Transcripción del resumen del autor. This study describes how gas-processing facilities are impacted by injected CO2 returning to surface through production streams, with the goal to improve profitability of the enhanced-oil-recovery (EOR) project by postponing the expenses of handling returning CO2. In the short term, mixing the incremental oil that has a higher CO2 content with the remaining production streams of lower CO2 content will allow the existing gas-processing facilities to accommodate the returning CO2. In the long term, the compression capacity should be increased and acid gas should be enriched with H2S before being fed to sulphur-recovery units. Another alternative is to isolate the impact of CO2 on the existing facilities by using an exclusive separation train, reinjecting the associated gas (or the acid part of it) and sending the sweet part to existing facilities for natural-gas-liquid (NGL) recovery--provided that the capacity is available. Enrichment units can be used to extract H2S from acid gas for sulphur recovery in existing units, provided that the capacity is available, while pure CO2 can be injected. Cryogenic fractionation will be required to separate mixtures of ethane and CO2.

7/8