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Performance Tests of Gas Characterization Methods for Predicting Freeze-out in LNG Production

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Abstract

The formation and deposition of solids in plant equipment is a perennial risk to the cryogenic processing of natural gas. While several tools are available to predict the temperatures at which heavy hydrocarbon solids (HHC) will form, the accuracy of the gas mixture’s compositional characterization can significantly impact the reliability of those predictions. A complete characterization of the mixture is the most desirable scenario but is challenging and expensive to obtain. More typically, C6 hydrocarbons and heavier compounds are lumped into pseudocomponents based on their boiling point to represent the HHC composition of the mixture. Recently, Miethe et al. (Hydrocarb Process, 2015) detailed a new approach based on splitting each pseudocomponent further according to its paraffinic, isoparaffinic, naphthenic and aromatic (PINA) composition. An associated defined component is used to represent each of these sub-fractions to improve the melting temperature prediction accuracy. However, this “Lump + PINAAPI” approach has not been validated for mixtures that contain HHCs beyond C10. This work compares freeze-out predictions based on a complete compositional characterization of a gas mixture with HHCs up to C14 with results obtained using (1) the new Lump + PINAAPI approach and (2) several other freeze-out prediction methods described in the literature. For two gas samples, the fully characterized mixtures were predicted to have melting temperatures of 263.2 K (14.1 °F) and 260.1 K (8.5 °F), respectively. At the same time, the Lump + PINAAPI predictions were 153.4 K (− 183.6 °F) and 157.4 K (− 176.3 °F), respectively. The large discrepancy between melting temperature predictions highlights the need to either (1) obtain full characterization of natural gas mixture compositions where possible, and/or (2) to develop an improved set of correlations pseudocomponent correlations for predicting freeze-out in natural gas mixtures.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank David J. Zhu, Peter E. Falloon, and Xiong Xiao for upgrading ThermoFAST Software to enable the freeze-out calculation methods tested by this work. Special thanks to David J. Zhu for his assistance in editing this paper. We thank the Future Energy Exports Cooperative Research Centre for providing access to the free ThermoFAST software package developed by the Fluid Science Research group at the University of Western Australia. This is FEnEx CRC Document 2022/RP1.CM1.3.2-FNX-001.

Funding

This work received no direct funding. EFM is partially funded by the Future Energy Exports CRC.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Mining and Petroleum Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt

    Hassan A. Attalla, Nour A. El-Emam & Tarek M. Aboul-Fotouh

  2. Fluid Science and Resources Division, The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Hwy, Crawley, WA, 6009, Australia

    Eric F. May

  3. Future Energy Exports Cooperative Research Centre, 35 Stirling Hwy, Crawley, WA, 6009, Australia

    Eric F. May

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  1. Hassan A. Attalla
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Contributions

HAA conducted the research, supervised by NAE-E, TMA-F and EFM. HAA and EFM wrote the main manuscript text. All authors reviewed the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Hassan A. Attalla or Eric F. May.

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Appendix: 45 Discrete Compounds Added to ThermoFAST to Enable Full Method Freeze-out Calculations

Appendix: 45 Discrete Compounds Added to ThermoFAST to Enable Full Method Freeze-out Calculations

See Table 8.

Table 8 Parameters for the 45 discrete compounds added to ThermoFAST to enable Full method freeze-out calculations
Full size table

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Attalla, H.A., El-Emam, N.A., Aboul-Fotouh, T.M. et al. Performance Tests of Gas Characterization Methods for Predicting Freeze-out in LNG Production. Int J Thermophys 44, 25 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10765-022-03127-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10765-022-03127-5

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