CCI Valves are Critical in Progressive New Technology

As part of its acid gas injection (AGI) and cogeneration project, a large gas producer in Wyoming is nearing completion of its gas treating facility. This gas injection facility, which is the largest of its type in North America , will incorporate 24 CCI anti-surge and control valves for various applications.

The project, which is scheduled for startup in early 2004, will increase the facility’s gas injection capacity by 65 million standard cubic feet per day and add three large cogeneration gas turbines. These modifications will greatly improve the plant’s reliability and throughput.
This particular facility will use AGI technology to safely and economically handle its sour gas, which contains significant concentrations of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) and carbon dioxide (CO2). This technology is a novel process that has emerged over the past 10 years in Canada as an effective way to prevent the emission of acid gases into the atmosphere.

To meet sales gas contract specifications, oil and gas producers are required to treat sour gas to remove virtually all of the H2S. Conventional methods for acid gas disposal include flaring the acid gas – burning the H2S to SO2 and releasing the CO2 to the atmosphere – and the Claus process – which involves producing sulfur as a sellable by-product and releasing the CO2. However, falling sulfur prices and growing concerns over the environmental effects of sulfur, which have prompted increasingly stringent restrictions on residual SO2 emissions, have caused the industry to begin abandoning such processes in favor of AGI technology – an efficient and inexpensive way to separate product from acid gas by liquefying the H2S and CO2. As use of this technology increases, oil and gas producers will be more successful in fields in which it would otherwise be uneconomical to work.

Utilizing AGI technology at the Wyoming facility is made possible in part by CCI, which supplied 15 anti-surge valves and nine control valves to the plant. These valves range from 3” to 14” and ANSI class 300 to 2500 and were all designed to satisfy the plant’s noise requirements of less than 85 dBA. The control valves will be used in critical processes, including compressor discharge, gas to flare, surge drum, and fuel header control applications. The anti-surge valves, including turbo-compressor and compressor recycle valves, boast a stroke speed of less than two seconds during surge conditions.

Both the gas producer and the project’s engineering contractor have worked with CCI in the past and are familiar with the performance and reliability of CCI’s solutions, which will enhance and reinforce the customer’s overall operation. For instance, many of the valves CCI installed will serve to protect the plant’s compressors from surge conditions that can damage the compressors and result in millions of dollars in repairs and replacements.

Just as important, the valves installed in this plant play an indispensable health and safety role. That is, the facility handles natural gas that contains a potentially lethal combination of H2S and CO2. H2S can cause symptoms ranging from eye irritation to dizziness, drowsiness, and unconsciousness, and upon contact with the skin it can result in frostbite, cracking, and dermatitis. Moreover, in extremely high concentrations, H2S can cause respiratory failure and even death. Therefore, the dependability of the valves in this application is absolutely crucial; that CCI was chosen to supply valves to a system that can present such critical health and safety concerns speaks volumes about CCI’s track record for reliable performance.

Published in Solutions Winter 2003