TIME AND COST SAVINGS PROVEN WITH XEBEC FAST-CYCLE PSA0 pages

TIME AND COST SAVINGS PROVEN
WITH XEBEC FAST-CYCLE PSA
Case Study: Benefits of Fast-Cycle PSA in an Oil Production Facility
Plains Exploration and Production Company (PXP)
Situation: Limited oil production capacity caused by a difficult-tooperate, under-sized low-temperature separation unit (LTS)
Solution: Installation of a Xebec Fast-Cycle Pressure-Swing
Adsorption (PSA) Unit to remove heavier hydrocarbons from field gas
to meet sales gas specifications
Benefits: Lower Cost, Increased Capacity, Fewer Fugitive Emissions,
Shorter Lead Time
Location: Los Angeles Basin, California

XEBEC’S compact M-3100, fast-cycle PSA system was the perfect
solution for PXP at the Los Angeles Basin in California

Building a Better Purification System

XEBEC’s Design

Plains Exploration & Production (PXP), an oil producer located in
downtown Los Angeles, was struggling to meet California’s new
and more stringent sales gas specifications for ethane and heavier
hydrocarbons. Oil production had to be decreased due to limited
capacity of their LTS unit, which was used to dehydrate and derich the field gas from the oil wells to produce sales gas. Gas
production in an oil field is a necessary function of oil production.
Therefore, a limitation in gas throughput automatically drives a
decrease in oil production, resulting in revenue loss. A new LTS
unit was considered, however, it would have taken over 12 months
to come online and a multi-million dollar capital investment
would have been required. Additionally, due to space limitations
and installation requirements, start-up of a new LTS unit would
have disrupted oil production by several weeks, resulting in an
unacceptably high total project cost. PXP turned to Xebec for a
better solution.

XEBEC engineers re-designed the gas processing system to
incorporate the use of XEBEC’s Fast-Cycle PSA unit. The new
system cost less than one-third of a new LTS unit, and by reusing
the existing LTS to improve methane recovery, the gas throughput
capacity doubled. As an added benefit, the basic design of the
Fast-Cycle PSA incorporated the use of a single rotary valve to
replace the multitudes of valves found on conventional PSA
technologies. This reduced the potential for fugitive emission
levels, resulting in a quickened permitting process. From design
to start-up, the entire project time took less than eight months.
And by incorporating the use of existing equipment, disruption to
the operation was minimized.

XEBEC ADSORPTION INC. | 730 Boul. Industriel, Blainville, Quebec, J7C 3V4 Canada
Toll Free: 1-877-88-XEBEC | Phone: (450) 979-8700 | Fax: (450) 979-7869 | Website: www.xebecinc.com | Email: associatedgas@xebecinc.com