Hydrocarbon gas processing

An apparatus for the separation of a gas stream containing methane, C2 components, C3 components, and heavier hydrocarbon components into a volatile residue gas fraction and a relatively less volatile fraction containing a major portion of said C2 components, C3 components, and heavier hydrocarbon components or said C3 components and heavier hydrocarbon components comprising

• (1) first dividing means to divide said gas stream into first and second portions;
• (2) first heat exchange means housed in a single equipment item processing assembly and connected to said first dividing means to receive said first portion and cool said first portion;
• (3) heat and mass transfer means housed in said processing assembly and connected to said first dividing means to receive said second portion and cool said second portion;
• (4) combining means connected to said first heat exchange means and said heat and mass transfer means to receive said cooled first portion and said cooled second portion and form a cooled gas stream;
• (5) second dividing means connected to said combining means to receive said cooled gas stream and divide said cooled gas stream into first and second streams;
• (6) second heat exchange means housed in said processing assembly and connected to said second dividing means to receive said first stream and cool said first stream sufficiently to substantially condense said first stream;
• (7) first expansion means connected to said second heat exchange means to receive said substantially condensed first stream and expand said substantially condensed first stream to lower pressure;
• (8) absorbing means housed in said processing assembly and connected to said first expansion means to receive said expanded cooled first stream as a top feed thereto;
• (9) second expansion means connected to said second dividing means to receive said second stream and expand said second stream to said lower pressure, said second expansion means being further connected to said absorbing means to supply said expanded second stream as a bottom feed thereto;
• (10) vapor collecting means housed in said processing assembly and connected to said absorbing means to receive a distillation vapor stream from an upper region of said absorbing means;
• (11) said second heat exchange means being further connected to said vapor collecting means to receive said distillation vapor stream and heat said distillation vapor stream, thereby to supply at least a portion of the cooling of step (6);
• (12) said first heat exchange means being further connected to said second heat exchange means to receive said heated distillation vapor stream and further heat said heated distillation vapor stream, thereby to supply at least a portion of the cooling of step (2), and thereafter discharging said further heated distillation vapor stream from said processing assembly as said volatile residue gas fraction;
• (13) liquid collecting means housed in said processing assembly and connected to said absorbing means to receive a distillation liquid stream from a lower region of said absorbing means;
• (14) said heat and mass transfer means being further connected to said liquid collecting means to receive said distillation liquid stream and heat said distillation liquid stream, thereby to supply at least a portion of the cooling of step (3) while simultaneously stripping the more volatile components from said distillation liquid stream, and thereafter discharging said heated and stripped distillation liquid stream from said processing assembly as said relatively less volatile fraction;
• and
• (15) control means adapted to regulate the quantities and temperatures of said feed streams to said absorbing means to maintain the temperature of said upper region of said absorbing means at a temperature whereby the major portions of the components in said relatively less volatile fraction are recovered.