Energy reduction potential in natural gas processing through heat and process integration

Despite the advantages of Natural Gas (NG) over other fossil fuels, natural gas supply chain is still impacted by a high energy demand and a negative impact on the environment as a result. This work investigates the potential of reducing energy penalty of natural gas sweetening processes through energy integration with upstream compression units and the use of Organic Rankine Cycle as a bottoming technology.
The integration was studied over a range of inlet CO2 content and admission pressure varying between 4 to 10% and 30 to 50 bar respectively. Results of heat integration showed an ample reduction in heating requirements ranging from 40 to 100%. Furthermore, the integration of an optimized ORC as a second recovery tool yielded in a net power output equivalent to 30% to 190% of the required pumping power and a reduction of cooling load ranging from and 4 to 16% respectively.