Open AccessDevelopment of air and GHG emission calculators integrated in UNISIM-based process simulator: case study of a gas sweetening with effects of process parameters
Author(s) -
K. S. Permana,
A. A. Alimin,
M. Ibadurrohman,
Bambang Heru Susanto
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
iop conference series. earth and environmental science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1755-1307
pISSN - 1755-1315
DOI - 10.1088/1755-1315/673/1/012009
Subject(s) - greenhouse gas , reboiler , volumetric flow rate , sour gas , tonne , sweetening , waste management , environmental science , natural gas , process engineering , environmental engineering , petroleum engineering , engineering , chemistry , mechanical engineering , thermodynamics , sweetening agents , physics , food science , ecology , heat exchanger , biology
This paper reports the development of air and GHG emission calculators embedded in UNISIM-based process simulators, which are used as a computational tool to generate estimated values of air and GHG emission integrated with process simulation. A gas sweetening unit is taken as an example for the case study, with the effects of process parameters on the resultant emission being emphasized. Air and GHG calculators are developed based on up-to-date standards and national regulations concerning oil and gas processing facilities. The simulation’s base case is designed to produce sweet gas with sales gas specifications using MDEA solvent, which reveals 1,527 tonnes CO 2 e/day (representing GHG emission) and 0.348 tonnes SO 2 e/day (representing air emission). Pressure decline in the sour gas stream leads to a slight increase in emission up to 1,554 tonnes CO 2 e/day and 0.368 tonnes SO 2 e/day because of the additional compression systems. Using DEA as a solvent does not significantly affect air and GHG emission for the same sweet gas specification. The simulation also revealed that the gas flow rate (capacity) is not directly proportional to the eventual emission. In this case, the driver for air and GHG emission is the reboiler’s duty, dependent on the amine flow rate. As there is a critical (minimum) lean amine flow rate regarding the sour gas flow rate, the non-proportional relationship between gas flow rate and emission is expected. To produce sweet gas with LNG specification, the emission rises considerably to 2,652 tonnes CO 2 e/day and 0.747 tonnes SO 2 e/day because CO 2 loading of rich amine is higher in this case, eventually increasing the reboiler duty significantly.