Amine Gas Treating

Amine gas treating, also called amine scrubbing or gas sweetening, is an industrial process that uses aqueous amine solutions to remove hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide from gas streams in refineries, petrochemical plants and natural gas processing facilities. The amine reacts with these acidic compounds through simple acid base chemistry, trapping the impurities in the liquid phase and producing sweetened gas; a typical plant has an absorber where the amine solution contacts the sour gas and a regenerator where heat drives the captured gases back off so the amine can be reused. Recovered hydrogen sulfide is often converted to elemental sulfur through the Claus process, and the same amine chemistry purifies hydrogen streams in ammonia production and removes carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide from biogas before use as fuel. Amine treating is also increasingly used for carbon capture, with monoethanolamine able to capture eighty five to ninety percent of the carbon dioxide in flue gas from a coal fired power plant.