Industrial WaterWorld
March 2016
By Fred Wiesler, QUA Group
Due to the increase in natural gas extraction from shale gas deposits, there is an abundance of reserves in the United States. With growing production and falling prices, exportation of natural gas has become more economically viable. In order to convert the gas drawn from these sources into a liquefied state, the gas must go through a process that separates the gases and removes water, acid gases and heavy hydrocarbons from the recovered natural gas. The gases are then cooled, transforming them to a liquefied state.
Several LNG terminals in the U.S. are adding liquefaction processes to their facilities to allow them to treat, liquefy, store and export natural gas. Liquefaction plants require a great deal of energy, and water is vital to the process.
Recently, a large LNG terminal in the U.S. required a water treatment solution to provide process water for its liquefaction operations. The water is used for injection for compressor turbines for methane, propane and ethylene, wash water for gas turbines and other utility make-up uses. The feed water to the terminal comes from a local utility and the water requires further treatment to produce high-purity water with low conductivity and silica content for the plant’s uses.
The plant evaluated options for RO permeate polishing and selected a QUA Fractional Electrodeionization (FEDI) system.
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About the Author: Fred Wiesler is director of sales and marketing for QUA, an innovator of advanced membrane technologies. He can be reached at wieslerf@quagroup.com.