Value-Added Products from Remote Natural Gas
In Wyoming and throughout the United States, there are natural gas fields that are not producing because of their remoteness from gas pipelines. Some of these fields are ideal candidates for a cogeneration scheme where components suitable for chemical feedstock or direct use, such as propane and butane, are separated. Resulting low- to medium-Btu gas is fired in a gas turbine system to provide power for the separation plant. Excess power is sold to the utility, making the integrated plant a true cogeneration facility. This project seeks to identify the appropriate technologies for various subsystems of an integrated plant to recover value-added products from wet gas and/or retrograde condensate reservoirs. Various vendors and equipment manufacturers will be contacted and a data base consisting of feedstock constraints and output specifications for various subsystems and components will be developed. Based on vendor specifications, gas reservoirs suited for value-added product recovery will be identified. A candidate reservoir will then be selected, and an optimum plant layout will be developed. A facility will then be constructed and operated. The project consists of eight subtasks: Compilation of Reservoir Data; Review of Treatment and Conditioning Technologies; Review of Product Recovery and Separation Technologies; Development of Power Generation System; Integrated Plant Design for Candidate Field; System Fabrication; System Operation and Monitoring; and Economic Evaluation and Reporting. The first five tasks have been completed and the sixth is nearly complete. Systems Operations and Monitoring will start next year. The Economic Evaluation and Reporting task will be a continuous effort for the entire project. The reservoir selected for the initial demonstration of the process is the Burnt Wagon Field, Natrona County, Wyoming. The field is in a remote location with no electric power to the area and no gas transmission line. The design for the gas processing train to produce the liquefied gas products includes three gas compressors, a cryogenic separation unit, and a natural gas powered generator. Based on the equipment specifications, air quality permits for the well field and the gas processing unit were developed and the permits were issued by the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality. Also, to make state and federal reporting easier, three of the four leases that made up the Burnt Wagon were combined. All major equipment has been installed and individual component operability is being conducted. During the next project year, operability testing and the shakedown of the entire system will be completed. Once shakedown is complete, the system will be turned over to the cosponsor for day-to-day operations. During operations, data will be collected through remote linkage to the data acquisition system or analysis of the system performance to develop an economic evaluation of the process.
- Research Organization:
- Western Research Institute
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- FC26-98FT40323
- OSTI ID:
- 910125
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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