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Volume 8, Issue 4 (Suppl) J Pet Environ Biotechnol, an open access journal
ISSN: 2157-7463 Oil Gas Expo 2017
July 13-14, 2017
Oil and Gas
July 13-14, 2017 Berlin, Germany
3rd International Conference and Expo on
Experimental study and scale up of adsorption column for reclaiming lean methyl diethanolamine solvent
from natural gas sweetening unit
Fawzi Banat, Priyabrata Pal and Anjali A Edathil
Khalifa University, UAE
Foaming and solvent degradation is a major issue in natural gas sweetening unit. Currently, GASCO Company (Abu Dhabi) is
using aqueous methyl diethanolamine (MDEA) to scrub H2S/CO2. Adsorption is mostly applied technology to regenerate MDEA.
Polymeric/clay hybrid composite were used in continuous adsorption to remove contaminants using different column diameter and
height. This study focusses on the removal of organic acid anions as major contaminant present in lean MDEA. Dimensional analysis
has been carried out in order to identify the relevant dimensionless groups involved to provide scale up studies. The adsorption
column bed diameter and bed height was changed from 1.5-2.6 cm and 10-45 cm, respectively. The columns with 2.6 cm diameter
having 10, 23 and 45 cm height were filled with different weight of adsorbents. It was observed that with increasing bed diameter
the breakthrough as well as bed saturation time was increased. The breakthrough curve for lower diameter column was observed to
have a sharp slope and shortened mass transfer zone. The bed height of 10 cm had faster breakthrough as compared to 23 and 45
cm bed height. Thus, higher the bed height, higher is the breakthrough as more amount of lean MDEA can be treated. Thomas and
Yoon-Nelson models were used for analyzing the experimental data. For the scale up studies, the concentration of the contaminants
in the column was approximated into two zones: A large saturated zone and a smaller unused zone. Then assumptions were made for
laboratory to pilot scale that when the column gets longer, the size of the saturated zone will change but the size of the unused zone
remain constant. While, for industrial scale both the zones will increase accordingly. The findings of this research could contribute to
the industrial scale up for the purification of lean MDEA.
Biography
Fawzi Banat is a Professor and Chair of Chemical Engineering Department at Khalifa University of Science and Technology, Petroleum Institute, UAE. He has
obtained his PhD (Chemical Engineering) from McGill University, Canada, in 1995. Area of his research interests include gas and water treatment. He has received
several research awards, published over 120 papers and holds a number of international patents.
Fawzi Banat et al., J Pet Environ Biotechnol 2017, 8:4 (Suppl)
DOI: 10.4172/2157-7463-C1-034
Fig.1: Column studies for the removal of total organic acid anions with
polymeric/clay composite beads as adsorbents