METHODS OF ETHANE RECOVERY

There are three general methods which can be used to

achieve the conditions necessary to attain high ethane
recovery levels.
1. J-T Expansion
2. Turboexpander
3. Mechanical refrigeration
Each of these processes has been used successfully, with
the turboexpander being the predominant process of
choice for ethane recovery facilities.

J-T EXPANSION PROCESS

The use of the Joule-Thomson (J-T) effect to recover
liquids is an attractive alternative in many applications.
The general concept is to chill the gas by expanding the gas
across a J-T valve. With appropriate heat exchange and
large pressure differential across the J-T valve, cryogenic
temperatures can be achieved resulting in high extraction
efficiencies.
The main difference between the J-T design and turbo
expanders is that the gas expansion is adiabatic across the
valve and is nearly isentropic path. Thus the J-T design
tends to be less efficient per unit of energy expended than
the turbo expander.

J-T EXPANSION PROCESS

The J-T process does offer some advantages over the
turboexpander and refrigeration processes in the following
situations:
1. Low gas rates and modest ethane recovery.
2. The process can be designed with no rotating
equipment.
3. Broad range of flows.
4. Simplicity of design and operation.

J-T EXPANSION PROCESS

J-T EXPANSION PROCESS

In order to effectively use the J-T process, the gas must
be at a high inlet pressure (over 7000 kPa ).
If the gas pressure is too low, inlet compression is
necessary or insufficient expansion chilling will be
attained.
The gas must first be dried to ensure that no water
enters the cold portion of the process.
Molecular sieves or Alumina are used for the drying.
Methanol injection has been used in a few plants
successfully but can be an operating problem.

REFRIGERATED J-T PROCESS

In some cases the feed gas is not at high enough
pressure or the gas is rich in liquefiable hydrocarbons.
Then mechanical refrigeration can be added to the J-T
process to enhance recovery efficiencies.
The J-T process with refrigeration added to aid in
chilling the feed gas.
The gas in this design is expanded downstream of the
cold separator.

REFRIGERATED J-T PROCESS

REFRIGERATED J-T PROCESS

The location of the J-T valve is dependent on the gas

pressure and composition involved.
The advantage of refrigeration is that lower feed pressure
can be used or alternatively, the demethanizer can be
operated at a higher pressure thus reducing residue
compression.
The J-T process, whether refrigerated or non-refrigerated,
offers a simple, flexible process for moderate ethane
recovery.
It is usually applied to smaller gas flows where some
inefficiency can be tolerated for reduction in capital and
operating costs.

TURBOEXPANDER PROCESS
The turboexpander process dominates ethane recovery
facility design.
This process uses the feed gas pressure to produce
needed refrigeration by expansion across a turbine
(turboexpander). The turboexpander recovers useful
work from this gas expansion.
The expander is linked to a centrifugal compressor to
recompress the residue gas from the process. Because
the expansion is near isentropic, the turboexpander
lowers the gas temperature significantly more than
expansion across a J-T valve.

TURBOEXPANDER PROCESS

TURBOEXPANDER PROCESS
Dry feed gas is first cooled against the residue gas and
used for side heating of the demethanizer.
Additionally, with richer gas feeds, mechanical
refrigeration is often needed to supplement the gas
chilling.
The chilled gas is sent to the cold separator where the
condensed liquid is separated, flashed and fed to the
middle part of the demethanizer.
The vapor flows through the turboexpander and feeds the
top of the column.

TURBOEXPANDER PROCESS
A J-T valve is installed in parallel with the expander.
This valve can be used to handle excess gas flow
beyond the design of the expander or can be used for the
full flow if the expander is out of service.
In this configuration the ethane recovery is limited to
about 80% or less.
Also, the cold separator is operated at a low temperature
to maximize recovery. Often the high pressure and low
temperature conditions are near the critical point of the
gas making the operation unstable.
Another problem with this design is the presence of
CO2, which can solidify at operating temperatures.

TURBOEXPANDER PROCESS
To increase the ethane recovery beyond the 80% achievable with the
conventional design, following methods were developed:
Residue Recycle (RR)
Gas Subcooled Process (GSP)
Cold Residue Recycle (CRR)
Side Draw Reflux (SDR) Process

RESIDUE RECYCLE
To increase the ethane recovery beyond the 80%
achievable with the conventional design, a source of
reflux must be developed for the demethanizer.
One of the methods is to recycle a portion of the residue
gas, after recompression, back to the top of the column.

RESIDUE RECYCLE

RESIDUE RECYCLE

The process flow is similar to the conventional design

except that a portion of the residue is brought back
through the inlet heat exchange.
At this point the stream is totally condensed and is at
the residue gas pipeline pressure.
The stream is then flashed to the top of the
demethanizer to provide reflux. The expander outlet
stream is sent a few trays down in the tower rather
than to the top of the column.
The reflux provides more refrigeration to the system
and allows very high ethane recovery to be realized.

RESIDUE RECYCLE
The residue recycle (RR) system has been used
successfully in numerous facilities.
It is CO2 tolerant and the recovery can be adjusted by
the quantity of recycle used.
The recovery level is a function of the quantity of
recycle in the design.
The RR process can be used for very high ethane
recoveries limited only by the quantity of horsepower
provided.

