Method of regenerating an aqueous glycol solution containing salts

1. A method of regenerating a glycol solution containing water, hydrocarbons and dissolved salts, comprising the following stages:

a) expanding said solution so as to release hydrocarbons and to obtain a hydrocarbon-poor solution,

b) distilling in a distillation column the hydrocarbon-poor solution obtained in stage a) to obtain a glycol-enriched solution and a vapor comprising water and hydrocarbons,

c) placing under vacuum a first part of the glycol-enriched solution obtained in stage b) under a pressure below 90,000 Pa abs. to obtain vaporized water and a glycol solution comprising precipitated salts, and

d) separating the precipitated salts from the glycol solution obtained in stage c) to obtain precipitated salts and a salt-depleted glycol solution, wherein the salts comprise at least one compound selected from the group consisting of sodium chloride, potassium chloride, calcium chloride, sodium bicarbonate, sodium sulfate, potassium sulfate and calcium sulfate.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1 , further comprising the following stages:

e) placing under vacuum the salt-depleted glycol solution obtained in stage d) under a pressure below 50,000 Pa abs. to obtain vaporized water and a glycol solution comprising precipitated salts,

f) separating the precipitated salts from the glycol solution obtained in stage e) to obtain precipitated salts and a second salt-depleted glycol solution.

3. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein, in stage d), the precipitated salts are separated from the glycol solution by means of at least one of the following techniques: filtration, centrifugation, ultrasonic separation.

4. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein, before stage c), the glycol-enriched solution obtained in stage b) is cooled to a temperature ranging between 30° C. and 150° C.

5. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein, before stage c), the glycol-enriched solution obtained in stage b) is heated to a temperature ranging between 30° C. and 150° C.

6. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein, in stage a), said solution is expanded to a pressure ranging between 0.1 MPa and 2 MPa abs. and wherein, in stage b), distillation is performed at atmospheric pressure.

7. A method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the following stages are further carried out:

cooling the vapor containing water and hydrocarbons obtained in stage b) to obtain steam, a liquid hydrocarbon phase and an aqueous phase, and

sending part of the aqueous phase to the top of the distillation column.

8. A method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the following stage is further carried out:

feeding the vaporized water obtained in stage c) into said distillation column.

9. A method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the following stage is further carried out:

combining a second part of the glycol-enriched solution obtained in stage b) with the salt-depleted glycol solution obtained in stage d).

10. A method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the following stage is further carried out:

feeding water into the salt-depleted glycol solution obtained in stage d).

11. A method of regenerating a glycol solution containing water, hydrocarbons and dissolved salts, comprising the following stages:

a) expanding said solution so as to release hydrocarbons and to obtain a hydrocarbon-poor solution,

b) distilling in a distillation column the hydrocarbon-poor solution obtained in stage a) to obtain a glycol-enriched solution and a vapor comprising water and hydrocarbons,

c) placing under vacuum a first part of the glycol-enriched solution obtained in stage b) under a pressure below 90,000 Pa abs. to obtain vaporized water and a glycol solution comprising precipitated salts,

d) separating the precipitated salts from the glycol solution obtained in stage c) to obtain precipitated salts and a salt-depleted glycol solution,

e) placing under vacuum the salt-depleted glycol solution obtained in stage d) under a pressure below 50,000 Pa abs. to obtain vaporized water and a glycol solution comprising precipitated salts, and

f) separating the precipitated salts from the glycol solution obtained in stage e) to obtain precipitated salts and a second salt-depleted glycol solution, wherein the second salt-depleted glycol solution f) heats the hydrocarbon-poor solution obtained in stage a).

12. A method of regenerating a glycol solution containing water, hydrocarbons and dissolved salts, comprising the following stages:

a) expanding said solution so as to release hydrocarbons and to obtain a hydrocarbon-poor solution,

b) distilling in a distillation column the hydrocarbon-poor solution obtained in stage a) to obtain a glycol-enriched solution and a vapor comprising water and hydrocarbons,

c) placing under vacuum a first part of the glycol-enriched solution obtained in stage b) under a pressure below 90,000 Pa abs. to obtain vaporized water and a glycol solution comprising precipitated salts, and

d) separating the precipitated salts from the glycol solution obtained in stage c) to obtain precipitated salts and a salt-depleted glycol solution, wherein the glycol consists of a compound selected from the group consisting of monoethylene glycol, diethylene glycol and triethylene glycol.