The on-line removal of non-regenerable salts from amine solutions using the UCARSEP{reg_sign} Process

Amine unit contamination with non-regenerable salts, whether as a result of acid or inorganic salt incursion, or solvent degradation, is a common industry problem. In MEA systems this is usually addressed by the use of a reclaimer but this is not a practical solution for DEA, MDEA or formulated solvents. Similarly, the old approach of purging solvent is no longer economically or environmentally justifiable. Neutralization of amine salts with a strong base can significantly prolong the useful life of the amine solution but eventually some of the salt may have to be removed, especially if mechanical losses are low. Electrodialysis (ED) has recently been applied to this problem and has been found to overcome many of the disadvantages of vacuum distillation and ion exchange technologies, both of which have been used in recent years for solvent clean-up. Union Carbide adapted ED technology to the unique conditions encountered in an amine system and developed the UCARSEP{reg_sign} Process. A mobile UCARSEP{reg_sign} unit has been built to achieve on-line salt removal rates of 40 lbmol/day (about 3,300 lb/day). This has been successfully used to clean up UCARSOL{reg_sign} solvents as well as DEA. Case studies are presented and the relative merits of this andmore » other clean-up options are discussed.« less