Sustainable Analysis of Recent Acid Gas Treatment Schemes for LNG production

Abstract

The worldwide growing demand for natural gas consumption increases the pressure on the depletion of natural resources, consequently the significance of natural gas treatment methods. Given the huge investment associated with gas processing plants, selecting optimum and fit-for-purpose treatment methods undergoes a rigorous selection process to allocate the most cost-effective and environmentally friendly treatment scheme to remove contaminants. This study analyzes the sustainability of recent acid gas treatment schemes associated with Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) production using Aspen simulation techniques. The acid gas treatment process is crucial in LNG production to eliminate the presence of CO 2 and H 2 S from the sour feed gases for safety and environmental concerns. The recent advancement in acid gases removal units (AGRU) demonstrates the addition of an enrichment step using a low-pressure pre-flash column of Amine solvent along with a tail gas treatment (TGT) unit. The full-integrated scheme includes low BTX AGRU, Acid Gas Enrichment, Sulfur Recovery Unit, TGT unit, and common regeneration. The techno-economic evaluation demonstrates the excellence of this technology advancement in providing higher efficiency of acid gases removal with some increase in the equipment cost and huge environmental benefits.