Supervisor by:

Dr. Abduraqeeb Alwahbi

Gas sweetening
Prepared by:
Ameen Ahmed AL-Hammadi
Mohammed Abdulhakeem Qaid
Hamzah Abdulwahab Alaseri
Hassan Abdullah Bajeham
 Supervisor by:
Dr. Abduraqeeb Alwahbi

Gas sweetening
Prepared by:
Ameen Ahmed AL-Hammadi
Mohammed Abdulhakeem Qaid
Hamzah Abdulwahab Alaseri
Hassan Abdullah Bajeham
Introduction
Natural gas is a combustible mixture of hydrocarbon gases (from CH4
toC8H18) consisting essentially of METHANE other hydrocarbons and non-
Hydrocarbon Gases in gaseous state, which is extracted from the subsurface
of the earth in its natural state ,separately or together with liquid
hydrocarbons.
Natural Gas Sweetening
Why are the acid gases a problem?
Acid gas constituents present in most natural gas streams are mainly
hydrogen sulfide (H2S) and carbon dioxide (CO2).
Sweetening gas process is to remove acid gases from natural gases.
What processes are available for acid gas removal?
1- Absorption processes
2- Adsorption processes
3- membrane processes
Natural Gas Sweetening
2- Carbon dioxide:
- Is nonflammable.
- Large quantities are undesirable in a fuel.
- It forms a weak, corrosive acid in the presence of water.
- reducing heating value of gas.
Process selection
The selection of a solvent process depends on:
• Process objectives and characteristics of the solvents, such as selectivity
for H2S, COS, HCN, etc.,
• ease of handling water content in feed gas,
• ease of controlling water content of circulating solvent,
• concurrent hydrocarbon loss or removal with acid gas removal, costs,
solvent supply, chemical inertness,
• royalty cost,
• thermal stability and proper plant performance for various processing
techniques.
Absorption Processes

Process flow diagram for amine treating by use of MEA

Absorption Processes
Amines remove H2S and CO2 in a two step process:
1-The gas dissolves in the liquid (physical absorption)
2-The dissolved gas, which is a weak acid, reacts with the weakly basic
amines. (Chemical absorption).

Solvents used in absorption processes

1-Monoethanolamine
2-Diglycolamine
3-Diethanolamine
4-Methyldiethanolamine
5- Mixed Amines
Introduction
The two types of adsorption are physical adsorption and chemisorption.
Acid gases, as well as water, can be effectively removed by physical
adsorption.
Three zones in an adsorbent bed:
1- The equilibrium zone.
2- The mass transfer zone (MTZ).
3- The active zone.

There are more types of commercial adsorbents are in common use in gas
processing plants:
1- Silica gel, which is made of pure SiO2.
2- Activated alumina, which is made of Al2O3.
3- Molecular sieves, which are made of alkali aluminosilicates.
Molecular sieves
Molecular sieves are crystalline compounds created from alumina silicates.
It can be envisaged only to removed traces (in terms of ppm) of H2S and/or
CO2. The process requires two or three towers filled with molecular sieves.
3A type is suitable for water removal but CO2 and H2S cannot enter the
pores of the adsorbent. To remove these components, 4A, 5A or 13 X type
will be selected since it will adsorb the three components: H2O first, H2S
second and CO2 third.

In the mass transfer zone (MTZ), the concentration drops from the inlet
value, yin, to the outlet value, yout, in a smooth S-shaped curve.

Molecular sieve can reduce H2S levels to the 0.25 gr/100 scf (6 mg/m3)
specification. Regeneration of the bed at temperatures are in the range of
300–400 F (150–200 C), (generally 8 to 12 hours for both sequences).
Molecular sieves

When used as a purification

process, adsorption has two
major disadvantages:
1- It is a fixed-bed process
that requires two or more
adsorption beds for
continuous operation.
2- It has limited capacity
and is usually impractical for
removing large amounts of
impurity.
Introduction
Membranes are used in natural gas processing for dehydration, fuel-gas
conditioning, and bulk CO2 removal, but presently CO2 removal is by far the
most important application.

A membrane is a selective barrier; it allows some things to pass through but

stops others. Such things may be molecules, ions, or other small particles.
Many different types of membranes have been developed or are under
development for industrial separations.

There are tow types of membranes use to remove CO2 from natural gas in
sweetening process:
1) - hollow fiber elements
It has the advantage of being more resistant to fouling because the inlet gas
flows through the inside of the hollow fibers However, the mechanical
strength of the membrane limits the pressure drop across the membrane.
To handle high pressures, the permeate flows into the hollow fiber from the
shell side. This feature makes the membrane much more susceptible to
plugging and gas pretreatment is usually required.
2- spiral wound membrane element

In the spiral wound element two membrane sheets are separated by a

permeate spacer, Many of these leaves, separated by feed spacers, are
wrapped around the permeate tube, with the open end of the leaves facing
the tube. Feed gas travel along the feed spacers, the permeating species
diffuse through the membranes and down the permeate spacers into the
permeate tube.
Advantages And Disadvantages of
Membrane Systems
Advantages
• Ease of operation
•High reliability and on-stream time
•No chemicals needed
• Good weight and space efficiency

Disadvantages
• Generally higher hydrocarbon losses than solvent systems.
• H2S removal: H2S and CO2 permeation rates are roughly the same, so
H2S specifications may be difficult to meet.