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Which light hydrocarbons can be separated from natural gas as natural gas liquids?
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natural gas
The Troll A natural gas production platform in the North Sea, 80 km (50 miles) northwest of Bergen, Norway. Troll A, the largest movable structure ever built, rests on the seafloor some 300 metres (990 feet) below the surface and rises more than 100 metres (330 feet) above the sea. The platform regulates the recovery of gas from 40 wells located on the seafloor.
Natural gas liquids (NGLs) are light hydrocarbons that can be separated from the raw natural gas stream during field processing or at gas-processing plants. While natural gas is primarily composed of methane and ethane, it often contains heavier hydrocarbons that liquefy at surface conditions.123
The specific hydrocarbons recovered as NGLs include:
- Ethane: Often separated for use as a petrochemical feedstock.12
- Propane: Frequently recovered as a component of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).12
- Butane: Also a key component of LPG, used for heating and commercial purposes.12
- Heavier liquids: These include pentanes and hexanes, which are often categorized as condensates.2
These components are extracted using methods such as absorption, distillation, or cryogenic expansion, which lowers the temperature of the gas to condense the heavier hydrocarbons while leaving the methane in a gaseous state.1