Amine Troubleshooting

You have problems with your amine and you’ve run out of “things that worked last time.”
SRE can help determine the root cause and get you back to full production.

Here are our solutions to common problems in amine circuits and in tail gas treating units:

 

1. FOAMING

  1. Quickly determine heavy HCs and
    contaminants in inlet feed to absorbers.
    (SRE’s GC technology with 5 minute runtime.)

  2. Onsite foam testing, inclusive of evaluation
    of appropriate anti-foams.

2. CORROSION

  1. Quickly identify corrosion potential
    areas through simulation.

  2. Review monitoring programs.

  3. Help minimize corrosion through
    online O&M monitoring program.

3. OFF-SPEC GAS / LPG

  1. Onsite testing to diagnose issues,
    analyses within 5 minutes.

  2. SRE can identify trace sulfur
    components in all streams, with 99%
    closure of sulfur balance.

4. FOULING

  1. Review filtration program.

5. SULFUR PLANT FEED QUALITY

  1. Analytical – onsite testing of the regenerator overhead.

  2. SRE’s technology is highly accurate for trace sulfur components,
    breakdown of mercaptans.

  3. Speciated BTEX and quantify concentration of HCN (hydrogen
    cyanide is highly corrosive).

  4. Quickly optimize the circuit to improve Acid Gas quality

6. HYDROCARBON ENTRAINMENT

  1. Review inlet separation
    equipment.

  2. Quantify the inlet
    process stream.

7. INEFFICIENT ENERGY USAGE / HIGH CARBON INTENSITY

  1. Optimization of plant energy through fine tuning of the circulation rates and
    reboiler duties to ensure that the minimal amount of energy is being used.

  2. SRE can recommend alternate amines that require lower energy usage.

  3. Can assist with changing steam drives to electric drives. SRE can help
    produce the spec sheets for the replacement.

8. ROOT CAUSE ANALYSIS OF COMMON ALARMS

  1. Absorber pressure differential (delta P)

  2. H2S and total sulfur analyzer errors

  3. Fuel gas H2S analyzer errors

  4. Sulfur plant tail gas analyzer (ADA) erratic behavior

  5. Quench pH

  6. Quench cooler fouling

  7. Hydrogen analyzer plugging

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