Contaminants must be removed from natural gas so that the gas meets the quality standards specified by pipeline transmission and distribution companies, and is safe for industrial applications and home heating and cooking.

However, the presence of carbon dioxide and other contaminants in natural gas, coupled with tight space limitations and extreme environmental conditions, can make natural gas clean-up in many offshore and remote onshore locations difficult. Separex membrane technology was designed specifically to meet these challenges.

Developed in 1979, Separex Membrane Systems remove corrosive acid gas and water from natural gas streams. Housed onshore, or within offshore production ships called Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) and Floating Liquefied Natural Gas (FLNG) systems, Separex units are modular, skid-mounted installations containing spiral-wound membrane elements with proprietary compositions.

These membranes remove contaminants to make natural gas safe for transportation, storage and everyday use. In addition to offshore gas processing, Separex Membrane Systems are used for a wide range of onshore treating applications, and removing helium from natural gas streams.

UOP recently announced its commercial launch of an integrated bioreactor system to efficiently remove organic and inorganic contaminants from a wide range of industrial wastewater streams.

The UOP XCeed™ bioreactor system, based on Honeywell’s immobilized cell bioreactor technology, helps industrial, manufacturing, and groundwater remediation facilities meet contaminant removal specifications for wastewater discharge or reuse. UOP’s commercial launch of this technology builds on the experience associated with more than 50 successful installations.

“Manufacturers globally are subject to stricter wastewater regulations and fees, which creates a need for more cost-effective treatment solutions that meet regulatory requirements and more stringent internal treatment standards,” said Mike Millard, senior vice president and general manager of Honeywell’s UOP Catalysts, Adsorbents and Specialties business. “Using our expertise in process development, we have designed a high-performance biological treatment system that meets requirements efficiently and cost-effectively. UOP is using 100 years of experience purifying various process streams to create superior contaminant removal solutions.”

UOP’s XCeed bioreactor system has been proven reliable and cost-effective in food and beverage, chemical and textile manufacturing, groundwater remediation, and refinery and petrochemical applications worldwide.

The integrated treatment process can be delivered as a modular system and incorporates mixed-media support for immobilized bio-catalysts, or microbes. A sophisticated biological ecosystem enables longer biomass retention time and results in highly efficient biological oxygen demand (BOD) removal with low sludge production. The system has a relatively simple mechanical design that minimizes energy consumption and required operator attention.

For more information on UOP’s XCeed bioreactor technology, visit www.uop.com.

UOP processes have greatly benefited society, launching momentous changes in the history of the oil and gas industry. For more than a century, UOP engineers and chemists have excelled in turning laboratory science into industrial reality, creating the foundation for today’s modern refining, petrochemical and gas processing industries.

UOP processes make the fuels that power our cars, trucks, jets and locomotives. Raw materials that become the clothes we wear and fabrics we depend on are made using UOP technology. Manufacturers use UOP processes to make the detergents we use every day. The plastic films, fibers and resins we count on in our daily lives are made better with technologies developed by UOP.

Today, more than 85 percent of the biodegradable detergents, 70 percent of the polyester and more than 60 percent of the world’s gasoline are made using technologies developed and commercialized by UOP.

Taken together, UOP technologies have enabled our modern way of living.

UOP stands at the intersection of energy, economics and the economy, charting the future of the industry. We provide compelling economic solutions and continuous innovation, solid reliability and a century of expertise.

And UOP remains on the cutting edge, continuing to earn groundbreaking patents and developing proprietary processes for the oil and gas industry.

Our relationships with customers span decades. We’ve earned our position as the leading advisor to the industry, keeping our customers competitive and their operations modern, efficient and profitable. As the world’s oil and gas industry rises to meet the challenges of the future, UOP will continue to fuel the solutions that bring prosperity to the world.

UOP celebrates its 100th year in business in 2014, and in many ways our history is analogous to the development of the world’s oil and gas industry.

We have accomplished many great things during the last century. For that, we owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to our customers, who helped us develop and commercialize our technologies.

When our company was founded, there were fewer than 2 billion people in the world, and travel was dominated by horses and steam engines. Much of every barrel of oil was used for heating and paving roads. Gasoline’s primary use was as a solvent, and kerosene and natural gas were used for lighting.

