Empress Fractionation Facility Expansion

The Empress facility is a straddle plant that extracts Natural Gas Liquids (NGL) from natural gas and fractionates into ethane (C2), Liquefied Petroleum Gas or LPG (C3/C4), and condensate (C5+).
Ethane is sold to Alberta markets via pipeline and condensate via truck loading. The LPG is transported to Sarnia for further fractionation through the Kerrobert pipeline. The purpose of the expansion project is to increase the fractionation capabilities of the Empress facility. Instead of sending LPG to Sarnia for fractionation, spec propane (C3) and butane (C4) are produced locally. Rangeland developed different options for producing propane and butane locally while focusing on reusing the existing equipment. A new debutanizer train with propane and butane treatment has also been added. The key design challenge is to integrate the new debutanizer train into the fractionation facility and repurpose the existing equipment.

The facility design includes:
•Repurposing the existing debutanizer tower and associated equipment
•New debutanizer train (tower, reboiler, condensers and reflux system)
•Propane treatment (COS treater, caustic wash & CaCl2 dryer, feed heater & cooler)
•Butane sulphur removal (sulphur removal beds, filter)
•Regeneration system
•Butane and propane storage
•Butane truck loading pumps
•Propane transfer pumps and caustic wash

Rangeland Responsibilities:
•Pre-FEED study
•Front End Engineering Design (FEED)
•Class 3 estimate
•Detailed Engineering (DE)
•Procurement and expediting services
•Contract preparation and technical evaluation
•Home office construction and commissioning support