Gas Processors Association Europe

Luke Addington and Chris Ness, Bryan Research and Engineering, Texas, USA

Many “rules of thumb” are widely used in the design and operation of amine sweetening units.  These rules have been developed over the years and most engineers accept them – but many have little familiarity with how important they maybe.  Few ask why have these rules; how absolute are they; and is there any flexibility?  In this paper, several of these rules are described and evaluated for their usefulness and necessity using parametric studies with a steady-state process simulator.  These include the 5 C temperature approach in the absorber, the 0.1 kg/L specification for reboiler steam, the lean rich exchanger outlet temperature, rich approach, regenerator pressure/reboiler temperature, the standard 20 tray column, and the effects of heat stable salts.