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    Typical PFD For Sour Water Stripper Column: Crude Oil Production Slug Catcher

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    rutuja
    This document describes a typical process flow diagram (PFD) for a sour water stripper column. Sour water from upstream oil and gas facilities contains hydrogen sulfide and other acidic gases that must be removed. The sour water is sent to a stripper column where steam or fuel gas is introduced from the bottom to strip the hydrogen sulfide from the water. The hydrogen sulfide rich gases are removed from the top of the column while treated water with reduced hydrogen sulfide is removed from the bottom. Additional equipment like condensers and reflux drums may be required if steam is used instead of fuel gas in the stripping process.

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    Typical PFD For Sour Water Stripper Column: Crude Oil Production Slug Catcher

    Uploaded by

    rutuja
    121 views2 pages
    This document describes a typical process flow diagram (PFD) for a sour water stripper column. Sour water from upstream oil and gas facilities contains hydrogen sulfide and other acidic gases that must be removed. The sour water is sent to a stripper column where steam or fuel gas is introduced from the bottom to strip the hydrogen sulfide from the water. The hydrogen sulfide rich gases are removed from the top of the column while treated water with reduced hydrogen sulfide is removed from the bottom. Additional equipment like condensers and reflux drums may be required if steam is used instead of fuel gas in the stripping process.

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    Sour Water Stripper

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    This document describes a typical process flow diagram (PFD) for a sour water stripper column. Sour water from upstream oil and gas facilities contains hydrogen sulfide and other acidic gases that must be removed. The sour water is sent to a stripper column where steam or fuel gas is introduced from the bottom to strip the hydrogen sulfide from the water. The hydrogen sulfide rich gases are removed from the top of the column while treated water with reduced hydrogen sulfide is removed from the bottom. Additional equipment like condensers and reflux drums may be required if steam is used instead of fuel gas in the stripping process.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    121 views2 pages

    Typical PFD For Sour Water Stripper Column: Crude Oil Production Slug Catcher

    Uploaded by

    rutuja
    This document describes a typical process flow diagram (PFD) for a sour water stripper column. Sour water from upstream oil and gas facilities contains hydrogen sulfide and other acidic gases that must be removed. The sour water is sent to a stripper column where steam or fuel gas is introduced from the bottom to strip the hydrogen sulfide from the water. The hydrogen sulfide rich gases are removed from the top of the column while treated water with reduced hydrogen sulfide is removed from the bottom. Additional equipment like condensers and reflux drums may be required if steam is used instead of fuel gas in the stripping process.

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    Typical PFD for Sour Water Stripper

    Column
    In upstream crude oil production and processing facilities, the produced water from oil wells is
    separated in the slug catcher. Generally this produced water contains salts, hydrogen sulphide,
    carbon dioxide etc. Salts are removed using a desalting unit. Due to presence of acidic gases
    present in the produced water, sometimes it is called as sour water. For removal of these gases
    such as H2S, CO2 etc, the sour water is sent to sour water stripper columns.

    Even in crude oil refining facilities, steam and water are often used in many units such
    as atmospheric distillation unit, naphtha hydrotreater unit, kerosene hydrotreater etc. These
    units produce sour water as a result of steam/ water coming in contact with sulphur products in
    the hydrocarbons. This sour water is also then sent to sour water stripper columns for H2S
    removal. The H2S removed is sent to sulphur recovery unit to produces liquid sulphur.

    Figure 1 - Typical PFD for a sour water stripper column

    Typical process flow in a sour water stripping unit

    Typically a sour water flow in crude oil processing facility or in a refinery is not steady. Sour
    water is gathered from a number of different sources and treated in a single column. For
    upstream oil production and storage facilities, the produced water comes along with crude oil in
    a pipeline. During pigging of these pipelines vast quantities of sour water are produced in
    the slug catcher, which may far exceed the sour water stripper flow handling capacity. Hence a
    buffer vessel is generally provided upstream to the stripper column to accommodate extra sour
    water quantities in case of a peak e.g. pigging.

    Sour water from buffer vessel is sent to the sour water stripper column under level control. In
    case the flow to the column sees major fluctuations which may frequently disturb the column
    operation, flow control valve on the column inlet water line can be used with a cascading signal
    from buffer vessel level control. Gases flashed in the buffer vessel can be flared or sent to the
    sulphur recovery unit, if they are rich in H2S.

    The stripper column may use either steam or fuel gas to strip off the H2S dissolved in water.
    Water is introduced from top of the packing or trays section and steam/fuel gas flows upwards
    from the bottom of the trays/packing section as shown in the typical PFD in figure-1. Contact
    between water and vapor phase allows transfer of H2S from water to the gas phase (steam or
    fuel gas). Gases rich in H2S are removed from the top of the column and treated water is taken
    out from the bottom of the column, under level control for the liquid level of the bottom section
    of stripper column.

    If steam is used in the stripper column for removing H2S, then overhead condenser and reflux
    drum are required at the top outlet of the column as shown in typical PFD in figure-1. The
    vapor outlet line of the stripper column is also equipped with a pressure control valve to
    maintain the sour water stripper column overhead pressure. Steam used can be either taken
    directly from the utility steam and sent to column or the treated water from bottom of the
    column can be sent to a reboiler to produce steam which is circulated back to the column for
    H2S removal.

    If fuel gas is used instead of steam to remove H2S, reboilers, condensers, reflux drums etc. are
    not required. But the gases from column overhead outlet have a high hydrocarbon content.

    An analyzer is installed to detect the H2S content in the sour water stripper outlet.
    This analyzer generally transmits signal to the control room and steam/fuel gas
    flow can be adjusted from the control room in order keep the H2S content in
    treated water well below the allowable H2S content limit. Alternatively, a controller
    can be used to directly throttle the steam/fuel gas flow based on a setpoint of H 2S
    content in the treated water.

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