In the name of ALLAH

Natural Gas Processing

Hydrocarbon Recovery
Seyed Hossein Mazloumi

Ferdowsi University of Mashhad

Chemical Engineering Department
Gas processing covers a broad range of operations to prepare natural gas for market.
Processes for removal of contaminants such as H2S, CO2 and water are covered
extensively in other sections of the GPSA Data Book. This chapter will cover the
processes involved in recovering light hydrocarbon liquids for sale.

The recovery of light hydrocarbon liquids from natural gas streams can range from simple
dew point control to deep ethane extraction.

The desired degree of liquid recovery has a profound effect on process selection,
complexity, and cost of the processing facility.
Typically, modern gas processing facilities produce a single ethane plus product (normally
called Y-grade) which is often sent offsite for further fractionation and processing.

Whether accomplished on-site or at another facility, the mixed product will be further
fractionated to make products such as purity ethane, ethane-propane (EP), commercial
propane, isobutane, normal butane, mixed butanes, butane-gasoline (BG), and
gasoline (or stabilized condensate).

The degree of fractionation which occurs is market and geographically dependent.

Early efforts in the 20th century for liquid recovery involved compression and cooling of
the gas stream and stabilization of a gasoline product.

The lean oil absorption process was developed in the 1920s to increase recovery of
gasoline and produce products with increasing quantities of butane.

These gasoline products were, and still are, sold on a Reid vapor pressure (RVP)
specification. Vapor pressures such as 10, 12, 14, 20 or 26 psia are common specifications
for gasoline products.

In order to further increase production of liquids, refrigerated lean oil absorption was
developed in the 1950s. By cooling the oil and the gas with refrigeration, propane product
can be recovered.

With the production of propane from lean oil plants, a market developed for LPG as a
portable liquid fuel.
In lieu of using lean oil, refrigeration of the gas can be used for propane and heavier
component recovery.

The use of straight refrigeration typically results in a much more economical processing
facility.

The refrigeration of the gas can be accomplished with mechanical refrigeration, absorption
refrigeration, expansion through a J-T valve, or a combination.

In order to achieve still lower processing temperatures, cascade refrigeration, mixed

refrigerants, and turboexpander technologies have been developed and applied.
With these technologies, recoveries of liquids can be significantly increased to achieve
deep ethane recoveries.

Early ethane recovery facilities targeted about 50 % ethane recovery. As processes

developed, ethane recovery efficiencies have increased to well over 90%.

In some instances heavy hydrocarbons are removed to control the hydrocarbon dew point
of the gas and prevent liquid from condensing in pipeline transmission and fuel systems. In
this case the liquids are a byproduct of the processing and if no market exists for the
liquids, they may be used as fuel. Alternatively, the liquids may be stabilized and marketed
as condensate.
Gases are typically characterized by the gallons per thousand cubic feet of recoverable
hydrocarbons in the gas. This is commonly expressed as “GPM.” GPM was traditionally
meant to apply to propane and heavier components but is often used to include ethane.
The GPM of a gas can be calculated as shown in Example 16-1.

The other major consideration in the evaluation of NGL recovery options is the
specification of the residue sales gas.

Sales specifications are usually concerned with a minimum Higher Heating Value (HHV)
of the gas, but in some instances the maximum HHV can also be a consideration.

Removal of liquids results in gas “shrinkage” and reduction of the HHV.

This shrinkage represents a loss of revenue for the gas sales which must be considered in
the economics of an NGL recovery plant. In general, sales gas specifications set the
minimum HHV at 950-1000 BTU/scf.

Thus, if any components such as nitrogen or CO2 are present in the gas, sufficient ethane
and heavier components must remain in the gas to meet the heating value specification.

If little nitrogen or CO2 is present in the gas, the recovery level of the ethane and heavier
components is then limited by markets, cost of recovery, and gas value.
The calculation of HHV and shrinkage cost is illustrated in Example 16-1.
Example 16-1 — Find the GPM of the gas mixture in Figure 16-1. Find the HHV of the
feed gas and the HHV of the residue gas with the following NGL recovery efficiencies:
C2 – 90%, C3 – 98%, iC4 /nC4 – 99%, C5+ – 100%.
What is the shrinkage cost at $2/MMBTU?
Solution Steps:
Solution is shown in Fig. 16-1.
From Fig. 23-2 obtain the gal/lb mole for each of the components.

Multiply these values by the mole fraction of each component (mole% / 100) and divide by
379.49 scf/mol to get gallons per standard cubic foot of gas.

Then multiply this value by 1000 to get the GPM of each component. The total GPM from
Fig. 16-1 is 3.117.

For the recoveries specified the net gal/day and residue composition can be found as
shown in Fig. 16-1.

