Natural gas dissolved

Dissoived-gas units have found application in rcfiuei y operations where air can be used as the gas and where large areas are available. In treating produced water for injection, it is desirable to use natural gas to exclude oxygen. This requires venting the gas or installation of a vapor-recovery unit. Field experience with dissolved natural gas units has not been as successful as with dispersed gas units. 

Thus there is nonassociated natural gas, which is found in reservoirs in which there is no, or at best only minimal amounts of, petroleum. Nonassociated gas is usually richer in methane but is markedly leaner in terms of the higher-molecular-weight hydrocarbons and condensate. Conversely, there is also associated natural gas dissolved natural gas) that occurs either as free gas or as gas in solution in the petroleum. The gas that occurs as a solution with the crude petroleum is dissolved gas, whereas the gas that exists in contact with the crude petroleum (gas cap) is associated g 5. Associated gas is usually leaner in methane than the nonassociated gas but is richer in the higher-molecular-weight constituents. 

Most oil fields discovered in northern Alaska have associated gas. While all have dissolved gas some have large gas caps. The production histories of these fields have now provided the amount of natural gas available and thus can be labeled as proven reserves. The current production of dissolved natural gas from some of these fields, in processed or unprocessed form, is reinjected into the fleld. 

Solution gas The dissolved natural gas that bubbles out of crude oil on the surface when the pressure drops during production. 

If the water is gas lifted to the surface, separation facilities will be required. Typically, a simple two-phase separator is sufficient, since small levels of dissolved natural gas in the water are not harmful to the equipment or the injection formation. If the gas used to lift the water contains acid gases or oxygen, then some treating may be necessary to remove or neutralize these harmful gas components. 

In combination, carbon is found as carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of the earth and dissolved in all natural waters. It is a component of great rock masses in the form of carbonates of calcium (limestone), magnesium, and iron. Coal, petroleum, and natural gas are chiefly hydrocarbons. 

Nonassociated gas free natural gas not in contact with, nor dissolved in, cmde oil in the reservoir. 

Typical brines received at an Arkansas bromine plant have 3—5 g/L bromide, 200—250 g/L chloride, 0.15—0.20 g/L ammonia, 0.1—0.3 g/L hydrogen sulfide, 0.01—0.02 g/L iodide, and additionally may contain some dissolved organics, including natural gas and cmde oil. The bromide-containing brine is first treated to remove natural gas, cmde oil, and hydrogen sulfide prior to introduction into the contact tower (48). 

Natural Gas Natural gas is a combustible gas that occurs in porous rock of the earth s crust and is found with or near accumulations of crude oil. It may occur alone in separate reservoirs, but more commonly it forms a gas cap entrapped between petroleum and an impervious, capping rock layer in a petroleum reservoir. Under high-pressure conditions, it is mixed with or dissolved in crude oil. Natural gas termed dry has less than 0.013 dmVm (0.1 gaLlOOO fF) of gasoline. Above this amount, it is termed wet. 

Contaminants in fuels, especially alkali-metal ions, vanadium, and sulfur compounds, tend to react in the combustion zone to form molten fluxes which dissolve the protective oxide film on stainless steels, allowing oxidation to proceed at a rapid rate. This problem is becoming more common as the high cost and short supply of natural gas and distillate fuel oils force increased usage of residual fuel oils and coal. 

Several alternative methods have been considered in order to increase the energy density of natural gas and facilitate its use as a road vehicle fuel. It can be dissolved in organic solvents, contained in a molecular cage (clathrate), and it may be adsorbed in a porous medium. The use of solvents has been tested experimentally but there has been little improvement so far over the methane density obtained by simple compression. Clathrates of methane and water, (methane hydrates) have been widely investigated but seem to offer little advantage over ANG [4]. Theoretical comparison of these storage techniques has been made by Dignam [5]. In practical terms, ANG has shown the most promise so far of these three alternatives to CNG and LNG. 

Natural gas is a naturally occurring mixture of light hydrocarbons accompanied by some non-hydrocarbon compounds. Non-associated natural gas is found in reservoirs containing no oil (dry wells). Associated gas, on the other hand, is present in contact with and/or dissolved in crude oil and is coproduced with it. The principal component of most... 

Hydrocarbons heavier than methane that are present in natural gases are valuable raw materials and important fuels. They can be recovered by lean oil extraction. The first step in this scheme is to cool the treated gas by exchange with liquid propane. The cooled gas is then washed with a cold hydrocarbon liquid, which dissolves most of the condensable hydrocarbons. The uncondensed gas is dry natural gas and is composed mainly of methane with small amounts of ethane and heavier hydrocarbons. The condensed hydrocarbons or natural gas liquids (NGL) are stripped from the rich solvent, which is recycled. Table 1-2 compares the analysis of natural gas before and after treatment. Dry natural gas may then be used either as a fuel or as a chemical feedstock. 

