Practice and exploration on cost reduction and efficiency improvement in natural gas purification plant
Author of the article:QU Yang, XIA Lin, LI Tingting, LEI Jing, LI Changzhi
Author's Workplace：PetroChina Southwest Oil & Gasfield Company Natural Gas Purification Plant, Chongqing, 400021, China
Key Words：Natural gas; Low load; Optimization measures; Cost reduction and efficiency improvement
Abstract：As the natural gas exploitation of Southwest Oil and Gas Field in eastern Sichuan enters the middle and late stage, the required raw feed gas treatment capacity of one natural gas purification plant, as a key link in the natural gas treatment process, shows a downward trend year by year. There are some problems such as deviation of some process parameters from the design value, relatively high energy consumption and also high consumption of raw chemical material. The process unit is in low load operation for a long time, resulting in increased production costs. There are also other challenges such as product gas quality upgrading and tail gas emission treatment to meet standards. There are many challenges in promoting the construction of “intelligent purification plant” and digital transformation. Based on the analysis of the production and operation of one natural gas purification plant, this paper puts forward measures such as repairing and reusing the existing, power generation using natural gas residual pressure, unattended power station and promoting the construction of intelligent purification plant by optimizing the process flow of desulfurization unit, timely technical transformation, adjusting on-site operation and relevant parameters, summarizing the experience of production, operation and management, so as to promote the low-cost and high-quality development of the natural gas purification plant and achieve the goal of reducing cost and increasing efficiency. This study provides experience and references for application of cost reduction and efficiency improvement measures on natural gas purification plants of the same nature.