Gas Liquids Engineering Ltd. was selected to pursue a FEED study to find a solution to the continual decrease of acid gas flow to the existing sulphur recovery units (SRU) at the K3 and KA gas processing plants in the Kaybob area. In a prior feasibility study, alternative options for acid gas handling and disposal were assessed. Two options were presented:
- Acid gas injection (AGI) to injection wells around the KA and K3 plants.
- Acid gas transfer (AGT) from one site to another, which would include shutdown of the SRU at the sending site and routing all of its acid gas flow to the SRU at the receiving site, thus extending the viable lifetime of the receiving SRU.
Based on the feasibility study and other factors, the decision to pursue a FEED Study for the K3 to KA acid gas transfer option was chosen.
K3 Site
When the SRU is shutdown on the K3 site, and the acid gas (AG) stream needs to be readied for pipeline transportation off-site the following facilities are required:
- Acid gas compression to pipeline pressure (~1700 kPag)
- Acid gas dehydration – sour TEG unit
- Vapour recovery unit for TEG still vent vapours
- Sour water collection and transfer
- Additional low pressure steam
- Custody transfer metering
Acid Gas Transfer Pipeline
An acid gas transfer pipeline will be required to move the gas from the K3 to KA site. Required facilities are:
- ESD stations and pig launchers/receiver on plant sites, but considered part of the pipeline
- 10” AGT pipeline (~35 km long) complete with 8 ESD stations.
- 3” fuel gas (purge gas)/Purge companion pipeline (dual purpose line)
- Controls, communicating and monitoring of the pipeline.
KA Site
Once the acid gas stream arrives on the KA site the facilities required to prepare the stream for entry into the KA SRU are:
- Inlet Knockout Drum and liquids handling
- Custody transfer metering
- Acid gas reheating & stream pressure letdown