IPTC 11497

A Success Story: Extending Molecular Sieve Life by Double

Mohammed J. Al-Khamis and Ahmed A. Al-Harbi, Saudi Aramco

Copyright 2007, International Petroleum Technology Conference

This paper was prepared for presentation at the International Petroleum Technology
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Abstract
Uthmaniyah Gas Plant (UGP) has achieved 100%
additional service life of the gas molecular sieve
desiccants. This new record in gas desiccants service
life was a result of careful data monitoring and online
sampling which was used to gain confidence to continue
using the desiccant despite the vendors advice of
changing it. The paper will discuss the process
description of the area where the desiccants are used
(NGL Recovery) and the role of this material in the area
which is basically dehydration. After that, the paper will
discuss the dehydration process in general and at UGP
specifically.
Then, the performance profile of the desiccants through
thier seven years service life will be demonstrated and
explained. The performance of the desiccants depends
on two main factors: the water adsorption capacity and
the pressure drop. The paper will then explain the
factors that contributed to the extension of the service
life of the desiccants. These factors are mainly the
loading plan, two-step regeneration, regernation at the
same adsorption pressure, using the activated aliumna
at the top of the dessicants as a guard layer, and the
close monitoring.

Introduction:
Uthmaniyah Gas Plant uses Molecular Sieve
(Desiccants) to remove water from the sweet gas
feeding Natural Gas Liquid (NGL) Recovery Area. NGL
is recovered by cooling the sweet gas to a cryogenic
temperature of -140 oF. At this low temperature, no water
shall be in the sweet gas. Otherwise, hydration will form
and blockage will take place in the downstream
equipment. The water content allowed going to the NGL
recovery area is 10 PPM maximum. The molecular sieve
material is composed of zeolite and binder. The zeolite is

the active material and where the water is adsorbed. The

binder is a small amount of clay that enables the
fabrication of the molecular sieve. Usually the service
life of the desiccants is 750 cycles which is equal to
almost 3 years at normal gas loading. Uthmaniyah has
successfully achieved 1380 cycles (7 years).
Process Description of NGL Recovery Area:
Uthmaniyah Gas Plant has four identical NGL Recovery
Modules. The main objective of each module is to
recover the NGL from the sweetened gas through a
cascaded refrigeration process using ethane and
propane as refrigerants. Each module consists of three
chill trains, which are basically a series of chillers and
heat exchangers. The sweet wet gas is fed to the
module at 140 0F, and 450 psig (Fig.1). The gas is
cooled at the 1st Chill train to a temperature of 65 0F.
After that, the feed gas is taken to a three phase
separator to remove liquid hydrocarbon and water from
the feed gas.
The separated gas is saturated with water and thus is
fed to the gas dehydrators to remove the moisture from it
and avoid hydrate formation in the downstream
equipment. At the same time the liquid hydrocarbon is
sent to the liquid dehydrator to remove the moisture from
it. The dry liquid hydrocarbon is sent to the Demethanizer tray 4 while the dry gas leaving the
dehydrators continues to the second chill train where it is
cooled to a temperature of -35 0F. And at the end of the
train the liquids are separated from the gas in a two
phase separator. The liquid hydrocarbon is sent to the
De-methanizer tray 10 and the gas continues to the 3rd
chill train for further cooling.
The gas is cooled at the 3rd chill Train to a temperature
of -98 0F and the liquid is separated from the gas in a
two phase separator. The liquid is fed to the demethanizer tray 19 and the gas is used to cool the feed
in the upstream heat exchangers. The De-Methanizer is
used to stabilize the NGL and remove the light ends
from it. Then the NGL product is drawn form the bottom
of the column and sent to the shipping pumps.

