Report on process operation and parameters of amine gas treatment plant.

By: Mohd Khairul Fathy bin M.Asrar

ID: 55102118037

The plant that are used is the amine gas treatment plant. It functions to treat sour gas
that is amine gas by the process of sweetening. Gas sweetening is the process of removing
hydrogen sulphides, carbon dioxide and mercaptans from natural gas. It is to make sure that
the gas is suitable to be used and can be transported or sale. hydrogen sulphide and carbon
dioxide is separated because it has a corrosive effect on the transportation lines and also vary
toxic to humans. For mercaptans, it is highly irritant when having contact with moist
surfaces. Open moist tissues in our body such as the eyes, skin and even our respiratory
system can be affected if exposed to mercaptans.

In this plant, the usual processing equipment used is the absorber, regenerator,
condenser, reflux drum and reboiler. But the proposed plant that has been made added up to
three more equipment that can be used to further smooth the process of gas sweetening. The
new equipment proposed is an inlet separator, a flash tank separator and a heat exchanger.
We believe by the addition of these equipment, the process can run with higher efficiency and
total amine gas that is treated can be increased optimally. Each of the equipment in the plant
has its own functions and parameters as to operate it. Every one and each of the equipment
will be enlighted to have more understanding as why the new equipment is proposed.

Firstly, is the inlet separator. An inlet separator functions to separate gas impurities
such as slug liquids from droplets. In this case, the sour gas that is fed in will be stripped its
contaminants to let the process flow smoothly. Contaminants is stripped down to leave only
pure sour gas to be purified. The existence of contaminants component in the sour gas may
cause the process to slow down a tad bit. Therefore, an inlet separator is the most efficient
equipment to higher levitate the process. The inlet separator operates with the condition
pressure of 3.2 MPa and temperature at -60 to 80°C.
 The next equipment is the absorber. An absorber brings gas and liquid phase in
contact, so that the impurities in the gas phase absorbs into the liquid phase as a result of the
reaction. In this process, the sour gas is flowed to the rich solvent of amine leaving the sweet
gas flow upwards. The rich solvent is then transported to the flash tank separator. The
operating conditions for the absorber is at pressure of under 1 MPa and temperature of under
40°C.

Let’s move to the next equipment that is the flash tank separator. The flash tank
separator is the second equipment proposed to be added in the new plant. As the rich solvent
went out from the absorber, there must be off-gas that dissolved from the rich solvent. In this
case, the flash tank separator will recover the off-gas that have been dissolved. This is to
make the efficiency of amine treatment increase. It is also to decrease the total loss
percentage of materials in this process and accumulate all of the material to the highest
extent. the flash tank separator operates in a pressure of 0.1 MPa and temperature 55-77°C.

The third proposed equipment in this plant is the heat exchanger. A heat exchanger is
an equipment where heat is allowed to be transported from a fluid to another without making
any direct contact. Therefore, the fluid would not have mixed up and need to undergo any
other separating process. In this setting, the heat exchanger involves two flow that is the rich
solvent flow and the lean solvent flow. The lean solvent that came from the reboiler has a
high temperature. Thus, the heat from the lean solvent is used to preheat the rich solvent. This
equipment is suitable with this plant because there will be much less energy used in the
process. Heating up a mixture would use up energy, therefore heat exchanger is an
appropriate device that can lower the consumption of energy in this process. The heat
exchanger can operate at high pressure and temperature as long it does not exceed the
conditions. It can operate at pressure as high as 100 MPa and temperature up to 1000°C.

As mention before, there is lean solvent that flowed from the reboiler. Therefore, the
next equipment is the reboiler. A reboiler provides heat to fluid. It operates by circulating
steam stream at the bottom to boil the fluid. In the process, the lean solvent is boiled in the
reboiler before send out to the heat exchanger. Gas that is released will be sent to the
regenerator for further process. The pressure for this process is 700 kPa and temperature at
150°C.

The next equipment is the regenerator. The regenerator works by stripping acid gasses
by reducing the pressure and increase the temperature. It is to remove off-gas by absorption.
Then, the rich solvent is pumped to the heat exchanger into the absorber while the excess is
sent to condenser. The regenerator receives gasses from the boiler and reflux drum. The
regenerator operates on pressure under 100 kPa and temperature from 677 – 732°C.

Moving on, the next equipment is the condenser. A condenser functions to allow high
pressure and temperature vapor to condense and eject heat. It converts gas into liquid and
send it to the reflux drum. The condenser will condense gas into liquid to simplify the process
of reflux. The operating conditions is 10 kPa and 15°C.

Lastly, the reflux drum. The reflux drum is a reservoir where condensates is collected
from the condenser. The condensate is then transferred to acid gas and is accumulated. The
reflux drum will receive condensate from the condenser. It will then leave the reflux drum
under level control. It is also important to ensure the proper amount of reflux is send to the
cooling tower. The parameter for this unit is at 130 kPa and 110°C.

That sums up all of the equipment in the plant. In our opinion the addition of several
equipment can cause a big impact on the efficiency of the process. Much lesser energy is
used, all materials is accumulated with low percentage of loss and no complicated process
that lowers the outcome percentage.
References
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