Gas/Liquid Treating and sulphur Processes

Helping oil and gas operators meet emission limits

Shell Global Solutions

Operators in the oil and gas industries face tough

challenges in removing contaminants from their products,
reducing emissions and meeting specifications. Shell
Global Solutions gas/liquid treating and sulphur
processes are available for license in applications in
refineries, liquefied natural gas (LNG) and natural gas
production facilities, and integrated gasification
combined-cycle plants to help meet these requirements.
About the technology
Shell Group (Shell) operations and more than 1,000
licensees apply the gas/liquid treating and sulphur
processes that Shell Global Solutions has developed.
These processes and technologies have established track
records of high levels of performance and reliability.
Shell Global Solutions has a long history of developing
gas and liquid treating processes; its Shell Claus offgas
treating (SCOT) process, for example, was developed
25 years ago. The organisation continues to develop
and improve its processes. Figure 1 shows how many of
the processes can be used to remove sulphur.

Basic building blocks

Treated gas
Amine

AT A GLANCE
Customer driver: Legislative constraints (permits, licence
to operate), emissions management
Solution: Gas/liquid treating and sulphur processes for
applications in refineries, liquefied natural gas and natural
gas production facilities, and integrated gasification
combined-cycle plants
Value delivered: Removal of contaminants from sour
streams to promote efficient operations, and to help maximise
the value of the product slate
Proof point: More than 1,000 Shell Group operations
and licensees

Claus
Degassing

SCOT

Incinerator

Elemental sulphur

Figure 1: Shell Global Solutions processes are used in sequence for

effective gas treating and sulphur recovery.

Shell Global Solutions

gas/liquid treating
and sulphur processes
and technologies
have established track
records of high
levels of performance
and reliability.

Process description
Refining: Gas/liquid treating and sulphur processes for
refining include the ADIP process, which removes
hydrogen sulphide from refinery gases, and the SCOT
process, which enhances sulphur recovery from Claus
plants to over 99.8%, thereby helping facilities to meet
even the most stringent environmental limits. The sulphur
degassing process is used to remove hydrogen sulphide
from the liquid sulphur produced in Claus sulphur
recovery units.
Natural gas: Shell Global Solutions offers several
advanced options for treating sour natural gas. For
natural gas, operators can use a combination of the
ADIP and Sulfinol-X processes to remove carbon dioxide,
hydrogen sulphide, mercaptans and carbonyl sulphide.
The next step is to remove sulphur components through a
Claus unit, the SCOT process and sulphur degassing.

Syngas processing: Shell Global Solutions works with

the clean coal energy division of Shell Gas & Power in
the licensing of the Shell coal gasification process. The
processes available for syngas treating are ADIP,
CANSOLV, Claus, SCOT, H2S desulphurisation process1,
Sulfinol and sulphur degassing. Units are licensed for
power generation involving an integrated gasification
combined cycle where all the sulphur components need
to be removed before the syngas is used as fuel to
produce electricity. Where syngas is used as a feedstock
for the production of chemicals, for example, ammonia
or methanol, the H2S desulphurisation process can be
used to remove sulphur, and can typically operate at
10100-t/d capacity. The H2S desulphurisation process
is also suitable for biomass gasification processes.

Performance data
Process

Application

Performance advantages

Refining, natural gas,

syngas

Removes hydrogen sulphide and carbon dioxide from natural gas, refinery gases
and syngas. Hydrogen sulphide concentrations can be reduced to give low sulphur
levels, and a wide range of treating pressures and contaminant concentrations can
be accommodated. The process sequence ADIPClausSCOT can be used with an
integrated ADIP system that handles selective hydrogen sulphide removal upstream and
the SCOT process treating the Claus offgas.

ADIP-X process

Refining, natural gas,

syngas

Suitable for bulk and deep carbon dioxide removal from gas streams. Also removes
hydrogen sulphide, some carbonyl sulphide and mercaptans from natural gas, refinery
gas and syngas. Achieves a higher loading capacity and reduced equipment size
compared with general aqueous amine solvents.

CANSOLV sulphur
scrubbing system

Refining, chemical
plants

Captures sulphur dioxide from combustion gases, which are then sent to a Claus unit,
thereby increasing the capacity of the unit by around 30%.

Claus unit

Refining, natural gas,

syngas

An efficient burner design provides effective combustion of ammonia and hydrocarbons.

Instrumented protective systems provide simple, automated start-up and shutdown. Shell
Global Solutions conventional Claus designs can give sulphur recovery efficiencies of
up to 98%.

