Prediction of Amine Corrosion in

Refinery and Gas Processing

Rich Amine Circuits

Predict-Amine 2.0

Failure Prevention
Risk Mitigation
Optimized Material Selection

By

Sridhar Srinivasan
Vishal Lagad

PRELMINARY VERSION
 Outline
• Introduction to Amine Corrosion

• Overview of Rich Amine Joint Industry Program

• Predict-Amine 2.0: Functionality Description

• Predict-Amine 2.0: Interface / Application

• Questions and Discussion

2
 Impact of Amine Corrosion
• Amine units provide gas treating capabilities that remove
acid gases (CO2 and H2S) from feed gas
• Most piping in amine units built from carbon steel - some
higher alloy utilization in re-boilers and heat exchangers
• There are limited data and guidelines in industry to
quantify amine corrosion with respect to velocity (wall
shear stress) and acid gas loadings
• Different amines are used in the industry with varied
operating conditions and limits

• Loss of production in Amine Units

can cost upwards of $400,000 per day

3
 Corrosion Problem Areas in Typical Amine Units

TREATED GAS
LEAN AMINE

C
RICH AMINE O
N ACID
T FILTER GASES
A S
C ACCUM
T
O
R S
T
A Lean To
B
R
Rich I
S Amine
O Heat Exch. P
R P
B
E
E
SOUR GAS R
R
FEED

Amine
Make-up

4
 Amine Corrosion – Overview
• H2S and CO2 from feed gases are absorbed into the amine
solvent by chemical reaction
• Amines with dissolved CO2 and H2S from the contactor are
called Rich Amines
• Corrosion in Rich Amine circuits is caused due to
dissolved acid gases and presence of impurities
• Acid gases are removed from amines in regenerators at
high temperature or low pressure
• Amine from regenerator contains low dissolved acid gases
and is called Lean Amine
• Predict-Amine 2.0 focuses on Rich Amine Corrosion

5
 Amine JIP Inception

• Absence of quantified data made corrosion prediction /

prevention of failure difficult
• Need for a sound engineering basis to quantify corrosion
in amine systems
• In 2003 Honeywell along with major refiners and gas
processors formed a Joint Industry Program designed to
generate data for amine corrosion
- Program sponsored by twelve leading operating companies

• Purpose: To create a definitive, engineering basis for

dealing with amine corrosion for MEA, DEA and DGA®

® DGA is a registered trademark of Huntsman Corporation

6
 Corrosion Prediction using Predict-Amine 2.0
• Key Variables for assessing Amine Corrosion
- Acid Gas Loading
- Velocity (Wall Shear Stress)
- Temperature
- Impurities and HSAS
- CO2 / H2S Ratio
• Types of Amines
- MEA
- DEA
- DGA
- Phase II of Amine JIP focuses on MDEA
• Materials evaluated
- CS
- 304L
- 316L
- Alloy 2205
- Alloy 825

7
 Predict-Amine 2.0
• Incorporates
- Large database of quantitative corrosion data developed by Amine
JIP from simulated lab tests
- Flow modeling calculations for wall shear stress
- Algorithms/rule sets to address effect of the key variables that affect
corrosion

• Predicts amine corrosion rate for five (5) commonly used

materials in MEA, DEA and DGA services
• Provides tools for sensitivity and multipoint analysis
• Provides access to 3D Piping tools for modeling
• Provides secure access to all JIP data, presentations,
trends and correction factors

8
 Predict-Amine 2.0: How does it work?

1. Calculate shear stress at pipe wall for process flow

conditions

2. Convert the field shear stress into an equivalent lab flow

loop velocity

3. Using lab velocity and acid gas loading, predict corrosion

rates for all materials using respective iso-corrosion
diagrams developed from JIP DATA

4. Correct corrosion rates for the effect of temperature,

impurities and CO2 loading based on trends developed
from JIP DATA

9
 Iso-Corrosion plots in Predict-Amine 2.0

• Ability to predict corrosion rates for all relevant data ranges

• Facilitates easy quantification of amine corrosion

ISOCORROSION DIAGRAM FOR COMBINED AVG CS-CS HAZ

(72 Hour Laboratory Test, 18 wt% MEA, 130 F)
90
15.6 18.4 25.1 65.8
80
> 50 mpy
70
13.2 20 - 50 mpy 42.7
16.1 19.5
60
Velocity (ft/sec)

