Case study for CO2 removal using Fluor Solvent for offshore natural gas treatment
Niel Kritzinger A C , Ravi Ravikumar A , Sunil Singhal B , Kakul Singh B and Soumya Jyoti Choudhury BA Fluor Corporation, CA, United States.
B Fluor Daniel India, Gurgaon, Haryana, India.
C Corresponding author. Email: Niel.Kritzinger@fluor.com
The APPEA Journal 61(2) 548-552 https://doi.org/10.1071/AJ20115
Accepted: 1 April 2021 Published: 2 July 2021
Abstract
The need to remove CO2 from natural gas has become more important as producers are required to develop offshore reserves with high CO2 content. Conventional amine treating processes require extensive heating and cooling and constant monitoring to maintain plant performance. Amine systems are also prone to solvent degradation and portions of the plant require construction from stainless steel material to prevent corrosion. An ideal offshore treating process should have a small footprint, be easy to operate and maintain and be able to handle CO2 feed content fluctuations. This paper introduces the Fluor Solvent® propylene carbonate-based process technology. The Fluor Solvent system absorbs CO2 from a feed gas using propylene carbonate and releases CO2 by pressure reduction of the rich solvent without the need for heat-based regeneration. The system is particularly suitable for offshore applications due to its simplicity and flexibility. Fluor Solvent is non-toxic, relatively low cost and readily available from several solvent manufacturers. Since Fluor Solvent is anhydrous, both the treated gas and CO2 product streams are suitable for pipeline distribution. In addition, the entire plant can be constructed from carbon steel. This case study compares the use of Fluor Solvent to a traditional activated methyldiethanolamine (MDEA)-based system for removing CO2 from an offshore gas. The comparison includes rough order of magnitude (ROM) delta capital and operating costs for feed gases with varying CO2 concentrations.
Keywords: amine solvent, CO2 removal, Fluor Solvent, MDEA, natural gas treatment, offshore gas plants, propylene carbonate.
Niel Kritzinger is a Principal Process Engineer and a Fluor Project Manager. He has 28 years of relevant industry experience, of which 19 years have been with Fluor. He has represented Fluor on client sites for a significant portion of his career, where he worked with and on client teams as Lead Process Engineer. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Pretoria in South Africa. |
Ravi Ravikumar holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Madras and a master’s degree from Clarkson University, USA. He is an Executive Process Director with Fluor with 47 years of experience in variety of gasification and syngas-related projects and is the Fluor Technology Group Leader for gasification/syngas. |
Sunil Singhal holds a bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, India. He is a Process Engineer and Fluor Fellow in Gasification and Syngas applications at Fluor Daniel India Pvt. Ltd and has over 18 years of industry experience. He has vast experience in gasification, petroleum refinery, fertiliser and chemical industries, covering licensor evaluation and selection, conceptual studies, basic and detailed engineering, process economics, proposal development, scope definitions, developing budgets and schedules, de-bottlenecking, troubleshooting and plant performance monitoring. |
Kakul Singh holds a bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, BHU, Varanasi, India. She is a Process Engineer at Fluor Daniel India Pvt. Ltd with over 8 years of industry experience. She has worked on several gasification, petroleum refinery and petrochemical industries projects. |
Soumya Jyoti Choudhury holds a master’s degree in Chemical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, India. He is a Process Engineer at Fluor Daniel India Pvt. Ltd with over 12 years of industry experience. He has worked on several gasification, petroleum refinery, gas processing and petrochemical industries projects. He also has on-site experience of assisting in mechanical completion and plant commissioning. |
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