INGENIEUR
FEATURE
World ’ s First Cryogenic CO 2 Separation Pilot Facility
By Md Faudzi Mat Isa Yi Herng Chan Abdullah Al-Mubarak Md Jalil Nurzatil Aqmar Othman M Yazid Jay Jalani PETRONAS Research Sdn Bhd
The clock is ticking on monetising Malaysia ’ s high contaminant gas reserves of more than 40 trillion cubic feet ( tcf ). The economic drive to produce gas from these reserves of net worth USD 1.5 trillion is rooted in the decline of large and sweet gas reserve across Malaysia ’ s fields . Consequently , Malaysia will not be able to supply liquefied natural gas ( LNG ) to contract customers while its LNG plants would be underutilised .
In this regard , the presence of contaminants , especially CO 2 in huge quantities , presents complex technological and economic challenges to unlock gas fields because conventional technologies such as membrane and amine require colossal facilities in project execution . Therefore , new technologies are being developed based on cryogenic phase separation with the advantages of significantly reduced facilities and liquid CO 2 reinjection . These would be key solutions to unlocking the three-decade problem of producing from high CO 2 gas fields , in which their ability to process two billion standard cubic feet per day ( bscf ) of gas will be monetarily translated to a revenue of approximately USD 600 million per annum for PETRONAS .
Development of cryogenic CO 2 separation pilot facility by PETRONAS
Cryogenic separation technology , or in simple terms , distillation at very low temperatures , is able to capture and remove CO 2 as a liquid at high pressure , thus rendering it relatively easy for several applications , including enhanced oil recovery ( EOR ). The high content of CO 2
( up to 70 % by volume ) in raw natural gas necessitates proper management of this greenhouse gas through efficient carbon capture , utilisation and storage ( CCUS ) efforts .
PETRONAS developed the world ’ s first stateof-the-art pilot testing facility to fully mature and de-risk cryogenic CO 2 separation technologies . Located in Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS ( UTP ), the plant , often known by the name ‘ CO 2
Flow Loop ’, is a chemical engineering marvel housing pre-treatment , cooling , heating , CO 2 separation , and study of CO 2 solids as well as CO 2 blowdown sections to comprehensively research and derisk all aspects of cryogenic CO 2 separation technologies . When applied industrially , it would enable PETRONAS to reduce original cost of offshore facilities by 30 % or approximately USD11 billion for a typical large gas field in Malaysia .
This pilot testing facility , the first of its kind of a low temperature and high-pressure test facility in the world , was developed by PETRONAS in collaboration with partners . The facility is capable of operating at cryogenic temperatures ( down to -70 ° C ) and pressure as high as 80 bar . The pilot facility has been tested using CO 2
-rich natural gas including light hydrocarbons up to C5 pentanes and a CO 2 composition as high as 70 % to mimic the actual gas field composition . It is also able to handle up to 100 % CO 2 liquid . In addition , the facility is able to test up to 2.5 mmscfd of feed gas , which
22 VOL 86 APRIL-JUNE 2021