Talk:Natural gas condensate

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[edit] Problem with the description

This article gives a good definition of what natural gas condensate is. There is a problem in the description of how it forms in that a gaseous substance *Condenses* under high pressure and returns to a gaseous state under lower pressure (which is the opposite of what the article states).

It's likely that the whole gas is obtained from the well and that when the pressure is lowered at the surface the lighter fractions (C1-C4) evaporate leaving an aerosol of the heavier stuff which eventually precipitates out - a little like 'petroleum rain'.

My background is in laboratory scale hydrocarbon reaction chemistry. I intend to to some research to get an authoritative description of how condensate forms but this will take some time. Anyone with the necessary petrochemistry background? Michael Batten, July 17, 2005

[edit] Concerned from England

To whoever can answer my question. I can see this page is rather technical but my question is basic. Condensate escaped from my new natural gas condensing boiler and corroded through the gas feed pipe within a very short time causing gas to leak which could have been potentially fatal by explosion.

The Engish web-sites and English statutory bodies are lacking in information, or they are reluctant to release information, regarding this very corrosive chemical and its potential effects to health. Can anyone help? Regards, M Whitwell @ michaelwhitwell@yahoo.co.uk, 5 December 2006

Michael, I would like to try and help you but I need much more information:
  • What do you mean by a "natural gas condensing boiler"? Does it burn natural gas? Or does it burn natural gas condensate or LPG? Or what?
  • Are you talking about a leak of condensed steam when you say "Condensate escaped from my ..."? Or are you talking about something else?
  • Can you explain your boiler in a great deal more detail? Does it boil water to generate steam .. or do you mean a water heater to provide hot water in a residence?
- mbeychok 22:05, 18 January 2007 (UTC)
Now that you have told me that you are burning natural gas in a hot water heater, I can offer some comments. The natural gas entering a residential home should have no liquid of any kind in it. Nor should it have anything corrosive in it. If it does, than the gas supplier is at fault somewhere. Please read the Wikipedia article Natural gas processing very carefully to learn how extensively natural gas is purified before it distributed to end users. Such processing plants can cost hundreds of millions of pounds sterling to build, depending upon their size.
None-the-less, if the processing plant is mal-functioning and the your gas is contaminated with hydrogen sulfide and moisture (water), then that would be corrosive ... and your corroded pipe would exhibit black flakes of copper sulfide. I would advise you to talk to your gas supplier. If any of your neighbors are having the same problem, then you should all contact the supplier as a group. Assuming that your kitchen cooker also uses gas, I would advise you to check it to see if its gas supply line is also corroding. Regards, - mbeychok 20:25, 20 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] This article has ridiculous errors

This article is a good example of what happens when people completely unknowledgeable of a subject read a few articles in another encylcopedia or a book and then decide they know enough about the subject to write an article about it. Whoever wrote this article has no knowledge whatsoever about basic physical chemistry, or vapor-liquid equilibrium, or petroleum engineering or chemical engineering ... and obviously had no business writing this article.

Substances of any kind that are liquids at standard temperature and pressure (STP) do not become gases at higher pressures. They become gases at lower pressures.

The heavier (i.e., higher molecular weight) components of the natural gas do not condense by reducing the pressure of the natural gas. They are condensed by lowering the gas temperature and, in some case, raising the the pressure. In other cases, they may be be extracted from the gas by being absorbed in a heavier hydrocarbon from which they are subsequently recovered by fractional distillation.

I shudder to think of how many people may have read this article thinking they were being informed ... when in fact they were being badly misinformed.

I also shudder to think that these mistakes have been here since April 2004 (according to the History page) and no one has yet corrected them. I am going to remove those erroneous sections which will leave the article with only a few sentences. When I have a few moments time, I will return and completely re-write the article.- mbeychok 05:24, 28 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Major expansion and re-write

I have completed a major expansion and re-write of this article. I did it in a bit of a hurry, so it may still require adding some Wiki links. It may also have a few typographical errors or mis-spellings.

I left out the previous discussions of gas well downhole pressures and temperatures because this is not an article about petroleum engineering or geology ... it is about defining natural gas condensate, its composition and how it is separated and recovered from the raw natural gas produced from "wet" gas wells. Wikipedia has an article on Oil wells ... but not on gas wells. I think an article on gas wells is needed and that is where downhole conditions and geology belongs. Will someone please write such an article?

Any comments on the expansion and re-write will be appreciated. - mbeychok 21:45, 18 January 2007 (UTC)