Collection of VLE data for acid gas - alkanolamine systems using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Final report, September 29, 1990--September 30, 1996

Abstract

The industrial standard process for the purification of natural gas is to remove acid gases, mainly hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide, by the absorption and reaction of these gases with alkanolamines. Inadequate data for vapor--liquid equilibrium (VLE) hinder the industry from converting operations to more energy efficient amine mixtures and conserving energy. Some energy reductions have been realized in the past decade by applying such amine systems as ``hindered`` amines, methyldiethanolamine (MDEA), and MDEA based amine mixtures. However, the lack of reliable and accurate fundamental VLE data impedes the commercial application of these more efficient alkanolamine systems. The first project objective is to improve the accuracy of vapor--liquid equilibrium measurements at low hydrogen sulfide concentrations. The second project objective is to measure the VLE for amine mixtures. By improving the accuracy of the VLE measurements on MDEA and mixtures with other amines, energy saving can be quickly and confidently implemented in the many existing absorption units already in use. If about 25% of the existing 95.3 billion SCFD gas purification capacity is converted to these new amine systems, the energy savings are estimated to be about 3 {times} 10{sup 14} BTU/yr.