Absorption of acid gases (CO2, H2S) from natural gas using a ternary blend of N-methyldiethanolamine (MDEA), 2-amino-2-methyl-1-propanol (AMP), and Sulfolane

Absorption of acid gases (CO2, H2S) from natural gas using a ternary blend of N-methyldiethanolamine (MDEA), 2-amino-2-methyl-1-propanol (AMP), and Sulfolane

ABID Salam Farooqi, RAIHAN Mahirah Binti Ramli, SERENE Sow Mun Lock, AHMAD Salam Farooqi, SYED Muhammad Wajahat, SIDRA Anis Farooqi

Abstract. Natural gas (NG) must be treated to remove sulphur compounds and acid gases i.e., carbon dioxide (CO2) and hydrogen sulfide (H2S) to ensure that it complies with requirements for sale and transportation. More than 95% of the NG processing plants are operated through the acid gas removal unit (AGRU) using aqueous amine solvent in removing sour gas components from the hydrocarbon gas due to the availability of amine solvent at a low cost. However, the main limitation of this process is the high operating cost of providing sufficient thermal energy at the reboiler for solvent regeneration. Meanwhile, the reboiler duty requirement generally increases with the requirement of CO2 removal efficiency as higher energy consumption is required to strip off a more significant amount of CO2 from the rich solvent. This current study addresses the absorption performance of acid gases using ternary hybrid solvents of MDEA, AMP, and Sulfolane. A study on the effects of solubility on H2S and CO2 absorption was performed at varying pressure (1000-6000 kPa) and temperatures (25°C-50°C) using Aspen HYSYS®V12.1. The results revealed that the concentration of CO2 and H2S in sweet gas increased with the decrease in pressure, while increasing temperature increased the concentration of H2S and CO2 in sweet gas. The future study will look at the reboiler duty required for solvent regeneration using this ternary blend of MDEA, AMP, and Sulfolane.

Keywords
Absorption, Simulation, Aspen HYSYS, Amines

Published online 5/20/2023, 8 pages
Copyright © 2023 by the author(s)
Published under license by Materials Research Forum LLC., Millersville PA, USA

Citation: ABID Salam Farooqi, RAIHAN Mahirah Binti Ramli, SERENE Sow Mun Lock, AHMAD Salam Farooqi, SYED Muhammad Wajahat, SIDRA Anis Farooqi, Absorption of acid gases (CO2, H2S) from natural gas using a ternary blend of N-methyldiethanolamine (MDEA), 2-amino-2-methyl-1-propanol (AMP), and Sulfolane, Materials Research Proceedings, Vol. 29, pp 9-16, 2023

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21741/9781644902516-2

The article was published as article 2 of the book Sustainable Processes and Clean Energy Transition

Content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.

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