AMINE SYSTEM PERFORMANCE: MITIGATING AMINE

UNIT CHALLENGES FROM OXYGEN, BICINE AND HEAT

STABLE SALTS, A FOLLOW-UP TO “HANDLING TRACE
OXYGEN AT THE SAUNDERS GAS PROCESSING FACILITY”,
LRGCC 2006
Presented at the 61th Laurance Reid Gas Conditioning Annual Conference Hosted by University of
Oklahoma OUTREACH, college of Continuing Education February 20-23, 2011, Norman, Oklahoma

Michael W. Cooper, Nalco Company, Odessa, Texas; Ronald Pongar, Nalco Company, Sherwood Park,
Alberta, Canada; Tim Jordan, Targa Midstream Services, LP, Lovington, New Mexico;
Andrea Marek, Nalco Company, Naperville, Illinois

Michael W. Cooper
Nalco Company
12205 W County Road 125
Odessa, Texas 79765-9675
+1 (432) 230-7275
mcooper@nalco.com

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Amine System Performance: Mitigating amine unit challenges from Oxygen, Bicine, and Heat
Stable Salts, a follow-up to “Handling Trace Oxygen at the Saunders Gas Processing Facility”

ABSTRACT

Over the last 10 years excessive oxygen in gas gathering systems and gas processing plants has become
more of a problem. It is an issue because of poorly operated vapor recovery systems, poorly maintained
valves, and lower field pressures. These all contribute to the problem. The harmful effects of oxygen in
the system manifest themselves in corrosion in piping and processing equipment in the systems as well
as curtailing deliveries to residue pipelines. This problem will not go away, but continue to get worse as
field pressures continue to drop, forcing producers to use vapor recovery systems. Contracts are written
which detail undesirable and out of spec gas. However, limits on the amount of oxygen that is
acceptable to a plant, may or may not be set. Even 1 ppm of oxygen can be devastating to a gathering
system and unit processes inside a plant.

INTRODUCTION

The Saunders gas processing facility, operated by Targa Midstream Services Limited
Partnership (TMS) is located 20 miles northwest of Lovington, New Mexico. The plant includes a gas and
liquid treating system, a sulfur recovery unit and a cryogenic NGL recovery plant. Plant residue can be
delivered to two residue outlet.

A gas gathering system consisting of approximately 1,433 miles of pipeline and 727 producer meter
connections over 6,500 square miles serves the plant. Collected gas feeds the plant via four main high
and low pressure trunk lines. All inlets contain H2S from a few ppm to 1.5% by volume. The Lovington
plant inlet is 4,680 ppm; 16” inlet 4,608 ppm – 24” 2,334 ppm – 14” 0 ppm. Most of the oxygen collected
in the gathering system passes through the plant to residue pipelines. Some oxygen is inadvertently
scavenged by the amine solution.

Residue gas contracts limit the residue gas oxygen content. If the oxygen content of residue gas exceeds
the contract threshold for a designated time, the delivery of residue gas is blocked. The affected portion
of residue will have to be flared. This action upsets plant operations and has a negative impact on the
facility revenues. The damage caused by producer operations, and oxygen in the gas gathering systems,
and resulting process challenges impact a plant’s profitability, and can cost a plant millions in lost
revenue, annually.

In the early 2000’s, the negative impacts of oxygen prompted Targa Midstream Services, LP to take
actions to reduce the impact of oxygen in the field gathering systems, residue gas sales, and on the
amine unit. The project was called the Saunders Trace O2 project, which reduced field technician
overtime from an average of 20 hours per month to only 5 hours per month. The reduction in overtime
is a direct collation to the reduction in O2 excursions. Although this was a significant reduction, the
plant continues to strive to eliminate O2 incidents. [1]

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This paper will present our observations, actions, and results in two parts:

• Part 1: Impact of oxygen and field treatment in the plant

• Part 2: Monitoring and controlling oxygen and bicine at the Targa Saunders Plant

Part 1: Impact of Oxygen and Field Treatment in the Plant

Oxygen in the field has become the largest problem that plants face. There have been multiple articles
written about “Black Powder” (mixture of iron oxide and iron sulfide) and the many problems it can
cause in processing plants. Black powder gets in vessels, plugs off inlet coalescers and scrubbers, blinds
inlet filters, has a serious impact on compression, and costs millions of dollars in damage to the systems.

