InternationalJournalofEnergyScience(IJES),Volume6Issue1,2016www.ijesci.

org
doi:10.14355/ijes.2016.0601.02

InvestigatingtheEffectofOperating
TemperatureonthePerformanceofTGT
AbsorberColumn
HamidRezaMahdipoor*1
DepartmentofProcessandEquipmentTechnologyDevelopment,ResearchInstituteofPetroleumIndustry,
Tehran,Iran
*1

*1

mahdipoorhr@ripi.ir

Abstract
Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) coming from oil and gas refineries, after purifying in amine sweetening unit, is routed to Sulfur
Recovery Unit (SRU), wherein converted to elemental sulfur. In order to compensate the low performance of SRU, the
remained acid gas is then fed to Tail Gas Treatment (TGT) unit for more processing. TGT unit increases the overall sulfur
recoveryandtherefore,decreasestheenvironmentalpollution.TheabsorbercolumnisanimportantequipmentintheTGTunit.
ThemainfunctionofthiscolumnistheselectiveabsorptionofH2SinthepresenceofCO2.Inthispaper,theeffectofoperating
temperatureontheperformanceofTGTabsorbercolumnwillbeinvestigated.Forthispurpose,atypicalindustrialTGTunitis
simulatedandthen,theresultsareillustratedandanalyzedintermsoftechnicalpointsofview.
Keywords
TailGasTreatment(TGT),SelectiveAbsorption

Introduction
Hydrogensulfide(H2S)comingfromoilandgasrefineries,afterpurifyinginaminesweeteningunit,isroutedto
Sulfur Recovery Unit (SRU), wherein converted to elemental sulfur. Claus process is the most common sulfur
recovery process. It contains a front head reaction furnace connected to a waste heat boiler (WHB), and two or
threecatalyticconvertersfollowedbysulfurcondensers.TheoverallClausreactionisasbelow[16],
2H 2 S O2 S 2 2H 2 O (1)

Atfirst,onethirdofH2SenteredtoreactionfurnaceisoxidizedtoSO2.Theoxidationreactionisasbelow,
H 2 S 3 O2 SO2 H 2O (2)
2

About60%ofSO2resultedfromreaction(2),reactwithH2Sandconvertedtoelementalsulfurinreactionfurnace,
asbelow,
2H 2 S SO2 3 2 S 2 2 H 2 O (3)

Inthenextstep,theremainedH2SandSO2reactregardingtoreaction3incatalyticconvertersandconvertedto
elementalsulfur.TheoverallrecoveryofClausprocesshardlyexceeds96%andtheunrecoveredsulfurasCOS,CS2,
H2S and sulfur vapour, burned in the tail gas incinerator which leads to excessive sulfur dioxide sent to the
atmosphereandtherefore,environmentalpollution.Inordertoincreasethetotalrecoveryofsulfuranddecrease
the environmental pollutants, TGT unit is incorporated before incinerator of Claus section. SCOT process is the
mostcommonprocessfortreatmentoftailgasesandhasbeenindustrializedinmoreplaces.Figure1showsthe
SchematicdiagramofatypicalSCOTprocess[613].
As illustrated in Figure 1, tail gas stream coming from Claus unit, after heating in the inline burner, enters the
reduction reactor in which all its sulfur components including COS, CS2 and SO2 are converted to H2S. After
coolingthegas,thisstreamenterstheamineabsorbercolumn.H2Senrichedstream(richamine)isroutedtothe
regeneratorcolumn(stripper).Leanaminestreamfromthebottomofthestripperisrecycledtoabsorberandthe

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www.ijesci.orgInternationalJournalofEnergyScience(IJES),Volume6Issue1,2016

gasstreamwithhighcontentofH2SfromthetopofthestripperisreturnedtotheinputoftheClauswhereitis
mixed with Claus acid gas feed. The stream exiting from the top of the absorber (the off gas of SCOT process)
whichincludesanegligibleamountofH2Sisdirectedtoincineratorwhereitisburnedwithfuelgas(seefigure1)
[6,11]. Valve tray or packing can be used in TGT absorber as internal. However, structured packing is preferred
becauseofitslowpressuredropaswellashighperformance.Inthenextsection,theabsorbercolumnofatypical
industrial TGT unit is simulated to investigate the effect of Amine temperature on the performance of TGT
absorbercolumn.

