Process Design and Economic Analysis of Power Generation from Flare Gases of South Pars Gas Refinery (phase 22-24)

Esmaeili-Faraj, Seyyed Hamid; Arjomand, Alireza

Process Design and Economic Analysis of Power Generation from Flare Gases of South Pars Gas Refinery (phase 22-24)

Document Type : Original Research

Authors

S. H. Esmaeili-Faraj

A. Arjomand

Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Chemical and Materials Engineering, Shahrood University of Technology, Shahrood, Iran

Abstract

Research subject: Millions of dollars of non-renewable capital are burned in flares every year, in the oil and gas industries, which in addition to polluting the air has no income for the industry. In Iran and South Pars region, due to the presence of gas refineries, a considerable amount of gas is burned in the flares. In this research, as a comprehensive study, the technical and economic investigation of the recovery of flare gases has been discussed.

Research approach: For this purpose, Aspen Plus software was used to simulate the desired unit in the set of flares of South Pars refinery phases 22-24. The simulation consists of two recovery parts: the flare gases recovery by use of a liquid ring compressor and power generation by the heat from the combustion of the flare gases through the application of the reheat steam Rankine cycle. The profitability of the project includes naphtha cuts and liquefied gas recovered from gases sent to the flare on one hand and power generation in turbines on the other hand.

Main results: The effect of the amount of air entering the combustion chamber on the temperature of the exhaust gas was investigated. The amount of air entering the combustion chamber was determined to be 2685 tons per hour in order to obtain supercritical water vapor with a temperature of about 650 ºC and a pressure of 26 kPa in the Rankine cycle. Using the simulation results, the temperature diagram was drawn in terms of entropy, and in addition to the steam phase diagram during the cycle, the steam Rankine cycle diagram was also drawn. The results of this research showed that the designed process will produce 5365 kg/h of naphtha, 179.45 kg/h of LPG, 25903 kW, and 101124 kW power in two separate turbines, and an annual sales income of 24,782,194 $. In addition, it was shown that the investment return period of this process is equal to 2.5 months.

