Evaluation of Supersonic Gas Separation Technology for Recovery of Natural Gas Liquids from Natural Gas

Natural gas has long become an indispensable source of energy throughout most of
the world thanks to its friendliness to the environment. Worldwide natural gas
consumption is rapidly increasing. However natural gas is a non-renewable energy
source, the extensive utilization will lead to a new kind of energy crisis, the natural
gas crisis. This fact has resulted in the need to improve the performance of natural
gas processing, maximize the outputs while minimizing the inputs. With the end
uses as fuel or industrial feedstock, Natural Gas Liquids (NGLs) are among the
valuable by-products from natural gas processing operations. It is therefore essential
to study, validate and apply new technology to enhance the performance of the NGL
recovery process.
With this background, my final year simulation-based project is developed with the
aim at assessing the theoretical viability of Twister™, a new technology for
recovery of NGLs from natural gas, and comparing it with a traditional turboexpander
system. The project's objectives are:
1. To study the viability of applying the supersonic gas separation technology
for deep Natural Gas Liquids recovery
2. To evaluate and compare the performance of Twister™ against a
conventional turbo-expander system.
3. To identify Twister's range of applicability for NGL recovery
The project scope involves evaluating the performance of a Twister™ against a
conventional turbo-expander for NGL recovery by simulating the processes by
HYSIS model of both systems.
Variety of feed compositions, temperatures and pressures which represent the
possible ranges of feed conditions in the actual gas plants are employed in the study
to produce comprehensive results. In overall, it is found out that Twister is more
efficient than turbo-expander, especially in the cases of feed which is rich in heavy
hydrocarbons. Further analyses should be conducted to get more comprehensive
conclusions.