Natural Gas processing

Forum Home

Aggregated

Gas Processing

Gas Processing - General

Natural Gas pro...

Natural Gas processing

5/6/2007 2:56:21 PM

host

5 posts

Natural Gas processing
Modified By host on 5/6/2007 6:57:51 AM)

The processing of natural gas poses low environmental risk, primarily because natural gas has a simple and
comparatively pure composition. The purpose of natural gas processing facilities is to remove the heavier hydrocarbons such as ethane, propane, pentanes, and hexanes, as well as contaminants such as carbon dioxide and water, in order to bring the natural gas stream into conformity with pipeline Btu content and other specifications. Typical processes performed by a gas plant are separation of the heavier-than-methane hydrocarbons as liquefied petroleum gases, stabilization of condensate by removal of lighter hydrocarbons from the condensate stream, gas sweetening, and consequent sulfur production and dehydration sufficient to avoid formation of methane hydrates in the downstream pipeline. The EPA-identified hazardous air 39 pollutant (HAP) emission points at natural gas processing plants are the glycol dehydration unit reboiler vent, storage tanks, and equipment leaks from components handling 40 hydrocarbon streams that contain HAP constituents. Other potential HAP emission points are the tail gas streams from amine-treating processes and sulfur recovery units.

Methods vary for removing natural gas contaminants, such as hydrogen sulfide gas, carbon dioxide gas, nitrogen, and water. Commonly the hydrogen sulfide is converted to solid sulfur for sale. Likewise the carbons and nitrogen are separated for sale to the extent economically possible but otherwise the gases are vented, while the water is treated before release. Compressor operation at gas plants has a similar impact to that of compressors installed at other locations. (Reference EIA)

Page 1 of 1

Aggregated

Gas Processing

Gas Processing - General

Natural Gas pro...