The operating costs of glycol dehydration units are very largely determined by the cost of glycol replenishment and replacement. Over 50,000 mty of glycol are consumed worldwide for natural gas dehydration. Ruhrgas AG has made considerable efforts to minimize glycol consumption within the company's own plants and as a service rendered for other companies. Without extensive effort, glycol losses can be kept below 2 kg per 100,000 m~3(n) of gas. Excessive glycol losses caused by foaming, a result of black sludge, can be effectively controlled by a defoamer. Glycol ageing is another commonly encountered problem. The Ruhrgas-Anti-Ageing Additive has proven its effectiveness in a series of field tests under a variety of conditions; a glycol life of > 10,000 operating hours has been demonstrated in pilot tests. The cloud-point filtration process developed by Ruhrgas has been successfully tested on a mini-plant scale; a pilot plant will be in service in June 2001. In this paper these methods are compared with common lifetime extension methods.
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