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Natural Gas Liquids

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Language: en

00:00:00.240
you
00:00:05.170 00:00:05.180 hello I'm Dan Brocket I'm a member of
00:00:08.089 00:00:08.099 the shield energy education team and I
00:00:10.339 00:00:10.349 work for Penn State Cooperative
00:00:11.750 00:00:11.760 Extension today I'm going to be talking
00:00:14.119 00:00:14.129 a little bit about natural gas liquids
00:00:16.720 00:00:16.730 going to try to answer a few questions
00:00:19.760 00:00:19.770 about natural gas liquids like what is
00:00:22.009 00:00:22.019 it where is it and why does it have
00:00:24.650 00:00:24.660 added value then we're going to take a
00:00:27.200 00:00:27.210 look at how n GL's are produced and
00:00:29.480 00:00:29.490 processed from wellhead to fractionation
00:00:32.439 00:00:32.449 finally we'll talk a little bit about
00:00:34.610 00:00:34.620 how n GL's are used and a bit of news
00:00:37.340 00:00:37.350 regarding the future of n GL's in the
00:00:39.740 00:00:39.750 Appalachian Basin this map shows a
00:00:44.090 00:00:44.100 portion of the Appalachian Basin that
00:00:46.280 00:00:46.290 contains Marcellus Utica and Upper
00:00:48.799 00:00:48.809 Devonian shale gas you'll see the red
00:00:51.410 00:00:51.420 line furthest east shows approximate
00:00:54.590 00:00:54.600 Marcellus and upper Devonian wet dry
00:00:57.020 00:00:57.030 dividing line the middle line shows
00:01:00.320 00:01:00.330 approximate Utica Point Pleasant wet dry
00:01:03.320 00:01:03.330 line and the line furthest west shows
00:01:06.800 00:01:06.810 oil for today's purposes we're only
00:01:10.429 00:01:10.439 talking about wet gas and remember that
00:01:12.889 00:01:12.899 these are only estimates of where these
00:01:15.200 00:01:15.210 products are located each successive
00:01:19.520 00:01:19.530 natural gas liquid has additional carbon
00:01:22.160 00:01:22.170 molecule and different chemical
00:01:24.020 00:01:24.030 properties starting from the top c1 h4
00:01:27.319 00:01:27.329 is methane that's referred to as dry gas
00:01:30.499 00:01:30.509 and generically referred to as natural
00:01:32.899 00:01:32.909 gas this is what we might expect to be
00:01:35.690 00:01:35.700 piped into our homes and used to
00:01:38.300 00:01:38.310 generate electricity all of those
00:01:40.880 00:01:40.890 remaining hydrocarbons ethane propane
00:01:43.779 00:01:43.789 butane and isobutane and pentane are
00:01:46.910 00:01:46.920 referred to as natural gas liquids
00:01:50.289 00:01:50.299 natural gas liquids have added value
00:01:53.270 00:01:53.280 based on BTU BTU stands for British
00:01:57.349 00:01:57.359 thermal unit to give you some scale
00:02:00.670 00:02:00.680 one BTU equals approximately lighting
00:02:04.480 00:02:04.490 one match and letting it burn to the
00:02:06.460 00:02:06.470 bottom so you can see that methane our
00:02:09.160 00:02:09.170 dry gas has about one thousand BTUs
00:02:12.300 00:02:12.310 where ethane is about 1,800 BTUs as
00:02:16.570 00:02:16.580 those hydrocarbons get heavier they
00:02:19.270 00:02:19.280 contain more BTUs you'll also note the
00:02:22.840 00:02:22.850 typical volume that comes out of a well
00:02:25.150 00:02:25.160 in the Appalachian Basin in the wet gas
00:02:27.160 00:02:27.170 region contains more methane than ethane
00:02:30.580 00:02:30.590 more ethane than propane etc so lighter
00:02:34.870 00:02:34.880 gases tend to be produced more often
00:02:37.210 00:02:37.220 than heavier gases pipeline
00:02:40.890 00:02:40.900 specification regarding those BTUs
00:02:43.620 00:02:43.630 interstate pipelines require less than
00:02:47.010 00:02:47.020 approximately 1,100 BTUs per SCF SCF may
