CO2 LOADING MEASUREMENT AND CONTROL IN AN AMINE ABSORPTION/STRIPPING PILOT PLANT

摘要

Amine absorption/stripping plants are common in a wide variety of applications industrially, rangingrnfrom removal of acid gases from natural gas to the removal of CO2 from flue gases. As a consequencernof rule based design methods and operational procedures, these units are built and operated with largernsafety factors in order to ensure a “sales gas” composition specification is met. This can lead to excessrnenergy usage. Placing important process variables such as the concentration of acid gas in the “salesrngas” and regenerated amine under feedback control would help to allow just enough flow/energy to bernused to meet system requirements, thus improving the overall eco-efficiency of the plant. Despite thernbenefits of direct feedback control of these concentrations, existing measurement technologies may notrnbe cost effective or adequate for feedback control purposes.rnThis work investigates the feasibility of measurement of the CO2 loading of an amine solution in a pilotrnplant using conductivity, which provides an online signal at a lower cost than existing technologies.rnCalibration data consisting of Conductivity vs. CO2 loading in mono-ethanolamine (MEA) solutions atrndifferent temperatures will be presented.