Use of natural gas condensate as fuel for power generation (gas) turbines

[thony999]

Hi all.

I am interested in solutions that can use natural gas condensates liquids produced by our gas plant as fuel for power power generation gas turbines.

The gas plants of interest are currently in operation and export up to 150million scf of gas per day and produce up to 10 thousand barrels of condensate daily,which is exported via a pipeline.However,when the export pipeline is unavailable the gas plant gets shutdown due to build up of condensate.

I am thus looking for a solution that can use the produced condensate liquid as fuel to generate power from a (gas) turbine on site so as to reduce dependence on the export pipeline.

Can the condensate also be used as feed fuel for the boiler of a steam turbine instead of using HRSG? Any ideas where this has been done so we can engage boiler OEM?

Kindly advise what solutions are available for the volume of condensate stated above.

Regards,
Thony

 

[KENAT]

thony, I have a feeling a regular member named zdas04 may have posted on related topics before - might want to check over in Petroleum Engineers Area

Posting guidelines faq731-376

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?

(probably not aimed specifically at you)
What is Engineering anyway: faq1088-1484​

 

[zdas04]

We've all seen gas turbines running on liquid jet fuel, and they are advertised as working with marginal and low quality fuel, so in principle you should not have a problem, but I would certainly check with the manufacturer to see if there are any considerations for using liquid fuel (you may need to use some of the heat of compression of the air-end to vaporize the LPG). This might be a very good answer to problems with export pipelines.

The steam boiler is pretty easy, if you switch your backyard bbq grill from LPG to natural gas you just need to switch an orifice and everything else is fine. It could be that easy to make the natural gas to LPG transition, but you need to engage your boiler manufacturer to see what your design considerations are.

There was once a gas plant in central Colorado that had an upset that sent [estimated] 2000 MMBTU/MSCF gas into the local distribution system instead of the design 950 MMBTU/MSCF. Many home furnaces and hot water heaters were fine with the change. Some weren't. The ones that weren't could not tolerate the hotter flame temperature and many fire boxes failed with catastrophic results. Check with your boiler manufacture to see if your fire box can handle (possibly with flow restrictions) a hotter fire. If so, then this could be a great answer for your overall plant profitability.

The steam turbine is looking for a specific steam quality at a specific pressure so if you meet those requirements then your fuel specification doesn't matter.

David Simpson, PE
MuleShoe Engineering

In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual. Galileo Galilei, Italian Physicist

 

[LittleInch]

"Condensate" is a fairly loose term, but providing the composition doesn't change much then of course you can burn it in many different ways. Dual fuel gas turbines are quite common so you can run it on gas most of the time then switch over if you need to.

Just provide the composition or range of compositon to a boiler supplier or gas turbine supplier and let the do their job of using it to create energy of heat or power. You can burn anything crude oil based if you do a bit of work on it so condensate which is usually quite low C numbers is easy.

I can't recall what power rating 10,000bbls a day is when you turn it into electricity, but it is quite high.

Normally the options are find another transport route or build some more tanks if the occureence is either high or the risk is too high to close the plant.

Designing something for a very occasional use is normally cost prohibitive

Remember - More details = better answers
Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.

 

[zdas04]

LittleInch,
The market for C2+ is so very spotty right now. People are making process/reject decisions on an hourly basis, and I've talked to several people at cryo plants that were having to shut their plants down 4-5 times a month when storage was full, blending capability was exhausted, and the liquids pipeline wasn't taking. Being able to keep the plant running to satisfy gas-sales contracts gets to be a huge problem. A burn/sell option can keep the plant running and not have to subject it to the waste of shutting down and restarting.

David Simpson, PE
MuleShoe Engineering

In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual. Galileo Galilei, Italian Physicist

 

[gruntguru]

"I can't recall what power rating 10,000bbls a day is when you turn it into electricity, but it is quite high."

Somewhere between 200 and 400 MW depending on heating value and efficiency?

This would be a large installation with high capital cost and significant start-up time. At this scale it would be more cost effective (if possible) to shut down the pipeline and just export electricity.

je suis charlie

 

[LittleInch]

OK,

I'm a bit more used to 5 year supply contracts for this stuff, but an extra tank would seem to be a lot cheaper than a huge turbine system....

Remember - More details = better answers
Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.

 

[thony999]

Thanks guys. I appreciate your feedback. All are very helpful