Simulation and Optimization Analysis of Natural Gas Liquid (NLG) Recovery Process from Natural Gas

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Faculty of Petroleum and Mining Engineering, Suez University, Egypt. Saudi Consulting and Design Office SCADO, Saudi Arabia.

2 Faculty of Petroleum and Mining Engineering, Suez University, Egypt.

Abstract

Recently due to the growing demand of natural gas liquids (NGL), there are many processes are existing to make a deep NGL recovery from natural gas. The present study describes the simulation and optimization analyses of NGL recovery for two different processes. The simulation is employed to assess and compare an existing NGL recovery unit at Port Said (EGYPT) in United Gas Derivatives Company (UGDC) which was designed as Improved Overhead Recycle Process (IOR) with anther recovery technology known as the Single Column Overhead Recycle Process (SCORE).
The simulation results show that IOR process is more flexible than that SCORE process in the case of changing natural gas feed composition from very rich to very lean gas. Since IOR process can accommodate change in feed gas composition from lean gas range (0.91806 – 0.9620) to rich gas range (0.91806 – 0.85511) based on methane mole fraction. At normal operating condition the fixed capital investment and operating cost for SCORE process is less by $ 25.67E+06 / year than that of IOR process. Also the total production profit for SCORE is more by $ 10.787E+06 / year than total production profit for IOR process. So SCORE process is the technology of choice for plants where high propane recovery and maximum efficiency are of great importance.  

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