Dehydration, hydrocarbon dewpointing, aromatics, methanol, mercaptan and carbon dioxide removal from high-pressure gases. ADAPT can be used at natural gas reception terminals, underground gas storage facilities (i.e., salt cavities, aquifers and depleted fields) and prior to LNG production. The process is suitable for prepurification and protection facilities for gas membrane systems.
Undesirable components in high-pressure natural gasses are simultaneoudly removed within a solid adsorbent bed (1). Tailored adsorbents selectively remove gas-phase components and control the slippage rate to the export gas, thus meeting required production specification. Once saturated, the adsorbing bed is switched to regeneration mode and a fresh bed (2) is brought online. Process flexibility enables multiple bed systems that allow very high throughputs.
Using pre-heated (3) feed or product gas regenerates the saturated bed, which depends on the application
requirements and economics. Regeneration temperature depends on the components being removed, but typically range from 200°C to 300°C. The rich-regeneration gas is cooled, producing a saleable hydrocarbon condensate (4). Cooler system flash gas is recycled back to the adsorbing bed for further processing. Some advantages of ADAPT over competing processes are:
• Compact process plant
• Rapid startup and shutdown
• No hot standby required
• Turndown to 10% of design flow
• High reliability and low maintenance
• Long adsorbent life.
Operating conditions: Typical operating pressures range from 30 to 120 bar, and feed gas temperatures up to 45°C. Plants can be skid mounted or modular enabling phased asset development. Typical feed gas flows from 10 MMscfd to over 1,500 MMscfd.
Economics: Costs vary with scale and application but typically range from £2 million for a 200 MMscfd plant to £9 million for a 1,500-MMscfd plant.
Installations: Plants in operation or construction across Europe, Africa and Asia. Total throughput for current ADAPT designs is approximately 9,000 MMscfd.
