Reliable experimental technique for the identification of foam creators from industrial lean amine solutions

In this paper, a new technique based on the concept of foam fractionation is developed for the identification of foam creators in alkanolamine gas sweetening solvents. The developed foaming technique was used to identify the foam creators existing in industrial amine solutions (lean amine from the regeneration column outlet) obtained from running a gas sweetening plant. The developed approach in this technique is based on inducing a lean amine sample to foam, allowing three samples to be collected: 1) A sample from the lean amine before foam (main amine sample) 2) A sample from the collected foam (foamate) 3) A sample from the remaining amine after collecting the foam. Direct sample analysis time of flight (AxION® 2 TOF) instruments were used to analyze the collected samples. A comparison was made between the three spectra obtained from a mass spectrometer for the three samples. The compounds that increased in concentration in the foamate sample and decreased in the remaining amine in the foaming column are believed to be responsible for generation of the foam. The obtained mass/charge from the mass spectrometer can be used to identify these compounds. Identification of foaming creators in industrial lean amine samples is provided as a proof of the capabilities of the proposed method. The results of this study introduce the foaming technique as a promising laboratory scale technique for the identification of foam creators in amine absorption solvents.