Identification and Quantification of Organic Contaminants and Evaluation of Their Effects on Amine Foaming in the Natural Gas Sweetening Industry

Qingmei Chen; Xiujun Peng; Jingwen Xue; Jinjin Li; Chunfeng Pan

doi:10.1021/acsomega.2c05132

Identification and Quantification of Organic Contaminants and Evaluation of Their Effects on Amine Foaming in the Natural Gas Sweetening Industry

ACS Omega. 2022 Dec 8;7(50):46421-46427. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.2c05132. eCollection 2022 Dec 20.

Authors

Qingmei Chen^{1

2

3}, Xiujun Peng^{1

2

3}, Jingwen Xue^{1

2

3}, Jinjin Li^{1

2

3}, Chunfeng Pan⁴

Affiliations

¹ Research Institute of Natural Gas Technology, PetroChina Southwest Oil & Gasfield Company, Chengdu610213, China.
² National Energy R&D Center of High Sulfur Gas Exploitation, Chengdu610213, China.
³ High Sulfur Gas Exploitation Pilot Test Center, CNPC, Chengdu610213, China.
⁴ PetroChina Southwest Oil & Gasfield Company, Chengdu610213, China.

Abstract

Contamination is a leading cause of corrosion, foaming, and amine-absorption capacity limitation, predominantly foaming. There is currently an urgent need to identify the sources of amine foaming and eliminate them or reduce their impacts. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and a sample pretreatment method were developed to identify and quantify the organic contaminants. Linear hydrocarbons (C₁₂-C₂₂), long-chain carboxylic acids and esters, alcohol ethoxylates, and benzene derivatives were detected, characterized, and quantified in amine solutions. Furthermore, the effects of the contaminant concentrations on foaming behavior were also investigated by adding those contaminants. The results reveal that the main issue of foaming is due to the presence of unsaturated fatty acids and alcohol ethoxylates, even with a small amount of 10 ppm, whereas benzene derivatives like methylpyridine, quinoline, methyl naphthalene, benzyl alcohol, octahydroacridine, and linear hydrocarbons have little effect on amine foaming, even with an amount up to 2000 ppm. Therefore, it is necessary to monitor the existence and content of these surface-active contaminants.