【Ten Years of Rapid Development in Chemical Equipment】1579–2024: China’s First Ethane Recovery and LNG Co-production Project

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Spring has arrived in 2024, and Happy Forum is here **********************【A Decade of Great Development in Chemical Processing Equipment】A continuously updated summary post – feel free to join the discussions: https://bbs.hcbbs.com/thread-3576046-1-1.html (Source: Haichuan Chemical Engineering Forum) ***************** On April 14, 2024, the EPC contract for the ethane recovery project at the Diniuji gas field, undertaken by Zhongyuan Design Company under Sinopec Petroleum Engineering Construction Company, was officially launched. This project is the first domestic facility for ethane recovery to produce liquefied natural gas (LNG), and it is also Sinopec’s first large-scale ethane recovery project. 　　It is reported that the total investment in this project amounts to 922 million yuan. It utilizes an ethane recovery process package and proprietary technologies developed by Zhongyuan Design Company, achieving an ethane recovery rate of over 95% and a natural gas liquefaction rate of 100%. Upon completion of the project, it is expected to produce 113,500 tons of liquid ethane and 217,800 tons of LNG per year, thereby significantly improving the overall utilization rate of oil and gas resources in the Diniudi gas field. 　　It is reported that the Diniudi gas field currently has a transportation system with a capacity of 5.3 billion cubic meters per year. However, before the gas is pressurized for transport, only the components in the natural gas above propane are recovered; ethane, which is present in large quantities in the natural gas and has a high added value, has not yet been utilized. According to the Sinopec North China Oil and Gas Branch’ Three-Year Rolling Plan and Medium-Long Term Plan for tight gas, the natural gas production from this field will remain at over 2 billion cubic meters per year. The ethane content in the natural gas is expected to be between 4.4% and 4.9%, with an ethane production volume of 110,000 to 150,000 tons per year. This makes it highly valuable to recover, and the resources available are reliable. 　　While recovering ethane, this project also takes into account the local LNG market demand by further liquefying a portion of the dry gas for the production of LNG. This can, on the one hand, fundamentally eliminate the impact of the limited scale of subcontracting by nearby LNG plants on profitability ； On the other hand, it can also effectively mitigate the impact of fluctuations in downstream ethane sales volume on profitability. Furthermore, since ethane recovery shares similarities with the LNG production process, co-producing LNG during ethane recovery can significantly improve plant utilization and reduce capital investment.