In this guide we’ll walk you through everything there is to know about glycol pumps.
From the basics of how it works to step-by-step repairs and troubleshooting, you’ll gain a solid foundation of knowledge on how to operate and maintain Kimray’s glycol pumps.
Use the table of contents to skip to different sections of the learning path.
The Kimray Energy Exchange Glycol Pump is the heart of any natural gas dehydration system.
In this video, Will shows answers 3 common questions we receive about the pump.
A pump has two sides—suction and discharge.
When it’s primed, it will be full of liquid and will achieve the correct pressures upstream and downstream.
When your suction side doesn’t have access to liquid, it’s just trying to pump air. This means you have lost prime.
There are a couple reasons it has lost prime:
If debris has gotten into the darts or suction line of the pump, it can cause a blockage, not allowing enough liquid to get into the pump.
Your first step to address this is to remove the darts to check them for debris. If there is debris, use brake cleaner to clean them.
While this may get your pump working, you will need to address the root cause, so it doesn’t happen again. To do this, we recommend upgrading your filtration.
Another reason may be gelled glycol. In colder climates, glycol can gel inside the contact tower, which will prevent it from coming back to the pump.
If your pump has stalled, the first thing to check is if the line on the low suction side is clogged from salt or other buildup. There should be a filter between the surge tank and the pump that may also get clogged.
When there is blockage, you can’t get glycol to the low suction side of the pump, which will cause it to stall.
Needle valves, also called “speed control valves,” regulate the flow of wet glycol and gas to the power cylinders. They're used to adjust the flow rate in your system.
Turning them clockwise will decrease the flow; turning them counterclockwise will increase flow. Start small — a half turn in either direction. Then count your strokes-per-minute based on your size pump to know what your flow rate should be.
You can find this chart on the Technical Specifications for the glycol pump.
The most important thing to remember is to adjust your needle valves evenly. If you adjust one half a turn clockwise, you’ll need to do the same on the other to prevent imbalances.
Because dehydration systems are complex and must be closely monitored, glycol dehydration troubleshooting is an important and ongoing process in natural gas production.
If the temperature, pressure, or flow rate change even slightly in your system, a chain reaction can affect the glycol pump and keep the system from functioning properly.
If your pump isn’t stroking, here are seven key questions to help you identify the cause.
The Kimray Energy Exchange Glycol Pump is a reliable, low-power solution that provides effective control of your Glycol Dehydration System.
We have pumps that work within two different production parameters.
Check the tag on the pump. If you have a small cylinder pump in high pressure application, it could quickly malfunction.
If you have a PV pump in a low pressure application, the pump will not stroke. If this is the case, you’ll need to order the correct pump for your pressure parameters.
If you aren’t sure what size your pump is, contact your local Kimray representative.
There are 8 valves that need to change positions for the system to work. If appropriate valves are not open, pump will not stroke correctly.
Filters need to be changed at least monthly and possibly more depending on the condition of the glycol. If not, the filters could be plugged, stopping the pump.
To speak with an expert about your glycol pump or dehydration system, contact your local Kimray store or authorized distributor.
The Kimray Glycol Pump is used to control triethylene glycol circulation in gas dehydration systems.
In this video, we examine some internal parts of the glycol pump that have been damaged during operation.
We then explain what these parts may be telling us about the cause of the damage and offer some solutions to prevent further damage.
The cause for this scratching is likely some sort of trash or debris in the dehydration system that has made its way through the pump.
You can either sand this piston rod down or replace it. If you sand it, use 120 emery cloth but be careful to not sand it too much. If the outer diameter becomes too small, the O-ring will not seal correctly. As a general rule, if you can still feel the scratch with your fingernail, it’s sharp enough to cut an O-ring, so the rod needs to be replaced.
Use finer filters or possibly change your filters more often. There’s typically one filter on the suction side of the pump and one filter on the tower.
We suggest changing your filters at a minimum of once a month.
Excessive wear in the middle of a piston rod is due to the pump short stroking, meaning it is not stroking at its entire capacity. There are four common causes of short stroking:
Trash has gotten in the system and cut the O-rings causing the wet and dry glycol are mixing. Change filter or go to a finer filter element.
The pump and dehydration system were not started up properly. Try restarting your dehydration system, slowly opening your main valve to make sure the glycol pump is stroking evenly.
The dart got stuck in the dart cap, causing the pump to skip.
