Surfactant Contaminants in Feed Gas Stream to Amine Units: The Hidden Foaming

Presented at Annual Conference, 13 - 15 September 2017 at Sofitel Chain Bridge Hotel, Budapest by
David Engel, Heath Burns and Scott Williams, Nexo Solutions
Contamination in feed gas streams to processing plants is one of the leading causes of lost revenue upsets and low throughput. More detailed testing shows that surfactants in the gas stream are one of the most damaging contaminants affecting the process. Surfactants often pose several challenges such as foaming and emulsification. In fact, surfactants in the feed gas is perhaps the predominant cause of amine foaming leading to high H2S in the treated gas and amine solvent losses. Surface active contaminants in gas streams should therefore be sampled analysed and removed to enable processing plants to run stable. This paper discusses several cases where inlet gas sampling revealed the presence of surfactants directly linked to amine solvent foaming and associated losses. Specialized methods for surfactants presence such as surface tension and surface rheology evaluation are examined here as well as techniques for on-site sampling of the inlet gas. The paper additionally discusses measures to be implemented to remove surfactants and eliminate their downstream effects.