While some Midstream companies face significant amounts of oxygen, up to 100 ppm in their inlet gas,
all companies face problems due to oxygen in the inlet gas. Even 1 ppm oxygen can cause severe
damage and cost a plant a significant amount of money due to poor performing systems. Plants haven’t
been aggressive in attacking the oxygen problem because it is so hard to distinguish which producer is
contributing the most oxygen coming from the field. With a system as large as the Targa-Saunders
plant, which has 727 different meter runs, it has been nearly impossible to determine the well which is
the largest contributor to the problem.

It is very costly to monitor oxygen, typically oxygen meters can cost between $3,000 and $10,000 per
meter. It becomes cost prohibitive to monitor a system this large. Once you start to monitor the
oxygen in the field, it is analogous to opening Pandora’s Box. Placement of monitors is a challenge. If
they are placed at the hubs, and hand held units are used to check individual wells, this takes time and
manpower to determine the individual producer who is the biggest contributor to the problem. Most
companies are attempting to identify the most egregious offenders. Moreover, they are attempting to
deal with the O2 problem by treating their field pipeline systems before the plant in an effort to
eliminate the formation of black powder.

One way to stop corrosion in the field is to utilize filming amines to prevent oxygen corrosion. Using
pigs and filming corrosion inhibitors has been a widely used and accepted practice to stop this type of
corrosion. Creating a thick protective film in the gathering system can significantly reduce ingress of
iron oxide and iron sulfide in field operations.

The mitigation of black powder is extremely important, especially in the Midstream plant. Black powder
creates problems due to the fouling of orifice plates in the field which measure the gas. Orifice plates
measure the gas flow and allow accounting reconciliations for individual producers, enabling them to be
paid. Fouling prevents the accurate measurement of gas coming into the gathering system and creates
havoc. Many “fixes” have been tried in an attempt to stop black powder fouling on measurement
devices. Targa used a product that is a form of acetic acid; it dissolves black powder. The mechanism of
action was lowering the pH of the fluids in a gathering system to under, 3 pH. The iron sulfide and iron
oxide is placed back in solution. In theory, the iron will not deposit on the measurement devices, filters,

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and separators allowing for accurate recording and measurement of gas. The problem with this
technique begins when these fluids, carried with the gas, get to a point where the pH increases to above
5-6 pH. At this point the iron precipitates out of solution and fouls the process systems. If produced
fluid is carried into the plant the precipitation can occur in the amine and glycol systems causing fouling
in the contactors, reboilers and stills. The produced fluids will contain some acetate. If acetate enters
the amine unit it will react with the amine forming a Heat Stable Salt. Heat Stable Salts are a significant
contributor to corrosion in an amine unit.

The corrosion by-products and liquids from field systems usually carry over into the processing plants.
This creates problems for inlet separation, compression, filters, amine and glycol units, and molecular
sieve beds. It is remarkable how far some of the inlet liquids and solids travel into a processing unit and
the resulting problems they can cause. Corrosion, fouling, maintenance and loss of revenue from
downtime create an additional level of burden on maintaining a plant’s profit goals. These are
legitimate concerns, especially when dealing with DOT pipelines, gathering systems, and processing
plants.

The best way to solve many of these issues is in the field is through good treatment programs, pigging
and the use of corrosion inhibitors. Maintaining inlet separation units and ensuring the mechanical
dumps are removing inlet solids and liquids, is recommended “best practice” to prevent issues in the
plants.

