06-Dec-14

Natural Gas Processing and Liquefaction

Dehydration
Processes

Dehydration

Absorption Adsorption

Silica Gel
Glycol
Absorption Activated Alumina
Molecular Sieves
Monoethylene Glycol (MEG)
Diethylene Glycol (DEG)
Triethylene Glycol (TEG)
Tetraethylene Glycol (TREG)

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Natural Gas Processing and Liquefaction

Dehydration
Process Selection

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Natural Gas Processing and Liquefaction

Dehydration
Glycol Dehydration
Among the different gas drying processes, absorption is the most common technique.
Glycols are the most widely used absorption liquids. It can reduce the water content down
to around 60 ppmv. Several glycols have been found suitable for commercial application:
1) Monoethylene glycol (MEG):
High vapor equilibrium with gas so tend to lose to gas phase in absorber. Use as hydrate
inhibitor where it can be recovered from gas by separation at temperatures below 50◦F.
2) Diethylene glycol (DEG):
High vapor pressure leads to high losses in absorber. Low decomposition temperature
which requires low reconcentrator (stripper) temperature (315 to 340◦F) and thus cannot
get pure enough for most applications.
3) Triethylene glycol (TEG):
Most commonly used. Reconcentrate at 340–400◦F, for high purity. At absorber
temperatures in excess of 120◦F, there is a tendency to high vapor losses.
4)Tetraethylene glycol (TREG):
More expensive than TEG but less loss at high gas contact temperatures. Reconcentrate at
400 to 430◦F.
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Natural Gas Processing and Liquefaction

Dehydration
Triethylene Glycol (TEG)
TEG is by far the most common liquid desiccant used in natural gas dehydration. It exhibits
most of the desirable criteria of commercial suitability:
1) TEG is regenerated more easily to a concentration of 98–99% in an atmospheric stripper
because of its high boiling point and decomposition temperature.
2) TEG has an initial theoretical decomposition temperature of 404◦F, whereas that of
diethylene glycol is only 328◦F
3) Vaporization losses are lower than monoethylene glycol or diethylene glycol. Therefore,
the TEG can be regenerated easily to the high concentrations needed to meet pipeline
water dew point specifications.
4) Capital and operating costs are lower.

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Natural Gas Processing and Liquefaction

Dehydration
Triethylene Glycol Process Description
The wet gas passes through an inlet scrubber
to remove solids and free liquids, and then
enters the bottom of the glycol contactor.
Gas flows upward in the contactor, while lean
glycol solution (glycol with little or no water)
flows down over the trays. Rich glycol absorbs
water and leaves at the bottom of the column
while dry gas exits at the top.
The rich glycol flows through a heat
exchanger at the top of the still where it is
heated and provides the coolant for the still
condenser. Then the warm solution goes to a
flash tank, where dissolved gas is removed.
The rich glycol from the flash tank is further heated by heat exchange with the still
bottoms, and then becomes the feed to the still. The still produces water at the top and a
lean glycol at the bottom, which goes to a surge tank before being returned to the
contactor.

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Natural Gas Processing and Liquefaction

Dehydration
Adsorption (1)
Adsorption involves a form of adhesion between the surface of the solid desiccant and the
water vapor in the gas. The water forms an extremely thin film that is held to the desiccant
surface by forces of attraction, but there is no chemical reaction (physical adsorption).
Adsorption dehydrators are typically more effective than glycol dehydrators, as they can
dry a gas to less than 0.1 ppmv (0.05 lb/MMcf). However, in order to reduce the size of the
solid desiccant dehydrator, a glycol dehydration unit is often used for bulk water removal.
The glycol unit would reduce the water content to around 60 ppmv, which would help reduce
the mass of solid desiccant necessary for final drying.
Two steps are involved in adsorbing a trace gas component. The first step is to have the
component contact the surface and the second step is to have it travel through the pathways
inside the adsorbent. Because this process is a two-step process and the second step is
relatively slow, solid adsorbents take longer to come to equilibrium with the gas phase than
in absorption processes.

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Natural Gas Processing and Liquefaction

Dehydration
Adsorption (2)
In addition to concentration (i.e., partial pressure for gases), two properties of the
adsorbate dictate its concentration on the adsorbent surface: polarity and size.
-Polar adsorbents adsorbs polar molecules stronger than non polar molecules (therefore,
water (more polar) will be adsorbed more strongly on polar adsorbents than methane for
example)
-Adsorbate too large to fit into the pores adsorbs only on the outer surface of adsorbent,
which is a trivial amount of surface area compared with the pore area. If the pores are
sufficiently large to hold different adsorbates, the less volatile adsorbates (the molecule
bigger in size usually is the less volatile) will displace the more volatile ones. Therefore,
ethane is displaced by propane.

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Natural Gas Processing and Liquefaction

Dehydration
Adsorption – Adsorbent Selection (1)
Some adsorbents are good only for dehydrating the gas, whereas others are capable of
performing both dehydration and removal of heavy hydrocarbon components. The selection
of proper desiccant for a given application usually is a complex problem

Silica Gel Activated Alumina Molecular Sieves

Surface Area, m2/g 650-750 325-360 600-800
Av. Pore Diam., Ao 22 Varies 3,4,5,10
Av. Min. Moisture
Content of Effluent 5-10 10-20 0.1
Gas, ppmv
Regeneration
190 160-220 200-315
Temperature, oC

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Natural Gas Processing and Liquefaction

Dehydration
Adsorption – Adsorbent Selection (2)
Silica Gel:
Highly porous form of silica (SiO2) made synthetically from sodium silicate
Used for gas and liquid dehydration and hydrocarbon recovery from natural gas.
Used mostly for normal gas dehydration and suitable for high water content above 1 mol%
when low levels of water in the dehydrated gas are not needed
Has high water capacity, where it can adsorb up to 45% of its own weight in water
Easily regenerated compared to other adsorbents (less heat requirements)
Low cost compared with other adsorbents
Alumina:
 Very polar and strongly attract water and acid gases (if present)
 Used for moderate levels of water in the feed when low levels of water in the product are
not required
 The highest mechanical strength compared with other adsorbents
 Lower regeneration heat requirement compared to molecular sieves

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Natural Gas Processing and Liquefaction

Dehydration
Adsorption – Adsorbent Selection (3)
Molecular Sieve (usually 4A type):
They are crystalline alkali metal alumino silicates comprising a three-dimensional
interconnecting network
Capable of dehydration to less than 0.1 ppmv water content
The overwhelming choice for dehydration prior to cryogenic processes (especially true for
LNG and NGLs recovery).
Excellent for H2S removal, CO2, dehydration, high temperature dehydration, heavy
hydrocarbon liquids, and highly selective removal.
 More expensive
 Requires higher temperatures for regeneration, thus has a higher operating cost

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Natural Gas Processing and Liquefaction

Dehydration
Adsorption – Process Description
The flow chart shows two-bed-adsorber
system. One bed, adsorber #1, dries gas
while the other bed, adsorber #2, goes
through a regeneration cycle.
The wet feed goes through an inlet
separator that will catch any entrained
liquids before the gas enters the top of the
active bed.
Flow is top-down to avoid bed
fluidization.
The dried gas then goes through a dust
filter that will catch fines before the gas
exits the unit. This filter must be kept
working properly, especially if the gas goes
on to a cryogenic section with plate-fin
heat exchangers, as dust can collect in the
exchangers and reduce heat transfer and
dramatically increase pressure drop
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