Process Design of Industrial Triethylene Glycol Processes Using the Cubic-Plus-Association (CPA) Equation of State

The Cubic-Plus-Association (CPA) equation of state (EoS) has already been proven to be a successful model for phase equilibrium calculations for systems containing glycols. In the present work, we interface a thermodynamic property package (Thermo System), based on CPA, with Aspen HYSYS through the CAPE-OPEN standards. We, then, simulate certain binary and multicomponent systems where experimental data are available in the literature and which are critical for process design of natural gas dehydration units by triethylene glycol (TEG). We also demonstrate the potential of CPA for the process design of liquid-liquid extraction of aromatic hydrocarbons by TEG. Comparisons between simulation and experimental results are presented in order to illustrate the reliability of Thermo System while it is used in a process simulator for industrial applications. Detailed analysis on selecting TEG pure compound parameters and on calculating TEG-water binary parameters is shown. Missing binary interaction parameters are regressed and presented for various binary systems, and a relationship between the interaction parameters and alkane molecular weight is obtained for TEG-alkane binary systems. A simulation case study of a typical natural gas dehydration process is also presented.