Part 2: Monitoring and controlling oxygen and bicine at the Targa Saunders Plant

Amine gas treating is a common process used to remove H2S and CO2 from the inlet gas. The objective
of the unit is to reduce the concentration of the acid gases to achieve sales specifications. If a plant has
an amine unit it is the heart of the plant, if it fails to work properly the plant does not sell gas or liquids.
Amine systems are very sensitive to contaminants in the inlet gas. If the gas contains produced fluids or
corrosion byproducts they will be removed by the amine solution. This causes the contaminants to build
in the amine solution which leads to operations problems such as foaming and fouling. The cleanliness
of the gas is an important consideration and many plants use a gas conditions step including filtration
prior to the amine unit.

An amine system is a non-corrosive unit, if designed, operated and maintained properly. If corrosion
does occur it can be due to many factors. Corrosion can be caused by poor design, poor operating
practices and poor amine solution quality. From a design point of view if best practices are being
adhered to, corrosion is not an issue. Stagnant areas and impingement zones must be minimized. From
an operations point of view if recommended guidelines were being followed for the amine being used
corrosion is not an issue. If the amine quality is maintained within recommended limits it is basically a
non-corrosive solution. If there are problems in one of these areas the entire system can be negatively
influenced. For example, if there are stagnant areas in the rich side this could lead to high localized rich
loading which promotes amine degradation. The end result is the concentration of degradation
products would increase and the amine solution would become corrosive. This would impact corrosion
throughout the unit.

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Some components in the inlet gas can react negatively with the amine. CO2 reacts with amines such as
MEA, DEA, DGA and DIPA to form degradation products. For some amines the reaction with CO2 is so
severe that a reclaimer is required to remove degradation products. Components such as COS, CS2 can
also react with the amine. As in the case of CO2 the extent of the reactions are dependent on the amine
being used. The impact of these components can be reduced in the design stage. That is why it is
extremely important to have a detailed analysis of the gas, including contaminants, when designing the
amine unit.

One of the major factors that contribute to amine solutions corrosivity is the presence of Heat Stable
Salts (HSS). The topic of HSS and their influence on corrosion has been widely studied. HSS are
compounds that form when strong acids react with the amine. The bond between the basic amine and
strong acid cannot be broken at reboiler conditions. The amine/acid salt remains in solution, increasing
corrosivity and tying up the amine so that it is no longer available for acid gas removal. The HSS anions
are typically organic acids such as acetate, propionic, formate and oxyalic. Other acids such as
thiosulphuric acid also contribute to HSS. These strong acid anions are due to oxidization of the amine.
The most typical oxidization reaction is the one with oxygen. When amine is exposed to oxygen at the
operating temperature of the unit it reacts forming organic acids as a byproduct. Some examples of
oxygen reactions are listed below.

DEA + O2 ⇒ glycine + acetic acid

MDEA + ½ O2 ⇒ MMEA + acetic acid

The most common sources of oxygen ingress are with the inlet gas or with the makeup water. Of the
two, oxygen in the inlet gas is most severe simply due to the quantity that can enter. Even a few ppm of
oxygen in the inlet gas can cause oxidation and a buildup of HSS. Once a HSS forms in solution it cannot
be removed without reclaiming. A stronger base than the amine can be added however even with this
approach the concentration of the salts will eventually get to a point where reclaiming is required.

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The various amines used in gas sweetening systems have different tolerances to HSS contamination.
This is due to the chemistry of the amine. The following table summarizes some of the typical amines
used and their recommended maximum HSS level.

Recommended Maximum
Amine
HSS Concentration
MEA 2.0 %
DEA 1.0 %
MDEA 1.0 %
DIPA 1.0 %
DGA 2.0 %

Bicine

In the last 10 years the role that bicine plays in corrosion has become widely recognized. [2] Bicine is a
Heat Stable Salt with different properties. In addition to adding to the overall heat stable salt content,
bicine also acts as a metal chelator. This means that bicine can react directly with iron sulfide removing
the protective coating from metal surfaces.

FeS + bicine ⇒ Fe(bicine)++ + S=

Bicine is an oxidization byproduct of secondary amines and is most commonly due to oxygen ingress.
Bicine has been widely reported in plants using either diethanolamine (DEA ) or methyldiethanolamine
(MDEA).