00:02:52.600 00:02:52.610 not be a common term for you stands for
00:02:55.449 00:02:55.459 standard cubic feet standard conditions
00:02:58.540 00:02:58.550 are normally set around 60 degrees
00:03:00.280 00:03:00.290 fahrenheit in about 14.7 pressure at sea
00:03:04.630 00:03:04.640 level
00:03:05.160 00:03:05.170 now unprocessed wet gas is often well
00:03:08.800 00:03:08.810 over 1,200 BTUs and even when those
00:03:12.070 00:03:12.080 heavier hydrocarbons like propane butane
00:03:15.070 00:03:15.080 and pentane are removed the BTU content
00:03:17.949 00:03:17.959 still often exceeds 1,100 some ethane
00:03:22.360 00:03:22.370 then needs to be removed to meets
00:03:24.520 00:03:24.530 pipelined specifications while the rest
00:03:27.640 00:03:27.650 of the ethane may be rejected if there's
00:03:29.920 00:03:29.930 not a market rejected ethane doesn't
00:03:33.040 00:03:33.050 mean that it's thrown away
00:03:34.120 00:03:34.130 it's simply added to the gas stream and
00:03:36.910 00:03:36.920 contributes higher BTUs to give you an
00:03:41.290 00:03:41.300 example of price there are if there are
00:03:44.229 00:03:44.239 processing facilities in a pipeline to
00:03:46.539 00:03:46.549 market then the price received tends to
00:03:48.970 00:03:48.980 be significantly higher because those
00:03:52.300 00:03:52.310 products can be separated and sold at
00:03:54.789 00:03:54.799 their best and highest use the other way
00:03:57.520 00:03:57.530 natural gas liquids are often sold are
00:03:59.860 00:03:59.870 in batches they're sold as batches and
00:04:03.039 00:04:03.049 separated from dry methane gas
00:04:05.160 00:04:05.170 but not separated into their each
00:04:07.470 00:04:07.480 individual components so now let's talk
00:04:11.070 00:04:11.080 about the process of how these natural
00:04:13.949 00:04:13.959 gas liquids fall out of the gas stream
00:04:16.370 00:04:16.380 pressure and temperature causes the
00:04:19.289 00:04:19.299 heaviest hydrocarbons to fall out of the
00:04:21.420 00:04:21.430 gas stream as liquids at the wellhead
00:04:25.430 00:04:25.440 what is condensate in this case will
00:04:28.350 00:04:28.360 refer to it as field condensate because
00:04:30.900 00:04:30.910 it comes from the field where the gas is
00:04:32.760 00:04:32.770 being produced these condensates are a
00:04:35.700 00:04:35.710 group of hydrocarbons they don't fit
00:04:37.770 00:04:37.780 easily in the mainstream product
00:04:39.540 00:04:39.550 categories usually we're talking about
00:04:42.240 00:04:42.250 pentane plus the lower the number is the
00:04:46.440 00:04:46.450 heavier the condensate is and generally
00:04:49.110 00:04:49.120 the heavier the better the price now
00:04:52.379 00:04:52.389 everything in this scale is compared to
00:04:54.240 00:04:54.250 water which is a 10 a number higher than
00:04:57.570 00:04:57.580 10 floats on top of water lower than 10
00:05:00.930 00:05:00.940 sinks this graphic demonstrates that as
00:05:05.129 00:05:05.139 you can see on the Left lighter to
00:05:07.200 00:05:07.210 heavier and on the right those those
00:05:10.200 00:05:10.210 products propane is lighter than butane
00:05:12.719 00:05:12.729 which is lighter than pentane etc the
00:05:16.950 00:05:16.960 next step in the process is a compressor
00:05:19.380 00:05:19.390 station the purpose of a compressor
00:05:22.469 00:05:22.479 station is to add pressure to get gas to
00:05:25.409 00:05:25.419 an interstate pipeline or to go to
00:05:28.140 00:05:28.150 further processing as you might guess a
00:05:33.120 00:05:33.130 compressor station adds pressure which
00:05:35.700 00:05:35.710 causes more liquids to fall out we'll
00:05:38.370 00:05:38.380 refer to these liquids as natural
