Prediction of foaming and surface tension of lean MDEA solutions with corrosion inhibitor (bis(2-hydroxyethyl)cocoalkylamine) in continuous foam fractionation column

Amine foaming is a common problem in gas sweetening unit. Prediction of foaming behavior will help in unraveling the operational challenges faced by the gas industry. This study was performed with the aim of predicting the foam volume and surface tension of lean methyldiethanolamine solutions in presence of bis(2-hydroxyethyl)cocoalkylamine (BHCL) corrosion inhibitor using continuous foam fractionation technique. The effect of BHCL as a model foam creators on foaming tendency was explored. The obtained experimental results were used to determine the empirical parameters k and nof the power law relation previously derived for high viscous fluid (i.e., (Formula presented.)), both (Formula presented.) and (Formula presented.) are dimensionless parameters. The prediction model gave a good agreement with the experimentally observed results (<6% deviation). The foam height model helped in envisaging the surface tension profile and in turn the separation performance and efficiency of foam creators. The foam height increased with increasing superficial gas velocity and BHCL concentration. For low BHCL concentrations, the minimum surface tension was noticed at superficial gas velocity of 0.02 m/s.