Sweetening the deal how to meet production quotas and environmental protection needs

Minimize off gas emissions through effective acid containment removal from sour gas

 

Acid gas removal processes utilize amines or specialty solvents to remove acid gases such as H2S and/or CO2 from sour natural gas in order to meet the gas quality specifications.

 

The sour gas is contacted with lean amine in the contactor tower. An acid-base reaction occurs, binding the acid gases to the amine with a weak bond. The rich amine then flows to a regenerator, where heat breaks the weak bond between the amine and the acid gas, releasing the acid gas and regenerating the amine for re-use. The acid gases exit the top of the regenerator for further treatment while the lean amine is recirculated back to the contactor in a recirculating loop.

Solving everyday challenges: Key areas where you can improvise on today



1) Foaming and reduced production rates due to hydrocarbon liquid and particulate ingression into the amine loop:

KO pots, mesh pads, cyclonic devices and conventional filter-separators may not effectively remove aerosol-sized liquid hydrocarbon droplets or fine solids. Hence, we recommend using High efficiency SepraSol™ Plus liquid/gas coalescers and Medallion™ HP liquid/gas coalescers which provide 99.999% removal at 0.3 microns per the DOP test and 1 ppb downstream per the modified ANSI/CAGI-400-1999 test procedure. Both provide excellent foaming and fouling protection.


2) Foaming, process efficiency loss and increased maintenance:

Solid contaminants in amine systems are mostly very fine corrosion products that may not be adequately removed by filters that exhibit unloading, media migration, channelling or poor sealing.

 

This normally occurs due to fouling of the contactor, lean-rich exchanger, regenerator and reboiler due to the dirty amine (green, brown, or black in colour). To combat this, you can reduce the gaps in productivity, reliability and maintenance cost through effective solids control in the amine loop.

 

A range of absolute and nominal rated filter elements is available to reduce suspended solids to <5 ppmw, keep the amine clear or pale yellow in colour, and reduce related foaming and fouling issues.

 

For enhanced solids control, add filtration to the rich side. Total sour gas worker exposure will typically be lowered due to the reduced system maintenance on the rich side.



To learn more about the importance of filtration in contamination control, register to Pall webcast

Date: 20 November 2019

Time: 11.30 AM to 1.15 PM (IST)

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