell.com/gasprocessing or email us at
and some trace sulphur components. The enrichment absorber gasprocessing@shell.com.
overhead vapour is routed to the incinerator, while the rich solvent
from the enrichment absorber is combined with the flashed solvent
from the hot flash and routed to the common regenerator. Thus
enriched acid gas flows from the Sulfinol-M regenerator to the SRU.
The application of the integrated hot-flash enrichment scheme
Estimates suggest that using the Shell
with Sulfinol-M resulted in an increase of H2S concentration in the Global Solutions integrated Sulfinol-M
acid gas to the SRU from about 34mol% to about 62mol% at the
expected normal operating conditions.
hot flash enrichment technology
Owing to the improved acid gas quality it was possible to reduce
for this plant could save more than
the size of the sulphur plant by about 30% and, at the same time, $50million per AGRU/SRU train.
eliminate the need for installing a dedicated BTEX removal unit. The
overall plant sulphur recovery was also improved owing to the lower
content of sulphur species in the flash gas routed to the incinerator.

Treated natural gas Flash gas to incinerator Enriched acid gas to SRU
Low pressure, high temperature

Absorber

Enrichment absorber
Regenerator

Lean
solvent
cooler
Flash gas
to fuel
Feed gas

Enrichment
Flash vessel flash vessel
High pressure, low temperature
Sulfinol-M solvent

Figure 1: Shell Global Solutions integrated, hot-flash enrichment process scheme with Sulfinol-M.

Sulfinol is a Shell trademark.

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