But the birth of UOP also coincided with the mass production of automobiles. The Dubbs process quadrupled the yield of gasoline from crude oil, ensuring that tens of millions of people had access to the fuels that allowed them to travel wherever and whenever they wanted. This was a milestone in our society.

UOP’s research and development led to the introduction of catalysis to refining during the 1930s, further multiplying the yield of valuable products from crude oil while raising the octane levels of these fuels.

After World War II, our technologies provided the building blocks that launched the petrochemicals industry. These helped introduce the world to products made from plastic resins, films and fibers. We commercialized technologies to produce new detergents including biodegradable cleaning agents. At the birth of the environmental movement, we developed lead-free gasoline and the automobile catalytic converter.

More recently, as part of Honeywell’s advanced technology portfolio, UOP has developed specialized catalysts and methods to convert a wider range of feedstocks into high-quality fuels and petrochemical compounds. Today, we offer technologies to convert products from coal and natural gas into the building blocks for plastics, more efficiently convert the bottom of the barrel into valuable fuels, and make diesel and jet fuel from renewable sources. We’ve also been at the front lines of the natural gas revolution, enabling quick monetization of assets through modular solutions.

Reflecting on the last century of leadership and innovation in the oil and gas industry, we believe the most exciting chapters in our history haven’t yet been written.

Sincerely,

Dr. Rajeev Gautam
President and CEO
UOP LLC, A Honeywell Company

March 17-20, 2015 in Singapore

UOP will host the 2015 Unicracking Technology Conference in March in Singapore. This conference joins UOP experts, Unicracking licensees and catalyst users from around the world to address key industry challenges, share best practices, and learn about new technology that can help improve refinery operations and prepare you to meet the growing global demand for high-quality distillates.

For more information about the conference or to request an invitation, please contact Conferences@UOP.com.

The UOP Customer Portal provides access to an exclusive collection of valuable product information, presentations and operating manuals for UOP products, services and technologies.

The Portal provides complete and easy access to the most up-to-date information on UOP’s full selection of product offerings – and quick solutions to technology needs and queries. The portal also contains calculation tools and models, along with FAQ and training summaries. Register today and subscribe to your areas of interest. Enhancements and new modules are released regularly. The next enhancement will go live mid-December.

Register today!

Please visit www.accessuop.com.

With offshore processing and LNG solutions from Honeywell, you can increase the efficiency and effectiveness of your operations.

Honeywell’s broad portfolio of offshore gas processing and LNG solutions — including contaminant removal, instrumentation, control and enterprise-wide optimization — help deliver trouble-free, efficient and profitable operations. Comprehensive safety, security and complete lifecycle support keep your project on task from production through distribution. And for gas processing equipment that provides a small footprint ideal for offshore applications, UOP’s solvent, adsorption, membrane and other advanced separations solutions are compact and lightweight. It all adds up to solutions that have you covered for even the most challenging applications. Discover Honeywell and UOP.

See the video: Honeywell Offshore Gas Solutions

For more information on the integrated solutions for LNG, visit honeywellprocess.com or uop.com

The UOP Customer Portal recently launched its new user-friendly mobile interface. The new tile based responsive interface improve the user experience by enhancing ease of navigation, improved search tool, and interactive user specific information on UOP tools, products and services. Customers can now manage orders, check order status and related information on the Portal.

UOP also released its first mobile app for order management on the Customer Portal. Purchasing professionals will now be able to check the status of their orders on their iPhone or iPad .The app will make it easy for customers to get information on UOP products and services while on the go.

The Portal provides customers with protected access to technical documents about their process units, UOP products and services and estimating tools. To access the Portal, register yourself and existing users can login with their credentials. For more information, contact Peg Stine.

In the refining industry throughout the last several years, clean fuel regulations have been changing refiners’ choices for profitable use of FCC light cycle oil (LCO). Although LCO has conventionally been blended into diesel or fuel oil in the past, its high levels of sulfur, nitrogen and aromatics often make this an unattractive choice.

