Operations and recovery improvement VIA heavy hydrocarbon extraction

摘要

The Mobil Mobile Bay facilities process sour gas from offshore platforms and produce pipeline quality natural gas. The plant treating facilities consist of Sulfinol-M and MDEA treating systems. Both treting systems experienced foaming problems that were related to the presence of heavy hydrocarbons in the feed gas. In addition, the sulfur recovery units experienced operational problems due to heavy hydrocarbons in the acid gas feed. A silica gel heavy hydrocarbon unit was installed upstream of each treating unit to reduce the C6+hydrocarbons in the feed gas. Although the operations of the amine treating units improved significantly, the treating units continued to experimence sporadic foaming problems. A proprietary analytical technique was developed to determine the hydrocarbon contents of the solution. A carbon filtration system was installed to treat the Sulfinol-M and MDEA solutions to remove dissolved heavy hydrocarbons. The installation of carbon beds dramatically reduced the foaming incidences of the Sulfino-M and MDEA systems and permitted operation of the treating units above design capacity. In addition, the performance of the sulfur recovery units also improved.