Sour Condensate Sweetening Unit

[DrKMM]

I'm involved with an Oil Compnay and their oil/gas fields are producing sour gas and condensate with high concentration of H2S and CO2 the Company are planning to install sour condensate treatment facilities near these Oil/Gas Fields and we hope to find the best available technologies to treat the condensate and the best compnay to handle such project with an estimate of the cost if its possible. I hope that you have any suggestion for this project.


The treatment facilities should process 10,000 Barrels per day (BPD) of sour condensate with the following specifications:





Feed Specs:



Pressure: 750-1050Psig



Temperature: 40-50oC



H2S: 4-5% (mole)



CO2: 5-6.5% (mole)





Sweet Condensate Specs:



H2S (Max): 100ppm (mole%)



CO2: 0.5 mole%

 

[JLSeagull]

For small plants check with Linde, formerly Pro-Quip in Tulsa. Another small gas processing plant designer is Thomas Russell in Catoosa, OK. Many of the big contractors such as Jacobs, Fluor, KBR, Worley Parsons, Bechtel etc. can provide an amine unit for liquids. It is also common to treat the gas near the well sites if the area has gas distribution pipelines.

 

[EmmanuelTop]

Technically speaking, you have three possible options:

1) Caustic units (MEROX)
2) Amine units (DEA)
3) Solid Adsorbents (e.g. mole sieves)

Caustic units are non-regenerable. You can calculate theoretical consumption of NaOH based on your feed flowrate and sour component composition, and then you can easily estimate if this is feasible option or not. In addition, handling of waste qaustic is a serious environmental issue and it might open the requirement for caustic treatment unit. The advantage of caustic processes is high efficiency; NaOH is a strong base.

Amine units are applicabe for much more narrowed range of feed (types). Handling heavy condensates is not likely to be preferred option - especially if density of condensate approaches amine solution density. Avoid liquid-liquid systems if you are dealling with the condensate with high distillation end-point.

Mol-sieves are specific, and they are not recommended for bulk acid components removal. Furthermore, side-reactions (coking COS formation etc.) are possible.

Try to approach various vendors (UOP, BASF, Shell) and seek for the most suitable technology for your application. If there is any.

Best regards,

 

[dcasto]

You need to look at the other sulphur compounds too. Most specs call for limits on mercaptains, thisulphates ect. If you have H2S, you probabilly have those critters too. Thats where the merox comes in. Merox is a terrible system for H2S removal, but is perfect for getting all the weird sulphurs out.

BUT, if the specs allow for those sulphur critters, then stick with amine.

 

[EmmanuelTop]

dcasto,

Interesting comment from your side. I have good experience with MEROX units, as far as H2S removal from refinery streams (LPG, Naphtha, Kerosene) is concerned. Can you put some more lights on what exactly you were thinking about?

Regards,

 

[maddocks]

Operating merox units can be fairly labour intensive along with some pretty hi-level chemistry (this combination makes for cranky opertors). Get some references and do some site visits. I'd look at liquid/liquid sweetening, or maybe mole sieve. You should also talk to Johnson Matthey catalysts.