Bicine has become more of a problem in recent years. As the pressure of the production fields dropped
and the use of vapor recovery systems became more prevalent, oxygen was introduced into the gas. At
the processing facilities oxygen makes its way into the amine unit with the end result being Heat Stable
Salt formation including bicine. Once in solution the bicine increases corrosion and this tends to be
most prevalent in the hottest locations in the unit. This becomes a no-win situation; the more oxygen
that enters the unit, the more bicine is formed and the corrosion rate keeps increasing. Some
companies are aware of the impact bicine has and monitor the concentration in the amine. If a plant is
using either DEA or MDEA bicine monitoring is strongly recommended.

Now that many plants monitor bicine it is not unusual to see levels above 10, 000 ppm. At the Targa
plant in Lovington, bicine levels were over 15,000 ppm, as shown in Figure 1.

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Figure 1: Bicine levels historically have remained above 10,000 ppm at Targa Saunders Plant.

Amine suppliers have different levels of bicine which is acceptable in the system. Most of the suppliers
show a control level not to exceed 250-500 ppm. However, some recommend much higher levels and
neutralization of the bicine. The problem with this approach is that bicine is formed by degrading the
amine, which renders that amine almost ineffective for acid gas removal. At some point a portion of the
inventory must be purged and fresh amine added; this is an expensive process. Elevated corrosion rates
increases suspended solids (iron sulfide), which increases filter change-outs and causes foaming. These
are expensive maintenance issues in amine systems.

There are only two ways to get HSS including bicine out of an amine system. One is to replace the
amine, thus diluting the HSS. The second is through reclaiming the amine. Reclamation will remove all
of the HSS including bicine. Both of these remedies are expensive, and can cause lost production due to
down time of the unit. The amine unit is the heart of the gas plant, whether it is in a fractionation plant
or a plant that sweetens, dehydrates, and ships. If the amine unit is down the plant does not sell gas.
HSS control is required to avoid unscheduled shutdowns and to reduce plant maintenance costs.

If oxygen is allowed to enter the amine system HSS will form. If the plant uses DEA or MDEA the HSS will
include bicine. Even if the oxygen is as low as 1 – 10 ppm bicine will continue to form. Some plants have
investigated the use of a pretreatment to remove the oxygen however this approach is very expensive.

To control bicine corrosion many plants add a corrosion inhibitor to the amine. Several different types
of corrosion inhibitors are used. Most corrosion inhibitors used in amine systems are based on one or
more of the following protection mechanisms.

• Sulfidizers
• Selective Oxidants
• Cathodic Inhibitors
• Filming Compounds
• Anti-oxidants
• Passivators

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During years 2003 through 2008, a corrosion inhibitor was used at the Targa plant to negate the effect
of high levels of bicine. That product was formulated with hydroquinone, molybdate, ketoxines, and
MEA. The mechanism of corrosion protection - hydroquinone acts as an oxygen scavenger, molybdate
as a metal passivator, and the ketoxine and MEA functions as neutralizers for bicine and heat stable
salts.

To remove enough of the oxygen to keep bicine from forming in a system it would take a significant
amount of the hydroquinone product; it would be cost prohibitive. Molybdate is generally ineffective in
stopping oxygen corrosion and bicine still forms increasing corrosion. The ketoxines and MEA-amine
are unnecessary in an amine system, if a base is used to neutralize HSS it must be more basic than the
amine. With the high levels of oxygen entering the unit, if enough of the product is used to control
corrosion the plant exceeds the discharge level of 2 ppm molybdate as recognized in most states. Any
amine discharge then becomes hazardous waste.

The Targa-Saunders facility has had a long battle fighting the problems caused by oxygen. The problem
is complicated by the fact that the gathering system is so large. Targa began a serious evaluation of
oxygen in the field in an attempt to eliminate it as a problem. Their fight was exhausting from a cost and
manpower standpoint over several years. When sources of oxygen were identified in the field, the
offending well was shut in, until repairs could be made. This reduced, but did not eliminate the amount
of oxygen entering the plant.

