Articles
Executive Viewpoint: Innovative DCS targets biogas, LNG applications
New technologies, both process and digital, are revitalizing the hydrocarbon processing industry. Gas Processing & LNG talked with Jani Hautaluoma, Director of Process Automation for Valmet Automation, about the application of new production processes and digital advances for biogas and LNG production.
Editorial Comment: A brighter future for methane hydrates?
Methane hydrates are three-dimensional ice-lattice structures in which natural gas is trapped.
Case study: Improve gas processing by controlling condensation
Improved condensation and capture of NGL and water in natural gas cuts costs, maximizes production value, and avoids costly maintenance. .
Gas processing technology for new engineers
Historically, natural gas has been distributed as a priority in the industrial sector, given the greater territorial concentration of consumption and the consequent lower supply cost.
U.S. Industry Metrics
The U.S. has been a net exporter of gas for more than a year, with a sharp rise in exports in 2019 helped by an increase in LNG shipments from eight new trains at three projects: Cameron LNG, Freeport LNG and Elba Island LNG.
Global Project Data
Hydrocarbon Processing’s Construction Boxscore Database and Gulf Energy Information’s Energy Web Atlas are tracking more than 420 active gas processing/LNG projects around the world.
Create a data compilation and management program for heat exchangers
Heat is a valuable resource in the gas processing, refining and petrochemicals industries, and the loss of it should be avoided. Process engineers spend much time working to save and use heat in the best way possible, designing and then maintaining plants so that heat can be fully utilized.
Cost-effective, modular technologies for butane, propane and NGL treating
Hydrocarbon processing plants often encounter challenges with feedstocks containing high levels of mercaptans, which concentrate in hydrocarbon condensates and NGL when the mercaptans are not removed upstream by the acid gas removal unit (AGRU) or molecular sieve unit.
Editorial Comment
Australia and Middle Eastern countries, which have been net LNG exporters, are now foraying into LNG imports due to supply issues.
Industry Focus: Mixed performance for Africa’s gas markets in 2019 poses questions for next decade
As 2020 begins, Africa’s gas market is left with a mixed bag of achievements that only partly confirms a prediction by the International Gas Union (IGU) in early 2019 that the continent’s natural gas segment is “facing a potential turning point.”
Regional Focus: North American NGL to boom alongside petrochemicals
Strong natural gas production and rapidly rising demand from petrochemicals makers have resulted in record-high production of natural gas plant liquids in North America, particularly in the U.S. This growth has been led by ethane.
Business Trends: Four challenges to Australia’s rising role in the global LNG market
The past 10 yr have been the decade of natural gas, but the next 10 yr will belong to LNG as countries race to build out their export capacity.
Avoid costly startup delays with a MAC
Almost every oil and gas company has experienced the chaos that comes with trying to finish a startup in its final days. The good news is that this does not have to be the status quo. Steps can be taken to dramatically reduce integration challenges and keep projects on time and on budget.
Reduce gas dehydration costs with high-efficiency mixing
The gas dehydration process is typically carried out using a large contactor tower, where glycol [typically triethylene glycol (TEG), ethylene glycol (MEG) or diethylene glycol (DEG)] enters counter-currently to the process gas for optimum contact between glycol and gas during mass transfer.
Global Project Data
<i>Hydrocarbon Processing’s</i> Construction Boxscore Database and Gulf Energy Information’s Energy Web Atlas is tracking more than 420 active gas processing/LNG projects around the world.
U.S. Industry Metrics
On November 4, the thousandth LNG export cargo was shipped from the U.S. since the start of LNG exports from the Lower 48 States in February 2016.
Sectionalizing valve location on an onshore buried gas pipeline
In onshore buried natural gas pipelines, sectionalizing valves are used to divide the pipeline into smaller segments that can be isolated in an emergency case or when needed to allow for operation, inspection and maintenance activities.
Manage contaminants in LNG feed gas and cryogenic processing—Part 2
Part 1 of this article reviewed requirements for contamination management, common issues in LNG processing and feed gas contamination. Part 2 presents a case study to demonstrate how proactive contamination sampling and onsite testing prevented a plant shutdown and revealed a solution to avert further problems.
Delivering asset data integrity through digitization and standardization
During the lifecycle of an asset—from capital project activities through operations and maintenance and to end-of-life—data about the asset are handed over numerous times, from engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) firms, various supply chain partners, owner-operators, and internally within each of these organizations.
Optimization of BOG management during LNG unloading with dynamic simulation
In LNG receiving terminals, the dynamic nature of boiloff gas (BOG) generation in the unloading process can be difficult to understand, and BOG management can be challenging.
Executive Viewpoint: Back to production: Where we’re going, we don’t need pipelines
What if a cost-effective way existed to extract and distribute natural gas, regardless of proximity to pipeline, and bring those assets back to production? What if the industry went in a direction that did not need pipelines? For those looking to monetize unproductive natural gas assets or bring unproductive wells back to production, it would be revolutionary.
Regional Focus: Australia to boost LNG exports despite domestic gas shortage
Australia is planning further increases in LNG production and exports over the next decade, despite quickly depleting reserves and a looming supply shortage in the domestic market.
Editorial Comment: The Future of FLNG: Less is More?
Global LNG export capacity is expected to increase by 45% between 2017 and 2022, to more than 400 metric MMtpy, with 90% of the new capacity coming from sanctioned projects in the U.S. and Australia. By 2050, this capacity is anticipated to exceed 700 MMtpy. Regasification capacity is anticipated to increase even more sharply.
Advanced modeling for monitoring centrifugal compressor operation
Ensuring safe and optimal operative conditions for compressors is a primary goal for process plants. check
US Industry Metrics
In US gas news, Freeport LNG shipped its first LNG cargo of 150,000 m<sup>3</sup> from Train 1 on September 3.
Global Project Data
<i>Hydrocarbon Processing</i>’s Construction Boxscore Database and Gulf Energy Information’s Energy Web Atlas are tracking more than 400 active gas processing/LNG projects around the world.
Smart coolant for NGL processing in very hot regions
A propane refrigeration system, consisting of a compressor, air coolers, an expansion valve and an evaporator, is commonly used for deethanizer overhead cooling in the oil and gas industry.
Driving the viability of micro-LNG projects
In recent years, as the world has increasingly shifted away from heavier distillates in favor of cleaner-burning fuel sources, the role of natural gas in the global energy landscape has expanded dramatically.
Opportunities for increasing efficiency in small- to mid-scale LNG plants—Part 2
Several factors are incentivizing lifecycle cost (LCC)-focused production capacity for mid-scale LNG.
- Woodfibre LNG receives BCEAO order to move floatel to site to house non-local workforce
- QatarEnergy, Exxon seek to remove contractor from Texas gas project
- Veolia, Waga Energy and ENGIE collaborate to develop renewable natural gas industry in France
- Congo Brazzaville becomes an LNG exporting country
- Fulcrum LNG to pair with McDermott, Baker Hughes for Guyana gas project
- EU approves law to hit gas imports with methane emissions limit
- Veolia, Waga Energy and ENGIE collaborate to develop renewable natural gas industry in France
- Hawai'i Gas selects Eurus Energy America, Bana Pacific for hydrogen and renewable natural gas projects
- TotalEnergies increases LNG deliveries to Asia with two new contracts
- Desert Mountain Energy Corp. initiates helium production
