141 Int J Petrochem Res. ISSN: 2638-1974 Volume 2 • Issue 1 • 1000124 International Journal of Petrochemistry and Research Research Article Open Access Effects of lean alkanolamine temperature on the performance of CO 2 absorption processes using alkanolamine solutions Abolghasem Kazemi* Chemical engineering department, Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan, Iran Article Info *Corresponding author: Abolghasem Kazemi Chemical engineering department Isfahan University of Technology Isfahan, Iran Tel: +989171492783 E-mail: abolghasemkazemi@gmail.com Received: May 26, 2018 Accepted: May 30, 2018 Published: June 4, 2018 Citation: Kazemi A. Effects of lean alkanolamine temperature on the performance of CO 2 absorption processes using alkanolamine solutions. Int J Petrochem Res. 2018; 2(1): 141-147. doi: 10.18689/ijpr-1000124 Copyright: © 2018 The Author(s). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Published by Madridge Publishers Abstract Acid gas removal from the natural gas using alkanolamine processes is the most common technology used for sweetening of natural gas. Based on the sour and sweet gas specifications, several alkanolamine solutions can be used for acid gas removal, all of which are well developed processes. However, one of the remaining issues is the costs associated with the processes. In this study, DEA, DGA and mixed (MDEA+DEA) processes are designed for sweetening the natural gas produced in one of the gas fields having high CO 2 /H 2 S ratio. For each process, seven scenarios are designed to investigate the effects of the cooler’s operating parameters on the performance of the process. For each scenario, the duty of the cooler is varied in order to have a specific lean amine temperature entering the absorber. Each scenario is simulated using Aspen HYSYS and economically evaluated using Aspen economic evaluation. Based on the results of this study, the required solution circulation rates slightly increases when the lean amine temperature increases. However, Lower process capital costs and lower cooler’s duty were obtained by operating the DEA and DGA processes at higher values of lean amine temperature. Also, operating at lower lean amine temperatures resulted in lower hydrocarbon pick up in case of MDEA+DEA process. Keywords: CO 2 ; Natural Gas Sweetening; Cooler’s Parameters; DEA; DGA; Mixed Amine Introduction The processes using Alkanolamine solutions for acid gas removal from natural gas are the most common processes used for the removal of acid gases from natural gas. The alkanolamine processes are well developed processes, each of which is suitable for sweetening the natural gas with certain sour and sweet gas specifications [1-9]. However, one of the main issues is the large costs associated with these processes [10-12]. Numerous studies have been carried out to reduce the costs associated with these processes. Polasek et al studied alternative flow schemes for natural gas sweetening [11], Bae et al studied split flow configuration for the process [13], Warudkar et al studied the effects of stripper operating parameters [10], Cousins et al studied modifications on the process flow sheet [14], Sohbi et al and Fouad et al studied effects of using mixed alakanolamines [6, 7], Kazemi et al and Ghanbarabadi et al performed comparative studies between different processes [15, 16], Nuchitprasitichai et al, Øi et aland Mores et al used optimization techniques [12, 17, 18] Freeman et al proposed using concentrated piperazine mixtures [8] and Banat et al used energy analysis method [19] for reducing costs and energy requirements of the sweetening processes. For the sweetening of the natural gas with certain specifications, several processes might be applicable. One of the questions which arise in these situations is that which process is the most economical process to be used for sweetening of the natural gas with ISSN: 2638-1974