Non-cryogenic nitrogen rejection from natural gas
- BOC Gases, Inc., Murray Hill, NJ (United States)
Over 16% of US natural gas reserves contain high levels of nitrogen contamination, making them unacceptable for pipelines without some means of treatment. The most common options for dealing with high nitrogen content are gas blending, which usually involves production limits and price penalties, or cryogenic nitrogen rejection, which requires high operating pressures (> 600 psig) and large gas volumes (> 50 MMscfd) to be economical. For smaller flows at lower pressures a variety of non-cryogenic nitrogen rejection techniques (adsorption, membranes, absorption) have been proposed, but these have had relatively little commercial application. BOC Gases has developed a nitrogen rejection process using pressure swing adsorption operation (NRU-PSA) for removing inert gases from hydrocarbon streams. The NRU-PSA is designed to operate with low pressure (< 60 psig) gas sources and is economical for feed gas flows in the 0.5 to 10.0 MMscfd range. Depending on the nitrogen rejection need, typical natural gas pipeline specifications can be met by the NRU-PSA, while at the same time the waste from the NRU-PSA can be safely vented to the atmosphere or used in subsequent processing. Yields of up to 99% hydrocarbon recovery are achievable with nearly 90% rejection of the nitrogen in the natural gas. The process can also be adapted to recover helium from natural gas in order to produce both enriched hydrocarbon and helium products. In an optional process, the NRU-PSA can be operated to take a low-purity (20--30% hydrocarbon) stream and enrich the hydrocarbon content (> 60%) for use as fuel.
- OSTI ID:
- 418178
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-960348-; TRN: IM9705%%556
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 75. Annual convention of the Gas Processors Association, Denver, CO (United States), 11-13 Mar 1996; Other Information: PBD: 1996; Related Information: Is Part Of Seventy-fifth Gas Processors Association annual convention: Proceedings; PB: 325 p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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