Impact case study database

Background to the problem and context from REF2014

A major challenge in hydrocarbon production is the removal of impurities that pose significant health and safety issues as well as contaminating products. Mercury contamination is a particular problem in natural gas, where the concentration can range from 0.02 µg/m³ in the Gulf of Mexico to >100 µg/m³ in the Gulf of Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. This can have significant cumulative effects if we consider that plants may processes >5,000t of gas every day. In addition to its well-known problematic health and environmental effects, mercury also damages industrial facilities through corrosion/embrittlement, and is also a strong catalyst poison for downstream units. The current technologies used to remove mercury are chemically-modified activated carbons (with sulphur for gas treatment, and potassium iodide for liquid hydrocarbon treatment) and more expensive technologies, such as silver-impregnated molecular sieves and mixed metal sulphide/oxide scrubbers. But there are issues with these technologies when it comes to efficiency, the removal of all types of mercury species, robustness when other contaminants are present in the feed and the ability to deal with fluctuating mercury levels.

The previous Impact Case in REF2014 described how the HycaPure™ ionic liquid mercury adsorbent, was developed by PETRONAS and the QUILL Research Centre at Queen’s University of Belfast, to address this problem. This technology removes the full range of elemental, inorganic and organic mercury species from gas streams in a single treatment at up to four times the adsorption capacity of conventional adsorbents [E1]. A full scale commercial pilot using the technology was launched in February 2012 and was able to demonstrate the technology over the design lifetime of the HycaPure™ mercury removal unit (MRU) charge.

Ongoing Development and Technical Impact within the current REF period

Within the current REF period the successful on-site commercial pilot testing led to transition to full plant implementation. This was based on data which showed that after 3 years continuous operation of the first full system (launched 2012) the mercury concentrations from the outlet gas stream remained low, the system met all the plant specifications and the HycaPure™ material achieved its design lifetime of up to three times that of previous commercial alternatives (such as sulfur-impregnated activated carbon). This potential long operating lifetime was identified in early stage laboratory screening (described in reference 4) and was sustained through pilot testing and into full-scale implementation. This is one of the commercial advantages of the Hycapure™ system, since each fill costs ca. USD180,000 [E2].

Since the technology demonstrated robust performance in PETRONAS’ dry gas processing plants, work was carried out to extend the technology so that it could also be with other more challenging streams. PETRONAS researchers have now successfully designed variants with different fundamental ionic liquid cores, based on the underpinning research conducted at QUILL, and supported by further collaborative work initiated over the period 2012-2017 during which time two PETRONAS staff undertook PhD research at QUILL and QUILL PDRAs undertook secondments with PETRONAS, facilitating knowledge transfer and training. In the FY2014, two advanced plants using more advanced Hycapure™ approaches were commissioned in Malaysia for treatment of other feed materials, one at the Onshore Gas Terminal in Kerteh for liquid condensate and the other for wet gas at the liquid natural gas facility in Bintulu [E3].

Overall, by 2017, thirteen HycaPure™ systems had been built and deployed at several Malaysian operating facilities, including PETRONAS’ Gas Processing Plants, PETRONAS Chemical Ammonia Sdn Bhd, PETRONAS Chemical Ethylene Sdn Bhd and MLNG [E4]. Each of the dry gas processing systems is a large scale installation, with an average of >10t of absorbent per system, this matches the overall scale of the process; each liquid natural gas (LNG) processing line (train) at the MLNG facility typically has a capacity of >2,500,000t per year (the cost of LNG in Feb 2020 is ~ GBP300 / 1t). To provide a context, the overall capacity of the MLNG facility in Bintulu of ~30,000,000t per year makes it one of the largest LNG plants in the world. [E5]

It is useful to estimate the amounts of mercury which need to be removed in a typical gas processing unit. This of course depends on the mercury levels of the feed material but in the mercury ‘hot-spots’ of Southeast Asia and Australia, this can be as much as 100-800 ppb in hydrocarbon condensate and 200-300 µg/m³ in natural gas streams at the wellhead. This contrasts with the levels required to meet industry accepted levels for ‘sales gas’ of <0.01 µg/m³. Assuming 200 µg/m³ in the gas stream, a 2,500,000t per year LNG train scrubbing mercury down to the acceptable levels for sale represents >700kg per year of mercury capture per processing train at the gas terminal. This has direct consequence for plant safety and operational security. The effective removal of all mercury forms from natural gas feedstocks combined with the long operational lifetime of MRU scrubber charges has significant advantages in reducing routes to potential mercury contamination by refinery workers which is most likely during confined space entry when working on contaminated equipment. Efficient scrubbing of mercury ensures that all equipment down-stream of the MRU is protected from contamination, while longer life-time of the HycaPure^TM charge reduces the frequency of MRU bed replacement and associated risks of exposure to operators during these change-outs.

Awards and recognition

In recognition of the performance characteristics and the team work between PETRONAS and QUILL in research and development, HycaPure™ was named the winner of the Oil and Gas Award at the IChemE Malaysia Award 2016 [E6] and was opened for global commercialisation through a marketing licensing agreement between PETRONAS and CLARIANT (a global scale company whose business includes supply of catalysts for various industrial processes) signed in 2014 (see **[E7]**).

Impact on Corporate Research Culture

The impact of this work on the company has been much broader than the large scale implementation of a single technology. This fast-paced and successful research program into mercury capture cemented the collaboration between PETRONAS and QUILL, which has transformed into a long-term partnership with significant, and ongoing, research and training outcomes as described in the testimonial letter from the Head, Technology Research & CEO PETRONAS Research Sdn Bhd. [E8]

The initial work programmes developed through the first Research Collaborative Agreement between QUILL and PETRONAS (2007-2012) established a lively bilateral transfer of knowledge and skills through staff exchanges, PDRA appointments and Doctoral training of PETRONAS staff who have received PhD qualifications from QUB and gone on to assume leadership positions within PETRONAS. Notably, the CEO of Petronas Technology Ventures, the Head of Technology Commercialisation Management (PETRONAS Group Research and Technology), and the Head of R&D Gas Sustainability Technology are all QUB graduates, while the CEO of PETRONAS Research is a member of the QUILL Industrial Advisory Board and holds an Honorary doctorate from QUB. These close connections, and the innovation that has been developed through these links, have had an impact within the company by providing a mechanism to move the focus of their research away from traditional oil and gas towards innovative low carbon technologies, as evidenced by their new GBP2,400,000 joint Research Collaboration Agreement with QUILL, signed in March 2020, to “ strengthen PETRONAS’ position at the frontier of innovation beyond conventional oil and gas business model.”