However, these recent clean fuel regulations also have created an opportunity for refiners. The high levels of aromatics in LCO make it suitable to be economically converted into high-value aromatics feedstocks – specifically, benzene, toluene and xylenes.

UOP scientists developed the LCO-X process, which utilizes catalyst and process systems to maximize the aromatics yield from LCO. This process uses elements of hydrocracking and aromatics production and is a practical approach to deriving the greatest value from the LCO stream. The LCO-X advantage is that it can be designed for lower-pressure operation compared to a conventional hydrocracking unit, which reduces capital, operating cost, and risks associated with high-pressure operation. The hydrocracking and aromatics technologies which make up the LCO-X process have been extensively proven since their commercialization in the late 2000s.

LCO-X Process

High-purity hydrogen used to produce diesel, gasoline and jet fuel to meet domestic demand.

PetroChina Guangxi Petrochemical Company (GXPC) is using UOP process technology to purify hydrogen at a new refining complex in Qinzhou, Guangxi Province, China.

With support from UOP’s local service team, GXPC successfully commissioned a UOP Polybed™ PSA (Pressure Swing Adsorption) System to purify hydrogen, which is a critical ingredient used in modern refining processes to produce clean transportation fuels, including diesel, gasoline and jet fuel. GXPC is subsidiary of PetroChina, one of China’s largest state-owned enterprises.

Refineries use hydrogen to convert heavy oils to lighter, higher-value products such as transportation fuels. Hydrogen is also used to remove contaminants and improve the quality of end products.

“With 50 years’ experience in hydrogen purification technology, UOP PSA units offer nearly 100 percent on-stream reliability and nearly 100 percent hydrogen purity, resulting in enhanced performance and an improved return on investment for our customers,” said Rebecca Liebert, senior vice president and general manager for UOP’s Gas Processing and Hydrogen business unit. “As new refineries come online in China, we look forward to offering reliable, long-term PSA technology.”

The PSA unit at GXPC processes feed from a steam reformer to produce more than 140,000 Nm3/h (normal cubic meters per hour) of hydrogen.

In addition to PSA technology, GXPC is also using several other UOP technologies to produce high-quality fuels, including: CCR Platforming™ technology, two-Stage Unicracking™ technology, Unionfining™ technology, hydrotreating technology, Penex™ technology, and fluid catalytic cracking technology.

For its ability to change the composition of molecules, hydrogen is an essential component in the operation of modern refineries and petrochemical plants. With that in mind, UOP invented the Polybed™ Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) System in 1966 to recover and purify hydrogen, and it has since become the industry’s leading hydrogen purification technology.

Polybed PSA Systems are skid-mounted, modular units complete with hardware, adsorbents, control systems, and embedded process technology, enabling quick and efficient installation to reduce cost and downtime. The process uses proprietary UOP adsorbents to remove impurities at high pressure from hydrogen-containing process streams, allowing hydrogen to be recovered and upgraded to more than 99.9-percent purity to meet refining needs.

In addition to recovering and purifying hydrogen from steam reformers and refinery off-gases, Polybed PSA Systems can be used to produce hydrogen from other sources, including ethylene off-gas, methanol off-gas and partial oxidation/synthesis gas.

Since UOP commercialized the first small, four-bed hydrogen PSA System, it has significantly improved Polybed PSA Systems by incorporating several generations of technological advancements. New generations of adsorbents, enhanced cycle configurations, modified process and equipment designs, and more reliable control systems and equipment – combined with decades of operational expertise — have resulted in higher performance and reliability, and improved operability at a lower cost. Earlier this year, UOP announced it supplied its 1,000th PSA unit.

March 17-20, 2015 in Singapore

UOP will host the 2015 Unicracking Technology Conference next month in Singapore. This conference joins UOP experts, Unicracking licensees and catalyst users from around the world to address key industry challenges, share best practices, and learn about new technology that can help improve refinery operations and prepare you to meet the growing global demand for high-quality distillates. For more information about the conference or to request an invitation, please contact Conferences@UOP.com.

UOP training programs are focused on building the knowledge and skills of your team. We utilize experience and expertise built up over a century in the refining industry to help you teach and motivate your workforce; ultimately driving safe, efficient and stable operations.

