Category Archives: Refining

The first pillar of Risk Based Process Safety Management is “Commitment to Process Safety.”  A formalized mentoring system can ensure workforce involvement, compliance with company and regulatory requirements, increase the competency of personnel and enhance the process safety culture of the entire organization.  Within this element there are several essential features that lead to aContinue Reading

Hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide are the principal objectionable acid gas constituents often present in natural gas, synthetic gas, and various refinery gas streams. These acid gas constituents must be removed for corrosion prevention in gas pipelines and process equipment and for health and safety reasons. Reference [1] provides current acceptable concentration levels for theseContinue Reading

The details of a simple single-stage refrigeration system, a two-stage refrigeration system employing one flash tank economizer, and with heat exchanger economizer system are given in Chapter 15 of Gas Conditioning and Processing, Volume 2 [1]. In the January 2008 Tip of the Month (TOTM) [2], we compared the performance of a simple refrigeration systemContinue Reading

This Tip of the Month describes simple equations to approximate changes to the properties of crude oil with changing temperature.   Changes in crude oil density and specific heat, or heat capacity, can be estimated from graphs and/or more elaborate computer simulation.  The latter generally requires access to a process simulator and characterization data for theContinue Reading

In the past Tips of the Month (TOTM), we discussed the phase behavior of sweet natural gas- water, sour natural gas-water, and acid gas–water systems. They were posted in October 2007 TOTM [1], November 2007 TOTM [2], and December 2007 TOTM [3], respectively. In this TOTM, we will revisit the acid gas-water phase behavior system.Continue Reading

A pillar of Risk Based Process Safety (RBPS) is Learn from Experience.  The work we do and the processes we use to analyze our work provide significant learning opportunities to enhance process safety competency.  This is a derivative of Kolb’s experiential learning cycle [1], but many times we fail to take advantage of the learningContinue Reading

TEG Vaporization Losses In this Tip of The Month (TOTM), the effect of striping gas rate and triethylene glycol (TEG) circulation ratio on the TEG vaporization loss from the regenerator top and contactor top is investigated. Specifically, this study focuses on the variation of TEG vaporization losses with reboiler pressure, TEG circulation ratio and strippingContinue Reading

In this Tip of The Month (TOTM), the effect of striping gas rate and TEG circulation ratio on the still column top temperature for regeneration of rich triethylene glycol (TEG) is investigated. Specifically, this study focuses on the variation of still column top temperature with reboiler pressure, TEG circulation ratio and stripping gas rate. ByContinue Reading

In this Tip of The Month (TOTM), regeneration of rich triethylene glycol (TEG) with striping gas at high pressure is investigated. Specifically, this study focusses on the determination of the required stripping gas rate as a function of the lean TEG mass percent, reboiler temperature, and the number of theoretical trays in the stripping sectionContinue Reading

Glycol dehydration is the most common dehydration process used to meet pipeline sales specifications and field requirements (gas lift, fuel, etc.). Triethylene glycol (TEG) is the most common glycol used in these absorption systems. At atmospheric pressure and a maximum reboiler temperature of 204 °C [400 °F] the highest glycol concentration of lean TEG thatContinue Reading