January 2009
a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t
Article history: Evaluation of a triethylene glycol (TEG) system involves first establishing the minimum triethylene glycol
Received 10 May 2009 (TEG) concentration required to meet the outlet gas water dew point specification. In the present work,
Received in revised form simple-to-use correlation, which is simpler than currently available models involving a large number of
6 August 2009
parameters, requiring more complicated and longer computations, has been developed for the rapid
Accepted 6 August 2009
estimation of the water dew point of a natural gas stream in equilibrium with a TEG solution at various
Available online 2 September 2009
temperatures and TEG concentrations. This correlation can be used to estimate the required TEG
concentration for a particular application or the theoretical dew point depression for a given TEG
Keywords:
Correlation concentration and contactor temperature. Actual outlet dewpoints depend on the TEG circulation rate
Natural gas and number of equilibrium stages, but typical approaches to equilibrium are 6–11 C. Equilibrium
Dew point dewpoints are relatively insensitive to pressure and this correlation may be used up to 10 300 kPa (abs)
Triethylene glycol with little error. The proposed correlation covers VLE data for TEG–water system for contactor
Gas dehydration temperatures between 10 C and 80 C and TEG concentrations ranging from 90.00 to 99.999 wt%. The
average absolute deviation percent from the data reported in the literature is 0.5% which shows the
excellent performance of proposed correlation. This simple-to-use correlation can be of immense
practical value for the gas engineers to have a quick check on equilibrium water dew point of natural gas
at various temperatures and TEG weight percents. In particular, personnel dealing with natural gas
dehydration and processing would find the proposed approach to be user friendly involving no complex
expressions with transparent calculations.
Ó 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction the regenerated glycol is pumped to the top tray of the con-
tactor (absorber). The glycol absorbs water as it flows down
The natural gas industry has recognized that dehydration is through the contactor countercurrent to the gas flow. Water-rich
necessary to ensure smooth operation of gas transmission lines. glycol is removed from the bottom of the contactor, passes
Dehydration prevents the formation of gas hydrates and reduces through the reflux condenser coil, flashes off most of the soluble
corrosion. Natural gas is dehydrated using either a liquid desiccant gas in the flash tank, and flows through the rich-lean heat
(i.e. glycols) or a solid desiccant. But economics frequently favor exchanger to the regenerator. In the regenerator, absorbed water
liquid desiccant dehydration when it meets the required dehydra- is distilled from the glycol at near atmospheric pressure by
tion specification (Mokhatab et al., 2006). Glycols are typically used application of heat. The regenerated lean glycol exits the surge
for applications, where dew point depressions of the order of drum, is partly cooled in the lean-rich exchanger and is pumped
15–49 C are required (Gas Processors and Suppliers Association through the glycol cooler before being recirculated to the con-
Engineering Data Book, 2004). tactor (Bahadori, 2009).
Triethylene glycol (TEG), the most common for natural gas Evaluation of a triethylene glycol (TEG) system involves first
dehydration, is used in a countercurrent mass transfer operation establishing the minimum triethylene glycol (TEG) concentration
inside a contractor to establish the required water content in the required to meet the outlet gas water dew point specification
outlet gas (Bahadori, 2007). Following the process flow in Fig. 1, (Bahadori et al., 2008). Several equilibrium correlations for pre-
dicting water dew point of natural gas in equilibrium with a TEG
dehydration system have been presented since 1950. However, all
* Corresponding author. Tel.: þ61 8 9266 1782; fax: þ61 8 9266 2681. methods are limited by the ability to measure accurately the
E-mail address: alireza.bahadori@postgrad.curtin.edu.au (A. Bahadori). equilibrium concentration of water in the vapor phase above
1875-5100/$ – see front matter Ó 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jngse.2009.08.001
A. Bahadori, H.B. Vuthaluru / Journal of Natural Gas Science and Engineering 1 (2009) 68–71 69
a ¼ A1 þ B1 W þ C1 W2 þ D1 W3 (2)
b ¼ A2 þ B2 W þ C2 W2 þ D2 W3 (3)
c ¼ A3 þ B3 W þ C3 W2 þ D3 W3 (4)
d ¼ A4 þ B4 W þ C4 W2 þ D4 W3 (5)
In the above equations, Td and T are the water dew point
temperature and the contactor temperature in K, respectively and
W is the triethylene glycol (TEG) purity in water (in weight
percent). The tuned coefficients in equations (2)–(5) are reported in
Table 1. These coefficients help to cover the reported data provided
by Herskowitz and Gottlieb (1984) and Parrish et al. (1986) for the
contactor temperature variations of 10–80 C, and TEG purity of
90–99.999 weight percent.
