SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROCESSING GAS STREAMS

• US 20150167550A1
• Filed: 12/18/2013
• Published: 06/18/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 12/18/2013
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: General Electric Company
• Original Assignee: General Electric Company
• Inventors: Vandervort, Christian Lee, Sanborn, Stephen Duane, Haynes, Joel Meier, Acharya, Harish Radhakrishna, Kenyon, Ross Hartley
• Application Number:
  US14/132,198
• Publication Number:
  US 20150167550A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: C10L 3/101 Removal of contaminants
• CPC Class Codes: F02C 3/20 using a special fuel, oxidant, or dilution fluid to generate the combustion products
• CPC Class Codes: F02C 3/22 the fuel or oxidant being gaseous at standard temperature and pressure F02C3/28 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: F02C 6/00 Plural gas-turbine plants; Combinations of gas-turbine plants with other apparatus; Adaptations of gas-turbine plants for special use
• CPC Class Codes: F05D 2260/61 Removal of CO2 removal of CO2 from waste gases B01D53/62

Abstract

A system for processing a gas stream includes a gathering subsystem configured to collect the gas stream from a well-head and a gas conditioning subsystem for receiving the gas stream from the gathering subsystem and providing physical conditioning of the gas stream. The system includes one or more gas turbines configured to receive and combust a first flow of the conditioned gas stream from the gas conditioning subsystem and coupled with an electrical generator. The system includes one supplemental combustor configured to receive heated exhaust gases from the one or more gas turbines and a second flow of the conditioned gas stream from the gas conditioning subsystem, wherein the at least one supplemental combustor is configured to combust the second flow of the conditioned gas stream and the heated exhaust gases such that an exhaust gas stream flow from the at least one supplemental combustor meets emission regulation requirements.

Claims

1. A system for processing a gas stream, the system comprising:

a gathering subsystem configured to collect the gas stream from a well-head;

a gas conditioning subsystem configured to receive the gas stream from the gathering subsystem and provide physical conditioning of the gas stream;

one or more gas turbines configured to receive and combust a first flow of the conditioned gas stream from the gas conditioning subsystem and coupled with an electrical generator; and

at least one supplemental combustor configured to receive heated exhaust gases from the one or more gas turbines and a second flow of the conditioned gas stream from the gas conditioning subsystem, wherein the at least one supplemental combustor is configured to combust the second flow of the conditioned gas stream and the heated exhaust gases such that an exhaust gas stream flow from the at least one supplemental combustor meets emission regulation requirements.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the physical conditioning of the gas stream by the gas conditioning subsystem comprises filtration of solids such as salts, removal of moisture using a plurality of filters and sorbents, separation of higher hydrocarbon gases from lower hydrocarbon gases present in the gas stream, removal of sulphur or sulphur based compounds and heating the gas stream to maintain vapor phase of the gas stream.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the gas conditioning subsystem comprises a hydrogen sulphide removal unit for removing the sulphur or sulphur based compounds present in the gas stream.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising a methane separation unit configured to receive a third flow of the conditioned gas stream from the gas conditioning subsystem and separate lower hydrocarbon gas such as methane gas.

5. The system of claim 4, further comprising a Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) processing unit configured to process the methane gas to produce a first LNG product.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising a Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) processing unit configured to receive a fourth flow of the conditioned gas stream from the gas conditioning subsystem and process the conditioned gas stream to produce a second CNG product.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising a carbon dioxide capture subsystem located downstream of the at least one supplemental combustor and configured to capture carbon dioxide (CO₂) gas from a portion of the exhaust gas stream flow and convert the captured CO₂ to a concentrated CO₂ or liquid CO₂.

