SCHOOL OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING, UNIVERSITI SAINS MALAYSIA

EKC 483/3 PETROLEUM & GAS PROCESSING ENGINEEERING

EKC 483/3 PETROLEUM & GAS PROCESSING ENGINEERING

Natural Gas Processing Engineering

Professor Dr Ahmad Zuhairi Abdullah

SCHOOL OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING, UNIVERSITI SAINS MALAYSIA
EKC 483/3 PETROLEUM & GAS PROCESSING ENGINEEERING

NITROGEN REJECTION
Three sets of circumstances require nitrogen separation or rejection;
i) Processing high-nitrogen content gas to produce a pipeline quality gas
ii) Removing nitrogen from a natural gas so that the nitrogen can be used in an
enhanced oil recovery (EOR) operation
iii) Producing a nitrogen-helium feedstock mixture for helium recovery
When a natural gas has excessive nitrogen levels, 4 options are available;
i) Gas blending to meet pipeline specification
ii) Accepting a reduced price for the gas
iii) Removing sufficient nitrogen to meet sales specifications
iv) Producing a high-nitrogen stream, which is burned as process plant fuel

When options 1 and 2 are unavailable, a nitrogen rejection unit (NRU) must be
employed
The most common methods for removing nitrogen from natural gas are;
i) Cryogenic distillation
ii) Pressure swing adsorption (PSA)
iii) Membrane separation
SCHOOL OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING, UNIVERSITI SAINS MALAYSIA
EKC 483/3 PETROLEUM & GAS PROCESSING ENGINEEERING
SCHOOL OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING, UNIVERSITI SAINS MALAYSIA
EKC 483/3 PETROLEUM & GAS PROCESSING ENGINEEERING

Cryogenic methods are the most economical at higher feed-gas rates and nitrogen
concentrations
At low gas volumes, membrane separation and PSA are economically feasible
SCHOOL OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING, UNIVERSITI SAINS MALAYSIA
EKC 483/3 PETROLEUM & GAS PROCESSING ENGINEEERING

Cryogenic Distillation
Either a single- or double-column configuration is used for nitrogen rejection
Single column: Used when the feed gas nitrogen content is below about 20 mol %
and remains relatively constant. The process requires external refrigeration
Double column: Preferred at higher concentrations as it requires no external
refrigeration and can accommodate variable inlet nitrogen concentrations by
changing operation conditions. The column design is more flexible, sometimes a small
column or flash is used to concentrate the nitrogen in the feed going to the NRU
The feed gas is cooled by cross exchange with the product streams
The gas stream enters the high pressure column (300-400 psig)
The nitrogen-methane separation is relatively easy so the high-pressure column
produces a nearly pure nitrogen overhead stream.
The stream condenses in the low-pressure column reboiler and a small portion of the
liquid returns as reflux to the high-pressure column
The majority of the liquid is sub-cooled, expanded through J-T valve and used as
reflux for the low pressure column
The bottoms from the high-pressure column are cooled by heat exchange and J-T
expansion and then fed to the low-pressure column (10 psig)
The low-pressure column makes a high-purity nitrogen overhead and a liquefied
sales gas bottom product
The pumped bottoms and overhead nitrogen streams provide cooling for the high-
pressure bottom stream going to the low-pressure column
SCHOOL OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING, UNIVERSITI SAINS MALAYSIA
EKC 483/3 PETROLEUM & GAS PROCESSING ENGINEEERING

Cryogenic Distillation
SCHOOL OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING, UNIVERSITI SAINS MALAYSIA
EKC 483/3 PETROLEUM & GAS PROCESSING ENGINEEERING

Cryogenic Distillation
The ability to change the high-pressure column operating pressure provides the
flexibility to adjust the NRU to different nitrogen feed concentrations
This, combined with not needing external refrigeration makes the double-column
configuration attractive for many NRU applications
Extremely low temperature (< -240 oF, <-150 oC) are involved in all the distillation
processes and the unit should not receive H2O, CO2 and mercury beyond acceptable
levels (normally 50 ppmv for CO2 and < 0.1 ppmv for H2O)
SCHOOL OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING, UNIVERSITI SAINS MALAYSIA
EKC 483/3 PETROLEUM & GAS PROCESSING ENGINEEERING

Pressure Swing Adsorption

When PSA with molecular sieve is used, heavier HCs (C4+) will go with the nitrogen
stream as these molecules are too large to enter the sieve pores
PSA is the most widely used process for nitrogen rejection after cryogenic distillation
It uses a specially treated carbon molecular sieve (CMS) prepared from coal or wood
carbon for nitrogen rejection
Conventional molecular sieve 3 A and 4 A have pore openings of 3.2 and slightly less
than 4.2 respectively.
SCHOOL OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING, UNIVERSITI SAINS MALAYSIA
EKC 483/3 PETROLEUM & GAS PROCESSING ENGINEEERING

Membrane Separation
The main use of membranes in nitrogen removal is upgrading small quantities of
wellhead gas to pipeline specifications
Nitrosep process has been established to take a low heating value wellhead gas and
produce a product gas which could be blended with a low-nitrogen content gas to
meet pipeline specifications
The permeate from the first membrane unit is enriched in HC and is the product gas
The permeate from the second membrane units also enriched in HC and is recycled
to the inlet.
SCHOOL OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING, UNIVERSITI SAINS MALAYSIA
EKC 483/3 PETROLEUM & GAS PROCESSING ENGINEEERING
SCHOOL OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING, UNIVERSITI SAINS MALAYSIA
EKC 483/3 PETROLEUM & GAS PROCESSING ENGINEEERING

Safety and Environmental Considerations

Safety considerations are centered on the high pressures and extremely low
temperature generally encountered in NRUs
If there is a chance that low temperature nitrogen can be vented, it must be routed to
a safe location so that it becomes more buoyant than the ambient air and is not
allowed to accumulate in a confined space
This prevents the possibility of an accidental asphyxiation
SCHOOL OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING, UNIVERSITI SAINS MALAYSIA
EKC 483/3 PETROLEUM & GAS PROCESSING ENGINEEERING