A novel rectangular assembly for heat stable salts removal from industrial lean amine: Effect of operational parameters

Abstract Heat stable salts (HSS) formed in gas sweetening units pose many challenges such as foaming, corrosion and equipment fouling. In this work, we designed a novel electromagnetic (EM) setup which aids the removal of HSS from MDEA without degrading amine and producing secondary waste. Total organic acid (TOA) was taken as a model pollutant to represent HSS ions. TOA was successfully removed by employing electromagnetic forces based on the Lorentz principle, using rectangular setup having parallel electrodes. The direction of the electric field will be perpendicular to the flow path along the channel to enhance the separation of ions at the outlet. In the flow cell, we investigated the effect of voltage, flow rate and magnet position on the removal efficiency and found optimal operating conditions to be at an applied potential of 3 V, the flow rate of 2 mL/min and 1T magnets placed parallel to fluid flow. The experimental results showed that the introduction of electromagnetic forces led to the electrosorption of ions onto the surface of the aluminum electrode whereas polarization occurred when only the electrical field was used. The HSS removal rate with magnets and without magnets in the parallel flow cell was 7.8% and 3.2% respectively.