Keywords

simulation

Flare Gas

energy recovery

South Pars Gas Refinery

Aspen Plus Software

Subjects

Energy Storage

[1] Global Gas Flaring Reduction (GGFR), Flared Gas Utilization Strategy: Opportunities for Small-Scale Uses of Gas, World Bank GGFR Report, 1-129, 2004.
[2] Rezaei, Fatemeh, Annual loss of 5 billion dollars from gas flaring in the country, important oil and energy events agency "Nefte Ma", Tuesday, July 19, 2022, https://www.naftema.com/report/147152/
[3] International Petroleum Industry Environmental Conservation Association (IPIECA) and American Petroleum Institute (API). Oil and Natural Gas Industry Guidelines for Greenhouse Gas Reduction Projects, Part III: Flare Reduction Project Family, October 2009.
[4] Rahimpour, M.R., Jamshidnejad, Z., Jokar, S.M., Karimi, G., Ghorbani, S. and Mohammadi. A.H., A Comparative Study of Three Different Methods for Flare Gas Recovery of Asalooye Gas Refinery, Journal of Natural Gas Science and Engineering, 4, 17-28, 2012.
[5] Baradaran, S., Shoja Moradi, A., Pourasgharian, F., and Bastami, A., Technologies used to reduce and recover flare gases with case studies, Oil, Gas and Environment Specialized Seminar, Shiraz University, Faculty of Engineering, November 2008.
[6] Taghavifar, M., & Zandi, M. A review of new flare gases recovery methods to increase energy efficiency and reduce pollutants. In 2022 9th Iranian Conference on Renewable Energy & Distributed Generation (ICREDG) (pp. 1-6). IEEE, February, 2022.
[7] K. P. Wong and C. Algie, "Evolutionary programming approach for combined heat and power dispatch," Electric Power Systems Research, vol. 61, pp. 227-232, 2002.
[8] P. Mago and L. Chamra, "Analysis and optimization of CCHP systems based on energy, economical, and environmental considerations," Energy and Buildings, vol. 41, pp. 1099-1106, 2009.
[9] A. Vasebi, M. Fesanghary, and S. Bathaee, "Combined heat and power economic dispatch by harmony search algorithm," International Journal of Electrical Power & Energy Systems, vol. 29, pp. 713-719, 2007.
[10] Zayer Kabeh, K., & Haghighi Khoshkhoo, R. Economic feasibility of small-scale gas to liquid technology in reducing flaring in Iran and case study of implementing the technology at the third South Pars refinery. Energy Equipment and Systems, 9(4), 317-330, 2021.
[11] Saidi, M., Siavashi, F., & Rahimpour, M. R. Application of solid oxide fuel cell for flare gas recovery as a new approach; a case study for Asalouyeh gas processing plant, Iran. Journal of Natural Gas Science and Engineering, 17, 13-25, 2014.
[12] Khalili-Garakani, A., Iravaninia, M., & Nezhadfard, M. A review on the potentials of flare gas recovery applications in Iran. Journal of Cleaner Production, 279, 123345, 2021.
[13] Yazdani, E., Asadi, J., Dehaghani, Y. H., & Kazempoor, P. Flare gas recovery by liquid ring compressors-system design and simulation. Journal of Natural Gas Science and Engineering, 84, 103627, 2020.
[14] BC Oil & Gas Commission, Flaring and Venting Reduction Guideline, Version 4.5, 2016.
[15] Kazerooni, V., Farhadipour, A. and Omidvar, P., investigation of how to recover gases sent to flare in a gas and liquefied gas refinery based on the concept of exergy, The first national oil and gas conference, Kerman, Shahid Bahonar University, Kerman, 2014.
[16] Enayati, S.M., Watani, A., Rashtchian, D., Simulation and environmental assessment of the gas recovery system sent to the flare network, Journal of Energy Engineering and Management, 4(1), 30-39, 2014.
[17] Halimifard, G.H., Simulation of the gas purification unit of Suleiman mosque refinery with the aim of recovering the gases sent to the flare, the first international oil, gas, petrochemical and power plant conference, Tehran, 2011.
[18] Asadi, J., Yazdani, E., Dehaghani, Y. H., & Kazempoor, P. Technical evaluation and optimization of a flare gas recovery system for improving energy efficiency and reducing emissions. Energy conversion and management, 236, 114076, 2021.
[19] Ibañez-Gómez, L. F., Albarracín-Quintero, S., Céspedes-Zuluaga, S., Montes-Páez, E., Ando Junior, O. H., Carmo, J. P., ... & Guerrero-Martin, C.A. Process optimization of the flaring gas for field applications. Energies, 15(20), 7655, 2022.
[20] Darfashi, S., Chavoshbashi, M.M., and Radman, S., Feasibility study of gas recovery system sent to Tabriz Petrochemical Flare and reduction of flaring under CDM mechanism, National Petrochemical Company, Tabriz Petrochemical Joint Stock Company, Technical report, 2011.
[21] Shadivand, Q., Iran, the gases that are burned and the need to cooperate with the World Bank, Energy Economy journal, No. 133, 7-9, 2011.
[22] Parivazh, M. M., Mousavi, M., Naderi, M., Rostami, A., Dibaj, M., & Akrami, M. The feasibility study, exergy, and exergoeconomic analyses of a novel flare gas recovery system. Sustainability, 14(15), 9612, 2022.
[23] The process description of South Pars Gas Refinery phase 22-24, 2015.
[24] Petrescu S., Harman C., Costea M., “Irreversible finite speed thermodynamics (IFST) in simple closed systems”, Termotehnica, 2009.
[25] "Flare Minimization to ward zero discharge for Chemical Plant Turnaround Operation Via Dynamic Simulation", AIChE Annual Meeting, Salt Lake City, Utah, November 4-9 in 2007.
[26] Chen, C., Aryafar, H., Lovegrove, K. M., & Lavine, A. S. (2017). Modeling of ammonia synthesis to produce supercritical steam for solar thermochemical energy storage. Solar Energy, 155, 363-371, 2017.
[27] https://bourse.nioc.ir/portal/home/