Vapornet, a New Gas Drying Technology
Natural gas wells
typically produce wet gas that has to be dried before
insertion into pipelines for delivery. This drying is
currently conducted by passing the gas through ethylene
glycol. The “glycol” absorbs the moisture and dries the
natural gas. The glycol is then “reconstituted” by
boiling the moisture-laden glycol to drive off the
excess water before the “dry” glycol is recycled to the
gas drying operation.
Ethylene
glycol is a toxic liquid. In addition, boiling the
glycol to remove moisture also produces what are called
BTEX emissions (benzene, toluene, ethylene glycol and
xylene gases). These gases are a major environmental
emission problem.
Vapornet uses an
alternative working fluid which has an extremely good
safety profile. In addition boiling Vapornet to
regenerate dry working fluid does not generate BTEX
emissions. Full-scale field tests suggest that Vapornet
can be used in existing equipment designs with some
changes to the operating parameters (pump rates,
temperatures etc.). Thermodynamic analysis also suggest
that Vapornet could be more thermodynamically efficient
that existing working fluids.
Visit
www.vapornet.nl to see more details.
Contact JASRA if
you are interested in licensing this technology.
