Applications [ Return towards Oil & Gas]

MEDAL™ membranes can be an economical alternative for sweetening large quantities of natural gas, i.e., removal of CO2. These systems can reach recovery levels of over 90 %. They can be used in onshore or offshore plants. Their benefits include plant modularity, low capital investment, ease of operation and reliability. They are an attractive alternative to amine systems.

Cogeneration of power and steam can help refiners meet new environmental mandates for NOx and SOx limits. Refineries may be operating with old fuel oils based boilers requiring extensive maintenance and monitoring. Cogeneration units can provide a certain amount of independence from electricity grid pricing, if properly designed and managed. Cogeneration is superior to stand alone boiler systems and steam turbine electricity generation due to increased efficiencies, resulting in less emissions and carbon dioxide releases to the atmosphere.

Feedstock capacity expansion projects and processing of resid feeds in Fluid Catalytic Cracking Units (FCCUs) continues to grow. The number of FCCU’s utilizing oxygen to achieve these objectives is more than 25 worldwide. Refiners have used pure oxygen to enrich the FCCU regenerator combustion air up to 28 % volume. This technology should lead to a capacity increase of over 25 % or a resid increase of 10 %. The modifications required to install the oxygen injection apparatus are minor and can be performed between unit turnarounds.

High pressure nitrogen provides a low down-hole hydrostatic pressure. Mobile nitrogen membrane production  units safely provide inert gas (95 % N2) at 12 bar which can be boosted to the required pressure.

Gasification is a capital-intensive process whereby low valued products, such as high sulfur fuel oils, vacuum residue tars, solvent de-asphalted oil bottoms, petroleum coke or coal can be converted into more valuable products.

Nitrogen is used primarily to ensure safe processes and maintain product quality.

Technologies using oxygen to expand the capacity of Claus Sulfur Recovery Units (SRU) or to build peak shaving process capability into new units are now widespread in the refining industry. Oxygen use in SRUs provides more than just capacity advantages, it can increase the combustion efficiency of the furnace and in some cases the overall sulfur recovery efficiency of the sulfur facility. If the refinery processes ammonia bearing sour water stripper gas, SRU’s are often faced with ammonium salt formation and pluggage by these salts in heat exchange equipment. The use of oxygen can help promote the destruction of ammonia and ensure that ammonium salt formation is minimized. Oxygen can also help in the combustion of lean acid gas feeds.

Oxygen has become widely used to increase capacity, reduce emissions and increase profits of air-based industrial processes since the early 1980’s. Oxygen enrichment has been used to overcome limitations on existing equipment, reduce flue gas volumes, and increase reaction conversions.