
Explore natural gas processing from fundamentals to practical design, covering gas sweetening, dehydration, phase behavior, process simulation, and design calculations for fuel gas production.
Compare natural gas and crude oil and define common units. Apply shrinkage factor calculations to associated and non-associated gas, and distinguish dry versus wet gas while detailing sales gas specifications.
Apply Gibbs phase rule to pure and multi-component systems, analyze phase diagrams, and describe retrograde behavior and phase envelope in natural gas and reservoir fluids.
Learn water hydrocarbon phase behavior and estimate natural gas water content via Makita chart, Campbell method, and process simulation, under varying temperature, pressure, and composition.
Explore hydrate formation prediction in gas processing by comparing the Katz gas gravity method and the equilibrium constant method, with process simulation to estimate hydrate formation temperature at 1000 psia.
Discover gas processing objectives, block flow diagrams, and methods to produce transportable and saleable gas, maximize liquid recovery, and meet dehydration, sweetening, and NGL recovery requirements.
Explore amine plant design and sizing for natural gas sweetening, including mean sweetening decisions, circulation rate, pump duty, reboiler duty, and tower diameter estimation.
Explore gas dehydration with triethylene glycol absorption, covering process flow, operating parameters, dew point depression, and regeneration using stripping gas to remove water from natural gas.
Discover solid desiccant dehydration for natural gas, using two-bed temperature swing adsorption to achieve continuous operation, explain adsorption versus regeneration, mass transfer zones, breakthrough, and common operational issues.
Explore natural gas liquids recovery, including dew point control, cooling methods, and process flows from demethanization to NGL fractionation, highlighting expander versus valve energy benefits.
This course is the perfect choice for any engineer planning to begin or develop their career in natural gas processing, but are unsure of where to start.
This course is designed to systematically go through the following discussions related to natural gas processing:
A) Explaining what is natural gas exactly
B) Defining the objectives of natural gas processing plants
C) Providing a comprehensive guide to physical phenomena associated with natural gas
D) Providing a walkthrough to natural gas processing technologies
The course is made into 3 main sections:
Section 1) Introduction to natural gas processing
Objectives: to familiarize the audience with the definitions of natural gas, the differences between natural gas and crude oil, the commonly used units in natural gas processing, and how natural gas is characterized.
Section 2) Natural gas thermodynamics
Objectives: to explain the physical phenomena associated with natural gas such as natural gas phase behavior, retrograde behavior, water-hydrocarbon phase behavior, hydrate formation prediction, and hydrate formation prevention techniques.
Section 3) Natural gas conditioning
Objective: to familiarize, understand, learn to design and operate natural gas conditioning processes such as natural gas sweetening using amine absorption, natural gas dehydration using glycol absorption, natural gas dehydration using solid desiccant, and natural gas liquids recovery.
The target audience of this course is mainly:
Students with chemical/process/mechanical engineering background
Beginners with no or limited experience in the field of natural gas processing
Individuals who are interested in expanding their knowledge of the oil & gas industry
The course mainly relies on two references:
•P. Buthod and W. P. Manning, Oilfield Processing of Petroleum Volume One: Natural Gas. Tulsa: Pennwell Books, 1991
•Gas Processors Suppliers Association, Engineering Data Book 12th edition. Tulsa: Gas Processors Suppliers Association, 2004