Fawzi Banat
Petroleum Institute Abu Dhabi, UAE
Title: Experimental study and scale up of adsorption column for reclaiming lean methyldiethanolamine solvent from natural gas sweetening unit
Biography
Biography: Fawzi Banat
Abstract
Foaming and solvent degradation is a major issue in natural gas sweetening unit. Currently, GASCO Company (Abu Dhabi) is using aqueous methyldiethanolamine (MDEA) to scrub H2S/CO2. Adsorption is mostly applied technology to regenerate MDEA. Polymeric/clay hybrid composite were used in continuous adsorption to remove contaminants using different column diameter and height. This study focusses on the removal of organic acid anions as major contaminant present in lean MDEA. Dimensional analysis has been carried out in order to identify the relevant dimensionless groups involved to provide scale up studies. The adsorption column bed diameter and bed height was changed from 1.5-2.6 cm and 10-45 cm, respectively. The columns with 2.6 cm diameter having 10, 23 and 45 cm height was filled with different weight of adsorbents. It was observed that with increasing bed diameter the breakthrough as well as bed saturation time was increased. The breakthrough curve for lower diameter column was observed to have a sharp slope and shortened mass transfer zone. The bed height of 10 cm had faster breakthrough as compared to 23 and 45 cm bed height. Thus, higher the bed height, higher is the breakthrough as more amount of lean MDEA can be treated.
