How to Set Steam Flow to a Reboiler in an Amine System

[@yasserputhoor9697]

Excellent video Ben! This was a very good revision to the extensive seminar by Amine Experts that i attended! 😊

[@sulphurexpertsinc7755]

Thank you Yasser!

[@benspooner8690]

Thanks Yasser, I am glad you liked it. As you saw in our seminar, we can discuss this topic for an hour or more if we wanted, and its hard to squeeze everything into 5 minutes. But you get the general idea!

[@eduardosanhueza3827]

Thanks Ben for sharing your experience, very valuable information and for sure key for a proper amine system operation.

[@sulphurexpertsinc7755]

Thanks, Eduardo!

[@abs111]

Thank you very much for very nice explanation

[@jimwest1476]

What a great bunch of videos

[@Ferbfiruto14]

Good job Ben. What exactly does reflux ratio do when correcting for insufficient or excessive steam/feed ratio? Does it push the stripping zone up and down the tower?

[@benspooner8690]

Fruito, the reflux ratio is a ratio of water-to-acid gas in the overhead of a regenerator. The higher this ratio, the more steam is flowing through the tower, therefore pushing the area of regeneration higher and higher. What we do NOT want is any appreciable amounts of H2S or CO2 getting to the bottom of the column.

[@atuldarji978]

Thank you den for sharing useful information. please share video of CO2 wash column.

[@behnazmotamed]

Perfect!

[@sulphurexpertsinc7755]

Thank you Behnaz!

[@akm_maut_yt4701]

Me sattar from Pakistan. I must say excellent videos that I was searching for. I am working at the amine plant where we are facing frequent reboiler tubes failure. The second is blackish TEG colour. Plant is designed 100 MM with stream 24%CO2 and 20PPm h2s.which video is for TEG.regards.

[@khudaidahassan2646]

Thank you very much

[@sulphurexpertsinc7755]

You're welcome!

[@salam1416]

Thank you a lot. What about the ratio of reflux flow to amine flow in DGA plants? Is it more of 10% or 5% ? It's a primary amine, so I would assume something similar to 10%, but that's not really the case based on our unit design

[@benspooner8690]

Al Ali, it really depends on how low the lean loading of the DGA needs to be, which is based a number of factors: H2S spec in the treated gas, absorber pressure and lean amine temperature. It also depends on the CO2-removal efficiency in the regenerator - we don't like to see much more than about 0.5 mol% CO2 in the steam return line from the reboiler to the regenerator due to corrosion risk. *In general* we find DGA works well with a reflux ratio of about 3, and a ratio of reflux:rich amine flow of 5-7%.

[@salam1416]

@@benspooner8690 Thanks a lot Ben

[@bradleyt.bjerken1242]

Do you have a flow rate for hot oil reboilers? Our hot oil operates at 177 deg. C

[@benspooner8690]

Brad, no there is no '"generic" recommendation for a ratio of hot oil to amine, as it depends on the heat capacity of the oil, as well as temperature. In these cases we recommend first the hot oil to about 180C (which you've already done) then increase oil flow until the desired regenerator overhead temperature is reached. Double check the temperature by checking the reflux - to - amine ratio, and check the lean loading. If those three parameters look good, make note of the oil:amine ratio and put that up in the control room. Alternatively, if you have the unit modelled on ProMax you can enter the exact type of hot oil and it will accurately predict the required flow.

[@wahidalzmzam8059]

Great