By far the most common process for dehydrating natural gas is to contact the gas with a hygroscopic liquid such as one of the glycois. This is an absorption process, where the water vapor in the gas stream becomes dissolved in a relatively pure glycol liquid solvent stream. Glycol dehydration is relatively inexpensive, as the water can be easily “boiled” out of the glycol by the addition of heat. This step is called “regeneration” or “reconcentration” and enables the glycol to be recovered for reuse in absorbing additional water with minimal loss of glycol.