In order to compute the HHV of the two streams, the HHVs of each component are found
in Fig. 23-2. Multiplying the individual HHVs by the mole % gives a total HHV of 1115.01 for
the feed gas and 971.24 for the residue gas.

The shrinkage volume can be found by the difference of the volume of the feed gas times
the HHV and the volume of residue gas times its HHV.

This volume is then multiplied by $2/MMBTU to get the shrinkage value of the NGLs.
Shrinkage Value = [(330 x 1115.01) – (295.862 x 971.24)]
• $2/MMBTU = $161,201/day
ETHANE RECOVERY
Dew Point control and mechanical refrigeration systems are intended for applications
where moderate to high propane recoveries are desired. In order to achieve higher
propane recoveries and ethane recovery, cryogenic temperatures are required.
Generally, the natural gas processing industry considers cryogenic processing to be
processes which operate below–50°F.

Fig. 16-14 shows an estimate of the temperatures required to achieve 60 percent ethane
recovery at various operating pressures; for an example feed gas. In order to achieve
these temperatures, a combination of pressure expansion and chilling is used. There are
three general methods which can be used to achieve the conditions necessary to attain high
ethane recovery levels.

1. J-T Expansion
2. Turboexpander
3. Mechanical refrigeration

Each of these processes has been used successfully, with the turboexpander being the
predominant process of choice for ethane recovery facilities.
J-T EXPANSION
The use of the Joule-Thomson (J-T) effect to recover liquids is an attractive
alternative in many applications. The general concept is to chill the gas by
expanding the gas across a J-T valve. With appropriate heat exchange and large
pressure differential across the J-T valve, cryogenic temperatures can be achieved
resulting in high extraction efficiencies.

The main difference between the J-T design and turboexpanders is that the gas
expansion is adiabatic across the valve. In a turboexpander the expansion follows a more
nearly isentropic path. Thus the J-T design tends to be less efficient per unit of energy
expended than the turboexpander.

The J-T process does offer some advantages over the turboexpander
and refrigeration processes in the following situations:

1. Low gas rates and modest ethane recovery.

2. The process can be designed with no rotating equipment.
3. Broad range of flows.
4. Simplicity of design and operation.
J-T EXPANSION
Fig. 16-17 illustrates the process arrangement for a J-T expansion process. In
order to effectively use the J-T process, the gas must be at a high inlet pressure.
Pressures over 1000 psia are typical in these facilities. If the gas pressure is too
low, inlet compression is necessary or insufficient expansion chilling will be
attained. The gas must first be dried to ensure that no water enters the cold
portion of the process. Typically, molecular sieves or alumina are used for the
drying.
Turboexpander

The process which dominates ethane recovery facility design is the

turboexpander process. This process uses the feed gas pressure to produce
needed refrigeration by expansion across a turbine (turboexpander). The
turboexpander recovers useful work from this gas expansion. Typically the
expander is linked to a centrifugal compressor to recompress the residue
gas from the process. Because the expansion is near isentropic, the
turboexpander lowers the gas temperature significantly more than expansion
across a J-T valve.
Residue Recycle
To increase the ethane recovery beyond the 80% achievable with the conventional
design, a source of reflux must be developed for the demethanizer.
MIXED REFRIGERANT PROCESS

The use of a mixed refrigerant process is an interesting alternative

to the turboexpander process. Such processes have been used widely in
LNG processing and to a lesser extent in NGL recovery. One of the
characteristics of the process is that low temperatures can be achieved with
significantly reduced inlet gas pressure. The chilling can be achieved totally
with mechanical refrigeration or with a mixture of refrigeration and
expansion. If inlet compression is contemplated for a turboexpander
plant, then mixed refrigerant processing can be an economic alternative.
FRACTIONATION CONSIDERATIONS

In all NGL recovery processes, one of the final steps in the plant is the
production of the desired liquid product by use of a fractionation column.
This column produces the specification product as a bottom product with the
overhead stream being recycled to the process or sent out of the plant as
residue gas product. This mixed product then needs to be separated into
usable products in a series of one or more fractionation columns. The
number and arrangement of these columns is dependent on the desired
product slate.

If the NGL stream is an ethane plus stream the first step is to separate the
ethane from the propane and heavier components in a deethanizer. The
propane is then separated from the butane and heavier components in a
depropanizer. If further processing is desired the butane may be separated
in a debutanizer and the butanes further separated in a butane splitter
column. The butane splitter is only used when a differential value can be
realized for the isobutane versus the mixed butane stream. A schematic of a
four column fractionator is shown in Fig. 16-28. Section 19 in the Data Book
covers the specifics of fractionation systems for NGL streams.