HCN/COS hydrolysis
process

Refining, syngas

Cost-effective hydrolysis process catalytically converts hydrogen cyanide and carbonyl

sulphide, where deep removal is not possible using conventional amine treating solvents.

SCOT process

Refining, natural gas,

syngas

>99.8% sulphur recovery efficiency with a standard SCOT process. <10-ppmv

hydrogen sulphide in the SCOT offgas with a low-sulphur SCOT process. High
tolerance to variation in the tail-gas composition. Turndown ratio of less than 10%.

Low-temperature SCOT
process

Refining, natural gas,

syngas

For new installations, the design of a SCOT tail-gas treating unit based on a lower
reactor inlet temperature enables the use of a saturated high-pressure steam preheater
rather than a fired heater or superheated steam heater, which results in a less complex
system for operations and maintenance.

H2S desulphurisation
process

Refining, natural gas,

syngas, LNG

Very low hydrogen sulphide contents can be achieved in the treated gas (less than
5 ppmv). The sulphur product has a range of uses, including for fertilisers.

SulFerox process

Natural gas, syngas

Offers cost advantages in treating gases containing small quantities of hydrogen sulphide.

Sulfinol

Natural gas, syngas,

LNG

Removes hydrogen sulphide, carbonyl sulphide and mercaptans, and enables bulk or
deep removal of carbon dioxide from natural, synthetic and refinery gases. The total
sulphur compounds in the treated gas can be reduced to ultra-low levels.

Sulfinol-X

Natural gas, syngas,

LNG

Highly suitable for the removal of hydrogen sulphide, carbon dioxide, carbonyl
sulphide, mercaptans and organic sulphides from gas streams. It can also be applied
in deep/bulk carbon dioxide removal plant revamps.

Sulphur degassing

Refining

Reduces the hydrogen-sulphide content of produced elemental liquid sulphur from

300400 ppmv to less than 10-ppmv hydrogen sulphide.

ADIP process

pRoof poINTs
PT Pertamina EP, Indonesia
Indonesian state-owned oil and gas company PT
Pertamina EP, a PT Pertamina (Persero) subsidiary,
is to adopt Shell Global Solutions gas-treating
technologies. The technologies will be used at the
Matindok gas development project to support the
companys drive towards increased LNG production.
Business value
Shell Global Solutions gas and liquid treating processes
enable the removal of contaminants from sour streams to
support efficient operations and help to maximise the
value of the product slate.
ADIP, CANSOLV, SCOT, SulFerox and Sulfinol are Shell trademarks.

The H2S biological gas

desulphurisation process
(SHELL-PAQUES) was awarded
the Sellafield Award for
Engineering Excellence at
the IChemE Innovation and
Excellence Awards 2007.
1

A licensing agreement between PT Pertamina EP and

Shell Global Solutions International BV for the ADIP-X
and Shell-Paques processes will enable treatment of
natural gas streams from the Matindok and Donggi
fields, which will be used as feed for a new LNG
plant in Sulawesi, Indonesia. The plant will be built
with Mitsubishi of Japan, and should produce 2 Mt/y
of LNG for the Japanese market from 2012.

Korea Western Power Co. Ltd, South Korea

Shell Gas & Power International BV has signed a coal
gasification and gas treating licence contract with
Korea Western Power Co. Ltd (KOWEPO), a stateowned power utility company in South Korea. The
licences cover two technologies, the Shell coal
gasification process and Shell-Paques gas treating
technology, and related technical support services.
KOWEPO will use the technologies in the design,
construction and operation of South Koreas first
integrated gasification combined-cycle power plant,
Taean No. 1.
The Taean integrated gasification combined-cycle
power No. 1 plant will be built at the Taean thermal
power generation site about 100 km south of Seoul.
Scheduled for start-up by 2014, the plant will be a
single train 300-MW unit converting approximately
2,600 t/d of coal into power. It will be designed to
have an overall efficiency of more than 42% on a
high heating value basis.

HAvE yOu CONsidErEd HOw yOu CAN

n

effectively remove contaminants from sour streams?

meet your facilitys environmental mandate?

Shell Global Solutions is a network of independent technology companies in the Shell Group. In this
material, the expressions the Shell Group, Shell and Shell Global Solutions are sometimes used
for convenience where reference is made to these companies in general, or where no useful purpose is
served by identifying a particular company.
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GS30081109 En(B)

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