Application of relative sensitivity function in parametric optimization of a tri-ethylene glycol dehydration plant

• Relative Sensitivity Function is powerful in comparing the relative effect of different factors.
• RSF can be used to optimize glycol circulation rate in the conventional TEG plants.
• In addition to RSF, other criteria should be considered to optimize wet gas temperature of a TEG unit.

Water removal from natural gas is an inevitable process in natural gas industry. Tri-Ethylene Glycol (TEG) plant is the most common and economical process for the dehydration of natural gas. In this work, a domestic TEG dehydration unit is simulated to determine the effect of various parameters on water content of the outlet dehydrated gas. The key feature of this work is the use of Relative Sensitivity Function (RSF) to optimize the whole plant. RSF led into a reduction in the water content of dehydrated gas, TEG circulation rate, and re-boiler duty. The final results revealed that relative sensitivity analysis is a convincing method to determine the best operating conditions and to evaluate the effect of various parameters on water content of the dried gas leaving the absorber column.

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