FSC 432
Petroleum Processing

Gas Processing Unit

PrintPrint

Gas Processing Unit

The gas streams produced in refinery units such as catalytic crackers, cokers, hydrocrackers, and reformers are sent to the Gas Processing Unit [1] in order to:

  1. recover C3-C6 hydrocarbons for LPG production (C3 and C4) and feedstocks (C5 and C6) for isomerization (light naphtha) and reformer (heavy naphtha) units;
  2. separate H2S in a sour gas stream that also contains C1 and C2 gases.

In some refineries, Gas Processing Units also function as Light End Units.

[1] Petroleum Refining, by J. H. Gary, G. E. Handwerk, M. J. Kaiser, 5th Edition, CRC Press NY, 2007, Chapter 13, Supporting Processes, pp. 278-280.