Introducing a Novel Method for Heat Integration of Natural Gas Sweetening Process Based on Reducing TAC, Energy Consumption, CO۲ Emission, and Exergy Loss

The main problem is the high energy consumption in the gas sweetening process, especially in the distillation column, which makes it necessary to optimize the energy consumption of this process. A new method was used in this study for heat integration of natural gas sweetening process. For this purpose, the liquid and vapor streams leave the absorption column entered the upper and lower section of the stripper column, respectively. The feed to the stripper column was preheated by the bottom product the stripper column. Liquid and vapor streams reduce hot and cold utilities of the distillation column, and feed preheating reduces the heating duty of the reboiler. The recovered solvent was then precooled by sweet gas. According to the results, the proposed method reduced energy consumption of the basic process by ۶۷%. Based on the results obtained from calculating the amount of CO۲ emission, the amount of emission of this poisonous gas decreased by approximately ۷۰%. Moreover, proposed process could reduce total annual cost (TAC) of the basic process in the maximum value of ۶۶.۷۶%. This reduction in TAC is due to the reduction of operating cost and capital cost by ۶۶.۷۷ and ۶۶.۶۶% respectively. Also, in comparison with the basic process, exergy loss of the novel process decreased by ۶۶.۵%.

کلیدواژه ها:

natural gas sweetening ، CO۲ emission ، heat integration ، energy consumption reduction ، TAC ، exergy loss