Energy Recovery From Process Optimization of Gas Sweetening Unit: Studies and Field Applications Available to Purchase

There is a strong consensus within the oil and gas industry on the importance of saving energy by improving the efficiency of its operations along the supply chain and eliminating unnecessary waste. The true objective should not be to reduce energy consumption, but to increase profitability by improving energy utilization. Energy is the driving force behind every processing plant operation and its usage has a significant impact on the profitability in upstream industry. This article will focus on energy saving opportunities around gas sweetening units. Amine systems in upstream plant represents one of the most energy consuming units but also one of the most improvable. The analysis illustrated in this paper has been done by looking at the implementation of proven technologies applied to reduce waste, maximize productivity and profits, and improve environmental performance. The study has been carried out on three real upstream plants. The substitution of traditional amines with formulated ones in gas sweetening units has showed significant economic benefits in terms of lower amine circulation rates and consequently lower amine regeneration duties. The application of a tailored amine led also to a minimization of corrosion potential. Moreover the interventions described did not lead only to energy saving but also to an improvement of acid gas treatment efficiency thanks to the higher selectivity of amine for acid components and to the formulated amine capacity to treat higher acid load. Another improvement aspect has concerned the reduction of waste energy of the high pressure drops that occur in amine gas treating applications. Pressure energy from the rich solution leaving the absorber can be recovered to pressurize the lean solution entering the absorber. A field application study of this technology is illustrated in this article.