134 Fundamentals of Natural Gas Processing

Product dehydration. Both gas and liquid products have specications

on water content. Sales gas that leaves a plant is usually dry if cryogenic
hydrocarbon liquid recovery is used. Liquid and gas streams may be
water saturated after amine treatment or coming from underground
storage. Most product specications, except for propane, require that
no free water be present (Engineering Data Book, 2004a). This require-
ment puts the maximum water in sales gas at 4 to 7 lb/MMscf (60 to
110 mg/Sm3). For liquids, the water content is 10 to 20 ppmw. Com-
mercial grades of propane require lower water contents (see Chapter 1).
Hydrocarbon recovery. Most plants use cryogenic processes to recover
the C2+ fraction from inlet gas. If acid gases are removed by use of
amine processes, the exit gas leaves water saturated. To prevent hydrate
formation in the cryogenic section of hydrocarbon recovery, the water
concentration should be 0.1 ppmv or less. Chapter 7 discusses hydro-
carbon recovery processes.

The rst two areas are less demanding and a variety of processes are available
to meet the need. However, the third application, as well as gas liquefaction and
cryogenic nitrogen rejection units, requires water contents an order of magnitude
lower than the other two. Molecular sieves can provide dehydration to this level.
Water content is stated in a number of ways:

Mass of water per volume of gas, lb/MMscf (mg/Sm3)

Dew point temperature, F (C), which is the point that liquid water, real
or hypothetically subcooled, will condense out of the hydrocarbon phase
Concentration, parts per million by volume (ppmv)
Concentration, parts per million by mass (ppmw)

The rst three water-content values are commonly used with gases, and the
second and fourth values are used with liquids. The rst and third values are
convenient, as they are easily related (21 ppmv per lb/MMscf [18 mg/Sm3]). Use
of ppmw requires knowledge of the hydrocarbon molecular weight for conversion
to other concentrations. Unfortunately, the dew point is commonly used because
it makes practical sense. However, no simple conversion method exists between
dew point and the other concentration units.
This chapter provides ways to estimate the water content of gases and then
discusses the common processes used for its removal. The same basic processes
apply to drying liquids, but the liquid, which has a higher density, alters the
processes slightly. Chapter 10 discusses dehydration of liquids.

6.2 WATER CONTENT OF HYDROCARBONS

Determining the saturation water content of a gas (the dew point) is a standard
but complex problem in thermodynamics, and excellent discussions of phase
equilibria calculations are given in many thermodynamics texts (e.g., Smith

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