Advanced equation of state method for modeling TEG-water for glycol gas dehydration

An advanced equation of state has been developed for modeling triethylene glycol (TEG)-water system for glycol gas dehydration process. The dehydration of natural gas is very important in the gas processing industry. It is necessary to remove water vapor present in a gas stream that may cause hydrate formation at low-temperature conditions that may plug the valves and fittings in gas pipelines. In addition, water vapor may cause corrosion difficulties when it reacts with hydrogen sulfide or carbon dioxide commonly present in gas streams. The most effective practice to remove water from natural gas streams is to use TEG in the gas dehydration process. In modeling such a process, it is crucial that the phase behavior of the TEG-water-natural gas system is correctly modeled, with methane being the predominant component in natural gas. Of the three binaries, methane-water, methane-TEG and TEG-water, the methane binaries can be adequately modeled by an equation of state, e.g. [JR. Cunningham, J.E. Coon, C.H. Twu, Estimation of aromatic hydrocarbon emissions from glycol dehydration units using process simulation, in: Proceedings of the 72nd Annual Gas Processors Association Convention, San Antonio, TX, March 15-17, 1993]. For the TEG-water binary, the Parrish's empirical hyperbolic correlation [W.R. Parrish, K.W. Won, M.E. Baltatu, Phase behavior of the triethylene glycol-water system and dehydration/regeneration design for extremely low dew point requirements, in: Proceedings of the 65th Annual GPA Convention, San Antonio, TX, March 10-12, 1986] is recommended by GPSA [GPSA Engineering Data Book, 10th ed., First Revision, Gas Processors Suppliers Association, Tulsa, OK, 1994] and is currently widely used in the industry. In this work, we applied the TST (Twu-Sim-Tassone) equation of state to model this binary system. A methodology was also developed to determine the water dew point and calculate water content for this system. The TST equation of state is shown to accurately represent the activity coefficients of TEG-water solutions as well as water dew point temperatures and water content of gas over the entire application range of temperature, pressure and concentration encountered in a typical TEG dehydration unit. (c) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.