View the 2015 schedule to register for available courses.

We’re excited about a new offering and locations that you’ll find in next year’s programs:

• As a new Multi-Company training offer, the UOP Separex Membrane System is scheduled for April 13-15, 2015 in Miami, Florida, USA.
• Several offerings are being held in a new location, Istanbul, Turkey, Miami, Florida, USA and Prague, Czech Republic. We hope these locations provide attractive destinations for your training needs.
• UOP continues to offer a popular training class, the Engineering Design Seminar which begins earlier than last year; April 20 – June 19, 2015. This intensive nine week program gives participants the opportunity to learn the fundamentals of refining process design. Early registration is suggested as this course often sells out.

Please visit the UOP Training Website for registration and additional information on our single-company courses, and self-study options including web-based training, expert systems, and training simulators.

We look forward to supporting your business needs in 2015.

UOP offers a range of flexible, advanced solutions to address your gas processing needs, from straightforward single-unit operation, to highly integrated, multiple technology operations.

Avoid Downstream Equipment Issues with Dehydration & Dew Pointing

Dew pointing helps avoid downstream equipment operability issues associated with condensation and liquid slugging and controls the gas heating value. Effective dehydration is critical for transportation, and to avoid unplanned shutdowns, costly equipment repairs and hazardous working conditions.

OFFSHORE

ONSHORE

LNG

UOP Modular Equipment
UOP Modular Equipment mechanical refrigeration, JT plants and adsorption systems are designed to help increase the recovery of valuable NGLs through a pre-engineered approach. Modular equipment is designed to have your plant up and running faster than a custom-built solution, so you can begin earning revenue more quickly.

Learn more: UOP Modular Equipment website

UOP-Twister^® Supersonic Gas Separation System
Provides partial NGL recovery with minimal footprint, no chemical consumption, and no maintenance or inspection required.

Learn more: Twister^® Supersonic Gas Separation Systems datasheet

SeparSIV™ System
Designed to remove heavy hydrocarbons from lean gas at a lower cost and more effectively than traditional cryogenic distillation and adsorptive technologies.

Learn more: UOP SeparSIV™ System for Lean Natural Gas Processing brochure

UOP offers both bulk and selective acid gas removal solutions to efficiently and effectively remove hydrogen sulfide (H2S) and carbon dioxide (CO2) from the natural gas stream.

OFFSHORE

ONSHORE

LNG

UOP’s technologies offer effective contaminant removal upstream of liquefaction to help improve overall performance.

UOP Separex™ Membrane Systems
Remove acid gas and water with minimal operator intervention and maintenance. The modular units are designed to offer faster delivery and lower installation and operating costs.

Learn more: Separex Membrane Systems brochure
Unconventional Gas: Primer and Implications for Gas Processing white paper (Laurence Reid Conference, Feb 2014)

UOP Benfield™ Process
A thermally-regenerated, cyclical solvent process using low cost solvent, tailored for bulk or trace acid gas removal.

Learn more: Increasing Efficiency white paper, Benfield Datasheet

UOP Benfield™ revamp
UOP provides revamp technologies, UOP ACT-1™ activator, LoHeat™ technology and high-performance packings.

UOP Amine Guard™ FS Process
Protect downstream equipment by reducing carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide and other sulfur components to very low levels. Customized solution for natural gas, synthesis gas and LNG applications. More than 60% of treated LNG in the world utilizes our Amine Guard FS solution.

Learn more: Amine Guard FS Process Overview, Datasheet.

UOP Modular Amine plant
Contaminant removal designed to reach low acid gas levels that meet all process requirements and to maximize NGL recovery.

Learn more: Watch the UOP Modular Equipment animation on YouTube.

UOP SeparALL™ Process
Efficiently remove acid gas from synthesis gas streams with a physical solvent. Meet product specifications, protect downstream processing equipment and comply with environmental regulation. Used exclusively in Syngas applications.

Learn more: SeparALL Overview presentation

Selectox
Recover sulfur from gas streams containing 0.3 to 100% hydrogen sulfide with the “best demonstrated technology” for onshore sulfur plant applications, per the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Learn more: Contact Us