Glycol dehydration

Glycol dehydration is a liquid desiccant system for the

removal of water from natural gas and natural gas liquids
(NGL). It is the most common and economical means
of water removal from these streams.[1] Glycols typically seen in industry include triethylene glycol (TEG),
diethylene glycol (DEG), ethylene glycol (MEG), and
tetraethylene glycol (TREG). TEG is the most commonly
used glycol in industry.[1]

Purpose
An example process ow diagram for this system

The purpose of a glycol dehydration unit is to remove

water from natural gas and natural gas liquids. When
produced from a reservoir, natural gas usually contains
a large amount of water and is typically completely saturated or at the water dew point. This water can cause
several problems for downstream processes and equipment. At low temperatures the water can either freeze in
piping or, as is more commonly the case, form hydrates
with CO2 and hydrocarbons (mainly methane hydrates).
Depending on composition, these hydrates can form
at relatively high temperatures plugging equipment and
piping.[1] Glycol dehydration units depress the hydrate
formation point of the gas through water removal.

exiting the absorber the glycol stream is often referred

to as rich glycol. The dry natural gas leaves the top of
the absorption column and is fed either to a pipeline system or to a gas plant. Glycol absorbers can be either tray
columns or packed columns.

After leaving the absorber, the rich glycol is fed to a ash

vessel where hydrocarbon vapors are removed and any
liquid hydrocarbons are skimmed from the glycol. This
step is necessary as the absorber is typically operated at
high pressure and the pressure must be reduced before
the regeneration step. Due to the composition of the rich
Without dehydration, a free water phase (liquid water)
glycol, a vapor phase having a high hydrocarbon content
could also drop out of the natural gas as it is either cooled
will form when the pressure is lowered.
or the pressure is lowered through equipment and piping. This free water phase will often contain some por- After leaving the ash vessel, the rich glycol is heated in
tions of acid gas (such as H2 S and CO2 ) and can cause a cross-exchanger and fed to the stripper (also known as
a regenerator). The glycol stripper consists of a column,
corrosion.[1]
an overhead condenser, and a reboiler. The glycol is therFor the above two reasons the Gas Processors Associamally regenerated to remove excess water and regain the
tion sets out a pipeline quality specication for gas that
high glycol purity.
the water content should not exceed 7 pounds per million
standard cubic feet .[1] Glycol dehydration units must typ- The hot, lean glycol is cooled by cross-exchange with rich
ically meet this specication at a minimum, although fur- glycol entering the stripper. It is then fed to a lean pump
ther removal may be required if additional hydrate forma- where its pressure is elevated to that of the glycol abtion temperature depression is required, such as upstream sorber. The lean solvent is cooled again with a trim cooler
before being fed back into the absorber. This trim cooler
of a cryogenic process or gas plant.
can either be a cross-exchanger with the dry gas leaving
the absorber or an air-cooled exchanger.

Process description

Lean, water-free glycol (purity >99%) is fed to the top of 3 Enhanced Stripping Methods
an absorber (also known as a glycol contactor) where it
is contacted with the wet natural gas stream. The glycol Most glycol units are fairly uniform except for the regenremoves water from the natural gas by physical absorp- eration step. Several methods are used to enhance the
tion and is carried out the bottom of the column. Upon stripping of the glycol to higher purities (higher purities
1

are required for dryer gas out of the absorber). Since the
reboiler temperature is limited to 400F or less to prevent
thermal degradation of the glycol, almost all of the enhanced systems center on lowering the partial pressure of
water in the system to increase stripping.
Common enhanced methods include the use of stripping
gas, the use of a vacuum system (lowering the entire stripper pressure), the DRIZO process, which is similar to the
use of stripping gas but uses a recoverable hydrocarbon
solvent, and the Coldnger process where the vapors in
the reboiler are partially condensed and drawn out separately from the bulk liquid.

References

[1] Gas Processors Suppliers Association (GPSA) Handbook

(Tenth ed.).

External links
Gas Processors Suppliers Association Website
Hernendez, Hlavinka, and Bullin, Design Glycol
Units for Maximum Eciency An excellent discussion on the design details of glycol units
Comments from the Environmental Protection
Agency regarding natural gas dehydration bestpractices
Practical oil-eld oriented description of Glycol Dehydration including Operating problems and Glycol
care

EXTERNAL LINKS

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

6.1

Text

Glycol dehydration Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glycol_dehydration?oldid=674675297 Contributors: Srleer, Casey56,

SmackBot, Goatchze, Gobonobo, Mbeychok, Philip Trueman, Bawm79, Flyer22 Reborn, Mild Bill Hiccup, Cold Phoenix, Lightbot,
Synchronism, Daniele Pugliesi, J04n, Assetintegritymark, MGA73bot, DrilBot, Gertdam, ClueBot NG, AdventurousSquirrel, BattyBot,
Dough34 and Anonymous: 15

6.2

Images

File:Basic_Dehydration_Unit.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/58/Basic_Dehydration_Unit.jpg License: CC BY 3.0 Contributors: Own work Original artist: Goatchze (talk) (Uploads)

6.3

Content license

Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0