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The growth in the natural gas industry has reached the point where it will increase faster than any other primary energy source, due to its clear-burning characteristics and its ability to help meet environmental requirements.1,2 The share of natural gas in world energy use is anticipated to increase to 30% by 2020. Although the primary use of natural gas is fuel, it is also a major source of hydrocarbons for petrochemical feedstock.
Natural gas is the primary energy resource in Egypt, superseding oil reserves. Gas is expected to become more and more important to the energy future of Egypt, as strong potential for additional discoveries exists, especially in the Western Desert, the Nile Delta and offshore in the Mediterranean Sea.
This article investigates, analyzes and evaluates the different modifications needed to retrofit the El-Wastani LPG plant in Egypt to enhance LPG recovery percentage and to produce an additional product-commercial propane-with high propane recovery percentage. The retrofit also seeks to increase the plant's handling capacity from 160 MMscfd to 200 MMscfd. To accomplish these two goals, a change in the existing process configuration and in several operating conditions and equipment sizing have been studied.
The simulation used in this study to examine the existing and proposed modification was produced by proprietary software using the Peng-Robinson equation of state (EOS). The simulation of the existing LPG plant resulted in a better understanding of the design margins than those provided by the original designer.
The debottlenecking study also showed that the proposed modifications to the plant can increase butane recovery from 80% to 95% and propane recovery to 92.5%. Furthermore, the modified process can handle 200 MMscfd of raw gas, up from 160 MMscfd.
The last section of this study considers the economic perspective and the return on investment (ROI) calculated for both options:
* Revamp the plant to produce commercial propane, keeping the same design handling capacity and improving the butane extraction percentage. ROI will be paid back within 4.5 months (as calculated using the ROI score method).
* Modify the plant to handle 200 MMscfd of raw gas and increase the LPG recovery from 80% to 94%. ROI will be paid back within five months.
LPG plant characteristics. The recovery...