FIG.1SCHEMATICDIAGRAMOFATYPICALSCOTPROCESS[6]

Simulation of a Typical TGT Unit

In order to investigate the effect of Amine temperature on the performance of TGT absorber column, a typical
industrial TGT unit is simulated using Promax software. Promax is developed by BRE company and is a well
knownsoftwareforsimulatingsulfurrecoveryplants,aswellasaminesweeteningunits.Moreaccurateresultscan
beachievable,whenthissoftwareiscalibratedbymeansofexperimentalandindustrialdata.Themolarflowofthe
ClaustailgaswhichisconsideredasTGTunitfeedisequalwith2300kmole/h.Themolepercentofthisstreamis
shownintable1.Asshowninthistable,themainportionoftailgasconsistsofCO2whiletheH2Smolepercentis
equal with 1%. If high concentration of CO2 was absorbed by TGT absorber, there would be some problems in
Clausunitsuchasincreaseoftheequipmentsizes,decreaseofthereactionfurnacetemperature,etcwhichresultin
lowsulfurrecovery.Therefore,theidealfunctionofTGTabsorberistheselectiveabsorptionofH2S.Inthisstudy,
methyldiethanolamine(MDEA)whichisaselectiveabsorbent,isusedinabsorbercolumn.Themolarflowrateof
aminesolutionisconsideredtobe14500kmole/h.Theconcentrationofamineispresentedintable1.
TABLE1COMPONENTSMOLEPERCENTOFACIDGASANDAMINESOLUTIONFEED

component

Aminesolution

Acidgas

CO2

0.01

40

N2

47

H2S

0.04

H2

H2O

93.95

MDEA

InordertoinvestigatingtheeffectofoperatingtemperatureontheperformanceofTGTabsorber,thetemperature
ofaminesolutionisincreasedfrom30Cupto60C.Acidgastemperaturesuddenlydecreasedwhencontacting
withaminesolutioncountercurrently.Hence,thetemperatureofacidgasfeedwassupposedtobeconstantwhich
isequalwith50C,inthisstudy.Figure2showsthechangesofH2Sconcentrationinthesweetgasfromthetopof
the TGT column vs. changes of the amine temperature. As illustrated in this figure, increasing the amine

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InternationalJournalofEnergyScience(IJES),Volume6Issue1,2016www.ijesci.org

temperaturewillincreaseH2Sconcentrationrapidly.Although,H2Sconcentrationisacceptableyetwhentheamine
temperaturereachestoabout50C.

FIG.2CHANGESOFH2SCONCENTRATIONINTHESWEETGASVS.AMINETEMPERATURE

Figure 3 shows the changes in acid gas rich amine loading (moles of H2S and CO2 in rich Amine per moles of
MDEA) versus amine solution temperature. According to figure 3, H2S loading is almost constant when the
temperatureofaminewaschanged.Ontheotherhand,CO2loadingincreasesbyraisingthetemperatureofamine
solution.Therefore,althoughraisingtheaminetemperaturewouldnotbeeffectiveontheH2Scontentinthesweet
gasleavingthetopoftheabsorbercolumn,itincreasedtheabsorbedCO2whichisnotpreferableintheselective
absorptionprocess.
InadditiontoppmofH2Sinthesweetgas,theratiobetweenH2SandCO2isanimportantparametertoevaluate
performance of TGT absorber column. The changes in H2S/CO2 ratio with MDEA concentration are depicted in
figure 4. As is shown in this figure, H2S/CO2 ratio decreases with the increase of amine solution temperature.
Therefore,usinglowertemperatureismoreappropriateintermsoftheselectiveabsorptionofH2S.
Regardingtotheachievedresultsillustratedinfigure2tofigure4,iftheamountofCO2inacidgasfeedofTGT
unitwashigh(e.g.TGTunitofgasrefinerieswithleanacidgasfeed),lowertemperaturesshouldbeconsideredfor
operatingtemperatureofTGTabsorbercolumntoabsorblowerCO2.Ontheotherhand,iftheamountofCO2in
acidgasfeedofTGTunitwaslowornegligible(e.g.TGTunitofoilrefineries),operatingtemperaturecanincrease
upto50C.MoretemperaturesshouldbepreventedtoavoidincreasingoftheH2Sconcentrationinthesweetgas
streaminthetopoftheTGTabsorber.

FIG.3CHANGESINACIDGASLOADINGVS.FIG.4CHANGESINH2S/CO2RATIOVS.AMINE
AMINETEMPERATURETEMPERATURE

Conclusions
TGT unit is considered to enhance overall sulfur recovery as well as respect environmental regulations. The
selectiveabsorbercolumnisanimportantequipmentinTGTunit.Inthispaper,theeffectofoperatingtemperature
on the performance of absorber column was investigated. For this purpose, a typical industrial TGT unit was
simulated. The results revealed that lower temperatures should be considered for operating temperature of TGT

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www.ijesci.orgInternationalJournalofEnergyScience(IJES),Volume6Issue1,2016

absorber column to absorb lower CO2. If the amount of CO2 in acid gas feed of TGT unit was low or negligible,
operatingtemperaturecanincreaseupto50C.
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