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Abstract
Advantaged separations technology has proven to be key in
the success of the hydrocarbon production processes of Shell
over the years. R&D as well as benchmarking efforts over the
years have yielded a varied slate of separation process
technology that has found wide application in the field. The
Shell separation technologies cover the range of phase
separation, distillation hardware, and process design and are
pervasive in the hydrocarbon supply chain from production
to manufacturing.
Separations in the Gas Platform The next step in the process is to dehydrate the gas. The
Figure 3 depicts the operation of a gas platform that takes a best process available for this is the removal of water by
gas stream from the wells, separates the hydrocarbon liquids absorption into a hygroscopic solvent such as
associated with that stream and then processes the gas to triethyleneglycol. This operation requires very intimate
remove water for corrosion and hydrate formation control contact between the solvent and the gas so that very low gas
during transmission. dew points (water content) are achieved. It also requires very
efficient separation of the glycol and the gas so the gas leaving
the contactor can be handled properly in the pipeline. In this
case the Swirl Tube™ concept is used in dual function since,
as described above, it allows for efficient separation, but it
also promotes excellent contact between the phases while in
the tubes. The advantages of this technology are clearly
illustrated in Figure 5 where, as indicated, the capacity of the
Shell Swirl Tube™ tray outperforms state of the art
technology such as structured packings by 40-50%.
for transport tho shore. Also this stripping operation can minimum capital is the key and the Shell HiFi™, Calming
effectively use the high capacity of the Shell HiFi™ Section™, and ConSep™ tray technologies have become the
contacting trays. best tool to achieve the required performance. Figure 7 shows
where these different trays can be used. Figure 8 shows the
Gas Sweetening capacity advantages of the Shell family of tray technology
The removal of acid gases (H2S, CO2 mainly) from gas over conventional technology.
streams is a prevalent operation in gas processing. It can be
found in many places in the supply chain, involving produced
gas, gas separated from liquids, and even gas obtained in the
refining process. In all these cases the objective is to remove
one of more of the acid gas components from the gas, usually
by an absorptive process that uses a solvent. The selection of
the proper solvent formulation for the application is a very
important step in proper and economical process design.
Shell has developed entire proprietary processes such as
the Sulfinol and SCOT processes for selective absorption of
H2S or CO2. The general flowsheet of these processes is
shown in Figure 6 and it basically consists of an absorption
tower and a solvent recovery stripper. The proprietary Shell Fig. 7: Typical NGL fractionation plant
solvents in these processes are also combined with the use of
the Shell HiFi™ tray technology for maximum capacity and
efficiency. Some of these solvent formulations actually
perform absorption with the aid of a chemical reaction. This
means that liquid residence time in the contacting towers is a
variable to be manipulated and designed for. The Shell HiFi™
tray technology allows designers to tune residence time
requirements for proper selectivity and total absorption
performance.
Oil Refining
Fig. 6: General flowsheet of gas treating processes The manufacturing of fuels and chemical feedstocks from
crude oil in a refinery takes place by a combination of
separation (mainly distillation) and conversion processes. The
NGL Fractionation
latter are used to upgrade fractions into more valuable
The separation of NGL components for use by the
products while the former is used to purify products or prepare
petrochemical industry is the first true manufacturing process
feedstocks. The Shell separation technologies applicable to
in the supply chain. In these so-called Fractionation plants the
refining are a combination of process know-how and superior
NGL is separated into marketable products such as ethane,
hardware for distillation. Figure 9 indicates where various
propane, butane, isobutane, and gasoline. These separations all
pieces of this array fit in a general refinery flowsheet,
take place by high pressure distillation and are shown
including all kind of distillation processes (primary
schematically in Figure 7. The profitability of these plants is
distillation, distillation section of conversion units, light ends
dictated by Capex minimization, separation efficiency and
separation, etc.), as well as other specific separation
capacity, and also by energy integration. A fundamental
applications (like aromatics recovery by solvent extraction).
component in these factors is the performance of the
distillation columns. Maximum capacity and efficiency with
4 S.D. BERGERMAN, H.G. POLDERMAN AND J.L. BRAVO SPE 69506
References
1. H.G. Polderman et al. ‘New design rules for dehydration tanks
and separator vessels’ Paper SPE 38816, Presented at the SPE
Annual Meeting, San Antonio October 1997.
2. K.J. Li, ‘Use of fractionation column in an offshore
environment’, Paper SPE 49121, prepared for the SPE Annual
Meeting, New Orleans, September 1998.