Understanding the challenges faced in controlling moisture content in the gas flow lines

Abstract

Natural gas, a fossil fuel derived from plants, animals, and microorganisms, is a sustainable and eco-friendly alternative to oil and coal. It accounts for 23.8% of global primary energy consumption and is used in the production of essential chemicals like hydrogen, fertilizers, and plastics. However, natural gas extraction often generates water vapour, which poses challenges for transportation and treatment of raw natural gas. Glycol dehydration is the primary technique used to eliminate water vapour, this research aims to understand these challenges, design a dehydration process using Aspen software, investigate operating parameters, and study the impact of triethylene glycol on the absorption process. The goal is to enhance water removal efficiency in the absorption dehydration unit using TEG glycol, contributing to process design improvement. Aspen HYSYS was used to simulate the dehydration process and the results are being presented in this report. It has been found a clear relationship between water content in dry gas and inlet gas flow rate. Higher flow rates reduce contact time between gas and glycol in the absorber, resulting in more gas carrying over and higher water content in dry gas. The reboiler temperature, also affects the moisture content in gas. The TEG flow rate is another parameter that was found to affect moisture content in gas, the simulation results also shows that higher TEG flow rates decrease gas moisture content in gas but increase glycol loss and BTEX emissions.