Appendix B

Judge Digby Gas Plant Hikes

Production with Quick Solvent
Change-Out1: Case Study
Judge digby plant 150 MMcfd that meets the
desired CO2 and H2S
The gas plant is operated by BP and
specification.
is located in Pointe Coupee Parish in
South Louisiana. Bypass gas is treated with
Plant came online in 1970. a nonrecoverable H2S
scavenging chemical before
Inlet feed stream composition being blended with the
(Table B-1) sales gas.
DEA amine unit produces a sales In 1999 engineering study indicated
gas with less than 3% CO2 and
8 ppm H2S. Maximum throughput
was between 135 and
Consists of two trains 140 MMcfd capacity
declined to 135 MMcfd.
Train 1 consists of
150 MMcfd conventional Unit became unstable and
amine unit using 30% required 24-h manned
DEA followed by a TEG operation at production rates
dehydration unit. greater than 140 MMcfd.
Train 2 consists of DEA system exhibited several
100 MMcfd TEG dehydration problems.
unit only.
DEA solution had degraded
Figure B-1 is an aerial view of the and the reboilers were
plant. severely fouled.
Train 1 is shown in the upper Corrosion probes indicated a
left-hand corner. high degree of corrosion.
Figure B-2 is the process flow Regenerator still was
diagram of Train 1. hydraulically limited and
unable to fully strip the rich
Plant was initially designed to
DEA solution.
produce 150 MMcfd of
treated gas. Lean solution loadings of
0.6–0.7 mol of CO2/mol of
Train 1 was designed to
DEA were typical.
remove 95% of acid gas from
120 MMcfd raw gas in the Fully stripped DEA
sweetening unit. should contain less
than 0.02 mol of
30 MMcfd stream of raw
CO2/mol of DEA.
gas bypasses the amine unit
and combines with amine High solution lean
plant-treated gas to yield loadings and solution

DOI: 10.1016/B978-1-85617-982-9.00009-0
170 Gas Sweetening and Processing Field Manual

degradation products
Table B-1 Typical Inlet usually lead to
Feed Stream. corrosion and reboiler
fouling problems.
Component Mole percent
High CO2 loading in the DEA
CO2 8.08
from the regenerator also
C1 89.54
C2 1.15 prevented the absorber from
C3 0.18 removing all the CO2 from the
i-C4 0.08 raw gas; therefore, there was
n-C4 0.05 too much CO2 in the gas
i-C5 0.05 leaving the DEA unit.
n-C5 0.03
C6þ 0.57 Instead of treating and
N2 0.27 bypassing 122.5 and
H2S ppm 40 30 MMcfd, respectively, the
plant could only treat and

FIGURE B-1 Judge Digby gas processing plant.

30 MMcfd H2S
scavenger
Bypass

BTEX
recovery

Sour Amine Sweet gas Sales

Glycol
gas sweetening Sweet, gas
dehydrator
unit dry gas

FIGURE B-2 Judge Digby flow diagram.

 Appendix B: Judge Digby Gas Plant Hikes Production 171

Table B-2 Operating history with DEA

August 1999 July 2000
Inlet gas flow rate (MMcfd) 92.5 135.0
Bypass gas flow rate (MMcfd) 0 13.5
Gas flow rate to absorber (MMcfd) 92.5 122.5
Inlet gas pressure (psig) 994 1000
Inlet gas temperature ( F) 96 95
DEA circulation rate (gpm) 680 953
DEA concentration (wt%) 30 33
Lean DEA loading (mol CO2/mol DEA) 0.02 0.06
Lean DEA temperature ( F) 113 110
Rebolier duty (MMbtu/h) 39.5 50
CO2 in outlet gas (%) 2.72 2.75

bypass 122.5 and and cost of off-shift operator

13.5 MMcfd, respectively, callouts.
to produce a combined
Each unplanned shutdown
sales gas volume of only
135 MMCFD that contained had adverse effects on
producing wells.
less than 3% CO2.
BP decided to replace the existing
Table B-2 shows the plants’
performance using DEA. DEA chemical solvent with Dow’s
AP-814 solvent.

Debottlenecking Requires less regeneration

duty
BP considered several options to Absorbs more CO2
regain lost capacity.
Solvent change-out required
Contactor was hydraulically limited
to a feed rate of 120 MMcfd, which Less than 24 h without
also limited BP’s options. extensive system cleanout
and
Flow rates greater than the
contactor’s hydraulic limit No mechanical equipment
resulted in modifications.
Large amine losses
Increased corrosion, Preparing for the
and conversion
Operating instabilities.
Figure B-3 shows the
To maximize production, BP wanted
Amine contactor
to maximize
(background)
Bypass gas flow rate and
Regeneration still, and
Amount of CO2 removed in
Benzene–toluene–
the absorber.
ethylbenzene–xylene (BTEX)
BP also wanted to reduce the stripper (foreground).
number of plant upsets at high
flow rates. Figure B-4 shows a process flow
diagram of the Train 1 amine system.
Plant is unmanned 16 h/day.
BP performed a gamma scan of the
Upsets during unmanned absorber and regenerator before
periods increase the number the solvent switch.
172 Gas Sweetening and Processing Field Manual

FIGURE B-3 Amine Sweetener includes a contactor, regenerator

and a BETEX stripper.

Acid
gas

Treated
gas

From BTEX
Absorber Regenerator

Raw To BTEX
gas Flash
gas Hot
oil

Activated
carbon filter
FIGURE B-4 Amine sweetening unit.

