Simulation of hydrodesulfurization unit for natural gas condensate with high sulfur content

The natural gas condensates are composed of various components of hydrocarbons and some contaminants such as hydrogen sulfide, thiols (mercaptans), and aromatics. Thus, the natural gas condensates could be considered as a fuel resource. This study concerned the simulation of an Ultra-Deep Hydrodesulfurization (UDHDS) unit plus a distillation section to treat a combination of gas condensate and disulfide oils (DSO) and produce clean fuel cuts. Gas condensate of South Pars field of Iran with high sulfur content was applied to obtain clean fuel cuts. In order to reduce the sulfur content of this stream to less than 10 ppmw as sulfur, a UDHDS unit was simulated using Aspen HYSYS software package. The clean gas condensate leaving the UDHDS unit (with sulfur content <10 ppmw) contains complex mixtures of hydrocarbon components called petroleum cuts which are identified by their boiling points ranges. To obtain the narrow fractions of butane, light naphtha, heavy naphtha, kerosene, and gasoil, a fractional distillation system was simulated. The simulation results revealed that the top products of distillation column, namely butane, light naphtha, and heavy naphtha were sulfur free and the sulfur contents of kerosene and gasoil cuts were 12 and 27 ppmw as sulfur, respectively.