00:05:40.200 00:05:40.210 gasoline or drip gas in this picture you
00:05:43.260 00:05:43.270 can see that Center Tower is water
00:05:45.840 00:05:45.850 that's fallen out of the system whereas
00:05:48.029 00:05:48.039 the four towers outside of the center
00:05:50.480 00:05:50.490 contain that natural gasoline
00:05:55.070 00:05:55.080 the next step in the process is the
00:05:57.800 00:05:57.810 cryogenic expansion process if it's
00:06:00.619 00:06:00.629 economic to extract it extract a thing
00:06:03.409 00:06:03.419 cryogenic processes are required for a
00:06:06.110 00:06:06.120 high recovery rate essentially cryogenic
00:06:09.290 00:06:09.300 processes consist of dropping the
00:06:11.300 00:06:11.310 temperature of the gas stream to about
00:06:13.700 00:06:13.710 minus 120 degrees Fahrenheit now this is
00:06:17.540 00:06:17.550 going to condense most of the natural
00:06:19.339 00:06:19.349 gas liquids while methane will stay a
00:06:22.339 00:06:22.349 gas this separates most of the wet gas
00:06:25.939 00:06:25.949 from the dry gas but does not separate
00:06:28.730 00:06:28.740 all the components of natural gas
00:06:31.100 00:06:31.110 liquids in order to do that it requires
00:06:34.270 00:06:34.280 fractionation now you can see in this
00:06:37.879 00:06:37.889 graphic our mixed natural gas liquids
00:06:40.369 00:06:40.379 come in on a pipeline and then they go
00:06:43.010 00:06:43.020 through a series of towers that have
00:06:45.469 00:06:45.479 different pressure and temperatures the
00:06:48.200 00:06:48.210 boiling point will only be reached by
00:06:50.240 00:06:50.250 one product per tower so you have a d
00:06:53.629 00:06:53.639 Athen Iser a depropanizer a D Butte
00:06:56.300 00:06:56.310 neither a D isobutyl and what comes out
00:06:59.749 00:06:59.759 of the end is condensate will refer to
00:07:02.089 00:07:02.099 this as plant condensate generally
00:07:04.730 00:07:04.740 pentane plus this is a picture of a
00:07:08.059 00:07:08.069 fractionation plant in Houston
00:07:09.830 00:07:09.840 Pennsylvania that's in Washington County
00:07:13.080 00:07:13.090 now let's talk about how natural gas
00:07:15.690 00:07:15.700 liquids are used the most plentiful of
00:07:18.840 00:07:18.850 the natural gas liquids is ethane and is
00:07:21.090 00:07:21.100 predominantly used as a petrochemical
00:07:23.520 00:07:23.530 feedstock we're going to talk more about
00:07:25.409 00:07:25.419 that later there is a portion of that
00:07:28.200 00:07:28.210 thing that's used as heating fuel source
00:07:30.450 00:07:30.460 that's only when it's mixed with methane
00:07:33.030 00:07:33.040 or propane next we'll talk about propane
00:07:37.310 00:07:37.320 about 35% of propane is used as a
00:07:41.250 00:07:41.260 petrochemical feedstock the majority of
00:07:44.310 00:07:44.320 propane is used as a heating fuel source
00:07:46.560 00:07:46.570 you might be familiar with that as a
00:07:48.990 00:07:49.000 heating source at your home or a
00:07:51.270 00:07:51.280 barbecue or for drying corn or lumber
00:07:55.140 00:07:55.150 things like that also about 10 percent
00:07:58.170 00:07:58.180 of propane is exported butane about 22
00:08:02.250 00:08:02.260 percent of that is used as a
00:08:03.450 00:08:03.460 petrochemical feedstock about 10 percent
00:08:06.629 00:08:06.639 is export exported but the bulk of
00:08:09.659 00:08:09.669 butane is used as a blend stock for
00:08:11.790 00:08:11.800 motor gasoline isobutane is entirely
00:08:15.960 00:08:15.970 used as a blend stock for motor gasoline
00:08:18.230 00:08:18.240 where natural gasoline that's pentane
00:08:21.270 00:08:21.280 plus about 10 percent is used as a
00:08:23.640 00:08:23.650 00:08:26.580 00:08:26.590 is exported the majority of it goes as a
