Simulation of Natural Gas Treatment for Acid Gas Removal Using the Ternary Blend of MDEA, AEEA, and NMP

Abid Salam Farooqi (), Raihan Mahirah Ramli (), Serene Sow Mun Lock, Noorhidayah Hussein, Muhammad Zubair Shahid and Ahmad Salam Farooqi
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Abid Salam Farooqi: Department of Chemical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Seri Iskandar 32610, Malaysia
Raihan Mahirah Ramli: Department of Chemical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Seri Iskandar 32610, Malaysia
Serene Sow Mun Lock: Department of Chemical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Seri Iskandar 32610, Malaysia
Noorhidayah Hussein: Group Technical Solutions, Project Delivery and Technology, Tower 3, PETRONAS Twin Towers, KLCC, Kuala Lumpur 50088, Malaysia
Muhammad Zubair Shahid: Department of Chemical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Seri Iskandar 32610, Malaysia
Ahmad Salam Farooqi: Department of Chemical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Seri Iskandar 32610, Malaysia

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 17, 1-16

Abstract: Natural gas (NG) requires treatment to eliminate sulphur compounds and acid gases, including carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) and hydrogen sulphide (H 2 S), to ensure that it meets the sale and transportation specifications. Depending on the region the gas is obtained from, the concentrations of acid gases could reach up to 90%. Different technologies are available to capture CO 2 and H 2 S from NG and absorb them with chemical or physical solvents; occasionally, a mixture of physical and chemical solvents is employed to achieve the desired results. Nonetheless, chemical absorption is the most reliable and utilised technology worldwide. Unfortunately, the high energy demand for solvent regeneration in stripping columns presents an obstacle. Consequently, the present study proposes a novel, ternary-hybrid mixture of N-methyl diethanolamine (MDEA), amino ethyl ethanol amine (AEEA), and N-methyl 2-pyrrolidone (NMP) to overcome the issue and reduce the reboiler duty. The study employed high levels of CO 2 (45%) and H 2 S (1%) as the base case, while the simulation was performed with the Aspen HYSYS ® V12.1 software to evaluate different parameters that affect the reboiler duty in the acid gas removal unit (AGRU). The simulation was first validated, and the parameters recorded errors below 5%. As the temperature increased from 35 °C to 70 °C, the molar flow of the CO 2 and H 2 S in sweet gas also rose. Nevertheless, the pressure demonstrated an opposite trend, where elevating the pressure from 1000 kPa to 8000 kPa diminished the molar flow of acid gases in the sweet gas. Furthermore, a lower flow rate was required to achieve the desired specification of sweet gas using a ternary-hybrid blend, due to the presence of a higher physical solvent concentration in the hybrid solvent, thus necessitating 64.2% and 76.8%, respectively, less reboiler energy than the MDEA and MDEA + AEEA.

Keywords: natural gas; absorption; simulation; Aspen HYSYS; reboiler duty (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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