AMINE

TREATMENT/ REGENERATION
UNIT

Shoukat Ali
Contents:
• Amine and its Types
• Characteristics of Amine
• MDEA
• Amine gas sweetening
• Amine regeneration Unit
• Problems in Amine Plants
 Amines:
• Amines are derivatives of ammonia in which one or more hydrogen have been
replaced by another hydrocarbon group such as alkyl.
• Types
• Primary Amine: In which one of three hydrogen atoms in ammonia is replaced by
alkyl group(Methylamine , Ethanolamine).

• Secondary Amine: In which two of three hydrogen atoms in ammonia are

replaced by alkyl group(, Methyl ethanolamine,Dimethylamine).

• Tertiary amines: In which all three hydrogen atoms in ammonia are replaced by
alkyl group(Trimethylamine ,Methydiethanolamine).
Amine characteristics:
The desirable characteristics of amine are:

• Removal of H2S and other sulfur compounds

• Low hydrocarbons absorption
• Low vapor pressure
• Reactions between solvent and acid gases must be reversible to prevent
solvent degradation.
• Thermally stable
• High acid gas pickup
• Low Heat requirements for solvent regeneration or stripping
• Less corrosive
• Less tendency to foam
• Selective removal of acid gases is desirable.
• Cheap and readily available.
Methyldiethanolamine (MDEA)
• Methyl diethanolamine is a clear, colorless or pale yellow liquid with
an ammonia odor.
• It has the formula CH3N(C2H4OH)2. MDEA is a tertiary amine and is
widely used as sweetening agent.
• MDEA reacts more slowly with CO2 than other amines . The difference in
the rates of reaction with H2S and CO2 gives MDEA a desirable feature
over other amines, namely selectivity of H2S over CO2.
• MDEA concentrations are 30 to 50% with mol loadings of 0.40 to 0.55
moles acid gas per mol of amine.
• MDEA is less corrosive than the primary and secondary amines.
• MDEA has a relatively low heat of reaction with hydrogen sulfide and
carbon dioxide, which allows for lower reboiler duties, thus lower
operating costs.
• MDEA is also resistant to thermal and chemical degradation and is largely
immiscible with hydrocarbons.
• MDEA has low vapor pressure .
Process Flow Diagram
Amine Gas treatment:
• Amine gas sweetening is a proven technology
that removes acid gases such as CO2 (carbon
dioxide) and H2S (hydrogen sulfide) from
hydrocarbon streams(LPG). Amine has a natural
affinity for both CO2 and H2S allowing this to be
a very efficient and effective removal process.
• Amine reacts with hydrogen sulfide in LPG
stream and form unstable amine hydrosulfide
salts reaction is reversible which at temperature
about 240F amine is again regenerated into its
original form(Lean) by H2S removal.
Reasons for Removing CO2 and H2S
• CO2 when combined with water creates
carbonic acid which is corrosive.
• CO2 also reduces the BTU value of gas and in
concentrations of more that 2% or 3 % the gas
is unmarketable.
• H2S is an extremely toxic gas that is also
tremendously corrosive to equipment.
• Amine sweetening processes remove these
contaminants so that the gas is marketable and
suitable for transportation. 
Amine plant Process Flow
• Amine plant has capacity to recover 920Lbs/hr of H2S.
• MDEA solution is used to absorb hydrogen sulfide gas from the
Distillation HTU off-gas and from the propane/butane stream in the
Gas Recovery Plant. The purpose of the Amine Recovery section of
the plant is to regenerate the MEA solution by removal of hydrogen
sulfide. MDEA solution has the characteristic of absorbing hydrogen
sulfide at low temperature (110 ° F), to form water soluble salts.
These salts are unstable and are easily broken down by heat. Thus the
regeneration process is simply a matter of heating the solution to
about 240 °F, when the hydrogen sulfide is released and the MEA
returns to its original chemical form.
• The H2S-rich MDEA streams are returned from the Distillate HTU and
Gas Recovery plant to flash drum 9C-3. Here, entrained hydrocarbon
vapors flash off and are sent to the Refinery fuel gas stream. The rich
MDEA solution flows from the flash drum and is preheated to 210 ° F
by heat exchange with regenerated MDEA solution in exchanger 9E-1
and enters the regenerator 9C-1.
 Amine plant Process Flow
• Heat is supplied to the regenerator by the reboiler 9E-2 using 50 psig
steam. As the hot vapors rise up the column, hydrogen sulfide is
stripped from the down-flowing MDEA solution. Overhead vapors
from the column are cooled in air cooled condenser 9E-4 and
condensate is collected in the accumulator 9C-2. The condensate is
returned to the regenerator as reflux, while the gas flows to the sour
gas burners in the crude furnace, or to the incinerator or an
incinerator failure to flare. The regenerated (lean) amine flows from
the reboiler 9E-2, is cooled first in exchanger 9E-1 and then to 110 ° F
in air cooler 9E-5. The main bulk of liquid is returned to the surge
tank 9D-1, whilst a small slipstream is filtered through 9T-1 to reduce
the amount of solid impurities in the circulating solution. The lean
solution in 9D-1 is separately pumped to the Distillate HTU and Gas
Recovery Plant for H2S absorption.
Common Problems of Amine plants
• The main problems that can be encountered in
the operation of amine treating facilities are:

• Sour LPG
• Foaming
• Corrosion
• Amine losses
1)Sour LPG
Causes:
• Change in the acid gas concentration of feed gas
• Change in the feed gas temperature
• Too hot lean amine solution
• Low amine strength
• Inadequate regeneration of solution
• Insufficient contact in absorber
• Too low amine circulation rate
• Too low absorber pressure
• Too high inlet gas rate
• Foaming
• Leakage in Lean/Rich amine exchanger
2)Foaming
• Pure aqueous amine solutions do not foam. It is
only in the presence of contaminants
• Condense hydrocarbons
• Acidic amine-degradation products
• Treating chemicals from makeup water
• Fine solid suspensions such as iron sulfide
3)Corrosion
• Corrosion is common in most amine plants.
• Corrosion rates are increased by high amine
concentration, high acid gas loading, high temperature
and foaming.
• Experience has shown that the most likely areas for
corrosive attack are those where the temperatures are
high such as :
the top part of the stripper
the reboiler tubes
the heat exchangers
connecting piping
4)Amine losses:
• Amine losses in gas treating systems can occur
because of
• vaporization
• entrainment
• degradation and removal of degradation
products
• mechanical losses