Technical Paper: AmiPur - Heat Stable Salts Removal System
•Technical Paper: AmiPur - Heat Stable Salts Removal System
As amine gas treating plants move towards cost-effective operation and reduction of amine losses, the accumulation of impurities and decomposition products in the amine loop becomes noticeable and creates numerous operational problems. The AmiPur system was developed to remove the heat stable salts from the amine streams. The system is based upon the proprietary short-bed Recoflo® ion exchange technology which optimizes continuous removal efficiency while reducing regenerant consumption.
AmiPur, which was developed in cooperation with Crown Central Petroleum Co., was installed in October 1998 to continuously treat a slip stream of amine at the Pasadena refinery amine plant. At this location, the compact AmiPur with a footprint of 40 in. x 36 in. is processing 0.4 gpm of lean MDEA and removes about 1 kg per hour of heat stable salts. After four months of operation, the level of heat stable salts was reduced from 2.4 to 1.5 wt % as MDEA, while the corrosion rate went down from 30 to 10 mpy. The details of AmiPur operation, as well as the refinery experience and observations, are presented in this paper.
Introduction
Amine unit operations have become even more critical as environmental compliance units, and in todays refinery, are critical to the refinery's flexibility and success. The truth is that the "tail is wagging the dog" and amine unit upsets can not be tolerated for very long. Generally, there is recognition that the amine unit only runs as well as the "amine quality" allows. This "amine quality" is measured by such parameters as the solution's "foamabilty", the lean and rich amine loadings, the amine concentration, and the solution's contaminants. These contaminants include metals from the unit equipment, specificions that interfere with the absorption, and amine by-products in the form of heat stable salts. These heat stable amine salts (HSAS) in the solution cause corrosion problems that lead to foaming in the absorber columns, higher amine losses, absorber tower pluggage, heat exchanger fouling, shortened amine filter life, and overall unit instabilty, which then cascades on to the refiner's Sulfur Plant.
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