What is the Difference Between Condensate and Natural Gas Liquids

The key difference between condensate and natural gas liquids is that condensate is the end product of a condensation reaction, whereas natural gas liquid is the low-density mixture of hydrocarbon liquids that occurs as gaseous compounds in the raw natural gas that forms from many natural gas fields.

Generally, workers in gas installations use the term condensate to refer to natural gas liquid, but they are not the same chemically. However, we can name the natural gas liquid as natural gas condensate.

CONTENTS

1. Overview and Key Difference
2. What is a Condensate 
3. What are Natural Gas Liquids 
4. Condensate vs Natural Gas Liquids in Tabular Form
5. Summary – Condensate vs Natural Gas Liquids

What is a Condensate?

A condensate is a compound formed from a condensation reaction. Usually, condensate is the end product of the condensation reaction. The condensation reaction is a combination of two molecules, forming a single molecule with the loss of a small amount of water. Therefore, this type of reaction can also be named as dehydration synthesis reaction due to the loss of water. Other than water, there can be some other types of molecules that are lost from the reaction mixture, including ammonia, ethanol, acetic acid, and hydrogen sulfide, forming the condensate at the end.

Generally, the combination of two molecules takes place in a step-wise reaction process, giving the addition product. Otherwise, the reaction may involve functional groups of the molecule. Moreover, these reactions are a versatile class of reactions that take place in acidic or basic conditions or in the presence of a catalyst. These reactions are very important for life because it is essential in the formation of the peptide bonds during amino acid synthesis and the biosynthesis of fatty acids.

What is a Natural Gas Liquid?

Natural gas liquid is a low-density mixture of hydrocarbon liquids that occurs as gaseous compounds in raw natural gas that forms from many natural gas fields. It is also known as natural gas condensates. In this formation, some gas components in the raw natural gas tend to condense, forming a liquid state upon the reduction of temperature to below the dew point of hydrocarbons at a constant pressure.

Natural gas liquid contains hydrocarbons within the gasoline boiling range. Also, it is referred to as “condy” by workers in gas installations. There are three types of gas wells from where the natural gas liquids are obtained; crude oil wells, dry gas wells and condensate wells.

When considering the composition of natural gas liquids, it contains heavier straight-chain alkanes, hydrogen sulfide, thiols, carbon dioxide, cyclohexane, BTX (aromatic compounds such as benzene), etc. We can separate natural gas liquid from raw natural gas using different equipment, as shown in the above image.

What is the Difference Between Condensate and Natural Gas Liquids?

Generally, workers in gas installations use the term condensate to refer to natural gas liquid, but they are not the same chemically. However, we can name natural gas liquid as natural gas condensate. The key difference between condensate and natural gas liquids is that condensate is the end product of a condensation reaction, whereas natural gas liquids is the low-density mixture of hydrocarbon liquids that occurs as gaseous compounds in the raw natural gas that forms from many natural gas fields.

The below infographic lists the differences between condensate and natural gas liquids in tabular form for side by side comparison

Summary – Condensate vs Natural Gas Liquids

Generally, workers in gas installations use the term condensate to refer to natural gas liquid, but they are not the same chemically. The key difference between condensate and natural gas liquids is that condensate is the end product of a condensation reaction, whereas natural gas liquid is the low-density mixture of hydrocarbon liquids that occurs as gaseous compounds in the raw natural gas that forms from many natural gas fields.

Reference:

1. “Condensate.” McKinsey Energy Insights.

Image Courtesy:

1. “Amino Acid Condensation” By V8rik at English Wikipedia – Own work (Public Domain) via Commons Wikimedia
2. “Natural Gas Condensate.en” By NaturalGasCondensate.png: Mbeychokderivative work: Jak (talk) – NaturalGasCondensate.png (CC BY-SA 3.0) via Commons Wikimedia