Evaluation of Supersonic Gas Separation Technology for Recovery of Natural Gas Liquids from Natural Gas

• Main Author: Do, Ngan Quynh
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS 2009
• Subjects: TP Chemical technology
• Online Access: http://utpedia.utp.edu.my/9215/1/2009%20Bachelor%20-%20Evaluation%20Of%20Supersonic%20Gas%20Separation%20Technology%20For%20Recovery%20Of%20NAtural%20Gas%20Li.pdf; http://utpedia.utp.edu.my/9215/
• Institution: Universiti Teknologi Petronas

Natural gas has long become an indispensable source of energy throughout most of the world thanks to its friendliness to the environment. Worldwide natural gas consumption is rapidly increasing. However natural gas is a non-renewable energy source, the extensive utilization will lead to a new kind of energy crisis, the natural gas crisis. This fact has resulted in the need to improve the performance of natural gas processing, maximize the outputs while minimizing the inputs. With the end uses as fuel or industrial feedstock, Natural Gas Liquids (NGLs) are among the valuable by-products from natural gas processing operations. It is therefore essential to study, validate and apply new technology to enhance the performance of the NGL recovery process. With this background, my final year simulation-based project is developed with the aim at assessing the theoretical viability of Twister™, a new technology for recovery of NGLs from natural gas, and comparing it with a traditional turboexpander system. The project's objectives are: 1. To study the viability of applying the supersonic gas separation technology for deep Natural Gas Liquids recovery 2. To evaluate and compare the performance of Twister™ against a conventional turbo-expander system. 3. To identify Twister's range of applicability for NGL recovery The project scope involves evaluating the performance of a Twister™ against a conventional turbo-expander for NGL recovery by simulating the processes by HYSIS model of both systems. Variety of feed compositions, temperatures and pressures which represent the possible ranges of feed conditions in the actual gas plants are employed in the study to produce comprehensive results. In overall, it is found out that Twister is more efficient than turbo-expander, especially in the cases of feed which is rich in heavy hydrocarbons. Further analyses should be conducted to get more comprehensive conclusions.