TY - JOUR
T1 - Impact of dissolved and undissolved organics on foaming of industrial amine
AU - Alhseinat, Emad
AU - Keewan, Mohammad
AU - Banat, Fawzi
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank Mary Wheeler from UT Austin for her support of this project. We are indebted to Joanne Fredrich of Sandia National Labs and Zee Wang of ChevronTexaco, who contributed the rock physics data for diatomite. The authors gratefully acknowledge support for this work from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Natural Gas and Oil Technology Partnership Program (NGOTP). Oil industry partners for this project include BP, ChevronTexaco, ExxonMobil, Halliburton, and Schlum-berger. The second author is employed at Sandia National Laboratories. Sandia is a multiprogram laboratory operated by Sandia Corporation, a Lockheed Martin Company, for the United States Department of Energy under contract DE-ACO4-94AL85000.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2017
Y1 - 2017
N2 - The effect of soluble and insoluble organics i.e. liquid paraffin, carboxylic acids, and BTEX on foaming behavior of industrial fresh and lean amine solution was investigated. Different fresh and lean amine samples were saturated with different organics through mixing the amine solution with the organics in thermodynamic cell until equilibrium. Saturated amine samples were extracted from the equilibrium cell and foaming study was carried out for each saturated amine solution. The effect of insoluble organics on the amine foaming behavior was tested through adding excess organics to the saturated amine. The results of this study showed that dissolved organics increased the foam volume in fresh 50 wt% MDEA solution. However, adding excess organics, above the solubility limit, into the fresh amine decreased the foam volume. Interestingly, saturated industrial lean amine with normal liquid paraffin (C6–C7) decreased the foam volume of the industrial lean amine. Moreover, the foaming tendency decreased significantly when the concentration of normal liquid paraffin exceeded the solubility limit in the tested lean amine solution. It is noted that cyclohexane has more influence in amine foaming than n-hexane. Saturated industrial lean amine solution with carboxylic acids dramatically increased the foam volume. Adding excess carboxylic acids above the solubility limit decreased the foam volume of the saturated amine, however, it remains higher than the foam volume of the original lean amine. Soluble toluene and xylene increased the foam volume from 120 ml to 647 ml and 471 ml, respectively. Adding excess BTEX over the solubility limit to the saturated lean amine reduced the foaming tendency of the saturated amine. However, as observed with the carboxylic acids the foam volume with excess BTEX still showing higher volume over the original lean amine. The findings of this study highlight the importance of controlling the concentration of BTEX compound entering to the amine unit over the liquid hydrocarbons as a common foaming mitigation practice. Also, the findings of this study highlight the importance of monitoring the generation of carboxylic acids due to amine degradation and control its concentrations for smoother operation.
AB - The effect of soluble and insoluble organics i.e. liquid paraffin, carboxylic acids, and BTEX on foaming behavior of industrial fresh and lean amine solution was investigated. Different fresh and lean amine samples were saturated with different organics through mixing the amine solution with the organics in thermodynamic cell until equilibrium. Saturated amine samples were extracted from the equilibrium cell and foaming study was carried out for each saturated amine solution. The effect of insoluble organics on the amine foaming behavior was tested through adding excess organics to the saturated amine. The results of this study showed that dissolved organics increased the foam volume in fresh 50 wt% MDEA solution. However, adding excess organics, above the solubility limit, into the fresh amine decreased the foam volume. Interestingly, saturated industrial lean amine with normal liquid paraffin (C6–C7) decreased the foam volume of the industrial lean amine. Moreover, the foaming tendency decreased significantly when the concentration of normal liquid paraffin exceeded the solubility limit in the tested lean amine solution. It is noted that cyclohexane has more influence in amine foaming than n-hexane. Saturated industrial lean amine solution with carboxylic acids dramatically increased the foam volume. Adding excess carboxylic acids above the solubility limit decreased the foam volume of the saturated amine, however, it remains higher than the foam volume of the original lean amine. Soluble toluene and xylene increased the foam volume from 120 ml to 647 ml and 471 ml, respectively. Adding excess BTEX over the solubility limit to the saturated lean amine reduced the foaming tendency of the saturated amine. However, as observed with the carboxylic acids the foam volume with excess BTEX still showing higher volume over the original lean amine. The findings of this study highlight the importance of controlling the concentration of BTEX compound entering to the amine unit over the liquid hydrocarbons as a common foaming mitigation practice. Also, the findings of this study highlight the importance of monitoring the generation of carboxylic acids due to amine degradation and control its concentrations for smoother operation.
KW - Amine foaming
KW - BTEX
KW - Carboxylic acids
KW - Liquid hydrocarbon
KW - MDEA
KW - Soluble and insoluble organics
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85016238881&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.ijggc.2017.03.016
DO - 10.1016/j.ijggc.2017.03.016
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85016238881
SN - 1750-5836
VL - 60
SP - 156
EP - 161
JO - International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control
JF - International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control
ER -