Sometimes operations have to make adjustments to account for issues with equipment performance. One recent example was a GSP type of gas plant that had some poor performance issues (e.g. freezing) with their Reflux Exchanger. This caused a drop in recovery which cascaded to also a warming of the Cold Separator. The GSP split wasn’t changed from the original design and the warmer gas from the Cold Separator caused the ACFM to exceed the expander capacity resulting in the JT valve being open. RCE engineers recognized the JT valve being open and recommended that they divert more flow to the poor performing Reflux Exchanger in order to get the JT valve to close. The reflux valve in the GSP process is nothing more than a JT valve, but by sending the flow that was going through the JT valve to the Reflux Exchanger does result in some additional heat (cold) recovery from the cold residue gas. The end result was an increase of 2-3% in ethane recovery by this simple change. While the change was simple, it takes the expertise that RCE possesses to recognize the problem and add value for our clients.