AECH 1103 | Topic 3 (3): Natural Gas Industry

crude oil wells, gas wells, condensate wells

These are primarily the three sources for "raw" natural gas.

Associated Gas

This refers to the natural gas that comes along with crude oil.

gas cap, crude oil

Fill in the blanks.

Associated gas can exist separately from crude oil, forming what is known as a _________ or dissolved in the __________.

Gas Wells

This type of well produces raw natural gas only.

Condensate Wells

This type of well produces natural gas along with very light liquid hydrocarbon known as natural gasoline because it has a high octane number.

methane

Fill in the blank.

Raw natural gas consists primarily of _____________.

• Heavier gaseous hydrocarbon

• Acid gases

• Other gases: nitrogen and helium

• Water

• Liquid hydrocarbons

• Mercury

This is what raw natural gas is composed of.

Liquified Natural Gas (LNG)

It is gas that has been liquified at very low temperature and is transported as a liquid.

Natural Gas Liquids (NGL)

These are heavier gaseous hydrocarbons that are included in the raw natural gas stream.

Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG)

It is gas that is liquid near room temperature and at some extent of pressure.

Natural Gas

It is the cleanest-burning hydrocarbon, producing around half the carbon dioxide and just one tenth of the air pollutants of coal when burnt to generate electricity (less pollution).

• Gas sweetening

• Gas dehydration

• Recovery and extraction of NGL (C2 plus)

• Fractionation of NGL into individual products, which may include ethane, propane, butane, isobutene, and natural gasoline

These are the natural gas processes.

True

True or False.

It is cheaper to produce gas than coal.

gas-fired, less, coal-fired

Fill in the blanks.

A __________ power station takes much ______ time to start and stop than a ________ plant.

solar, wind

Fill in the blanks.

The flexibility of gas-fired power stations make it a good partner to renewable sources of energy such as ________ and ________.

ethylene, propylene, ammonia

Fill in the blanks.

Gas can be used as a petrochemical, steel and fertilizer like ____________, ___________ and __________.

Polyethylene, PVC plastics, antifreeze, paints

These can be made out of gas under ethylene and propylene.

fertilizer

This can be made out of gas under ammonia.

H₂S, water vapor, CO₂, and N₂

These components must be removed first in natural gas processing.

Natural Gas Liquids (NGL), methane, natural gas

Fill in the blanks.

In natural gas processing, the separation of hydrocarbons, known as __________, is carried out next, producing __________ as the sole product commercially marketed as __________.

Stage 1: Gas Treatment/Gas Conditioning

Stage 2: Gas Processing

These are the two main stages apart from the oil and gas condensate removal step of a system for natural gas processing.

ethane, propane, butane, isobutene, natural gasoline

Fill in the blanks.

In natural gas processing, NGL is fractionated into individual products, which may include ___________, ___________, ___________, _____________, and ______________.

• natural gas = > 5.7 mg H₂S per one cubic meter of natural gas = sour

• natural gas = contains only CO₂ and no other sulfur compounds = sweet

This is how natural gas is identified as 'sweet' or 'sour'.

H2S, CO2, corrosion, heating, natural gas, CO2

Fill in the blanks.

In natural gas processing, it is usually desirable to remove both ________ and ________ to prevent _________ problems in the first place and to increase the _________ value of the _________ by eliminating _________.

1. Reactive Chemical Solvents

2. Physical Methods

2. Other Methods

These are the three categories in which the methods used for natural gas sweetening can be classified.

Amine Treating Unit

This is the most widely used process that is based on the use of polymeric membranes to dehydrate and separate the carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide.

Sulfur Recovery Unit/Claus Process

This converts the hydrogen sulfide in the acid gas into elemental sulfur.

Tail Gas Treating Unit (TGTU)

This recovers and recycles residual sulfur-containing compounds back into the Claus unit.

incinerated, carbon dioxide, incinerator flue gas stack

Fill in the blanks.

In natural gas processing, the final residual gas from the TGTU is _____________; the _____________ in the raw natural gas ends up in the __________________.

• Glycol Dehydration → Triethylene Glycol (TEG)

• Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA)

Water vapor removal can be done through these processes.

adsorption

Fill in the blank.

Mercury can be removed using ____________ processes.

• Cyrogenic Process

• Absorption Process

• Adsorption Process

Nitrogen removal can be done through these processes.

Cyrogenic Process

This nitrogen removal process uses low-temperature distillation; this process can be modified to also recover helium if desired.

Absorption Process

This nitrogen removal process uses lean oil or a special solvent as the absorbent.

Adsorption Process

This nitrogen removal process uses activated carbon or molecular sieves as the adsorbent; this process may have limited applicability (loss of butanes and heavier hydrocarbonds).

cryogenic, low, distillation, expansion, turbo-expander

Fill in the blank.

Natural Gas Liquids (NGL) are recovered by using a ___________ ______ temperature ___________ process involving the _________ of gas through a ______________.

1. Dethanizer → Ethane

2. Depropanizer → Propane

3. Debutanizer → Normal, Isobutane, C5+ mixture

These are the three distillation towers in series that compose the NGL fractionation.

propane, butanes, C5+, sweetened, mercaptans, disulfides, ethane, by-products

Fill in the blanks.

In NGL fractionation, the recovered streams of __________, __________, and __________ are each _____________ to convert undesirable _____________ into ____________ and, along with the recovered __________, are the final NGL _________ from the gas processing plant.

Liquified Natural Gas (LNG)

This is a natural gas that has been cooled that it condenses to a liquid.

Liquefaction Technology

This makes natural gas available throughout the world.

True

True or False.

LNG is economical to transport locally and between continents in specially designed ocean vessels.

600

Fill in the blank.

The volume of LNG is reduced ________ times.

• Non-Toxic & Non-Corrosive

• Colorless & Odorless

• Can NOT ignite

• Contact is hazardous due to extremely cold temperature

These are the properties of liquified natural gas (LNG).

Australia, Qatar, United States

These countries are the three major LNG exporters in 2021.

900

Fill in the blank.

Qatar's north fields have proven to be a reserve of more than _______ trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

15%

Fill in the blank.

Qatar's north fields contain approximately _______ of the world's total proven gas reserves.

Qatar's North Fields

It is the largest non-associated natural gas field in the world.

1) Exploration and Production

2) Gas Treatment and Purification

3) Liquefaction Process

4) LNG Transportation

5) LNG Storage

6) Re-gasification and Quality Adjustment

These are the 6 processes of liquified natural gas (LNG).

Gas-to-Liquids (GTL) Technology

This converts natural gas into high-quality liquid products that would otherwise be made from crude oil.

natural gas

This is the cleanest burning fossil fuel.

colorless, odorless, sulphur, aromatics, nitrogen

Fill in the blanks.

GTL products are ____________ and ___________; they contain almost none of the impurities—___________, ___________, and __________—that are found in crude oil.

1. Synthesis Gas

2. Fischer-Tropsch Process

3. Cracking & Isomerization

These are the three stages of the GTL process.

Synthesis Gas

This is the first stage of the GTL process; it is a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide, is manufactured from natural gas by partial oxidation; impurities are removed fromthe syngas.

Fischer-Tropsch Process

This is the second stage of the GTL process that converts the synthesis gas into liquid hydrocarbons using a catalyst; in this stage, a liquid is formed which looks and feels like wax at room temperature.

Cracking & Isomerization

This is the third stage of the GTL process, which "tailors" the molecule chains into products with desired properties; this yields high-quality liquids such asdiesel, kerosene and lubricant oil.