Gas pretreatment considerations for LNG plants feeding with pipeline-quality gas

S. Mokhatab, Gas Processing Consultant, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada; S. Northrop, ExxonMobil Upstream Research Co., Houston, Texas; and R. Palla and B. Sharma, Honeywell UOP, Des Plaines, Illinois LNG projects using pipeline-quality gas as feed have become more prevalent in recent years as they reduce plant equipment count, space requirements and cost. However, this pipeline gas will still require some pretreatment to remove potentially freezable components ahead of the liquefaction process. The gas pretreatment system must be robust and flexible to handle a wide range of feed compositions, since the gas transmission pipeline may be fed by many different (and possibly intermittent) sources