Journal of Engineering
Volume 2014, Article ID 693902, 8 pages
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/693902
Research Article
Numerical Simulation of an Industrial Absorber for
Dehydration of Natural Gas Using Triethylene Glycol
Kenneth Kekpugile Dagde and Jackson Gunorubon Akpa
Department of Chemical/Petrochemical Engineering, Rivers State University of Science & Technology, Nkpolu,
Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria
Correspondence should be addressed to Kenneth Kekpugile Dagde; kenneth dagde@yahoo.com
Received 27 May 2014; Accepted 24 June 2014; Published 20 July 2014
Academic Editor: Hyun Seog Roh
Copyright 2014 K. K. Dagde and J. G. Akpa. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution
License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly
cited.
Models of an absorber for dehydration of natural gas using triethylene glycol are presented. The models were developed by applying
the law of conservation of mass and energy to predict the variation of water content of gas and the temperature of the gas and
liquid with time along the packing height. The models were integrated numerically using the finite divided difference scheme and
incorporated into the MATLAB code. The results obtained agreed reasonably well with industrial plant data obtained from an
SPDC TEG unit in Niger-Delta, Nigeria. Model prediction showed a percentage deviation of 8.65% for gas water content and 3.41%
and 9.18% for exit temperature of gas and liquid, respectively.
1. Introduction
Natural gas needs to be dried before pipeline transport,
because the water molecules present in the gas in both
vapour and liquid state form hydrates which cause flow
restrictions and pressure drops and lower the heating value
of gas and corrode pipelines and other equipment. Other
problems associated with the presence of water molecules are
foaming, degradation, puking, corrosion, low pH, oxidation,
thermal decomposition, inadequate absorber design for flow
conditions, and salt contamination. Extensive literature is
available on common gas dehydration systems including
solid and liquid desiccant and refrigeration-based systems
[1, 2]. There are several methods of dehydrating natural gas.
The most common of these are liquid desiccant (glycol)
dehydration and solid desiccant dehydration [3, 4]. Among
these gas dehydration processes, absorption is the most
common technique, where the water vapor in the gas stream
becomes absorbed in a liquid solvent stream. Glycols are
the most widely used absorption liquids as they approximate
the properties that meet commercial application criteria [5,
6]. Several glycols have been found suitable for commercial
application. Triethylene glycol (TEG) is by far the most
common liquid desiccant used in natural gas dehydration
Journal of Engineering
Dry gas
NA,z + dz
dz
NA,z
z=0
3. Model Formulation/Assumptions
The following assumptions were made to develop the model.
(i) Since the column requirement is a diameter 0.65 m,
a packing height of 6 m and the fluid are corrosive
coupled with a minimum pressure drop across the
column, and packed column is preferred to plate
column [14, 15].
(ii) The absorber is well lagged; hence, the heat losses are
negligible.
(iii) Since the water vapour in the wet gas is the only
diffusing component, no diffusing term would be
considered for the liquid phase.
(iv) The effect of change in total molar flow rate is ignored,
and an average value is assumed constant [16, 17].
(v) Vapour-liquid equilibrium relationship is described
using Raoults law and Antoines equation used for
calculation of vapour pressure [18].
2. Model Development
The most common method for dehydration in the natural gas
industry is the use of a liquid desiccant contactor (absorber)
process. In this process, the wet gas is contacted with lean
solvent (triethylene glycol) as the absorbent. The water in the
gas is absorbed in the lean solvent, producing a rich solvent
stream and a dry gas. The dehydrated gas leaves at the top
of the column while the glycol leaves at the bottom. Figure 1
depicts the hypothetical representation of the dehydrator.
The entering wet gas enters the bottom of the absorber
and flows up counter currently against the lean triethylene
glycol, which enters at the top of the absorber. The triethylene
glycol absorbs water vapour from the wet gas as it flows down
Journal of Engineering
( ) +
(, ) +
( )] =
.
,
(1)
dx
( ) +
( ) +
( )]
qz
Tog
(2)
2 2 2
1
+
+
]=
.
2
2
2
(3)
2 2
=
= 0.
2
2
(4)
(5)
= (1 ) .
(6)
But
+
,
=
+
Differentiating (6),
= ,
(7a)
2 = 2 .
(7b)
(8)
(10)
= 2 .
(9)
= ,
(11)
2
+ 2 +
.
(12)
Let = /
and = ( / )( /),
giving
2
2
+ .
(13)
Journal of Engineering
Tol
qzl
Components
dz
TeG
H2 O
Gas
Total
Temperature C
TeG
H2 O
Gas
Total
Temperature C
Input streams
Gas stream
Glycol stream
Weight %
Mol %
Weight %
Mol %
99.51
96.054
0.17
0.187
0.49
3.946
99.83
99.813
100.00
100.00
100.00
100.00
50
55
=
+ 2 ,
(14)
12 = 1.1728 10
16
(2 2 )
2 10.6
100.00
100.00
100.00
51.3
100.00
51
Output streams
Gas stream
Glycol stream
Weight %
Mol %
Weight %
Mol %
95.36
71.127
0.01
0.011
4.04
28.873
99.99
99.989
(15)
Properties
Molar mass
Molar volume, m3 /Kmol
TEG
150.17
GAS
19.83
3.80 1010
2.338 105
Mass diffusivity, m2 /S
Thermal diffusivity, m2 /S
Density, Kg/m3
H2 O
18.02
0.01813
1125
1000
(16)
Inlet Gas and Glycol Water Content. The inlet gas and
glycol water content (in weight %) were obtained from plant
operating data and were analytically converted to mol%
(assuming binary mixture) using the relations. Consider
1 =
1 /1
,
1 /1 + 2 /2
(17)
2 = 1 1 ,
where 1 and 2 are concentrations of gas and glycol in wt.%,
respectively, 1 and 2 are their respective mol%, and 1 and
2 are their molecular weight.
