Solvent changeouts without plant shutdown

Conference · Fri Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1988

OSTI ID:5567330

Vickery, D J; Campbell, S W ^[1]

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1. Taylor, Weiland and Associates, Inc., Potsdam, NY (US)

For reasons of greater selectivity, lower regeneration energy requirements, reduced corrosivity and possible greater amine stability, MDEA continues to replace DEA in numerous selective H/sub 2/S removal applications. Solvent changeouts from DEA to MDEA often require no equipment modification, yet they are generally achieved by shutting down the plant, draining the old solvent, cleaning, and finally recharging with MDEA. However, in at least one plant, solvent changeout was done on the fly simply by periodically making up normal DEA losses with MDEA until the plant was finally operating on MDEA alone. Gradual solvent changeouts have the advantages of no lost production, no disposal problems with the environmentally-hazardous old solvent, no use and subsequent disposal of cleaning agents, and no additional manpower requirements. An advanced flowsheet simulation capability can suggest when such a procedure is feasible and, when it is, plant simulation can help to ensure that the solvent changeout is done reliably and with no production or cost penalties. GASPLANT-PLUS(TM) is currently the only commercial simulator having formulated solvent (mixed amine) capabilities within a fully flexible flowsheeting environment. After highlighting its technical foundations, they will compare GASPLANT-PLUS predictions with some commercial plant data and, through examples, they will show how solvent changeouts can be done gradually, without plant shutdown.

• OSTI ID: 5567330
• Report Number(s): CONF-880348-
• Resource Relation: Conference: American Institute of Chemical Engineers spring national meeting, New Orleans, LA (USA), 6-10 Mar 1988; Other Information: Technical Paper 80B
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

03 NATURAL GAS
99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS//MATHEMATICS, COMPUTING, AND INFORMATION SCIENCE
AMINES
G CODES
HYDROGEN SULFIDES
SOLVENT EXTRACTION
NATURAL GAS
DESULFURIZATION
NATURAL GAS PROCESSING PLANTS
CHEMICAL FEEDSTOCKS
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
FLOWSHEETS
REMOVAL
SOLVENTS
CHALCOGENIDES
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
COMPUTER CODES
DIAGRAMS
ENERGY SOURCES
EXTRACTION
FLUIDS
FOSSIL FUELS
FUEL GAS
FUELS
GAS FUELS
GASES
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
INDUSTRIAL PLANTS
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
SEPARATION PROCESSES
SIMULATION
SULFIDES
SULFUR COMPOUNDS
030300* - Natural Gas- Drilling
Production
& Processing
990220 - Computers
Computerized Models
& Computer Programs- (1987-1989)