At one time, Targa had more than 15,000 ppm bicine in their amine. They had to shut down at various
times to repair leaks in the amine system’s equipment and piping. From 2003, Targa started to combat
the high bicine levels by dilution of the amine. They would buy more MDEA1; add it to the system, thus
diluting the amount of bicine in the amine. This did not eliminate the bicine, but through dilution they
were able to get the bicine down as low as 5000 ppm at times. The bicine levels would range between
5000 and 8000 ppm bicine. Once levels reached 8000 ppm, the plant would dump half of the amine,
and then add more to the system to dilute the bicine level. During this time sodium hydroxide was also
added as a neutralizing agent to combat the high bicine levels. This proved to be very costly. In
February of 2008, the problems associated with high heat stable salts, bicine, and black powder entering
from the field caused the amine unit to be shut down for 10-12 days for repair and cleaning. It was at
this point the plant turned to Nalco for help in solving the plants oxygen related amine unit challenges.

Nalco’s recommendation was to change the current field treatment program from the acetic acid
product to a more conventional filming inhibitor and pigging program. The goal was to reduce the
formation of black powder, and at the same time eliminate one of the sources of HSS in the amine. Due
to the complexity and size of the system, it took several months to observe positive results in the field
gathering system. Once the field stabilized, the amine system was evaluated.

1
The Targa Saunders plant is using GAS/SPEC* CS-1 Solvent, a specialty MDEA product supplied by INEOS* Trademarks of
INEOS Oxide, a division of INEOS Americans LLC

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Changing the field treatment from acetic acid to a filming amine had a positive effect on the amine unit.
The change in field treatment occurred in May 2008. As the system was pigged and treated, the amount
of acetate stabilized between the 3000-4000 ppm range. In addition, the acetate concentration (an HSS)
in the amine would also drop, as shown in Figure 2. Even though the field system is treated with an
inhibitor, acetate is still carried into the amine unit from the field.

Figure 2: Effects of field treatment change on acetate level in amine.

7000

6000

5000

w 4000 Formate
m
p Acetate
p 3000

2000

1000

Previously the acetic acid product used for black powder control had carried into the amine unit and this
was a major source of acetate. Since the product worked by dissolving the black powder, the liquids
coming into the inlet separator were high in iron content. When this iron entered the amine unit the
increase in pH caused iron sulfide to precipitate. The solids caused the reboiler, contactor and piping to
foul. With the reduction in acetate and suspended solids we were at a point where we could evaluate
the current treatment program in the amine system.

During the evaluation of the amine system it became clear there needed to be a change to the plants
current corrosion monitoring practices. The amine unit was being monitored with one weight loss
corrosion coupon. Best practice indicates an on-line, corrosion monitoring probe provides real time,
continuous information on corrosion in the amine unit. A Honeywell white-paper discusses the
differences and advantages in monitoring an amine system with coupons versus corrosion probes. [3]
Both Honeywell and Cossasco-Rohrback also manufactures corrosion probes and recorders that monitor
corrosion in amine units. It was decided to install a Nalco NCM-100 corrosion probe to monitor the
Targa amine system. A valve was added changing the piping configuration to allow for the insertion of
the NCM-100 high temperature, high pressure corrosion probe. The corrosion probe was inserted into
the by-pass on the lean to rich exchanger, in the rich stream of the amine. The corrosion monitoring
unit logs data, and can download corrosion information on a computer. A 4-20 milliamp signal from the
probe can be wired directly into the plant’s control room. Corrosion rate was monitored every 30
minutes.

Initial results from the NCM-100 indicated a corrosion rate that reached as high as 69 mpy. The weight
loss coupon measured corrosion rates at less than 2 mpy. To verify the data obtained from the NCM-
100 unit the tips on the probe were changed and the probe was recalibrated. The unit was placed back

159
into service and the corrosion rate remained at 69 mpy. Figure 3, illustrates corrosion rate data obtained
from the on-line corrosion probe.

Figure 3: Real-time corrosion probe monitors effects of amine unit operational changes.

