Improvement of energy utilization in natural gas dehydration plant through reducing electricity and steam demand

In recent years, there has been great incentive to improve the energy utilization with which the existing capital in offshore and onshore surface facilities is utilized. One of the most energy intensive processes in oil upstream industry is natural gas dehydration plant. The main gorge of energy consumption in conventional natural gas dehydration plants are steam reboiler and air cooled heat exchangers. Hence, more attention should be focused on the effective utilization of electricity and steam in theses plants. In this investigation, a simulation model has been developed on the basis of using novel configuration in Gachsaran glycol dehydration unit in south of Iran. The results show that the economic return on retrofit investment is much more attractive and also, there are opportunities for upgrading the performance of the plant, e.g., plant capacity increases and energy intensity decreases over the time.