Hydrocarbon based sulfur solvent systems and methods
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A gas production plant comprising:
- a well fluidly coupled to a separator, wherein the separator is configured to separate a well output into a gas portion and a rich solvent portion;
a hydrotreater that is fluidly coupled to the separator and configured to treat the rich solvent such as to allow production of an H2S product and a regenerated solvent; and
a recycling circuit that is configured to allow feeding of the regenerated solvent to at least one of a topside position of the well, a bottom hole position of the well, and a pipe transporting the well output to thereby allow formation of the rich solvent portion.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Contemplated configurations and methods for elemental sulfur removal from various gases, and especially well acid gases employ a hydrocarbon solvent that dissolves the sulfur to form a rich solvent and that is then regenerated by hydrotreating. Thus, sulfur is removed from the rich solvent as H2S that may then be processed (e.g., in Claus unit or absorption unit) while the regenerated solvent is routed back to the well and associated production pipes.
35 Citations
20 Claims
-
1. A gas production plant comprising:
-
a well fluidly coupled to a separator, wherein the separator is configured to separate a well output into a gas portion and a rich solvent portion; a hydrotreater that is fluidly coupled to the separator and configured to treat the rich solvent such as to allow production of an H2S product and a regenerated solvent; and a recycling circuit that is configured to allow feeding of the regenerated solvent to at least one of a topside position of the well, a bottom hole position of the well, and a pipe transporting the well output to thereby allow formation of the rich solvent portion. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
-
-
11. A method of removing sulfur from a gas well output, comprising:
-
feeding a regenerated solvent to at least one of a topside position of a well, a bottom hole position of the well, and a pipe transporting the gas well output to thereby form a mixed well output that comprises dissolved sulfur; separating the mixed well output into a rich solvent portion and a gas portion; and hydrotreating the rich solvent portion to thereby form an H2S product and the regenerated solvent. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
-
- 17. A method of regenerating a rich sulfur solvent with a dissolved sulfur concentration of at least 5 wt %, wherein the rich sulfur solvent is formed upstream of a separator and provided from a gas well, the method comprising a step of hydrotreating the rich solvent to thereby form an H2S product and a regenerated solvent.
Specification