During this time the inhibitor supplier was feeding 1 gallon per day (gpd) of the hydroquinone,
molybdate, ketone and MEA product. As result of the new corrosion data the product feed rate was
increased to 3 gpd. However, there was no appreciable decrease in corrosion rate observed. So the
inhibitor feed rate was increased to 6 gallons, then 12 gallons and then 18 gallons per day. During this
time the corrosion rate on the probe dropped from 69 mpy to 17 mpy, which is still much higher than
the NACE recommended rate of 3-5 mpy. This progression took approximately three weeks. At the end
of this time, based on the corrosion probe data, the corrosion inhibitor was switched to INTERCEPT.
INTERCEPT is both an oxygen scavenger and metal passivator. The following is the oxygen scavenger
reaction.

INTERCEPT + 2O2 ⇒ N2 + 3H2O + CO2

If the goal is to remove all of the oxygen using oxygen scavenger is impractical. At normal operating
temperatures in an amine unit it requires a very high injection rate to completely remove all of the

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oxygen. However, at any concentration the passivator/scavenger will react with metal surfaces forming
a passivating magnetite film. The following is the metal passivation reaction.

12Fe2O3 + INTERCEPT ⇒ 8Fe3O4 + 3H2O + 2N2 + CO2

Once the Fe2O3 reacts with the O2 scavenger, the iron oxide is converted to magnetite (Fe3O4). This
magnetite layer protects the iron surfaces from the corrosion. The oxygen that is consumed in the
reaction is no longer available to react with the amine therefore less HSS including bicine forms.
Although bicine will not be completely removed from the system with this reaction, at the Targa-
Lovington facility reduced bicine levels in the amine analysis were observed. The plant was able to
mitigate any newly forming bicine which stopped the highly variable effect experienced previously in the
system.

The formation of bicine has slowed to the point that the Targa plant has not had to purchase more
MDEA to dilute the bicine levels in the amine, Figure 4. In the previous two years before the scavenger /
passivator treatment began, Targa had seen bicine levels go up to 8000 ppm. This also caused problems
in stripping acid gasses because the amine was tied up in the bicine. With the switch to the
passivator/scavenger product, Targa was able to reduce the bicine range to 3000 to 4000 ppm.
Although this is still much higher than the recommended 250 – 500 ppm range the reduction in bicine
reduces the corrosivity of the amine solution. Previously Targa would have had to purchase more MDEA
to dilute the amine back into the 5000 ppm range increasing operational cost.

Figure 4: Bicine levels with

INTERCEPT.

Intercept initial dosage was set at 1 gallon per day. After several days of evaluation, the corrosion rate
rose to 39 mpy, thus the Intercept feed rate was increased to 3 gpd. After several days of evaluation,
the corrosion rate dropped to 17 mpy. The feed rate of product was increased to 6 gpd (21 ppm based
on amine circulation rate). The monitored corrosion rate dropped to 12 mpy, then to 6 mpy. After two
weeks, the corrosion rate in the system dropped to under 1 mpy. To verify the corrosion data the probe
was calibrated and checked to ensure the accuracy of the readings. After which the monitored corrosion
rate confirmed 1 mpy. The amine unit corrosion rate has remained at 1 mpy over the following one and
a half years. As expected, interruption of product feed to the system due to pump and/or tubing
problems has shown a corresponding increase in corrosion. At one point the chemical injection pump
failed and had to be replaced. It took over a week to replace the pump. During that time the corrosion

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increased to 29 mpy. Once the feed rate of the product was restored, the corrosion dropped over the
next few days back to the same 1 mpy. This further validates passivator/scavenger efficacy.

Figure 5: Corrosion rate demonstrates consistency with feed of INTERCEPT.

The corrosion data connection malfunctioned and was lost in March of 2009, and it was not replaced
until February of 2010. However, the corrosion probe was still functioning. The system was monitored
by visual inspection of the corrosion rate digital display on the unit. In February of 2010, the corrosion
data connection was replaced, and the data was able to be downloaded. In July and August 2010, feed
rates of Intercept were reduced to optimize the system. As shown in the graph, corrosion spiked.
Intercept feed rate was set back to 6 gpd, and the corrosion rate decreased.

