INTERCEPT Program reduces amine unit

corrosion, provides energy savings

Annualized Environmental ROI ( ROI)

Reduction in steam demand

$100,000 per year

Reduction of corrosion rate on

equipment from 70 to 1 mpy

$47,000 per year in maintenance due

to corrosion

About the Client

Their Challenge

The amine system is the workhorse of the sour gas

processing plant. Problems can occur when components of the amine unit function outside of their
specified range of operation. Foaming, corrosion
and amine degradation are often encountered in
troubled systems. At one western US gas plant, this
was no exception. The plant was experiencing
problems with corrosion from severe iron fouling on
the trays, in the reboiler, the overhead condenser
and in associated piping. Frequent changing of the
filters and increasing flaring of off-spec gas did little
to help. Processing was shut-in for one week while
the amine system was cleaned - a loss of 350 MM
standard cubic feet in production.

The plant was using a competitors product which

included hydroquinone as an oxygen scavenger,
molybdate as a metal passivator, ketoxines, and an
amine for pH control on the system for corrosion
inhibition. While corrosion coupons showed less
than 2 mpy in corrosion, clearly fouling was occurring. The reboiler temperatures were exceeding
design in order to drive off H2S and CO2. Bicine
levels were rising. Bicine forms as a chelating agent
when oxygen is present in the system, and is used
as an important indicator of amine degradation and
corrosion.

Case Study CH-963

In an attempt to lower bicine levels, the MDEA supplier

diluted the amine twice which resulted in bicine levels
being reduced from levels of 12000 ppm to 4000 ppm.
The bicine levels continued to rise in the system, and
had gotten to 4500 ppm. Nalco was asked by the Plant
Manager to survey and evaluate the amine system.
The teams first recommendation involved installing a
Nalco High Temperature Corrosion Probe (NCM) to
monitor actual corrosion rate in real time. It is important to understand and gather current baseline system
performance before establishing the desired performance level. The corrosion probe was installed in the
rich amine to see if the corrosion rates on the coupons
were truly representative of system corrosion, due to
significant corrosion and fouling that was occurring in
the system.
NCM data indicated that over 70 mils per year (mpy) of
corrosion was occurring. The plant was feeding the
competitive product at rate of two gallons per day. The
product feed rate was increased to reduce the rate of
corrosion. At a feed rate of 15 gallons per day, the
corrosion rate dropped to 13 mpy. In addition, the
bicine levels continued to rise. Increasing product feed
had no further effect on corrosion. Needless to say,
even though there was a large drop in the rate of
corrosion, 13 mpy was unacceptable. NACE
Standards indicate an acceptable corrosion rate
between 3 to 5 mpy. Some program changes would
have to be made.

Our Solution
Nalco INTERCEPT EC-1017A was introduced to the
amine system, Figure 1. EC-1017A is a corrosion
inhibitor specifically designed for amine systems with
oxygen ingress and corrosion is a concern.
At four gallons per day, EC-1017A dropped the corrosion rate to 6.5 mpy. The bicine levels in the system
dropped to 3500 ppm. EC-1017A feed was optimized
to 5 gallons per day where the corrosion rate currently
remains at 1 mpy. Although we dont expect the bicine
levels to drop further, they have not increased and as
more MDEA is added to the system over time the
bicine levels will continue to drop. The chelating effect
of the bicine has been diminished because of the
oxygen in the system being affected by the EC1017A.
The plant has not experienced any fouling or foaming
in the amine system as it has continued to clean up.

Their Success
Since the plant began using INTERCEPT, amine unit
performance has been maintained. The reduction in
iron levels from the reduced oxygen corrosion and
resulting lower iron generation decreased the need
for filtration. The plant had a week long shut down
due to the corrosion and fouling problems in February
of 2009, and during this time the plant lost 35 mmscfd
of production. After changing the program to
INTERCEPT EC-1017A, the plant has not had an
interruption in production or any unscheduled downtime. In addition to continuous production, the plant
was able to save energy. Less steam was needed
increase the reboiler temperature to drive off acid
gases. This resulted in savings of $3,000 per day,
or $100,000 per year.

Figure 1 INTERCEPT feed point in the amine unit

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