Assalamualaikum and good morning to the panel,…..

Today I will present about my research

project which entitled the optimization of LNG dehydration process.
LNG is one of the type of natural gas where it is in liquid form when the methane gas is
processed into LNG by cooling it to -161oC. As the natural gas convert from gaseous state to
liquid state, its volume decrease by a factor more than 600 times. Due to technical and
economical reason, it is a favourable method to transport gas. Since natural gas is buried
underground the formation, it contains impurities such as water. This water can form
hydrates and cause corrosion in pipeline.
So my project was done to accomplish 2 objectives which are first, to determine the most
effective glycol as absorbent for absorption dehydration process and second, to evaluate the
optimum parameters in absorption dehydration process.
Next is my problem statement. Since natural gas is found deep in underground reservoir, it
contains impurities such as water. This water can form hydrates when natural gas
components such methane, ethane, h2s and co2 occupy the empty lattice positions in the
water structure. This hydrates can block pipeline flow and control system. Therefore,
dehydration process which is a process to remove water in natural gas is necessary.
There are five scopes of research in this project. First, to design the simulation of gas
dehydration plant by using Aspen HYSYS. Second, to investigate the type of glycols which are
EG, DEG and TEG. Third, to study the effect of number of stages of an absorber in dehydration
unit. Fourth, to study the effect of varying inlet gas temperature on glycol dehydration unit.
And lastly, to investigate the effect of varying the reboiler temperature on glycol dehydration
unit.
For the methodology, this project is done by simulation by using Aspen HYSYS. First, I will
design the natural gas plant. This is where I determine what kind of equipment need for
dehydration unit. Second, I determine the condition and properties of natural gas plant. Here
I specified the condition and composition and condition of natural gas stream and glycol
stream such as temperature, pressure and flow rate. Then, I begin with the simulation by
using the normal condition by using Aspen HYSYS. After that, I will varying the reboiler
temperature, inlet gas temperature and change the number of stages of absorber. If all the
equipment converged, then I will record and analyse the data. This is the process flow diagram
of the gas dehydration plant.
The results is analyse from these four graphs. From we can see, TEG glycol requires the
smallest flow rate to achieve the lowest water content compared to EG and DEG. This is due
to TEG can be regenerated more easily and has high boiling point and decomposition
temperature. BP of TEG is 288oC and BP of water is 100oC. This huge difference make it easier
to separate water from glycol. Plus, TEG has 2 OH bond which has strong affinity towards
water molecule. Next is the graph of water content vs number of trays in absorber. We can
see that the higher the number of trays, the lower the water content in dry gas. This is because
when there are high number of trays, there are more contact areas between water and glycol.
So this promotes absorption process. For the third graph which is water content vs inlet gas
temperature, we can see that the lower the inlet gas temperature, the lower the water
content in the dry gas. When the inlet gas temperature is low, the gas velocity will decrease.
So low diameter of vessel is required. So the cost can be reduce. For the last graph which is
water content vs reboiler temperature, the higher the reboiler temperature, the lower the
water content. This is because high temperature can vaporize more water vapour.
For the conclusion, it can be concluded that the optimum condition of dehydration unit based
on the results obtained are use TEG glycol, use 12 number of stages, 20 oC inlet gas
temperature and 200oC reboiler temperature.
For the recommendation, the result need to be compared with the actual field data to be
more accurate. Plus, in the future the simulation of others dehydration methods can be done
to determine which method is most effective.

***
Max water content - 4 to 7 lb H2O/MMscf
Inlet gas T
<20oC is not investigated due to raw gas T, composition and hydrate formation
>50oC cause high TEG losses.
Reboiler T
>200oC is not simulated because TEG max regeneration temperature is 204oC. glycol
decomposition occur at 200oC.