Figs. 2–4 show the water dew point of a natural gas stream in
equilibrium with a TEG solution at various TEG concentrations
Fig. 1. Typical TEG-Natural Gas Dehydration System (Bahadori, 2007). and contactor temperature between 10 C and 80 C. As can be
70 A. Bahadori, H.B. Vuthaluru / Journal of Natural Gas Science and Engineering 1 (2009) 68–71
Table 1
Tuned coefficients used in Equations (2)–(5).
Coefficient 90% < TEG < 99% 99% < TEG < 99.9% 99.9% < TEG < 99.999%
A1 2.727934205339338 107 5.948778272003327 109 1.434042060305527 1013
B1 8.631372857145108 105 1.790765203821737 108 4.304293620022248 1011
C1 9.095756908066296 103 1.796891322204887 106 4.306461745218327 109
D1 3.192394176943851 101 6.010038602026653 103 1.436210185528952 107
A2 2.653646110218815 105 6.033812028658381 107 1.377170114378799 1011
B2 8.394220905037211 103 1.816573929578706 106 4.133592993287494 109
C2 8.843532185285766 101 1.823001079027631 104 4.135676303556589 107
D2 3.103038903374517 101 6.098082812834708 101 1.379253424664974 105
A3 8.616616027595576 102 2.040747181326815 105 4.362719886544207 108
B3 2.725023220090672 101 6.144735183073446 103 1.309475458226566 107
C3 2.870185527430992 101 6.167227566580564 101 1.310135158620758 105
D3 1.006847138127057 103 2.063239320629376 101 4.369316890559073 102
A4 9.319294190023186 101 2.273886759702042 102 4.616804880279627 105
B4 2.946481646399538 102 6.847347278284538 1.385739729044255 104
C4 3.102601747330962 104 6.873040245312648 102 1.386438214526602 102
D4 1.088073588828679 106 2.299579467606105 104 4.623789735185614 101
seen, there is a good agreement between predicted results and Table 2 shows the average absolute deviation percent from the
the reported values. Table 2 shows the average absolute deviation literature reported data in is 0.5% which proves the excellent
percent from the literature reported data in is 0.5% which proves performance of this simple proposed correlation.
the excellent accuracy of the proposed correlation. Since the TEG Typical example is given below to illustrate the simplicity
dehydrators usually operate at temperatures of less than 70 C, associated with the use of proposed correlation for rapid estimating
there was no practical need to include temperatures higher than dew point of natural gas at various temperatures and TEG weight
70 C in the graphs of this work. The equilibrium water dew- percents.
points calculated by this correlation are based on this fact that
the condensed water phase is considered as a metastable liquid.
3.1. Example
At low dewpoints the true condensed phase will be a hydrate.
The equilibrium dew point temperature above a hydrate is higher
0.85 million Sm3/day of a natural gas enters a TEG contactor at
than that above a metastable liquid. Therefore, this correlation C
38 and 4100 kPa (abs). The target H2O dew point is 4 C
predicts dewpoints which are colder than those which can
(269.15 K). Calculate the lean TEG concentration in mass percent at
actually be achieved. The difference is a function of temperature,
this given temperature (38 C). Assume a 6 C approach to
pressure and gas composition but can be as much as 8–11 C.
equilibrium:
When dehydrating to very low dewpoints, such as those required
upstream of a refrigeration process, the TEG concentration must
Solution:
be sufficient to dry the gas to the hydrate dew point. This
a) Assume glycol concentration ¼ 98 percent
correlation can be used to estimate the required TEG concentra-
a ¼ 9.787965786 102 (from equation (2))
tion for a particular application or theoretical dew point
b ¼ –8.2542485929 (from equation (3))
depression for a given TEG concentration and contactor temper-
c ¼ 2.85559873 102 (from equation (4))
ature. Actual outlet dewpoints depend on the TEG circulation rate
d ¼ –2.99664505 105 (from equation (5))
and the number of equilibrium stages, but typical approaches to
Equilibrium water dew point (K) ¼ 272.4 K (from equation (1))
equilibrium are 6–11 C.
Calculated water dew point 272.4 þ 6 ¼ 278.4 K.
