An exploration and production company, that builds natural gas reserves through the acquisition and development of oil and gas assets, uses multiple scrubbers to clean out the impurities of the natural gas that they receive. The impurities consist of hydrogen sulfide and amines. They dump this waste into their flare stack and then sell the cleaned natural gas.
This company wanted to use their waste gas stream to supplement the fuel supply that operates their flare stack. The heating value of the waste gas stream varied over a wide range, very lean at some times and very rich at others. They needed to identify the heating value of the waste stream to determine whether it could be used as a standalone fuel source. The heating value of the waste stream had to be at least 200-250 BTU/scf for complete combustion to occur, otherwise assist gas would have to be added to the flare. They decided to add an analyzer that would provide a continuous heating value measurement of the varying waste stream. The analyzer also had to be able to handle the high level of corrosives and water vapor in the waste stream.
They did a thorough investigation of the BTU monitoring technologies available before purchasing a BTU Calorific Analyzer. They chose this micro combustion type calorimeter because of its ability to accurately and continuously measure over a wide measurement range the heating value of the corrosive waste stream.
Read on to find out more details about how this natural gas processing plant found a solution to their problem.
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