METHOD OF DRYING NATURAL GAS DURING COMPRESSION AND INSTALLATION FOR ITS IMPLEMENTATION Russian patent published in 2024 - IPC B01D53/04 B01D53/26 

FIELD: oil and gas industry.

SUBSTANCE: group of inventions relates to preparation of gases and their mixtures, in particular to compression of natural gas bled from a supply gas line, and its preparation to the quality of motor fuel. Gas dehydration is performed in membrane module installed on one of stages of multistage piston compressor. For gas preparation before membrane module gas is passed through the first section of two-section inter-stage heat exchanger, filter-separator of coarse purification and filter-separator of fine purification. Dried gas in membrane module, not penetrated through membrane (retentate), is cooled in the second section of the two-section inter-stage heat exchanger-cooler and supplied to the final compression stage of the piston compressor or directly to the consumer. Gas flow penetrated through membrane (permeate) due to overpressure by means of compression in compressor or gas ejector, is returned to the supply gas line before the inlet separator of the first stage of the piston compressor. Thus, emission of wet gas into atmosphere from membrane module is excluded. Selection of gas compression stage of multistage piston compressor, on which membrane module is installed, is made based on conditions for ensuring optimum operating parameters (temperature, pressure, moisture content) of membrane module functioning taking into account structural features of membrane module and characteristics of membrane material. Also disclosed is an installation for drying natural gas during compression. Operating parameters (temperature, pressure, moisture content) are selected so that: maximization of separation properties, preservation of mechanical strength of membrane material, reduction of risk of formation of drop moisture, high output of retentate gas and overall improvement of technical and economic parameters of the membrane module.

EFFECT: group of inventions enables to obtain compressed natural gas of the required quality with low content of water vapor (0.009 g/cbm according to GOST 57577–2022 and below) at any values of moisture content of natural gas in the supply gas line without the need for periodic regeneration of the adsorbent at minimum power consumption in the process of deep drying of the gas.

6 cl, 10 dwg