Category Archives for Design Procedures for Amine System
Materials of Construction
Amine systems are extremely corrosive due to the acid-gas concentrations and the high temperatures. It is important that all carbon steel exposed to the amine be stress-relieved after the completion of welding on the particular piece. A system fabricated from … Continue reading
Amine Solution Purification
Due to side reactions and/or degradation, a variety of contaminants will begin to accumulate in an amine system. The method of removing these depends on the amine involved. When MEA is used in the presence of COS and CS2, they … Continue reading
Amine Cooler
The amine cooler is typically an air-cooled, fin-fan cooler, which lowers the lean amine temperature before it enters the absorber. The lean amine entering the absorber should be approximately 10°F warmer than the sour gas entering the absorber. Lower amine … Continue reading
Rich/Lean Amine Exchanger
Rich/lean amine exchangers are usually shell-and-tube exchangers with the corrosive rich amine flowing through the tubes. The purpose of these exchangers is to reduce the reboiler duty by recovering some of the sensible heat from the lean amine. The flow … Continue reading
Overhead Condenser and Reflux Accumulator
Amine-stripper overhead condensers are typically air-cooled, fin-fan exchangers. Their duty can be determined from the concepts in Chapter 3 as required to cool the overhead gases and condense the overhead steam to water. The inlet temperature to the cooler can … Continue reading
Amine Stripper
Amine strippers use heat and steam to reverse the chemical reactions with CO2 and H2S, The steam acts as a stripping gas to remove the CO2 and H2S from the liquid solution and to carry these gases to the overhead. … Continue reading
Amine Reboiler
The reboiler provides the heat input to an amine stripper, which reverses the chemical reactions and drives off the acid gases. Amine reboilers may be either a kettle reboiler or an indirect fired heater. higher the reboiler duty, the higher … Continue reading
Flash Drum
The rich arnine solution from the absorber is flashed to a separator to remove any hydrocarbons. A small percentage of acid gases will also flash when the pressure is reduced. The dissolved hydrocarbons should flash to the vapor phase and … Continue reading
Amine Circulation Rates
The circulation rates for amine systems can be determined from the acid gas flow rates by selecting a solution concentration and an acid gas loading. The following equations can be used: For design, the following solution strengths and loadings are … Continue reading
Amine Absorber
Amine absorbers use counter-current flow through a trayed or packed tower to provide intimate mixing between the amine solution and the sour gas. Typically, small diameter towers use stainless steel packing, while larger towers use stainless steel trays. For systems … Continue reading