Any natural gas processing installation is normally bound to have a gas dehydration unit for the purpose of removal of associated water and dew-pointing it to pipeline sales gas specification. In the United States, sales gas transmission pipelines have water specifications of a maximum of 7 lb per MMSCF, while in Canada it is <= 5 lb per MMSCF Dehydration using TEG as a liquid desiccant is the most common and economical means of bulk water removal from natural gas. Thousands of TEG dehydration units have been installed worldwide since the first TEG dehydration unit built in the early part of the 20th century. Natural Gas TEG dehydration is a mature technology and standard configurations are available for a wide variety of wet natural gas compositions.

The purpose of this blog entry is to provide a brief troubleshooting checklist which can prove useful to TEG dehydration unit field operators and maintenance personnel. While the attached checklist does not proclaim to be the one-and-all troubleshooting guide for TEG dehydration units it certainly gives an overview of the most commonly encountered problems and the general checks and actions required to eliminate them. The checklist does not substitute the experience of seasoned operators and maintenance personnel who have had years of operating and troubleshooting experience of TEG dehydration units.

The checklist is attached as both as a picture file and an excel workbook.