Evaluation of process costs for small-scale nitrogen removal from natural gas. Topical report, January 1989-December 1989

Technical Report · Thu Aug 01 04:00:00 EDT 1991

OSTI ID:6029360

Echterhoff, L W; Pathak, V K

The report establishes the cost of producing pipeline quality gas on a small scale from high nitrogen subquality natural gas. Three processing technologies are evaluated: cryogenic, Nitrotec Engineering Inc.'s pressure swing adsorption (PSA), and lean oil absorption. Comparison of the established costs shows that the cryogenic process exhibits the lowest total plant investment for nitrogen feed contents up to about 22%, above which the PSA process exhibits the lowest investment cost. The lean oil process exhibits the highest total plant investment at the 25% nitrogen feed studied. Opposite to the total plant investment for the cryogenic process, the total plant investment for the PSA process decreases with increasing nitrogen content primarily due to increasing product gas compression requirements. The cryogenic process exhibits the lowest gas processing costs for the nitrogen content range under study. However, the difference between the gas processing costs for the PSA and cryogenic processes narrows as the nitrogen content approaches 15-25%. The lean oil gas processing cost is very high compared to both the cryogenic and PSA processes. The report verifies that nitrogen removal from natural gas is expensive, especially for small-scale applications, and several avenues are identified for improving the cryogenic and PSA technologies.

• Research Organization: Pullman Kellogg, Houston, TX (United States)
• OSTI ID: 6029360
• Report Number(s): PB-91-243121/XAB; CNN: GRI-5088-221-1753
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

03 NATURAL GAS
030300* -- Natural Gas-- Drilling
Production
& Processing
030600 -- Natural Gas-- Economic
Industrial
& Business Aspects
ABSORPTION
ADSORPTION
AIR POLLUTION ABATEMENT
CAPITALIZED COST
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
COST
CRYOGENICS
DENITRIFICATION
ECONOMIC ANALYSIS
ECONOMICS
ELEMENTS
ENERGY SOURCES
EVALUATION
FLUIDS
FOSSIL FUELS
FUEL GAS
FUELS
GAS FUELS
GASES
INDUSTRIAL PLANTS
NATURAL GAS
NATURAL GAS PROCESSING PLANTS
NITROGEN
NONMETALS
OPERATING COST
POLLUTION ABATEMENT
QUANTITY RATIO
SEPARATION PROCESSES
SIZE
SORPTION
TECHNOLOGY UTILIZATION