Oil & Gas Industry

Hydrogen

• Refining processes
• Hydrocracking and Hydrotreating: Hydrogen is required to remove sulfur, nitrogen and other contaminants from gasoline, diesel and other mid/intermediate distillates (hydrotreating) and also to convert (hydro-crack) larger/heavy components derived from crude oil processing into more lighter, valuable products, such as gasoline or diesel (hydrocracking).
• Production of Renewable Fuels: Conventional refineries can be converted to bio-refineries to produce renewable fuels, such as renewable diesel (RD) and/or Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF). The production of RD and SAF requires great amounts of H2 (more than the conventional processes) due to the nature of the processes and the raw materials being used (vegetables and/or animal fats).
• Other Hydrogenation Reactions: Hydrogen is a feedstock (reactant) in hydrogenation reactions used to produce a number of chemicals and petrochemicals.
• Sulfur Recovery and Acid Gas Plants: Hydrogen can be added to the tail gas treating unit (TGTU) of a sulfur plant when the streams to be treated are leaner (i.e., less H2S).
• Fuel quality improvement
• New HYCO Plants: Hydrogen/Syngas/CO Onsite Supply (Over-The-Fence – OTF)
• Supply of hydrogen, syngas or CO (carbon monoxide) to one or multiple customers from onsite plants or pipeline.
• Purchase hydrogen/syngas/CO plants from customer; design and deploy improvements- subsequently own, operate, maintain and optimize plant operations and supply.
• Gas Optimization/H2 recovery: Refineries may have low-value gas streams whose quality and value can be optimized by recovery (separation) of hydrogen and/or other hydrocarbons.

Refineries often produce their own hydrogen, but frequently may not produce the needed volume and purity. Onsite hydrogen plants and pipeline hydrogen can supplement the hydrogen produced by the refinery. Onsite hydrogen production capabilities range from less than 0.1 mmscfd to over 100 mmscfd. Plant design is optimized to give an appropriate gas cost based on capital, feedstock, and operating expenses.

Oxygen

• FCC Enrichment and NOx Reduction
  Oxygen can be added to the regenerator of a fluid catalytic cracker (FCC) to improve yields, assist with coke burning and heat balance, and to reduce cyclone velocities. This can also reduce NOx and CO emissions.
• Additionally, oxygen is used to produce ozone, which is required in the low-temperature oxidation NOx removal equipment incorporated into many FCC units.
• Sulfur Recovery and Acid Gas Plants
  The use of oxygen in a sulfur recovery unit (SRU) can increase plant capacity and help with contaminants and low hydrogen sulfide streams. Oxygen can also be used to boost temperature. Oxygen use can be intermittent or continuous.
• Oxygenation of Wastewater
  Oxygen is used to treat wastewater streams. The use of oxygen in place of air is often required by environmental regulations, and can also be used to improve efficiency, productivity and costs.
• Petrochemical Production Applications
  Oxygen is a required feedstock in many chemical manufacturing processes, including ethane cracking, ethylene oxide, titanium dioxide, propylene oxide, MEG, vinyl chloride monomer and vinyl acetate monomer production.
• Many of these compounds are the backbone of the petrochemicals industry, so a safe, economical and reliable supply of oxygen is a necessity. Oxygen can also be used in oxidation and liquefaction processes, to produce syngas, and for air enrichment.
• Oxygen supply for oxidative reforming processes (ATR, POX, solids/heavy oil gasification).

Syngas

Hydrogenation, ammonia, methanol, Fischer-Tropsch synthesis (FT), MTR, oxoalcohols, and acetic acid are just a few of the chemical production processes that can benefit from an economical supply of H2, CO, or syngas.

Syngas is an abbreviation for synthesis gas that is comprised primarily of H2 and CO with H2O, CO2, CH4 as the remaining components. Synthesis gas is manufactured by reacting gaseous hydrocarbons such as natural gas, light liquid hydrocarbons such as liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) or hydrotreated naphtha (HTN), and solid hydrocarbon feedstocks such as petroleum coke (petcoke), various coals (sub bituminous, lignite) and biomass, with steam and/or oxygen.

Feedstock Considerations
The required ratio of hydrogen to carbon monoxide is governed by the final product. Hydrogen production (H2) benefits from as high a H2:CO ratio in the syngas as possible. The most common technology is steam-methane reforming that uses a catalyst packed in tubes in a steam reformer furnace (SMR) to react CH4 with H2O to produce H2 and CO via reforming and water gas shift reactions. The endothermic heat of reaction is supplied by burning fuel on the outside of the tubes. The H2:CO ratio in the syngas from the SMR is further increased by water gas shift (WGS) reactors (one to three) in series. On the other hand, CO production benefits from a low H2:CO ratio which is achieved either in a SMR with recycle of all produced CO2 to drive the reverse water gas shift reaction or with a noncatalytic partial oxidation reactor (POX) which reacts hydrocarbons and O2 with minor amounts of moderator steam and recycled CO2. In CO applications, it is common to utilize imported CO2 to further decrease the H2:CO ratio. When an intermediate level of H2:CO is required or all the CO2 is required at high pressure, an autothermal reformer (ATR) may be deployed that reacts CH4 with steam and oxygen in a single reactor with noncatalytic partial oxidation generating the heat for the endothermic reactions in the burner zone followed by a catalyst bed for reforming and shift.

Separation/Purification/Ratio Adjustment
In addition to WGS, a pressure swing adsorber (PSA) achieves a final hydrogen product by separating the H2-rich syngas into a pure stream at pressure while rejecting a tail gas at low pressure that can be used as a fuel or recycled. Likewise, a membrane separation system can be used to produce a required H2:CO ratio. When high purity CO is required, CO cold box using cryogenic separation methods is employed. A vacuum swing absorber (VSA) could also be employed for selective CO separation from syngas.

Solid hydrocarbons like petcoke and coal are noncatalytically reacted with steam and oxygen at high temperature in a refractory lined vessel called a gasifier to produce a synthesis gas.

In all of the above technology choices, CO2 may be separated from the high-pressure syngas for recycle or sequestration using one of many absorption technologies such as amines (MEA, aMDEA) and refrigerated methanol (Rectisol). CO2 capture from the flue gas is a relatively new area with a few emerging technologies such as absorption into amines, temperature-swing adsorption (TSA), and VSA.

If process requirements do not justify onsite production, hydrogen may be supplied for bulk onsite storage as a cryogenic liquid. Smaller quantities of H2 and CO can also be delivered in tube trailers or cylinders as a compressed gas.

Specialty and Calibration Gases

• Process analyzers
• Environmental monitoring
• Emissions measurement support through EPA gases
• Laboratory operations
• Instrument calibration
• For laboratory, testing, or specialty applications, Nippon Sanso Matheson supplies hydrogen and carbon monoxide in high pressure cylinders in a variety of purities, with custom mixtures also available

Carbon Monoxide

Carbon monoxide is gas utilized as a feedstock in the production of a number of chemicals including acetic acid, polycarbonates, and polyurethane intermediates.\

Argon and Welding Gas Mixtures

• Turnaround projects
• Maintenance welding
• Fabrication
• Plant construction
• Specialty alloy welding, including nickel based, corrosion resistant, and GTAW cut length support

Nitrogen

• Plant inerting
• Turnaround support
• Reactor purging
• Tank blanketing
• Safety system support
• Process protection

Carbon Dioxide

• pH control
• Water treatment
• Process applications