Simulation of commercial amine treating units

Conference · Tue Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1985 · Proc. Gas Cond. Conf.; (United States)

OSTI ID:5865290

Sardar, M; Sivasubramanian, M S; Weiland, R H

Amine treating processes for the removal of acidic impurities from natural, refinery and synthesis gas streams have been in worldwide use for over 50 years. Nevertheless, design of these plants is still an art derived largely from experience instead of a formulated procedure based on firm engineering principles. Recently, computer-aided design and simulation packages using equilibrium-stage calculations have been developed for amine treating units. The equilibrium-stage approach, however, has a fatal flaw: it ignores the effect of chemical reaction except insofar as vapor-liquid equilibrium is concerned, whereas, absorber performance is dominated by the kinetics of the chemical reactions. In an attempt to retrieve the situation, tray efficiencies are used; however, for chemically reactive separation processes, tray efficiency is an empirical (ignorance) parameter because it cannot be reliably predicted. Instead, it must be fitted to plant operating data and, as a result, it is little more than a disguised form of rules-of-thumb and operating experience. A further deficiency is that tray efficiencies tend to be rather small quantitites. For example, equilibrium-stage calculations suggest that about two ideal stages are needed for most CO/sub 2/ removal applications using MEA. In reality, around 20 actual trays are used which leaves one with a factor of 10 corrections on the design, not a strong recommendation for this approach. The inadequacy of equilibrium-stage remodeling stems from the dominant role played by chemical reaction.

• Research Organization: Clarkson Univ., Potsdam, NY
• OSTI ID: 5865290
• Report Number(s): CONF-8503199-
• Conference Information: Journal Name: Proc. Gas Cond. Conf.; (United States)
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

03 NATURAL GAS
030300* -- Natural Gas-- Drilling
Production
& Processing
AMINES
CHEMICAL REACTION KINETICS
COMPUTER-AIDED DESIGN
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
ENERGY SOURCES
EQUILIBRIUM
FLUIDS
FOSSIL FUELS
FUEL GAS
FUELS
GAS FUELS
GASES
INDUSTRIAL PLANTS
KINETICS
LIQUIDS
NATURAL GAS
NATURAL GAS PROCESSING PLANTS
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
PHASE STUDIES
PROCESSING
PURIFICATION
REACTION KINETICS
REMOVAL
SEPARATION PROCESSES
SIMULATION
THERMODYNAMICS
VAPORS