Midstream Acid Gas

Solid and hydrocarbon liquid contaminants removal upstream of the contactor is important to control foaming and fouling in the contactor and throughout the amine loop.  Conventional contaminant removal solutions before the contactor such as KO pots, mesh pads, cyclonic devices and conventional filter-separators may not effectively remove aerosol-sized liquid hydrocarbon droplets or fine solids. The solid contaminants in the amine loop itself are mostly very fine corrosion products such as iron sulfide that may not be adequately removed by filters that exhibit unloading, media migration, channeling or poor sealing.

Pall's filtration and separation technology offers solutions to poor filter performance that otherwise leads to issues such as foaming, process efficiency loss and increased maintenance due to fouling of the contactor, lean-rich exchanger, regenerator and reboiler due to dirty amine (green, brown, or black in color).These solutions will help maintain gas production levels,  ensure consistent sales gas specification quality for H₂S and CO₂ levels, minimize off gas emissions through reliability improvement of sulfur plant operation , and reduce operating and maintenance costs from fouling and corrosion control.

Placement of a high efficiency liquid/gas coalescer is recommended upstream of the contactor to remove solid and hydrocarbon liquid contaminants before they can enter the amine loop.   High efficiency SepraSol™ Plus liquid/gas coalescers & Medallion™ HP liquid/gas coalescers provide 99.999% liquid aerosol removal at 0.3 microns per the DOP test and 1 ppb downstream per the modified ANSI/CAGI-400-1999 test procedure.  When deployed at the contactor outlet on the sweetened gas, the coalescer removes amine carryover that will otherwise contaminate downstream processes such as glycol dehydration, molecular sieve dehydration or mercury removal, or result in off-spec sales gas.

Hydrocarbon liquids may be present in the amine either from inadequate protection upstream of the contactor or from poor operation of the flash drum.  For liquid hydrocarbon removal from amine the PhaseSep® liquid/liquid coalescer is recommended, installed on the rich amine loop upstream of the lean-rich exchanger to protect the exchanger and regenerator from hydrocarbon contamination.  The reduced oil carryover into the regenerator reduces upsets in downstream sulphur plants and will reduce exchanger and regenerator fouling.

For amine filtration, Ultipleat® High Flow filters, Profile® Coreless filters, Marksman™ filters, Profile II filters, Nexis® filters, or a range of Pall FSI bag filters deliver enhanced gas plant productivity, reliability and compliance via amine unit protection from particulate-induced foaming and fouling.

A range of absolute and nominal rated filter elements is available to reduce suspended solids to <5 ppmw, keeping the amine clear or pale yellow in color, and reduce foaming and fouling issues while providing long filter service life and controlled filter operating, labor and disposal costs.

Ultipleat High Flow filtration added to the rich side will enhance solids control to maximize protection of the lean/rich exchanger and reboiler from the impact of fouling and localized corrosion.

Pall filters and separator solutions remove liquids and solids from amine systems to help deliver on-spec gas. For more information, click here to see purchase information or talk to a Pall expert.