Abstract
INTRODUCTION: High concentrations of CO2 in natural gas affect its calorific value and corrode the equipment and pipelines related to its transportation and usage. Therefore, strict control over the H2S and CO2 contents in natural gas is essential. CO2 is an important industrial gas that can bring a great deal of economic profit when it is fully utilized. CASE DESCRIPTION: The natural gas produced at the Oudeh gas field in Syria contains high carbon content natural gas, in which the CO2 content is in the range of 17.5-18.8 %, while the H2S content is in the range of 2.8-3.2 %. However, there have been few studies conducted on treatment solutions for natural gas with high carbon contents. In this paper, several commonly used methods for deacidification of natural gas were introduced. Among these methods, the most suitable one was chosen for desulfurization and decarbonization of the natural gas produced at the Oudeh gas field based on its gas quality. CONCLUSIONS: Optimization and analysis of the primary operating parameters for the desulfurization and decarbonization processes were conducted to obtain the optimized values for the input temperature of the lean solution (42 °C), reflux ratio (0.8), number of trays in the absorber unit (17) , and circulation rate of the lean solution (330 m(3)/h), etc. Additionally, the influence of the operating pressure of the regenerator unit on the regeneration system was also investigated. The energy consumption of the apparatus and the corrosion level of sour gas to the apparatus were reduced after optimization. Based on the investigation of the natural gas treatment for this gas field, it can serve as a reference for the purification of high carbon contents natural gas.