| Add RSS Feed

Oil, Gas & Petrochem Equipment

A technology developed by Engelhard Corporation is enabling a Western Kentucky oil and gas producer to generate revenue from the sale of purified natural gas previously contaminated with nitrogen.

Endeavor Energy Resources, LP is using Engelhard's Molecular Gate adsorbent-based technology to remove nitrogen (N2) and carbon dioxide (CO2) from production-associated natural gas at its Western Kentucky facility, thereby enabling the gas to meet pipeline specifications. Endeavor Energy is treating natural gas produced from New Albany Shale and delivering the product stream to an interstate pipeline.

By implementing Engelhard Molecular Gate adsorbent-based technology at its unit, Endeavor Energy has successfully upgraded the feed stream from 15 percent nitrogen to a pipeline specification of 4 percent. 

"The system allows us to generate a revenue stream from the sale of gas that was otherwise useless because of the higher level of nitrogen present," said Brad Bates of Endeavor Energy's Western Kentucky operations. "We selected the Molecular Gate adsorbent-based system due to its economical processing cost and easy operation."

"Engelhard Molecular Gate adsorbent is a truly novel technology as it removes nitrogen and carbon dioxide in a single unattended step and provides high on-stream factors," said Michael Mitariten, Engelhard's business manager for Molecular Gate. "We'll have nine units operating by the end of the year, and we see that it is gaining further market acceptance."

The Engelhard technology enables Endeavor Energy to treat one and a half million standard cubic feet per day (1.5 MM SCFD) of natural gas, and has been pre-designed to allow easy expansion to a flow of three MM SCFD when required by future drilling. The Endeavor Energy system is located at the wellhead and is powered by an on-site gas-driven generator that uses tail gas from the process as fuel.

The Engelhard Molecular Gate adsorbent-based system at Endeavor Energy includes an integrated dehydration unit to remove water from the feed, while the system also simultaneously removes a level of carbon dioxide with nitrogen contained in the feed. The process operates by adsorbing carbon dioxide and nitrogen at high pressure while also delivering methane near feed pressure.  This ability to deliver a methane product at near feed pressure minimizes compression requirements.

The elimination of feed pretreatment and the co-removal of carbon dioxide and nitrogen are key benefits of the Molecular Gate process. The system typically recovers 90-95 percent of the methane as sales gas and the rejected carbon and nitrogen containing "tail gas" is normally used as fuel to power gas engines or other local uses. The process is offered as a complete packaged plant through an engineering and fabrication partner.

www.engelhard.com