An engineering analysis Cleaning process was the

of the reboiler showed it time-limiting step.
was severely fouled.
32 h were spent cleaning
Two cleaning crews manned the the severely fouled
shutdown to ensure timely cleaning tubes before halting the
of the reboiler tubes. process.
 Appendix B: Judge Digby Gas Plant Hikes Production 173

DEA was removed from the Focused on

storage tank and shipped to
New laboratory
another plant.
test methods
The storage tank was cleaned
Operating
and filled with an initial
techniques and
charge of 45 wt% AP-814.
Operating
Two antifoams were brought to the
parameters with
plant:
the new AP-814
One antifoam used for solvent.
start-up that would
Operations designed a time window
prevent foaming created
for the reboiler cleaning and solvent
by solids and
change-out.
One antifoam used for
normal operations.
The initial plant configuration did
not allow continuous antifoam The turnaround
addition to the stripper; thus
an antifoam charge pump was In October 2000
added. DEA was removed from the
Process Safety Management sweetening unit and drained
considerations from all the low points as
much as possible.
A Management of Change
(MOC) document was Amine unit was flushed with
developed and water drained.

Process Hazards Analysis Activated carbon filter was

review was performed. emptied and filled with a
fresh charge.
Considered all the
changes needed to After start-up, a gas
accommodate a solvent chromatographic analysis indicated
switch, including that only trace amounts of DEA
special issues such as remained in the system.

Metallurgy Solvent swap

Equipment Initially, inlet and outlet

configuration isolation valves were to
isolate the reboilers.
Pump design and
Isolation valves leaked
Gasket materials and reboilers had to be
Review indicated cleaned before fresh
that no additional solvent was added to the
modifications were unit.
required. Solvent swap would have
Training taken 4 h if the isolation
valves did not leak.
Conducted for
Reboiler tube fouling
Unit operators
and Reboiler tubes were
hydroblasted in an attempt to
Company remove the iron carbonate
engineers. fouling.
174 Gas Sweetening and Processing Field Manual

After 32 h hydroblasting was New solvent allowed more

stopped and the reboiler operating flexibility, which helped
was put into service. compensate for less than optimum
reboiler performance.
20–30% of the tubes
remained plugged with the Damaged wells were restarted in
iron carbonate. March 2001.
Unit started up smoothly with the Plant could not run at high
new solvent. rates because the reboiler
tube condition had
Plant produced the expected
worsened.
additional 20 MMcfd of gas,
even with the fouled reboiler Reboiler tube bundle was
tubes. replaced.
Table B-4 shows the plant
performance with AP-814 and
the historical maximum
Plant operations performance with DEA.
Plant operated for 6 weeks when After bundle replacement
well production was lost.
Plant had no problem
Table B-3 shows performance meeting design capacity.
data collected during that
At $3.00 Mcf1, this
time.
translates to an incremental
Since the new solvent removed increase in sales revenues
more CO2, sweetened gas could be of approximately $34
mixed with untreated gas. million/year.

Table B-3 Operating performance with Ucarsol

Inlet gas flow rate (MMcfd) 131
Bypass gas flow rate (MMcfd) 26
Gas flow rate to absorber (MMcfd) 105
Inlet gas pressure (psig) 1001
Inlet gas temperature ( F) 102
Solvent circulation rate (gpm) 840
Lean solvent loading (mol CO2/mol solvent) 0.03
Lean solvent temperature ( F) 117
Reboiler duty (MMbtu/h) 48
CO2 in outlet gas (%) 0.01

Table B-4 Optimized performance comparison

DEA (33 wt%) Ucarsol (45 wt%)
Maximum processing capacity (MMcfd) 136 150
Solvent circulation rate (gpm) 953 1000
Solvent CO2 loading (mol CO2/mol solvent)
Lean 0.06 0.03
Rich 0.49 0.46
Reboiler duty (MMbtu/h) 50 50
CO2 in treated gas
Outlet from contactor (%) 2 0.2–0.5
Sales gas with bypass (%) 3 <2.5
 Appendix B: Judge Digby Gas Plant Hikes Production 175

Plant performance Betex emissions

OPEX remained the same
Judge Digby gas stream contains
with the AP-814 despite the
some BETEX.
capacity increase.
BETEX compounds have a high fuel
Amine unit could theoretically
value.
process up to 168 MMcfd if
other bottlenecks were Regulated for human contact and
removed. air emissions.
Lab tests did not show any BETEX is more soluble in amine
solvent degradation. solvents than other hydrocarbons.
Solvent losses were low. Plant has a BETEX-removal unit that
strips BETEX from the rich amine.
Sweetening unit ran for
months without any Unit is on the rich-amine line
significant change in between the rich-amine filters
solvent concentration. and lean-rich heat exchanger.
During the change-out, the Fuel gas is the stripping agent.
10-mm particulate filters were
replaced with 5-mm filters. This gas, along with any
gas stripped out with
New 5-mm filters are the BETEX, is recovered
changed-out half as and routed to the
often. plant’s fuel-gas system.
Corrosion is low. The BETX unit was evaluated
using AP-814 solvent at a
Corrosion monitoring
higher circulation rate. The
probes that indicated
evaluation indicated the
high levels of corrosion
change from DEA did not
with DEA are now
significantly alter the load on
reading low levels.
the BETEX-removal system.
Low iron levels in the
solvent and good
performance from the
5-mm filters confirm this Reference
finding.
1. Hlozek, R., & Jackson, S. “Louisiana
Sweetening unit performed gas plant hikes production with
well during upstream upsets quick solvent changeout”, Oil and
and well outages. Gas Journal, June 9, 2003.