Upon review of the data, it is clear when the product was introduced to the system in mid 2008. The
bicine levels in the system have dropped, and remained consistent. According to information provided
by the Targa Area Manager, one of the authors of Targa’s 2006 LRGCC paper, MDEA usage has declined
from 2006 to 2010, and has resulted in significant cost savings. The chemical cost went from $991,000
in 2006 to $1,451,000 in 2008, before dropping to $561,000 in 2009. The graph indicates the dramatic
difference in usage after the field and amine treatments were started:

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Figure 6: Total chemical cost was reduced by 60% after implementing the new treatment program.

The new corrosion program helped provide the Targa Saunders plant with over 60 % operational
savings on their amine usage costs. The total cost of the new program including the NCM-100 data
recording device and probe is around $45,000.00 per year.

CONCLUSION

The stabilizing of the HSS’s and bicine has allowed Targa to operate normally since 2008. The reduction
of the cost of the amine over the past two years is not the only benefit the plant has received from the
use of the new treatment program in their system. INTERCEPT’s passivation of the system has
eliminated fouling in the re-boiler. This has saved fuel and reduced cost to fire the re-boiler. A clean re-
boiler saves energy by requiring less heat to regenerate the amine.

There have been no further leaks in the system since the start of the new program. There have been no
further plant shut downs in the amine unit due to fouling, corrosion or upsets since the last outage in
February of 2008.

When reviewing the plant processes, the evaluation must begin with the upstream vessel. In Targa’s
case examination of current field treatment practices combined with evaluation of the gathering system
helped to diagnose the problems that were revealed in the amine unit.

Following best practices can help mitigate operational challenges in the amine unit due to oxygen
related problems.

• Evaluate and obtain an analysis of the amine in the system. Use an amine supplier who has the
capability to run a complete amine analysis, including bicine. Ask questions about the analysis
to make sure you understand what the analysis indicates, and what steps you can take to
remedy the problems.

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• Analyze solid deposits in the system. Get a reputable lab to run an analysis on solid deposits so
you have an understanding of what is fouling your system. It will help to identify the area on
which to focus your efforts.
• If you have failed metallurgy in your system, don’t assume. Get a reputable metallurgical
analysis on the piping to determine the cause of the failure. When you send in the metal for the
analysis, give the operating conditions that could affect the failure. Don’t give your opinion
about what caused the failure. Let the report determine the cause.
• Understand that you have oxygen in your inlet gas. Most plants do not understand how little
oxygen it takes to create problems. One part-per-million of oxygen can do significant damage
and can degrade a large amount of amine.
• Understand the role that field treatments and problems affect the processes in the plant. There
may be two sets of management involved in decision making for the gathering system and plant
process, but work together to solve the issues.
• Use an amine producer who understands that amine degradation costs money. Your goal is to
strip as much acid gas as you can and spend the least amount of money to accomplish your goal.
• Sometimes spending a little money increases profitability.

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 REFERENCES

1. Jordan, Tim J., Nozal, Paul J., Targa Midstream Services Limited Partnership, Azodi, Ardeshir, Chevron
Energy Technology Company, Houston, Texas (Formerly with Dynegy Midstream Services, Limited
Partnership through October 2005), “Handling Trace Oxygen at the Saunders Gas Processing Facility,”
Laurance Reid Gas Conditioning Conference Paper, 2006

2. Pearson, Herb, Vintage Petroleum Inc., Shao, Jenny, Eco-Tec Inc., Norton, Don, Coastal Chemical Co.
LLC, Dandekar, Sunil, Eco-Tec Inc., “Case Study of Effects of Bicine in CO2 Only Amine Treater Service”

3. Kane, Russell D. PhD., Castillo, Marta, Honeywell Process Solutions, “Improving Amine Unit
Operations with On-line Corrosion Monitoring and Modeling”

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