8. The system of claim 1, further comprising an electric load bus coupled with the electrical generator for providing power to a plurality of subsystems comprising the Gas Conditioning unit, Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) processing unit, Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) processing unit, carbon dioxide capture subsystem, electric submersible pumps, compressors, wellpad hotel loads and off-pad co-production units.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the electric load bus comprises a power factor correction subsystem having a resistor bank configured to absorb excess electric power and improve power factor of the system.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one supplemental combustor comprises two or more staged combustor sections configured to receive gas streams directly from the well head in addition to the second flow of the conditioned gas stream from the gas conditioning subsystem and the heated exhaust gases from the one or more gas turbines.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the at least one supplemental combustor comprises a first stage combustor section and a second stage combustor section configured to receive the second flow of the conditioned gas stream from the gas conditioning subsystem and the heated exhaust gases from the one or more gas turbines.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein both the first stage combustor section and the second stage combustor section are configured to receive a portion of gas stream directly from the well head for combustion.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more gas turbines are fuel flexible gas turbines comprises a diffusion combustor section or a premixed combustor section.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the one or more gas turbines with the diffusion combustor section is configured to receive the first flow of the conditioned gas stream from the gas conditioning subsystem along with higher hydrocarbon gases or liquids that are collected from the methane separation unit, Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) processing units and Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) processing unit.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more gas turbines comprises a fuel-flexible dry low Nitrogen oxide (NOx) combustor for meeting emission regulation requirements.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more gas turbines are coupled with a boost compressor for handling low pressure gas stream and further coupled with a pressure regulator for controlling the pressure of gas streams.

17. A method of processing a gas stream, the method comprising:

gathering the gas stream from a well-head into a gathering subsystem;

conditioning the gas stream that is routed to a gas conditioning subsystem from the gathering subsystem;

directing a first flow of the conditioned gas stream from the gas conditioning subsystem to one or more gas turbines for combustion, wherein the one or more gas turbines are configured to drive a power generation system; and

combusting a second flow of the conditioned gas stream from the gas conditioning subsystem along with exhaust gases from the one or more gas turbines in at least one supplemental combustor such that an exhaust gas stream flow from the at least one supplemental combustor meets emission regulation requirements.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the conditioning of the gas stream comprises filtration of solids such as salts, removal of moisture using a plurality of filters and sorbents, separation of higher hydrocarbon gases from lower hydrocarbon gases present in the gas stream, removal of sulphur or sulphur based compounds and heating the gas stream to maintain vapor phase of the gas stream.

19. The method of claim 17, further comprising capturing carbon dioxide gas from a portion of the exhaust gas stream flow that is routed via a carbon dioxide capture subsystem located downstream of the at least one supplemental combustor.

20. The method of claim 17, further comprising separating lower hydrocarbon gases from the conditioned gas stream and processing the lower hydrocarbon gases to form compressed natural gas product and liquefied natural gas product.

21. The method of claim 17, further comprising combusting the second flow of the conditioned gas stream from the gas conditioning subsystem along with exhaust gases from the one or more gas turbines in a first stage combustor section and in a second stage combustor section of the at least one supplemental combustor.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising providing a first flow of air and a second flow of air in the first stage combustor section and in a second stage combustor section respectively, wherein, the first flow of air is pre-heated by exhaust gases from the gas turbine prior to providing in the first stage combustor section and the second flow of air is pre-heated by the first stage combustor section prior to providing air in the second stage combustor section.

23. A system for processing a gas stream, the system comprising:

a gathering subsystem configured to collect the gas stream from a well-head;

a gas conditioning subsystem configured to receive the gas stream from the gathering subsystem and provide physical conditioning of the gas stream;

a liquefied natural gas processing unit configured to process a methane gas to produce a first liquefied natural gas product;

a compressed natural gas processing unit configured to produce a second compressed natural gas product;

one or more gas turbines configured to receive and combust a first flow of the conditioned gas stream from the gas conditioning subsystem and coupled with a power generation system; and

a carbon dioxide capture subsystem configured to capture carbon dioxide (CO₂) gas from a portion of the exhaust gas stream flow and convert the captured CO₂ to a concentrated CO₂ or liquid CO₂.

24. The system of claim 23, further comprising at least one supplemental combustor configured to receive heated exhaust gases from the one or more gas turbines and a second flow of the conditioned gas stream from the gas conditioning subsystem, wherein the at least one supplemental combustor is configured to combust the second flow of the conditioned gas stream and the heated exhaust gases such that an exhaust gas stream flow from the at least one supplemental combustor meets emission regulation requirements.

25. The system of claim 24, wherein the at least one supplemental combustor comprises a plurality of combustor sections for combustion in a plurality of stages

26. The system of claim 23, wherein the power generation system comprises an electric generator coupled with an electric load bus for providing power to a plurality of subsystems comprising the Liquefied Natural Gas processing unit, the Compressed Natural Gas processing unit, the carbon dioxide capture subsystem, electric submersible pumps, compressors, well pad hotel loads and off-pad co-production units.

27. The system of claim 23, wherein the liquefied natural gas processing unit is configured to process the methane gas to produce a third natural gas liquid product.