Dipartimento di Chimica, Materiali e

Ingegneria Chimica “Giulio Natta”

Exercise of
New Technology Frontiers in Gas Production, Transportation and Processing
(Ing. Stefania Moioli)

NGL recovery: separation of C4

Liquid hydrocarbons recovered from Natural Gas Liquids are separated into almost pure compounds
(ethane, propane, isobutane, n-butane and gasoline products (C5+)). The separation is performed
conventionally by employing distillation columns in sequence. In particular, the distillation of isobutane
and n-butane is characterized by the low relative volatility of these two compounds, which makes the
operation difficult, and thus, energy intensive.
The mixture, with composition reported in the data, is fed at 47°C and 8 bar to a standard distillation column
in order to obtain a recovery of isobutane equal to 99.99% in the distillate product and a recovery of n-
butane equal to 99.99% in the bottom product.
Self-heat recuperation technologies facilitate the recirculation of both latent heat and sensible heat in the
process, and may be a solution for reducing the overall energy requirements of the plant.

Before being sent to the condenser, the vapor from the top of distillation column can be compressed to a
given pressure so to increase its temperature, and be used for heat exchange in the reboiler through indirect
contact with the liquid from the bottom of the column. This liquid is so heated by employing the heat of
the condensing vapor, and steam to the reboiler can be saved. The partially condensed vapor passes through
a valve to decrease its pressure to the one of the stream before compression and must be further cooled in
order to fully condense the stream, which is split into a product stream (the top product stream, rich in
isobutane) and another stream, which is recycled back to the top of the column and acts as a reflux.

By employing the process simulator ASPEN HYSYS®, it is asked to:

1. simulate the distillation column in the base case;
2. simulate the scheme with vapor recompression (reported above);
3. evaluate the minimum pressure for the operation of the compressor which allows the use of the
vapor stream exiting the top of the distillation column for heating the reboiler, considering a
minimum Tapproach = 10 K;
4. compare the two configurations in terms of energy costs ($/year), considering a price of 0.35
$/GJ for cooling water, 14.05 $/GJ for steam and 16.8 $/GJ for electricity.

DATA
Feed composition
composition mole flow [kmol/h]
propane 0.10
i-butane 57.75
n-butane 23.32
i-pentane 0.43
n-pentane 0.01

Distillation Column
Ntrays = 92
Feed at tray 39 (from top)
Ptop = 6.5 bar
Pbottom = 7.6 bar

Heat exchangers
Pressure drop = 0.1 bar

Thermodynamic package: SRK