| dc.description.abstract | Natural gas is a major source of energy and a source of feedstocks used for a large number of petrochemical products, therefore its production is vital for the world economy. Every year the world uses close to 100 trillion standard cubic feet of natural gas. All of this gas requires treatment before it enters the pipeline, making natural gas processing by far the largest market for industrial gas separation processes and equipment. Natural gas needs to be dehydrated in order to avoid corrosion following water condensation, especially in the presence of acid gases and plugging that may occur if the natural gas temperature reaches the hydrate formation temperature.
Among the many available options for natural gas dehydration, absorption by means of triethyleneglycol (TEG) has been used for many years and it is now a widely industry established process. Absorber-stripper units represent a proven, well-accepted technology in the gas processing industry mainly due to TEG’s low volatility, high hygroscopicity and high thermal stability. Also, because of perfect performance of TEG application in the natural gas dehydration field, numerous research focus on the TEG dehydration process to improve the dehydrating parameters.
In this research thesis, a brief review of the current methods used by the industry for natural gas dehydration is presented, and the engineering fundamentals of each process are discussed. Approximately 40,000 absorber-stripper units are in operation in the United States and many more around the world. The water content of high pressure, water-saturated gas is usually 1000 ppm and the objective of glycol absorption gas dryers is to bring this concentration to 100 ppm.
The main goal of this research work is to perform a systematic analysis on the use of TEG for the dehydration of natural gas by developing a process simulation model with cost estimation. Different system designs and the effects of operating parameters on the performance of TEG dehydration will be investigated. Furthermore, this work will discuss the limitation of natural gas dehydration using TEG and propose future alternative methods of natural gas dehydration using membranes. | |