Alkanes are saturated hydrocarbons having the general formula CnH2n+2- The simplest alkane, methane (CH4), is the principal constituent of natural gas. Methane, ethane, propane, and butane are gaseous hydrocarbons at ambient temperatures and atmospheric pressure. They are usually found associated with crude oils in a dissolved state. 

Associated gas is natural gas found in contact with oil accumulations in the same reservoir. This gas may be dissolved in the oil under reservoir temperatures and pressure (solution gas) or may form a cap of free gas above the oil in the reservoir (gas cap gas). 

Non-associated gas is natural gas, not in contact with or dissolved in crude oil in a reservoir. 

Conventional gas is natural gas occurring in a normal porous and permeable reservoir rock, either in the gaseous phase or dissolved in crude oil, and recoverable by normal technical production practices. 

Non-conventional gas is natural gas found in unusual underground conditions, such as very impermeable reservoirs which require massive stimulation in order to be recovered, or in underground occurrences of gas hydrates, or dissolved in formation water, or coal-bed methane, or gas from in-situ gasification of coal. 

With a final example, we consider how the presence of a gas phase can serve as a chemical buffer. A fluid, for example, might maintain equilibrium with the atmosphere, soil gas in the root zone, or natural gas reservoirs in deep strata. Gases such as 02 and H2 can fix oxidation state, H2S can set the activity of dissolved sulfide, and C02 (as we demonstrate in this section) can buffer pH. 

Sulfinol A process for removing hydrogen sulfide, carbon dioxide, carbonyl sulfide, and organic sulfur compounds from natural gas by scrubbing with di-isopropanolamine dissolved in a mixture of sulfolane and water. Developed in the 1960s by Shell International Research Mij N.V, The Netherlands and Shell Development Company, Houston. In 1996, over 180 commercial units were operating or under construction. 

Absorption is a commonly applied operation in chemical processing. It is used as a raw material or a product recovery technique in separation and purification of gaseous streams containing high concentrations of organics (e.g., in natural gas purification and coke by-product recovery operations). In absorption, the organics in the gas stream are dissolved in a liquid solvent. The contact between the absorbing liquid and the vent gas is accomplished in countercurrent spray towers, scrubbers, or packed or plate columns. 

Methanol also seems to biodegrade quickly when spilled and it dissolves and dilutes rapidly in water. It has been recommended as an alternative fuel by the EPA and the DOE, partly because of reduced urban air pollutant emissions compared to gasoline. Most methanol-fueled vehicles use a blend of 85% methanol and 15% gasoline called M85. Building a methanol infrastructure would not be as difficult as converting to hydrogen. While methanol can be produced from natural gas, it can also be distilled from coal or even biomass. In the 1980s, methanol was popular for a brief time as an internal-combustion fuel and President Bush even discussed this in a 1989 speech. 

Just as oil, natural gas is also categorised as conventional and unconventional. Unlike crude oil, however, natural gas deposits are normally classified according to the economic or technical approach, i.e., all occurrences that are currently extract-able under economic conditions are considered conventional, whereas the rest are termed unconventional. Conventional natural gas includes non-associated gas from gas reservoirs in which there is little or no crude oil, as well as associated gas , which is produced from oil wells the latter can exist separately from oil in the formation (free gas, also known as cap gas, as it lies above the oil), or dissolved in the crude oil (dissolved gas). Unconventional gas is the same substance as conventional natural gas, and only the reservoir characteristics are different and make it usually more difficult to produce. Unconventional gas comprises natural gas from coal (also known as coal-bed methane), tight gas, gas in aquifers and gas hydrates (see Fig. 3.17). It is important to mention in this context so-called stranded gas , a term which is applied to occurrences whose extraction would be technically feasible, but which are located in remote areas that at the moment cannot (yet) be economically developed (see Section 3.4.3.1). 

Properties and extraction processes Aquifer gas, also referred to as geo-pressured gas or brine gas, is natural gas found dissolved in aquifers, primarily in the form of methane. The solubility of natural gas, and thus the methane content of the water, can vary significantly, and depend on factors, such as the total pressure, temperature, salt content of the water and amount of other gases dissolved. The amount of gas dissolved in underground liquids increases substantially with depth. A general rule is that the deeper the aquifers and the higher the pressure, the higher the gas content. At depths down to 5 km, up to 5 m3 of methane can be dissolved per m3 of water in aquifers under normal hydrostatic pressure (load of water) under lithostatic pressure (load of water and rocks), this factor may increase to more than... 

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