15 - 20 mpy
< 5 mpy
50 5 - 10 mpy
11.5 10 - 15 mpy 14.4 16.5
40 19.9 10 - 15 mpy
5 - 10 mpy 15 - 20 mpy
30
20 - 50 mpy
7.5 11.8 11.5 12.0
20 > 50 mpy
< 5 mpy
10
0.2 0.1 1.0 1.3
0
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0

Confidential H2S Loading (mole H2S/mole MEA)

CONFIDENTIAL
Honeywell – Rich Amine JIP
InterCorr Amine JIP

10
 Amine Corrosion: Effect of Temperature

Effect of Temperature on corrosion rate of CS-CS HAZ

(72 hours laboratory test, 0.5 mol/mol, 30% DEA, 20 ft/sec comparison)
140.00

static
120.00
117.4
Flow Through

100.00
Corrosion rate (mpy)

80.00

60.00 58.4

40.00

24.2
20.00
12.32
8.6

0.00 0.60
100 120 140 160 180 200 220 240 260
CONFIDENTIAL Temperature (F)
Honeywell International, Inc

11
 Amine Corrosion: Effect of Impurities

Effect of Impurity concentrations on corrosion rate of 304L

(72 hours laboratory test, 0.8 mol/mol, 18% MEA, 130 F, 20 ft/sec comparison)
6
Static

Flow Through
5

4
Corrosion rate (mpy)

3.2
3

0.5 0.5
0.3
0.2 0.2
0 0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5
CONFIDENTIAL
Honeywell International, Inc
Impurities (%)

12
 Predict-Amine Interface : Inputs

•Easy to use Interface

•Simplified Inputs
•Extensive Functionality
•Units Flexibility
•Access to JIP Data
•Help system
•3-D Piping Analysis
•XP/Vista/7 compatible

13
 Predict-Amine Interface : Results

• Corrosion rates
• Flow regime
• Wall shear stress
• Flow parameters
• Customizable Charts
and Grids

14
 Additional Key Functionalities

• Automated Multi-point Analysis

- Using MS Excel run multiple cases with one click
• Automated Sensitivity Analysis
- Evaluate parametric sensitivity to examine trends and check
for inflection points
• Secure access to all program data, including reports,
meeting presentations, corrosion rates and iso-
corrosion curves

• Automatic Unit Conversions (SI / American)

• Network and Corporate licensing for ease of

deployment

15
 Multi-point Analysis using Excel

16
 Sensitivity Analysis in Predict-Amine 2.0

17
 3-D Piping Model for Amine Piping Circuits

18
 Secure, Electronic JIP Data Access

19
 Predict-Amine 2.0 Licensing Options
• New users (non-sponsors of JIP) pay a competitive price
for valuable data and functionality hitherto available only
to JIP sponsors

• Program Sponsors get a substantial (40%) discount on all

prices

• Comprehensive consulting support and customization

services offered to all users

• Various options available for licensing:

- Single user workstation licenses
- Single / Multi user network based licenses
- Corporate (worldwide) Licenses
- Annual or Multi-year licenses available

20
 Predict-Amine 2.0 Brings Value

• As a tool for corrosion quantification

• To support inspection planning, and allocation of resources
towards situations that have potential for high corrosion
• To determine the right alloy (a more expensive material is
not always better)
• To mitigate and minimize risk of failure (as a component in
any RBI program)
• Applicable in various scenarios
- Material selection for new equipments
- Utilize existing inspection resources wisely
- Locating critical locations in existing amine units
- Determining inspection intervals
- Evaluating materials or amine quality
- Optimizing Asset Integrity and Reliability programs
21
 Conclusions
• Predict-Amine 2.0 may be used by all refinery and
gas processing operators for assessing rich amine
corrosion
• Supports better inspection and maintenance
planning, and allocation of monitoring/equipment
resources
• Mitigate and minimize risk of failure (as a
component in any RBI program)
• Lean Amine and MDEA data may be obtained by
joining current JIP programs
• Supports enhanced safety and reliability through
better decision making and failure prevention

22
 Thank you

• Questions?
• Discussion

23