30
Equilibrium Water Dew Point Temperature,°C
20
Correlation, TEG=99%
20 Data
15 Correlation, TEG=99.5%
Data
10 10 Correlation, TEG=99.8%
Data
5 0 Correlation, TEG=99.9%
Data
0
-10
Correlation, 90% TEG
-5 Data
-20
Correlation, 95% TEG
-10
Data
-30
-15 Correlation, 97% TEG
Data
Correlation, 98% TEG -40
-20
Data
-25 Correlation, 99% TEG -50
Data
-30 -60
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
Contactor Temperature,°C Contactor Temperature,°C
Fig. 2. Water dew point of a natural gas stream in equilibrium with a TEG solution at Fig. 3. Water dew point of a natural gas stream in equilibrium with a TEG solution at
various contactor temperatures and TEG concentrations ranging from 90% to 99%. various contactor temperatures and TEG concentrations ranging from 99% to 99.9%.
A. Bahadori, H.B. Vuthaluru / Journal of Natural Gas Science and Engineering 1 (2009) 68–71 71
-20 4. Conclusions
Equilibrium Water Dew Point Temperature,°C
Correlation, TEG=99.95%
Data
Correlation, TEG=99.98%
Data
-30 Correlation, TEG=99.99
Data In the present work, simple-to-use correlation, which is much
Correlation, TEG=99.995%
Data
Correlation, TEG=99.998%
simpler than currently available models involving a large number of
Data
-40 Correlation, TEG=99.999%
Data
parameters, requiring more complicated and longer computations,
has been developed for the rapid estimation of equilibrium water
-50 dew point of a natural gas stream in equilibrium with a triethylene
glycol (TEG) solution at various contactor temperatures and TEG
-60 concentrations. The correlation covers VLE data for TEG–water
system for contactor temperatures between 10 C and 80 C and
-70 TEG concentrations ranging from 90.00 to 99.999 wt%. This corre-
lation can be used to estimate the required TEG concentration for
-80 the theoretical dew point depression for a given TEG concentration
and contactor temperature. Equilibrium dewpoints are relatively
-90 insensitive to pressure and this correlation may be used up to
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
10 300 kPa (abs) with little error. The average absolute deviation
Contactor Temperature,°C percent from the data reported in the literature is 0.5% which shows
Fig. 4. Water dew point of a natural gas stream in equilibrium with a TEG solution at
the excellent performance of proposed correlation. The correlation
various contactor temperatures and TEG concentrations ranging from 99.9% to proposed in the present work is novel and unique expression which
99.999%. is non-existent in the literature. Simple-to-use approach can be of
immense practical value for the gas engineers to have a quick check
on water dew point of natural gas at various temperatures and TEG
b) Assume glycol concentration ¼ 99 percent weight percents without performing any experimental measure-
a ¼ 4.954486701 102 (from equation (2)) ments. In particular, personnel dealing with natural gas dehydra-
b ¼ –3.7764125162 (from equation (3)) tion and processing would find the proposed approach to be user
c ¼ 1.4679027361 102 (from equation (4)) friendly involving no complex expressions with transparent
d ¼ –1.584645897 105 (from equation (5)) calculations.
Equilibrium water dew point (K) ¼ 264.2 K (from equation (1))
Calculated water dew point 264.2 þ 6 ¼ 270.2 K.
Acknowledgements
c) Assume glycol concentration ¼ 99.02 percent
a ¼ 5.8234212875366 101 (from equation (2))
The lead author acknowledges the Australian Department of
b ¼ 5.1297414302825 101 (from equation (3))
Education, Science and Training for Endeavour International Post-
c ¼ 6.646978436037 104 (from equation (4))
graduate Research Scholarship (EIPRS), the Office of Research &
d ¼ –6.285478093559 107 (from equation (5))
Development at Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Western
Equilibrium water dew point (K) ¼ 263.26 K (from equation (1))
Australia for providing Curtin University Postgraduate Research
Calculated water dew point 263.26þ6 ¼ 269.26 K.
Scholarship and the State Government of Western Australia for
providing top up scholarship through the Western Australian
The calculated result (269.26 K) has good agreement with water
Energy Research Alliance (WA:ERA). The authors also acknowledge
dew point (269.15 K). So glycol purity 99.02 meets targeted water
anonymous reviewers and the editor for their useful comments to
dew point.
improve the original version of paper.
We have suggested 6 C of approach because is a usual standard
practice. The closeness of the result to the prediction could vary if
we takes a different approach to equilibrium.
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