Development of novel techno-economic framework for enhancing a Tri-Ethylene Glycol-based natural gas dehydration unit

The maximum purity of the regenerated Tri-Ethylene Glycol (TEG) in an absorption-based natural gas dehydration process is capped at 98.8% since the operating temperature of the reboiler cannot exceed 204 oC, otherwise the TEG will thermally degrade. Several enhanced dehydration processes are available to overcome this limitation such as the stripping gas dehydration process using a portion of dry product gas, inert gas, or volatile hydrocarbon (DRIZO process). This thesis presents a novel techno-economic framework for the selection of the best dehydration process that simultaneously meets the water dew point specification and generates the highest net profit margin.