Clathrate hydrates, or gas hydrates, clathrates, hydrates, etc., are crystalline water-based solids physically resembling ice, in which small non-polar molecules (typically gases) or polar molecules with large hydrophobic moieties are trapped inside "cages" of hydrogen bonded, frozen water molecules. In other words, clathrate hydrates are clathrate compounds in which the host molecule is water and the guest molecule is typically a gas or liquid. Without the support of the trapped molecules, the lattice structure of hydrate clathrates would collapse into conventional ice crystal structure or liquid water. Most low molecular weight gases, including O2, H2, N2, CO2, CH4, H2S, Ar, Kr, and Xe, as well as some higher hydrocarbons and freons, will form hydrates at suitable temperatures and pressures. Clathrate hydrates are not officially chemical compounds, as the enclathrated guest molecules are never bonded to the lattice. The formation and decomposition of clathrate hydrates are first order phase transitions, not chemical reactions. Their detailed formation and decomposition mechanisms on a molecular level are still not well understood. Clathrate hydrates were first documented in 1810 by Sir Humphry Davy who found that water was a primary component of what was earlier thought to be solidified chlorine.
Ethylene glycol (IUPAC name: ethane-1,2-diol) is an organic compound with the formula (CH2OH)2. It is mainly used for two purposes, as a raw material in the manufacture of polyester fibers and for antifreeze formulations. It is an odorless, colorless, sweet-tasting, viscous liquid.
Liquid air is air that has been cooled to very low temperatures, so that it has condensed into a pale blue mobile liquid. To thermally insulate it from room temperature, it is stored in specialized containers. Liquid air can absorb heat rapidly and revert to its gaseous state. It is often used for condensing other substances into liquid and/or solidifying them, and as an industrial source of nitrogen, oxygen, argon, and other inert gases through a process called air separation.
Amine gas treating, also known as amine scrubbing, gas sweetening and acid gas removal, refers to a group of processes that use aqueous solutions of various alkylamines (commonly referred to simply as amines) to remove hydrogen sulfide (H2S) and carbon dioxide (CO2) from gases. It is a common unit process used in refineries, and is also used in petrochemical plants, natural gas processing plants and other industries.
Continuous distillation, a form of distillation, is an ongoing separation in which a mixture is continuously fed into the process and separated fractions are removed continuously as output streams. Distillation is the separation or partial separation of a liquid feed mixture into components or fractions by selective boiling and condensation. The process produces at least two output fractions. These fractions include at least one volatile distillate fraction, which has boiled and been separately captured as a vapor condensed to a liquid, and practically always a bottoms fraction, which is the least volatile residue that has not been separately captured as a condensed vapor.
Moisture analysis covers a variety of methods for measuring moisture content in both high level and trace amounts in solids, liquids, or gases. Moisture in percentage amounts is monitored as a specification in commercial food production. There are many applications where trace moisture measurements are necessary for manufacturing and process quality assurance. Trace moisture in solids must be controlled for plastics, pharmaceuticals and heat treatment processes. Gas or liquid measurement applications include dry air, hydrocarbon processing, pure semiconductor gases, bulk pure gases, dielectric gases such as those in transformers and power plants, and natural gas pipeline transport.
Natural-gas processing is a range of industrial processes designed to purify raw natural gas by removing impurities, contaminants and higher molecular mass hydrocarbons to produce what is known as pipeline quality dry natural gas.
An oil production plant is a facility which processes production fluids from oil wells in order to separate out key components and prepare them for export. Typical oil well production fluids are a mixture of oil, gas and produced water. An oil production plant is distinct from an oil depot, which does not have processing facilities.
Onshore, when used in relation to hydrocarbons, refers to an oil, natural gas or condensate field that is under the land or to activities or operations carried out in relation to such a field.
The Central Area Transmission System is a natural gas transportation and processing system that transports natural gas through a 404 kilometre pipeline from the Central North Sea to a reception and processing terminal at Teesside in the North East of England.
Stripping is a physical separation process where one or more components are removed from a liquid stream by a vapor stream. In industrial applications the liquid and vapor streams can have co-current or countercurrent flows. Stripping is usually carried out in either a packed or trayed column.
Methyl diethanolamine, also known as N-methyl diethanolamine and more commonly as MDEA, is the organic compound with the formula CH3N(C2H4OH)2. It is a colorless liquid with an ammonia odor. It is miscible with water, ethanol and benzene. A tertiary amine, it is widely used as a sweetening agent in chemical, oil refinery, syngas production and natural gas.
Supersonic gas separation is a technology to remove one or several gaseous components out of a mixed gas. The process condensates the target components by cooling the gas through expansion in a Laval nozzle and then separates the condensates from the dried gas through an integrated cyclonic gas/liquid separator. The separator is only using a part of the field pressure as energy and has technical and commercial advantages when compared to commonly used conventional technologies.
A biogas upgrader is a facility that is used to concentrate the methane in biogas to natural gas standards. The system removes carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulphide, water and contaminants from the biogas. One technique for doing this uses amine gas treating. This purified biogas is also called biomethane. It can be used interchangeably with natural gas.
An air separation plant separates atmospheric air into its primary components, typically nitrogen and oxygen, and sometimes also argon and other rare inert gases.
Nitrogen, as an element of great technical importance, can be produced in a cryogenic nitrogen plant with a purity of more than 99.9999%. Air inside a distillation column is separated at cryogenic temperatures to produce high purity nitrogen with 1ppm of impurities. The process is based on the air separation, which was invented by Dr. Carl von Linde in 1895.
A cryogenic oxygen plant is an industrial facility that creates molecular oxygen at relatively high purity. Oxygen is the most common element in the earth's crust and the second largest industrial gas. This process was pioneered by Dr. Carl von Linde in 1902.
The Buzzard Oil Field is an oil field located in the North Sea. It was discovered in 2001 by PanCanadian, and developed initially by PanCanadian's successor EnCana and then by Nexen. The oil field was initially operated and owned by Nexen which is now a subsidiary of China's CNOOC. The total proven reserves of the Buzzard oil field are 1.5 billion barrels, and production will be centered on 180,300 barrels per day (28,670 m3/d).
Crude oil stabilisation is a partial distillation process that renders crude oil suitable for storage in atmospheric tanks, or of a quality suitable for sales or pipeline transportation. Stabilization is achieved by subjecting ‘live’ crude to temperature and pressure conditions in a fractionation vessel which drives off light hydrocarbon components to form a ‘dead’ or stabilized crude oil with a lower vapor pressure.
Sorption enhanced water gas shift (SEWGS) is a technology that combines a pre-combustion carbon capture process with the water gas shift reaction (WGS) in order to produce a hydrogen rich stream from the syngas fed to the SEWGS reactor.