00:08:29.310 00:08:29.320 blend stock for motor gasoline and eight
00:08:31.860 00:08:31.870 to ten percent is used for ethanol
00:08:33.839 00:08:33.849 denaturing the infrastructure for ethane
00:08:38.459 00:08:38.469 markets is very important because it's
00:08:40.920 00:08:40.930 the most plentiful of the natural gas
00:08:43.170 00:08:43.180 liquids just a few years ago there
00:08:46.260 00:08:46.270 wasn't an outlet for ethane in the
00:08:48.090 00:08:48.100 Appalachian Basin but quickly pipelines
00:08:51.120 00:08:51.130 were built to the Gulf Coast where there
00:08:53.700 00:08:53.710 are many cracker plants also to Sarnia
00:08:56.610 00:08:56.620 Ontario where there are a few cracker
00:08:58.770 00:08:58.780 plants and most recently to the Marcus
00:09:02.250 00:09:02.260 hook facility there's a pipeline that
00:09:04.590 00:09:04.600 goes across Southern Pennsylvania taking
00:09:07.920 00:09:07.930 that to an export facility where it's
00:09:09.900 00:09:09.910 placed on a ship
00:09:11.600 00:09:11.610 and exported overseas there's also a
00:09:14.990 00:09:15.000 local option that may develop in the
00:09:17.000 00:09:17.010 next four to five years in terms of
00:09:18.980 00:09:18.990 developing cracker plants in the
00:09:20.720 00:09:20.730 Appalachian Basin so the ethylene chain
00:09:24.740 00:09:24.750 goes from natural gas those products are
00:09:27.980 00:09:27.990 then separated fractionated and you
00:09:30.710 00:09:30.720 might have purity ethane that comes out
00:09:33.230 00:09:33.240 that purity ethane goes to a cracker
00:09:35.569 00:09:35.579 plant at that cracker plant that purity
00:09:38.420 00:09:38.430 ethylene ethane is turned into ethylene
00:09:40.910 00:09:40.920 ethylene is further refined into
00:09:43.610 00:09:43.620 intermediate products like PVC vinyl
00:09:45.889 00:09:45.899 chloride styrene and polystyrene and
00:09:49.100 00:09:49.110 those products are used to make adhesive
00:09:52.400 00:09:52.410 tires Footwear bottles caps a lot of
00:09:56.000 00:09:56.010 things that are used as everyday
00:09:57.259 00:09:57.269 products the future of natural gas
00:10:00.980 00:10:00.990 liquids in the Appalachian Basin well
00:10:03.650 00:10:03.660 they are are samatha outlets for ethane
00:10:06.019 00:10:06.029 and other natural gas liquids now but
00:10:08.810 00:10:08.820 those opportunities are growing and more
00:10:11.000 00:10:11.010 outlets for ethane including additional
00:10:13.100 00:10:13.110 pipelines to Sarnia additional exports
00:10:16.370 00:10:16.380 and additional pipelines to the Gulf
00:10:18.920 00:10:18.930 Coast but this also includes an
00:10:21.530 00:10:21.540 announcement from shell to build an
00:10:23.269 00:10:23.279 ethane only cracker plant in Beaver
00:10:25.819 00:10:25.829 County Pennsylvania
00:10:28.769 00:10:28.779 I'd like to give some credit to those
00:10:31.030 00:10:31.040 folks who contributed to this
00:10:32.590 00:10:32.600 presentation including the Penn State's
00:10:34.780 00:10:34.790 Center for Marcellus center for outreach
00:10:37.269 00:10:37.279 and research Jim loudly at Penn State
00:10:39.970 00:10:39.980 Wikipedia engineering tool box calm
00:10:42.810 00:10:42.820 photos from MP LX and from the American
00:10:46.090 00:10:46.100 Chemistry Council and a map from E I a
00:10:49.139 00:10:49.149 if you would like more information on
00:10:52.389 00:10:52.399 natural gas liquids or anything else
00:10:54.639 00:10:54.649 regarding natural gas please go to our
00:10:56.740 00:10:56.750 website natural gas psu.edu and thank
00:11:01.210 00:11:01.220 you very much
00:11:09.720 00:11:09.730

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