3.2.2. Solution Techniques. A numerical solution based on the
finite divided difference scheme was developed and keyed
into MATLAB program to solve the condensed models for
gas water content, gas temperature, and TEG temperature
variations given in (8), (13), and (14), respectively.
The developed finite divided difference schemes yield
finite grids and computational stencils representing the ,
, and , from which Boundary conditions were specified
according to Dirichlet BC. These boundary conditions and
initial conditions are given below.
Journal of Engineering
5
Table 4: Comparison between plant data and model predictions.
( , ) = ,
( , ) = ,
Process
parameter
Final gas water
content
Gas outlet
temperature ( C)
TEG outlet
temperature ( C)
(19)
( , ) = ,
(21)
( , ) = ,
(23)
0.002
0.0018
0.0016
0.0014
0.0012
0.001
0.0008
0.0006
0.0004
0.0002
0
Model prediction
Plant data
% deviation
7.93 107
7.24 107
8.65
44.52
43
3.41
48.45
44
9.18
4
6
8
10
Absorber column height, z (m)
t = 40 s
t = 80 s
t = 120 s
12
14
t = 160 s
t = 200 s
Journal of Engineering
Variation of TEG temperature with column height, from
top of the column at different residence times
0.002
0.0015
0.001
0.0005
0
t = 200 s
t = 120 s
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 t = 40 s
Absorber column height, z (m)
00.0005
0.00050.001
0.0010.0015
0.00150.002
50.5
50
49.5
49
48.5
48
47.5
47
46.5
46
t = 40 s
t = 80 s
t = 120 s
10
12
14
t = 160 s
t = 200 s
the column, the higher the rate of removal of the water vapour
from the gas. This holds true since a relatively smaller time is
needed to establish equilibrium between the water vapour in
the gas and that in the liquid phase [10, 22]. This means that
as the residence time increases, say, to 200 seconds, the water
vapour returns to the vapour phase again implying that the
water content in gas increases. It can also be deduced from
Figure 5 that, at a height of approximately 7 m and above, the
gas water content variation becomes steady.
In addition, the solutions of the model will be represented
as a three-dimensional surface plot in Figure 6. The purpose
of the surface plots is to visualize the propagation of the gas
water content in time and space and to make conclusions
based on the subsequent trends. The surface plots are not
intended to give the exact numerical values but for visualization.
The natural gas propagates from the base of the absorber
and initially holds a water concentration of 0.187 mol%.
The low resistance in the gas bulk will cause the gas and
liquid bulk phases to reach chemical equilibrium virtually
instantaneous. The steep transient observed at the lower part
of the column confirms the trend illustrated by Figure 6; it is
also in agreement with plant data. Also, as operation proceeds
half way up the column, the absorption of water from
natural gas becomes numerically insignificant and remains
practically constant.
50
48
t = 200 s
t = 160 s
t = 120 s
t = 80 s
44
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 t = 40 s
46
46.5
46
45.5
45
44.5
44
43.5
43
42.5
42
6
8
10
Column height, z (m)
12
14
48
46
44
42
40
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
t = 200 s
t = 120 s
t = 40 s
0.002
0.0018
0.0016
0.0014
0.0012
0.001
0.0008
0.0006
0.0004
0.0002
0
t = 160 s
t = 200 s
t = 40 s
t = 80 s
t = 120 s
4244
4042
4
6
8
10
Absorber column height, z (m)
12
14
yA at DA E-7
yA at DA E-6
yA at DA E-10
yA at DA E-9
yA at DA E-8
Journal of Engineering
0.002
0.0015
0.001
0.0005
0
yA at DA E-6
yA at DA E-8
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 yA at DA E-10
0.00050.001
00.0005
Figure 10: Surface plot showing gas temperature variation along the
column.
5. Conclusion
Journal of Engineering
8
Variation of TEG temperature from top of the column
at different thermal diffusivities, at t = 40 s
50.5
50
49.5
49
48.5
48
47.5
47
46.5
46
4
6
8
10
Absorber column height, z (m)
12
14
TL , at KA E-2
TL , at KA E-1
TL , at KA E-5
TL , at KA E-4
TL , at KA E-3
50
49
48
TL , at KA E-1
TL , at KA E-3
44
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 TL , at KA E-5
Absorber column height, z (m)
46
4950
4849
4748
4647
4546
4445
Conflict of Interests
The authors declare that there is no conflict of interests
regarding the publication of this paper.
References
[1] J. M. Campbell, R. N. Maddox, L. F. Sheerar, and J. H. Erbar,
Gas Conditioning and Processing, vol. 3 of Campbell Petroleum
Series, Campbell Petroleum, Norman, Okla, USA, 1982.
[2] J. M. Campbell, Gas Conditioning and Processing, vol. 2, Campbell Petroleum Series, Norman, Okla, USA, 7th edition, 1992.
[3] R. H. Perry and D. W. Green, Perrys Chemical Engineers
Handbook, McGraw Hil, New York, NY, USA, 7th edition, 1999.
[4] N. A. Darwish and N. Hilal, Sensitivity analysis and faults
diagnosis using artificial neural networks in natural gas TEGdehydration plants, Chemical Engineering Journal, vol. 137, no.
2, pp. 189197, 2008.
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