(81b) The Effect of Feed Compositon Variations from Upstream Plants on the Downstream Design Configruation of Natural Gas Liquid (NGL) Recovery Processes

Gas processing plant is subjected to variations in upstream conditions that has an impact on the performance of the in-operating plant. The feed composition determines what types of process configuration has to be implemented for the process. In this study, six representative NGL recovery processes were selected based on the criteria of their commercial availability, operating and capital cost savings. Each process scheme were built using HYSYS under common operating conditions for the purpose of comparison. The developed process schemes were tested for a range of various feed compositions classified as lean and rich. Economic evaluation were made by measuring the total annualized cost (TAC). The enhanced NGL recovery process (IPSI-1) showed the lowest TAC value compared to the others due to the presence of the self-refrigeration that reduces the external usage of propane refrigerant for the process. The trade-off that exist between the profitability and reliability of holding the process operating constraints were also been evaluated. The IPSI-1 scheme showed the highest profit margin with less than 6% risk of violation for the constraints.