Estimation of the number of trays for natural gas triethylene glycol dehydration column

The paper deals with the tray-to-tray method for determining the required number of trays in columns with intensive entrainment of liquid when the operating line of the “dry working regime” is not straight and with a small concentration of diffusing component in gas. Presented calculations show that the number of transfer units for gas and liquid should be calculated using the AIChE method accompanied with longitudinal mixing according to Gilbert properly transformed for case of diffusion through stagnant film. The suggested method can be applied for TEG dehydration absorbers–columns for dehydration of natural gas using triethylene glycol with system factor SF = 0.5.

Research highlights
► This paper deals with the method for determining the number of trays.
► The suggested method can be applied for triethylene glycol dehydration absorbers.
► Model concerns the gas-liquid mass transfer in columns with intensive entrainment.