Characteristics of Natural Gas

Natural gas is a mixture of hydrocarbon gases with some impurities, mainly

nitrogen, hydrogen sulfide, and carbon dioxide.
Gases containing significant amounts of H2S or CO2 or both are called
sour or acid gases. These impurities must be removed before the gas is used
as a fuel.
The hydrocarbon gases are methane, ethane, propane, butanes, pentanes,
and small amounts of hexanes, heptanes, and some heavier fractions.
In gas used for fuel, methane is the largest component, usually 95 to 98%.
Natural gas is normally considered to be a mixture of straight chain or
paraffin hydrocarbon compounds.; general formula is CnH2n+2 where n is
the number of carbon atoms.

Occurrence of Natural Gas in Conventional

Reservoirs
Gas is found in sedimentary subsurface strata composed of sandstone, limestone, or

dolomite.
Natural gas is frequently characterized in terms of its nature of occurrence
underground, as follows:
1. Non-associated. Found in reservoirs with no crude oil, and is typically richer in
CH4, poorer in heavier compounds.
2. Dissolved or associated. Gas in solution with crude oil is termed dissolved gas,
whereas the gas found in contact with the crude oil as gas cap is termed associated
gas. Typically, associated gas is poorer in CH4, but richer in heavier components.
3. Gas condensates. These gases have high amounts of hydrocarbon liquids and
may occur as gas in the reservoir.
The most desirable gas is the non-associated type, because it can be produced at high
pressure. Associated or dissolved gas is separated from the crude oil at lower
separator pressures and, therefore, entails more compression expenses. Such gas is
often flared or vented.

Properties of Natural Gases

Introduction
This chapter presents methods for estimating reservoir fluid
properties required for calculations of gas reservoir and production
engineering.

When laboratory measurements are not available, correlations for

estimating properties of natural gases will be presented and
applied.

Definitions and Fundamental Principles

The following concepts will be introduced:
- Moles and Mole Fraction,
- Molar Volume,
- Ideal- and Real-Gas Behavior,
- The Principle of Corresponding States,
- Properties of Natural Gases,
a) Apparent Molecular Weight of a Gas Mixture
b) Specific Gravity of a Gas
c) Calculation of Pseudocritical Gas Properties
d) Correcting Pseudocritical Properties for H2S, CO2, N2, & H2O
- Gas FVF, Gas Density, Gas Compressibility, and Gas Viscosity
- Gas Hydrates

Moles and Mole Fraction

A pound-mole (lbm-mol) is a quantity of matter with a mass in
pounds equal to the molecular weight; n = m /M
For a system with nc components, the mole fraction is:

where
yi = mole fraction of the i-th component,
ni = number of pound-moles of i-th component, and
nc = number of components in the system.

Ideal-Gas Law
The defining properties of an ideal (or hypothetical) gas are:
1. The volume of the gas molecules is insignificant compared with the
total volume enclosing the gas.
2. No attractive or repulsive forces exist among the molecules or
between the molecules and the container walls.
3. All molecule collisions are perfectly elastic; i.e., there is no loss of
internal energy upon collision.
An equation describing the relationship between the volume occupied by
a gas and the pressure and temperature is called an equation of state
(EOS).

PV = nRT

(Z = 1.0)

Molar Volume
The concept of molar volume, Vm (Vm =V/n), is used to convert a
given mass of gas to its vapor volume at standard pressure and
temperature conditions. For a given set of standard conditions, the
molar volume is constant.

Real-Gas Behavior
The real-gas law is simply the pressure/volume relation (called
equation of state, or EOS) predicted by the ideal-gas law modified
by a correction factor that accounts for the non ideal behavior of
the gas. The real-gas law is:

PV = Z n RT
Where
Z = the z factor (dimensionless quantity)
= compressibility factor, or gas deviation factor.

Thus, it is the ratio of the actual volume occupied by a mass of gas at

some pressure and temperature to the volume the gas would
occupy if it behaved ideally.

Z = Vactual/Videal or

Vactual = Z Videal

Principle of Corresponding States

All pure gases have the same Z-factor at the same values of
reduced pressure and reduced temperature. It works better for gases
of similar molecular characteristics such as paraffinic hydrocarbons.
Reduced pressure and reduced temperature for pure compounds are
defined as:

where
pc = critical pressure for a pure gas, pisa;
Tc = critical temperature for a pure gas, R;
Table 1.1 shows the physical properties of pure gases at standard
conditions.

