Publications

The Singa Gas Plant, operated by PT. Medco E&P Indonesia, is a sour gas processing plant located in South Sumatra, Indonesia. It has unique hybrid combinations of acid gas removal units (AGRU) consisting of a Membrane and an Amine Unit both operating in parallel. The plant is designed to process 93 MMSCFD of sour gas containing significant carbon dioxide (CO2) and moderate Hydrogen Sulphide (H2S) levels to produce 55 MMSCFD sales of pipeline gas specification. As per environmental regulations, the toxic H2S gas cannot be disposed off into the atmosphere, but SO2 emission is still allowed in limited amounts. Consequently, the waste gas from the AGRU is routed to a thermal oxidizer (TOX) to convert H2S into SO2. The conversion process of H2S by high temperature oxidation can only be achieved efficiently under certain controlled conditions. When the uncontrolled conditions occur, such as excess heat release due to richer hydrocarbon content in waste gas, the impact is severe. Instability of the primary upstream processing unit often results in TOX shutdowns, which also causes total plant shutdowns. After a series of thorough investigations, excess heat release problems can be resolved by managing the flow of acid gas to TOX and flaring units. Acid gas flow management is then applied by taking into account the environment regulations and a heat balance optimization. Keywords: Sour Gas Processing Plant, H2S Conversion, Excess Heat Release, Management of Facilities Operation