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Assessment of new and improved solvent for pre-elimination of BTEX emissions in glycol dehydration processes

Chemical Engineering Research and Design • 2016
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Publication Information
Authors Usama Eldemerdash
Keywords Monoethylene glycol, Natural gas, Dehydration, Desiccant, BTEX, Hydrocarbon emissionsa
Journal Chemical Engineering Research and Design
Publisher Elsevier
Volume 115
Issue part A
Pages 214-220
publication.type International
Paper Link Open Link
Supplementary Materials Not Available
Abstract
Emission of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene (BTEX) from natural gas dehydra-tion units was highlighted as an acute environmental impact. Furthermore, recent stringentenvironmental regulations addressed a pressing need of knowledge to eliminate hydrocar-bon’s emissions from glycol dehydrators. The primary objective of this study is to combinethe minimization of BTEX emissions with an efficient dew point control. However, theapproach in this research emphasis on the cause of the BTEX emissions rather than thepost treatment process. Chemically modified monoethylene glycol (mMEG) is proposed asa new solvent to replace triethylene glycol (TEG) in the dehydration process. The results ofthis study showed a significant improvement in the dehydration performance together withthe elimination of (BTEX) emissions. The results demonstrated that mMEG could producegas water content of 0.16 ppm (7.6 × 10−3lb/mmscf) and near zero level of BTEX. This inves-tigation suggests that using mMEG can solve the environmental issue of BTEX in the naturalgas dehydration process.