Masterly Logistical Performance in Carrying out a Solvent Swap

摘要

BP Indonesia have decided to replace the acid gas removal solvent in the existing Amine Plant in the B2C platform with BASF's activated MDEA because of inadequate performance of the previous solvent. In addition to that, improper design of the Amine regenerator tower (where the stainless steel part is only 10% of the vessel's height and partial pressure of the CO_2 is higher than 30% in the carbon steel part) has worsened the vessel condition. The unit suffered from severe scaling and especially corrosion. Three possible options to minimize corrosion and improve Amine regenerator performance were evaluated : to keep using current solvent and change the regeneration column with stainless steel (100%), to keep using current solvent and blanket the regeneration column with stainless steel material (>50% of total vessel's height), or to change to a non-corrosive solvent and use the existing regeneration column as current condition. This paper briefly explains the situation prior to the swap and the main benefits afterwards, including lower circulation rate and fuel consumption. However, the main purpose of the paper is to highlight the masterly logistic performance, which was necessary in order to carry out the swap within one week to minimize loss of supply to the gas customer, a Jakarta power station.