Sour Gas Processing Facility Design

DPH Focus designed Encana’s Steeprock Gas Plant, which processes 70 MMscfd of Doig gas from the Cutbank Ridge area of northeast BC.

The plant’s processing units included an MDEA amine unit, an acid gas enrichment unit, a three stage 35 tonne/day Claus sulphur plant, and a glycol/water process heating medium system. Utilities included glycol/water cooling and heat tracing systems and a low pressure flare system.

The amine train was transferred from the Apache Hamburg gas plant and retrofitted to suit Doig acid gas composition and concentrations. The retrofit included replacement trays and additional feed nozzles for the amine contactor and enhanced lean amine filtration. The process heating medium system, which was also transferred from Hamburg was retrofitted with the addition of two 60 MMBtu/hr API fired heaters.

The sulphur plant, which Encana obtained from Propak, required extensive modifications to suit the Doig acid gas, including the addition of acid gas and combustion air preheaters, conversion of all exchangers from steam to glycol/water, piping modifications and the addition of three in-line fuel gas fired reheaters. A below-grade concrete pit was constructed to store liquid sulphur and act as shipping facilities for the truck-out of liquid sulphur.

To enhance the quality of the acid gas stream, we installed an acid gas enrichment unit upstream of the sulphur plant: a Flexsorb treating unit rejects carbon dioxide from the acid gas stream, thereby increasing the concentration of H2S in the acid gas feed to the sulphur plant.

For control of the process units, we installed a Delta V DCS/SIS system for process and discrete logic control.

Sour Gas Processing Facility Design
Sour Gas Processing Facility Design
DPH Focus designed Encana’s Steeprock Gas Plant, which processes 70 MMscfd of Doig gas from the Cutbank Ridge area of northeast BC.