Abstract
In optimizing glycol dehydration system for natural gas, several critical parameters exist, which can be varied to achieve, a specified dew point depression. This paper studies the effect of varying the glycol flow rate, number of stages or height of the packing column in the contactor, re-boiler temperature, and striping gas rate on the glycol dehydration unit of a gas plant in Nigeria using HYSYS. Process simulator.
An HYSYS model of the plant was developed and used to investigate the important design parameters. The results were then used to provide an analysis of the dehydration effectiveness at a variety of common operating variables. Emissions control in the glycol regenerator and the flash tank were also presented.
The investigation revealed that the design of the triethylene glycol (TEG) system is adequate to condition the gas to achieve a water dew point of 5°C at 95bar. However, either the lean glycol cooler operation is not optimized or that it is undersized for the duty it is currently subjected to.
In today's competitive economy, the Engineer must become as productive as possible. One means of increasing this productivity is to use process simulation packages. Hence this paper seeks to proffer solution options for optimizing the gas plant dehydration process using HYSYS.
