Energy Efficiency Enhancement in Amine Unit by Application of Multiple Lean Amine Streams in Amine Contactor

Nowadays, natural gas is used as a reliable energy resource around the world. Usually, natural gas requires sweetening processes before consumption and amine units are widely employed for this purpose. Amine unit is used for the separation of acid gases, such as H2S and CO2, from natural gas by means of amine solutions. Energy consumption of amine units is significantly high, due to considerable heating and cooling requirements, and practical methods that reduce energy demand are of interest. In this manuscript, a real amine unit of a gas refinery in Iran has been simulated and simulation results have been compared to actual data, available from the real unit and engineering documents. Simulation results have been found in good agreement with actual industrial data. After simulation validation, the application of multiple inlet amine lines to the absorption column has been examined by several simulations and the optimum location of amine entrance to amine contactor has been investigated.  Research results have revealed that by the correct application of multiple lean amine streams, amine circulation rate can be reduced and 11% energy consumption reduction can be achieved. This study has been performed based on actual plant conditions without the usual simplifications used in similar studies.