(106a) cMIST Compact Inline Gas Treating Technology

Shwetha Ramkumar, Norman K. Yeh, Don P. Shatto, Chuck J. Mart

ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company

Background

The natural gas industry is increasingly pursuing compact and low weight processing technology to meet the technological and economic demands of offshore, onshore, remote, and challenged gas processing. ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company has developed the Compact Mass transfer and Inline Separation Technology (cMISTâ„¢) gas treating system, a novel, compact and low weight processing technology platform, to achieve process intensification in processing facilities.

Aims and Methods

The cMISTâ„¢ system can replace conventional absorbers with in-line equipment for mass transfer and separation and can be applied to gas dehydration, selective H₂S removal and low level CO₂ removal. The first application of the technology, which is dehydration of natural gas to pipeline specification, has been qualified and licensed to Sulzer Chemtech for deployment on offshore and onshore facilities. It was demonstrated using a skid-mounted test unit in the Woodford trend area of Oklahoma, USA at an XTO production facility.

The selective H2S removal application is currently in demonstration phase at an XTO gas plant in Teague, TX.

Results and Conclusions

The cMISTâ„¢ dehydration system was tested to examine the dehydration capacity, operability, and reliability and it achieved pipeline specification over a range of process conditions and during sustained operation. The cMISTâ„¢ system for selective H₂S removal is currently being demonstrated with MDEA solvent and is achieving pipeline specification with significantly lower CO₂ pickup compared to a conventional contactor over a range of process conditions.

The cMISTâ„¢ system enables 50% system weight reduction and 50 - 80% absorber footprint reduction along with significant capital cost savings. The cMIST selective H2S removal system has added benefits of lower solvent circulation rate and the potential for elimination of the Acid Gas Enrichment (AGE) unit. The technology is highly modular to allow for simple transportation into remote, challenged, or offshore environments and provide installation configuration flexibility. The technology is also beneficial for debottlenecking and capacity enhancement applications.