A fourth cause of short stroking is excessive wear on the cylinder, which will cause wet and dry glycol to mix. This wear is caused by long-term use. Replaced the cylinder. If scratches are present, also check for proper filtration.
The cause of a broken pilot piston is that the system lost suction at some point and pumped dry. This may have happened because of a poor startup and no glycol return, or because an O-ring was cut.
Another cause may be that you are losing glycol. This can happen if the pH in the glycol is off, causing it to foam and go out the top of the contactor and into sales line rather than staying in the system. Clean and steam your dehydration system.
An important word of caution—this condensate is extremely flammable. You need to keep this out of the reboiler to prevent possible combustion.
The cause for condensate getting into the pump is a problem with the flash separator, or the absence of one altogether.
One indicator is if condensate drops out of the pump right when you remove the plugs.
Another sign of condensate is if the O-rings have swelled, making it difficult to remove the seats from the suction block or to remove the cylinders. The O-rings on the darts may be missing entirely because of contact with the condensate.
Check the operation of the flash separator. If one does not exist, consider installing a flash separator in your system.
If you’d like to request a site visit or in-person training on your glycol dehydration system, contact your local Kimray representative or authorized distributor.
Natural gas dehydration is a process gas producers use to remove water vapor from their gas flow stream.
To do this, producers introduce triethylene glycol into their gas.
In this blog, we’ll show you how to calculate the amount of triethylene glycol (TEG) you need to run through your dehydration system to meet dew point, and help you size the right glycol pump to circulate the TEG.
Generally, a glycol circulation rate of 3-5 gallons per pound of water to be removed is sufficient to adequately dehydrate the gas. However, if the glycol flow rate is too high, it can overwhelm the reboiler and you will lose efficiency.
There are two factors that help to separate the water from the glycol: Residence time and heat.
If you don’t allow the glycol enough time to reside in the reboiler, it will not increase the temperature of the glycol enough to remove the water and achieve optimal purity level, which is 99% or more.
If the glycol flow rate is too low, you will not be removing enough water vapor from your gas traveling through the contact tower to achieve your desired dew point level.
Here’s how to calculate your glycol circulation rate to determine your glycol pump speed. We've also created a PDF guide that you can download below that walks you through these same steps.
Download Glycol Circulation PDF Guide
Let’s use an example of 80-degree gas at 600 psi. That tells us the water content is 50 lbs. per million cubic feet of gas.
This chart shows the water content of your natural gas at various pressures and temperatures. This is the maximum amount of water you can expect your natural gas production to hold at the given pressures and temperatures.
In this example, our flow rate is 4 million. So, we multiply 50 (w) by 4 (m). This gives us 200 lbs. of total water to be removed per day
Multiply total water content (in this case, 200) by gallons of glycol needed to remove one pound of water (g). The amount needed is 3-5 depending on glycol purity and temperature, so in our example we’ll use 4.
This gives us 800 gallons of glycol per day.
Divide total amount of circulated glycol per day by 24 to calculate the per-hour rate. 800 divided by 24 gives us 33.3 gallons per hour circulation.
Next find the circulation rate closest to your calculated rate to determine the ideal pump speed.
In this example, we’re using a 9020PV which puts our 33.33 between 14 and 16 strokes per minute.
As a general rule, round up to the nearest stroke count, which is 16 strokes per minute (SPM). This is the pump speed we need to maintain your circulation rate of 800 gallons per day.
This Glycol Circulation Rate chart will help us size the correct glycol pump and calculate the number of strokes our pump needs to make.
Now that you have this number, you can change your pump speed to match your conditions and dry your gas sufficiently. To do this, adjust your needle valves equally, counting the strokes per minute to verify the correct change has been made.
Your glycol flow rate should be checked on a regular basis to prevent both over-circulation and under-circulation.
One of the challenges for oil and gas producers in international markets is converting measurements from the imperial system to the metric system.
Below is a quick reference chart for natural gas dehydration featuring International Metric Measurements for glycol gas dehydration. If followed and used it should provide adequate gas dehydration to achieve outlet gas water content as desired.
The glycol circulation rate in this chart is based on a conversion from a U.S. standard measure of 3 gallons of glycol required to remove 1 lb. of water from the gas stream.
Download Glycol Circulation Metric Conversion Chart
To speak with an expert about your gas dehydration system, contact your local Kimray store or authorized distributor.
