Upgrading straight refrigeration plants for NGL enhancement
- Poco Petroleums Ltd., Calgary, Alberta (Canada)
- Advanced Extraction Technologies, Inc., Houston, TX (United States)
For most non-US Gulf Coast natural gas processing applications, natural gas liquids (NGL) are recovered in straight refrigeration plants. These plants use propane refrigerant to recover about 30--50% of the propane, and 65--80% of the butanes and heavier hydrocarbons. The NGL recovery levels depend upon the gas pressure and richness of the gas. With the addition of the recently patented, absorption-based Mehra Process{sup sm} NGL Recovery Unit, the propane recovery can be increased to 96+% with corresponding butanes recovery at the 99% level. With the addition of such units, refrigeration plants that are located near NGL pipelines to transport ethane-rich product can enhance their ethane production by recovering 96+% of contained ethane and benefit from the flexibility to maintain high propane recoveries (96+%) even when ethane is uneconomical to recover as an NGL product. Poco Petroleums Ltd. is nearing completion of the addition of a Mehra Process unit to its Wolf South facility in Central Alberta. Upon start-up of the 45 MMscfd addition, Poco expects to significantly enhance the recovery of propane from the current 34--95% without additional dehydration due to non-cryogenic processing, or requiring external solvent make-up since the heavier components of the natural gas feed are used as the preferred solvent--while limiting incremental gas side pressure drop to about 20 psi. The existing C{sub 3}{sup +} production will be additionally fractionated by the Mehra unit to produce a C{sub 5}{sup +} gasoline product and a C{sub 3}/C{sub 4} mixed product.
- OSTI ID:
- 347838
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-9703180-; TRN: IM9923%%376
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 76. annual meeting of the Gas Processors Association (GPA), San Antonio, TX (United States), 10-12 Mar 1997; Other Information: PBD: [1997]; Related Information: Is Part Of Seventy-sixth annual convention Gas Processors Association: Proceedings; PB: 249 p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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