Natural Gas Storage Facility Sulfur Removal System

Challenge

A natural gas storage facility client had an existing Stretford Processing System for sulfur recovery at its storage facility that was aging and requiring extensive repairs and maintenance in ever more regular intervals. The client was looking to replace this system with one that would still remove the hydrogen sulfide from the natural gas before entering the pipeline while improving reliability and decreasing operational complexity.

Solution

Valdes provided the initial scoping and conceptual/study phase engineering support needed to select and replace the current system with a Sulfa-Treat system and later followed-up with detail engineering and design services. The new system was designed in a lead/lag configuration using two vessels. The system included a water injection system prior to the vessels since the system operates at maximum efficiency with a saturated gas stream. The system also included a coalescer on the outlet of the Sulfa-Treat system to protect the second stage compressor from liquids that may be entrained in the gas stream. The system was designed for maximum of five mmscf/day of gas flow with approximately 160 grains of sulfur load on that inlet stream.

Impact

The new system was designed to meet the needs of the client with a high degree of reliability, redundancy at key components to maintain the highest allowable stream time, and with a low degree of operational complexity due to the limited number of site personnel.