Dehydration Process:
The main objective of the dehydration process is to
remove water from the gas and this is usually done for
two reasons:

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IPTC 11497

1. The first and most common is to meet the sales

gas pipeline specification. This does not require
deep dehydration. And can be achieved through
glycol dehydration process.
2. The second reason is to prevent hydrate
formation under cryogenic conditions. This
requires deep dehydration where the gas is
dried up to 1 PPM level water content.
Hydrate is an ice shape substance that forms under
certain conditions in the presence of hydrocarbon mixed
with free water. Hydrate formation is dependent on the
pressure, temperature, and composition of the
hydrocarbon mixture. The temperatures at Uthamaniyah
liquid recovery units reach as low as -140 0F. This leaves
no room to tolerate having un-dried gas.
Description of A Typical Dehydration Process:
The wet feed gas enters the dehydrators from the top
and flows down the dehydrator where all the water in the
gas is adsorbed and the gas leaves as dry gas from the
bottom of the dehydrator. (Fig. 2)
Once the gas dehydrator gets saturated with water, a dry
regeneration gas enters dehydrator from the bottom to
remove the water and dry the desiccant. During normal
operations, two dehydrators are online and the third is
under regeneration.
UGP Molecular Sieve Performance Profile Over the
Seven Years Servicve Life:
It is a common practice in the industry to monitor the
desiccants performance, hence, and predicts its service
life through its water adsorption capacity and pressure
drop.
1. Water Adsorption Capacity:
The first performance parameter is the water adsorption
capacity of the desiccant. For the subject dessicants, the
capacity started at about 19 lb H2O/ 100 lb of desiccant
and stabilized after 400 adsorption cycles to around 10
lbs of H2O which was above the minimum threshold of 8
lb H2O (Fig. 3). The minimum threshold is detemined by
regeneration cycle required to regenerate one
dehydrator. The minimum capacity that the desiccant
reached was 9.8 lb of H2O.
2. Pressure Drop Across the Dehydrator
The second performance parameter is the pressure drop
across the dehydrator. Fort he subject dessicants, the
pressure drop started at about 9 PSI and gradually
increased to a maximum of 13 PSI which was
significantly below the maximum threshold of 25 PSI.
Maximum pressure drop threshold is determined by
dessicants material specification.
Factors that Increased Molecular Sieve Life:
There were some factors that helped in extending the
desiccant service:
1. The loading plan for the desiccant

The way the desiccants loaded plays significant rule in

its performance. Desiccants are usually manufactured in
different sizes. While smaller sizes give more service
area, hence, higher water adsorption capacity, they
result in a higher pressure drop. The bigger the size of
the desiccants, the lower the pressure drop and the
lower is the adsorption capacity. Hence, the loading plan
should be a compremize between adsorption capacity
and pressure drop.
The following paragraphs will
discuss the loading plan for subject desiccants.
The description of the loading plan will be from the
bottom to top of the dehydrator. Measurements are for
the hieght of the bed. (Fig.5). Typically, the dehydrator
has 3% supporting balls, between 0.5 and 0.25 in size
to hold the desiccants and avoid lifting it during the
regeneration cycle. At the same time they even out the
distribution of the regeneration gas to the dehydrator.
Support balls are inert therefore they do not have any
water adsorbtion characteristics. On top of the support
balls, there is a 27 % layer of smaller size desiccant 1.6
2.5 mm size.
The third layer is the largest and has a height of 60% of
larger size desiccants (2.5 to 5 mm size). On top of the
molecular sieve, there is a 7% layer of Activated
Alumina.
Finally, there is a 3% layer of supporting balls. This layer
is used to even out the distribution of the inlet wet gas
and to avoid desiccant migration during regeneration.
This loading plan also reduces the pressure drop as the
big size desiccant is loaded at the top of the dehydrator.
2. Utilizaiotn of Activiated Almuina
On top of the molecular sieve, there is a 7% layer of
Activated Alumina. It is believed that this layer is one of
the most important layers in the dehydrator as it acts as
a sacrificial layer. This layer removes any contaminants
coming with the gas and avoids poisoning the desiccant.
Furthermore, because of its strength characteristics
compared to the desiccant, it has higher resistance to
the thermal degradation that takes place during the
regeneration cycle.
3. Two Steps Regeneration
The regeneration process is the process done to remove
the water from the desiccant after being online for
sometime. After this process, the dehydrator is dry and
ready to receive the gas again. In the past, the
regeneration process used to be in one step and the
regeneration inlet gas temperature used to be heated up
to 500 oF (Fig.6). In 1998, a research conducted the
Research and Development Center at Saudi Aramco,
indicated that desiccant bed service life could be
extended if two-stage regeneration process is used. In
addition, several molecular sieve vendors recommended
the two stages regeneration in order to minimize the
internal water vapor condensation which occurs during
regeneration cycle.

