Exergy Analysis of Condensate Stabilization Unit in South Pars Gas Refinery

摘要

Increasing oil and gas prices and the economic constraints have stimulated oil-rich countries to using the maximum capacity of their oil and gas resources.The high heating value of gas condensate leads gas and oil companies to pay special attention to this precious resource.Therefore,understanding the characteristics and maintenance conditions of condensate gas has become more important.Existence of light and volatile particles in gas condensate,hence the need for stabilization process is one of the most important challenges facing the refining process for the use of this valuable resource.The task of the condensate stabilization process is to reduce the vapour pressure of condensate liquids by increasing the amount of intermediate and heavy hydrocarbons.In this paper,an exergy analysis is applied on a real condensate stabilization unit of the South Pars Gas Refinery to identify how exergy loss is distributed through the process unit operations.In doing so,the process is first simulated using HYSYS software to generate all required physical data.The results show a Reid vapour pressure(RVP)of 7psi for the final product,which is suitable for summer conditions.Afterwards,exergy loss and exergetic efficiency is calculated for all unit operations via stream wise method or sink-source model.Having analyzed all unit operations,the results indicated that condensate tower and the associated heat exchanger account for 44.6％and 19.7％of total available exergy losses,respectively.Thus,one can recognize where the maximum scope for energy and exergy improvement through the process is.