This Law has been extended to cover mixtures of gases that are chemically
similar. Since it is difficult to obtain critical points for multicomponent
mixtures, the quantities of Ppc and Tpc have been conceived.
According to Kays mixing rule, Ppc and Tpc for gas mixtures can be
estimated as follows.
Tpc = SyiTci & Ppc = SyiPci
The pseudoreduced pressure and pseudoreduced temperature for gas
mixtures are defined as:

Ppc = pseudo critical pressure for a gas mixture,

Tpc = pseudo critical temperature for the mixture,

Standing-Katz Z-Factor Chart; Z = f (Ppr,Tpr)

Fig.2 shows the Standing and Katz correlation for Z as a function of Ppr and
Tpr for sweet (non-H2S or CO2 containing) natural gases.
The applicability of the Law of corresponding states is assumed, and Kays
mixing rules are used for gas mixture properties.
This chart is generally reliable for sweet natural gases with minor amounts of
N2.
Wichert and Aziz proposed a correction factor ( corrects Tpc and Ppc
determined by Kays mixing rule), which can be used to extend the
applicability of this chart to sour gases.
The modified values (after correcting for contaminants) of the pseudocritical
pressure (P'pc) and pseudocritical temperature (T'pc) are used to calculate
modified pseudoreduced pressure and pseudoreduced temperature,
respectively.
These modified pseudoreduced properties are then used in the Standing-Katz
chart to determine the Z-factor for sour gases.

Example 1; a natural gas with the following composition.

Component

yi, mole fraction

Tci, R

Pci, psia

Methane,

C1

0.85

343.1

667.8

Ethane,

C2

0.09

549.8

707.8

Propane,

C3

0.04

665.7

616.3

n-Butane, n-C4

0.02

765.3

550.7

Calculate:
1. Tpc and Ppc .
2. Volume occupied by 1 lb-mole of this gas at 120 F and
1,500 psia.

Apparent Molecular Weight of a Gas Mixture

It is defined for a gas mixture as follows:

Where
M = apparent molecular weight of gas mixture, Ibm/lbm-mol;
Mi = molecular weight of the ith gas component, Ibm/lbm-mol; and
yi = mole fraction the gas phase of the ith component, fraction.

Specific Gravity of a Gas

The ratio of the densities, in lbm/cu.ft, of the gas mixture and
dry air when both are measured at the same temperature and
pressure:

gg = rg/ra
Knowing that r = m /V and n = m /M, we can also express the
specific gravity of a gas mixture as:

gg = M/Mair
Where Mair = molecular weight of air = 28.9625 lbm/lbm-mole;
M = apparent molecular weight of the gas mixture, lbm/lbm- mole.

In some cases the composition of a gas will be given in weight or

mass percent rather than mole percent.
Composition must be first converted to mole fraction or percent
before the mixture properties can be calculated.
Example 2; a gas mixture consists of 50% C1, 30% C2, and 20%
C3 by weight. Assuming 100 lbm of this gas as a basis, calculate
apparent molecular weight and specific gravity of this mixture.

If the volume fraction is given at conditions other than standard,

the volume fraction must be converted to a mole fraction basis,
taking into account the deviation from ideal behavior.
Example 3; a gas has the following composition at 2,500 psia and
300 F.
Assuming 100 cu.ft. as a basis, calculate the composition in mole
fraction.
Component
Methane, C1

Volume%
67

Ethane, C2
Propane, C3
CO2

30
1
2

If gas composition (yi) is not known, Fig.1 or Fig.3.1 may be

used to determine Pc and Tc from gas gravity.
When using Fig.3.1, corrections may be made for the presence
of non-hydrocarbon components.

Other More Complex Equations of States

One limitation in the use of the real-gas EOS (PV = ZnRT), is that the
Z-factor, being a function of pressure, temperature, and composition,
is not constant.
Therefore, mathematical manipulations cannot be made directly but
must be accomplished through graphical or numerical techniques.
Other equations of states are devised so that correction factors, which
correct the ideal gas law for non-ideality, may be assumed constant,
thus permitting differentiation or integration.
However, they all involve a trial and error type of solution scheme.

The most commonly used equations of states are:

1.
2.