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IPTC 11497

The process calls for regenerating the desiccant in two

stages. The first stage involves preheating the bed at
highe temperature, 250 oF for 90 minutes while the
second stage involves heating the bed at higher
temperature, 500 oF (Fig.7). The former, drives off the
adsorbed hydrocarbons before they might coke and will
prevent most of water from condensing. Water
condensation causes sieve particles to breakdown and
clog the desiccant bed leading to an increase in
pressure drop across the gas dehydrators. The later
drives off adsorbed water.
4. Regernation at the Same Pressure
Saudi Aramco uses a temperature based regernation at
the same pressure of the adsorption cycle. This is to
avoid pressure swings. Molecular sieve dessicants are
weak in structure compared to other dessicants such as
Silca Gel and Activated Alumina. Hence, pressure
swings increases the powedering of the dessicants
resulting in high pressure drop.

Fig.1 PFD for NGL Recovery Area at Uthmaniyah Gas

Plant

5. Close Monitoring:
Finally to reduce the risk associated with the decision to
extend the service life for the desiccant, it was decided
to take sample from the desiccants and compare it to
fresh desiccants. One dehydrator was isolated; sample
was taken, and sent to Research & Development Centre
at Dhahran R&DC to do full integrity and adsorption
analysis.
R&DC results supported the conclusion. So, the
desiccant was left on service for another 3 years and
with close monitoring.

Conclusion
In conclusion, as it was demonstrated the dehydrators
operation is critical and requires careful monitoring and
data analysis. The loading plan of the desiccant has a
major contribution to its service life. Also, the two step
regeneration has significantly increased the life of the
desiccant. Challenging the recommended practice
requires careful data analysis; UGPs decision to deviate
from the recommended practice was taken based on a
calculated risk. And the initiatives paid off by extending
the desiccant life and reducing UGPs desiccant
demand.

Gas Dehydrator Water Adsorption Capacity

Predicted Life

(lb H2O/ 100 lb Desiccant)

However, all of the data indicated that the desiccant was

very stable. So, there was no reason for not trusting the
results and the confidence in the product.

Fig.2 Dehydrators setup at Uthmaniyah Gas Plant

Adsorption Capacity

Utilizing and analyzing all data, UGP challenged the

status quo for desiccants service life. Also, it has closely
monitored the desiccant performance and went for risk
taking in leaving the desiccant in the dehydrators. The
established recommended practice is that desiccant
service life is around 3 years which is almost equivalent
to the vendors warranty of 750 adsorption cycle.
Extending the service life beyond that could result in
unexpected failure as reported by the vendor.

CD#2 Act.

26
24
22
20
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

Regen Cycles

Fig.3 Gas Dehydrators Water Adsorption Capacity over

the 7 years

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IPTC 11497

Gas Dehydrator Pressure Drop

Predicted

Inlet T

CD#2 Act.

Outlet T

300

25
23

250

21
17

Temprature (C)

P (PSI)

19
15
13
11
9

200
150
100

7
5

50

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

Regen Cycles

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

450

500

Tim e, m inutes

Fig.4 Gas Dehydrators Pressure Drop over the 7 years

Fig.6 One Step Regeneration Process

300

Inlet T

250

Outlet T

Temprature(C)

200

150

100

50

0
0

50

100

150

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250

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350

Time, minutes

Fig.5: Loading Plan for the Dehydrator

Fig.7 Two Step Regeneration Process

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400

450

500