From Emissions to Revenue: Emissions Reduction and Hydrocarbon Recovery from Permeate via Acid Gas Removal Unit Optimization and Synergizing of Upstream and Downstream Processes

This paper describes PETRONAS’ zero-cost solutions to reduce 30% greenhouse gas ("GHG") emissions from total permeate stream, power generation and purchased electricity; and to increase more than USD20mil per year of revenue through monetization of recovered hydrocarbon from permeate streams in Acid Gas Removal Unit ("AGRU") at one of its natural gas terminals in Malaysia. Upstream natural gas supplier from offshore fields evacuates production through onshore receiving facilities to be further blended and treated before delivering on-spec sales gas to midstream Gas Processing Plant ("GPP"). GPP then processes and sells the subsequent products to respective customers such as power producers, petrochemical industries and others. To meet midstream GPP delivery specifications, upstream feed gas is processed through the AGRU, where the byproduct stream (the permeate) still contains valuable hydrocarbon. This paper focuses on the emission reduction and recovery of valuable hydrocarbon in the permeate stream. To reduce GHG emissions while recovering and monetizing hydrocarbon from the permeate CO2 stream, PETRONAS has implemented two (2) key in-house developed strategies as follows: Maximization of feed gas flow through the AGRU bypass line to lower permeate CO2 flow and optimize fuel gas consumption required for gas compression.Optimization of AGRU membrane train lineup to match actual feed gas parameters against the AGRU design, allowing effective membrane surface area absorption. Through these unified approach and synergistic integration between upstream gas terminal and downstream gas processing facilities, PETRONAS has successfully reduced GHG emissions and recovered significant amount of additional hydrocarbon, monetizing it as sales gas. This achievement has been a key contributor to overall PETRONAS's efforts to reduce GHG emissions in its operation while adding revenue to the company.