3.
4.

Van der Waals Equation.

Peng-Robinson Equation.
Benedict-Webb-Rubin Equation.
Redlich-Kwong Equation.

Calculation of Natural Gas Pseudo-critical Properties

Stewart et al-Mixing Rules-Method

The Stewart method is a set of mixing rules developed to

calculate pseudo-critical properties of gas mixtures.
It requires the gas composition to be known and more
calculations than Kay's procedure.
The Stewart et al's mixing rules has been proved more accurate.

Steps to apply the Stewart et al. method are:

1. A. First, estimate the boiling temperature of the C7+ fraction,

1. B. Estimate the pseudo-critical pressure of the C7+ fraction,

1.C. Estimate the pseudocritical temperature of the C7+ fraction,

2. Determine the correction factors Fj, Ej, and Ek for high

molecular- weight components using Sutton's method

3. Obtain the critical pressures and temperatures of the remaining

components from Table 1.1
4. Determine the pseudo critical pressure and temperature of the gas
as follows:
4. A. Calculate the parameters J and K.

4. B. Correct the parameters J and K for the C7+ fraction.

4. C. Calculate the pseudo critical temperature and pressure.

Practice Examples 1-1 and 1-2 in your text book for calculation of Pseudo critical
Properties for a Sweet and sour Natural Gases With the Stewart et aI. Mixing
Rules.

Estimating Pseudo-critical Properties When

Gas Composition Is Unknown (Suttons Correlations)
This method is based on Sutton's correlation curves, shown in
Fig. 1.1, and also based on a large database. The method empirical
equations relating pseudocritical properties of the hydrocarbons to
specific gas gravity:

where
Ppch
Tpch

gh

= pseudocritical pressure of the hydrocarbon components, psia;

= pseudocritical temperature of the hydrocarbon components, R;
= specific gas gravity of the hydrocarbon components (air = 1.0).

Eqs. 1.25 and 1.26 and Fig. 1.1 are applicable for 0.57 <gh< 1.68.
If the gas contains < 12 mol% CO2, < 3 mol% N2, and no H2S, then, gh
can be determined as follows.
1. If the gas is dry ( no condensates is formed), and if the separator gas gravity
is used, then gh = gg.
2. If the gas is wet and the gravity of the wellstream fluid, gw, is computed
(with methods presented in Sec. 1.4.5.), then gh = gw.

However, if the gas contains > 12 mol% CO2, > 3 mol% N2, or any H2S,
then the hydrocarbon gas gravity should be calculated by

where gw = gg if the separator gas gravity is being used.

Once the specific gas gravity of the hydrocarbon components is

estimated, the pseudocritical properties of the hydrocarbon mixture
are calculated with Sutton's correlations given by Eqs. 1.25 and 1.26
or Fig. 1.1.
The pseudocritical properties of the entire mixture, including
contaminants, are estimated with the following equations.

Note that the pseudocritical properties calculated with eqns. 1.28 and 1.29 are not
correct if the gas mixture is contaminated with nonhydrocarbon components (see
next Section).
Practice Examples 1.3 and 1.4, for sweet and sour gas, respecively, with the
Suttons method.

Correcting Pseudocritical Properties for H2S and CO2

Contamination; Wichert and Aziz Correlation.

Practice Example 1.5

* Caseys method.
Practice Example 1.6.

Gas Formation Volume Factor (FVF)

The FVF of a gas, Bg, is defined as

where
VR = Volume occupied by gas at reservoir temperature and pressure and,
VSC = Volume occupied by the same mass of gas at standard conditions.
The reciprocal of the gas formation volume factor is called the gas
expansion factor and is designated by the symbol Eg

The volume of n moles of gas at reservoir conditions can be

obtained from the real-gas law,

The volume of n moles of gas at standard conditions can be

obtained

Gas FVF can be obtained as:

Gas Density
Gas density is defined as the mass of gas per unit volume, or simply
the reciprocal of specific volume, as follows:

Gas density can be calculated as:

Isothermal gas compressibility

By definition, the isothermal gas compressibility is the change
in volume per unit volume for a unit change in pressure

For a liquid phase, the compressibility is small and usually

assumed to be constant. For a gas phase, the compressibility
is neither small nor constant.

Isothermal Gas Compressibility

Isothermal Gas Compressibility