Eastman publishes new whitepaper on 'Why MDEA purity matters'
Whitepaper: Why MDEA purity matters
MDEA (MethylDiEthanolAmine) is used frequently for selective removal of H2S in both low pressure and high pressure gas treatment applications. Examples of applications that require selective sulfur removal are Claus tail gas treatment, acid gas enrichment and case-specific natural gas treatment. MDEA is a tertiary amine, which reacts quickly with H2S but slowly with CO2. This kinetic difference allows selective separation of H2S from a gas stream. Primary and secondary amines, with exception of sterically hindered amines, possess no selectivity towards H2S, because of their fast reaction with CO2. However, primary and secondary amines may enter the MDEA either through degradation or the use of products with inferior quality. As will be illustrated in this paper, even small amounts of such non-tertiary amines can have a great impact on the selectivity and overall performance of the system.