Valerus cryogenic processing plants cool natural gas to around 150F using a series of exchangers and a turbo expander. This equipment is intricately designed to maximize both performance and reliability. At 150F almost all of the incoming gas is liquefied, and the resulting liquid can be fractioned into the customers desired product mix. The resulting lean residue gas is pipeline quality, and the high-quality NGL mix can be safely transported or stored.

Customer ChallengeObtain the highest NGL recovery percentages from a large volume of inlet gas.

In an economy that places a much higher value on NGLs than on natural gas, producers can benefit greatly from maximizing NGL recovery. Also, if natural gas is not processed, then heavy hydrocarbons can condense in pipelines and midstream equipment, causing a variety of operational and safety problems. Between the high market value for NGLs and the decreased operational risk, gas processing is an essential consideration.

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Natural gas is composed of a wide range of hydrocarbon compounds that will condense to form liquids at particular temperatures. The more energy-dense, or heavier, components can condense at operating temperatures and can cause operational problems within pipelines, compressors and other midstream equipment. These natural gas liquids (NGLs) also have a high market value that provides an incentive for maximum recovery.

valerus solutionCryogenic turbo expander processing plants separate and extract NGLs from natural gas. Valerus standard cryogenic plants are designed for rich gas streams but can accept a wide range of incoming gas compositions. Ethane recovery, ethane rejection, and complete fractionation can be accommodated depending on the local market conditions.

The Valerus standard plant utilizes a modular, skid-mounted, repeatable design that ensures as much equipment as possible is fabricated within a controlled shop environment. Valerus proven modular design also provides for quick lead times to accommodate market demand.

Features anD beneFits Standard design for a repeatable and proven manufacturing cycle: Faster production means better availability and a quick-to-market solution, which ultimately means a faster return on investment.

Vendor alliances for long-lead equipment: Enables consistent deliveries of equipment and components to accelerate fabrication cycle.

Turnkey engineered solution: Valerus can engineer, fabricate and install the whole facility, offering producers a complete solution from a single source.

Operational and design flexibility: Allows equipment packages to be tailored to end-user requirements.

Robust design: Yields attractive recoveries with lean or rich inlet gas compositions.

Core system components: Molecular sieve dehydration and cryogenic liquid recovery system, including brazed aluminum exchangers, turbo-expander and demethanizer column.

Key Design Features Robust design operates over a wide range of hydrocarbon

gas compositions. Gas sub-cooled process (GSP) operation for ethane rejection

and recovery. Modular construction with skid-mounted process equipment.

Designed from the ground up for ease of operation and maintenance access.

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how it worKsAfter inlet separation, compression, amine treating and TEG dehydration (if required), the customers gas flows through a molecular sieve dehydration system to ensure that the incoming gas is completely free of water vapor. The dry gas flows through a series of brazed aluminum exchangers for pre-cooling. A cold separator extracts the liquid hydrocarbon that has condensed in the exchangers. The gas then flows to the turbo-expander, where it is expanded across a turbine wheel.

The pressure reduction causes the gas to cool to approximately 150F, where most of the incoming gas stream is liquefied. The subsequent gas and liquid stream is fed to a demethanizer column and NGL fractionation (if required) to produce the product mix desired by the customer. The resulting lean residual gas stream is recompressed by both turbine booster compressor and residue compression to reach pipeline specifications. The resulting NGL mix is pumped to a pipeline or loaded onto trucks to be transported to market.

speCiFiCationsValerus provides modularized cryogenic plants in the following standard nominal configurations: 60 MMscf/d 120 MMscf/d 200 MMscf/d

Additional sizes may become available at any time.

Available add-on systems: Inlet compression Amine treating TEG dehydration Product treating NGL fractionation Residue compression Refrigeration Pipeline pumps or truck loading

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Valerus Cryogenic Processing Plant