Feed gas quality limits acid gas removal unit capacity

Since its startup, Gas Plant A has experienced unstable feed gas quality that consequently impacted plantsustainability and resulted in capacity limitations and frequent foaming incidents. An engineering teamperformed extensive troubleshooting and investigation efforts to address these challenges, along with anaction plan to mitigate the impact. The plant evaluation revealed that unit capacity limitation was mainlycaused by increased acid gas content (H S and CO ) in the feed sour gas by more than 50%. Thepresence of heavy hydrocarbons in the feed sour gas contributed to the foaming incidents in the acid gasabsorber. Foaming resulted in excessive amine losses and off-specification product gas, as well as suddenreductions of feed gas flows. The issue was more severe during the summer, when the unit experiencedseveral incidents of foaming on a weekly basis. The impact resulted in more than a 50% reduction in plantprocessing capacity on a temporary basis.