| dc.description.abstract | One of the key challenges with shale gas is the wide variability in its composition and flow rate. The composition and flow rate, both between wells, and within the same well over time, can differ significantly. This is a challenge when designing a plant of optimal size. In general plants with larger process equipment are more flexible, and are able to handle a wider range of inlet compositions, however these plants also have higher fixed and operating costs.
Given for the problem studied in this work are: 1) a set of shale gas wells producing a known volume per day of gas, at a known temperature and pressure, 2) a known set of feedstock and product prices, and 3) a varying composition of gas.
The following are obtained: 1) a base case process design, 2) an economic evaluation of the proposed design, 3) an economic evaluation of modifications needed to the base case design to treat varying compositions of gas, 4) an evaluation of the proposed design and modifications using a safety index, and 5) an evaluation to see the effect of varying product and feedstock prices on process economics.
Results were obtained, and it was determined: 1) in general revenue increases with increasing NGL content, 2) processing costs also generally increase with increasing NGL content, and 3) as measured by ROI all feeds (including a high acid gas case) are worth treating, except the high methane case. From the sensitivity analysis it was found: 1) for the base case, shale gas processing is still profitable for even the highest feedstock prices, and 2) even a one standard deviation drop in product prices makes processing highly unprofitable. | en |