GAS SUBCOOLED PROCESS

GAS SUBCOOLED PROCESS

The Gas Subcooled Process (GSP) was developed to
overcome the problems encountered with the
conventional expander process.
A portion of the gas from the cold separator is sent to
a heat exchanger where it is totally condensed with
the overhead stream.
This stream is then flashed to top of the demethanizer
providing reflux to the demethanizer.

GAS SUBCOOLED PROCESS

As with the RR process, the expander feed is sent to the
tower several stages below the top of the column.
Because of this modification, the cold separator
operates at much warmer conditions well away from
the system critical.
Additionally, the residue recompression is less than
with the conventional expander process.
The horsepower is typically lower than the RR process
at recovery levels below 92%.

GAS SUBCOOLED PROCESS

The GSP design has several modifications.
One is to take a portion of the liquid from the cold
separator along with the gas to the overhead exchanger.
Generally, this can help to further reduce the horsepower
required for recompression.
Also, the process can be designed to just use a portion of
the cold separator liquid for reflux. This modification is
typically used for gases richer than 3 GPM.

GAS SUBCOOLED PROCESS

The GSP design is very CO2 tolerant; many designs
require no up front CO2 removal to achieve high
recovery.
CO2 levels are very composition and operating
pressure dependent, but levels up to 2% can usually
be tolerated with the GSP design.

COLD RESIDUE RECYCLE (CRR) PROCESS

A process scheme has been developed to combine the
GSP and RR processes into an integrated process
scheme.
This concept is based on applying the best features of
each process to the integrated design.
This combination can result in higher ethane recovery
efficiency than can be achieved with GSP.

CRR PROCESS

CRR PROCESS
The Cold Residue Recycle (CRR) process is a
modification of the GSP process to achieve higher ethane
recovery levels.
The process is similar to the GSP except that a
compressor and condenser have been added to the
overhead system to take a portion of the residue gas and
provide additional reflux for the demethanizer.
This process is attractive for extremely high ethane
recovery. Recovery levels above 98% are achievable
with this process.
This process is also excellent for extremely high propane
recovery while rejecting essentially all the ethane.

SIDE DRAW REFLUX (SDR) PROCESS

The Side Draw Reflux (SDR) process is another
modification of the GSP.
In this design, a stream is taken off the demethanizer,
boosted in pressure and condensed to provide reflux.
This design is interesting in cases where the residue gas
stream will contain inerts such as N2 which make the
subcooling of the cold separator overhead infeasible.
The stream taken from the side of the demethanizer is
free of the inert components and condenses easily.

SIDE DRAW REFLUX (SDR) PROCESS

SIDE DRAW REFLUX (SDR) PROCESS

As with the CRR process, the extra equipment
associated with SDR system must be justified on
additional liquid recovery.

MIXED REFRIGERANT PROCESS

The use of a mixed refrigerant process is an interesting
alternative to the turboexpander process. Such processes
have been used widely in LNG processing and to a lesser
extent in NGL recovery.
One of the characteristics of the process is that low
temperatures can be achieved with significantly reduced
inlet gas pressure.
The chilling can be achieved totally with mechanical
refrigeration or with a mixture of refrigeration and
expansion.
If inlet compression is contemplated for a turboexpander
plant, then mixed refrigerant processing can be an
economic alternative.

MIXED REFRIGERANT PROCESS

MIXED REFRIGERANT PROCESS

In this process, the feed gas is chilled to cold separator

temperature where the liquid is sent to the demethanizer as
in an expander process.
The overhead vapor is split and the majority sent
through an expander to the upper part of the demethanizer.
A portion of the gas is cooled further in the main heat
exchanger and sent to the top of the demethanizer as
reflux.
Alternatively, the turboexpander can be eliminated and the
total stream cooled in the main exchanger and fed to the
demethanizer.

MIXED REFRIGERANT PROCESS

The residue gas would be exchanged with the feed in the
main heat exchanger. The refrigeration is provided by a
single mixed refrigerant system designed to provide the
necessary low temperature conditions.
The refrigerant would typically be a methane, ethane,
propane mixture with some heavier components as
dictated by the design conditions.
A critical aspect of the design is to maintain the desired
refrigerant composition during plant operation.

FRACTIONATION CONSIDERATIONS
In all NGL recovery processes, one of the final steps in the
plant is the production of the desired liquid product by use
of a fractionation column.
This column produces the specification product as a bottom
product with the overhead stream being recycled to the
process or sent out of the plant as residue gas product.
This mixed product then needs to be separated into usable
products in a series of one or more fractionation columns.
The number and arrangement of these columns is dependent
on the desired product.

FRACTIONATION CONSIDERATIONS

If the NGL stream is an ethane plus stream the first step

is to separate the ethane from the propane and heavier
components in a deethanizer.
The propane is then separated from the butane and
heavier components in a depropanizer.
If further processing is desired the butane may be
separated in a debutanizer and the butanes further
separated in a butane splitter column.
The butane splitter is only used when a differential value
can be realized for the isobutane versus the mixed
butane stream.

FRACTIONATION CONSIDERATIONS