Affordable Carbon Dioxide Capture in the Middle East

Many countries in the Middle East are seeking to harness their vast natural gas resources to meet future electricity demand. In some cases, this natural gas, which can contain up to 35% hydrogen sulphide (H2S) and 15% carbon dioxide (CO2), may already be needed for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) to sustain crude oil production while CO2 from gas facilities is vented. This creates a unique opportunity to capture produced CO2 from sour gas processing facilities, use it for EOR and free the natural gas currently used for EOR for electricity generation. This change in use may reduce the need to develop new natural gas reserves.

However, the captured CO2 must be affordable for it to be used for EOR. At present, capital costs are high, as low-pressure CO2 sources in natural gas plants require large amine solvent volumes and thus large equipment sizes. Solvent regeneration steam requirements can also be high, which means high operational costs.

This paper highlights three Shell technologies that can help to reduce capital and operational costs, and potentially cut captured CO2 costs by 20–40%:

* ADIP® ULTRA solvent technology for lowering solvent circulation rates;
* Shell Turbo Trays for smaller absorbers and/or fewer capture trains; and
* the CANSOLV® CO2 Capture System for lower steam requirements and/or fewer capture trains.

Keywords: gas processing, technology, CO2 capture.