Hydrocarbon gas processing

摘要

A process and an apparatus are disclosed for the recovery of ethane, ethylene, propane, propylene, and heavier hydrocarbon components from a hydrocarbon gas stream in a compact processing assembly. The gas stream is cooled and divided into first and second streams. The first stream is further cooled to condense substantially all of it and is thereafter expanded to lower pressure and heated to form a vapor fraction and a liquid fraction. The liquid fraction is supplied as a first top feed to an absorbing means inside the processing assembly. The second stream is also expanded to lower pressure and supplied as the bottom feed to the absorbing means. A first distillation vapor stream is collected from the upper region of the absorbing means and combined with the vapor fraction to form a combined vapor stream.