Excessive Sodium content in circulating Amine

[EmmanuelTop]

As a consequence of plate failure in a Plate & Frame heat exchanger in Amine unit, there was a long (and virtually impossible to detect) leak of cooling water into Absorber wash-water stream. Bottom line: contamination of circulating Amine with Sodium, resulting in deposition of Sodium Hydrogencarbonate salt inside Absorber, inside instrument sensing lines, on the standby pump impeller, etc. It's a mess.

The plant is located in western Balkans region, there are no service companies around who could do reclaiming in-situ. Changeover of the solvent is about 0.5 to 1.0 Million EUR, hence should be avoided as much as possible.

Any hints?


There is no such thing as "common sense" - Apollo RCA

 

[georgeverghese]

May be these people can help. An electrodialysis unit may be suitable in this case.

http://reclaim.com/service-reclaiming/

Meanwhile, see if you can source a replacement plate frame HX made out of more corrosion resistant materials, say standard 22Cr SS duplex or AL6XN or similar.

 

[EmmanuelTop]

The HEX was in water-water service (demineralized water vs cooling water). I doubt this was a corrosion issue.

Reclaim.com operate in North America only.

There is no such thing as "common sense" - Apollo RCA

 

[Dhurjati Sen]

Dear EmmanuelTop,

Do you add chlorine in the cooling water? It might cause some problems with the SS lining of the regenerator column, if it does have one.

No other corrosion issues envisaged.

Why can't you live with this contamination? Are you having any operational issues? You can clean the heat exchangers after isolating them even during operation, if possible. The columns and vessels could be cleaned during s/d.

You can think of replacing the plate type h/e with shell and tube ones but that would be going backwards.

You require better instrumentation like detecting even minor pressure drops so that any leak in the plate type h/e is detected at the earliest.

Regards.

DHURJATI SEN
Kolkata, India

 

[poli60]

as far as i know of you, you should be already aware of them...but these are my 2 cents.
good luck!

https://www.amine-gas-treatment.com/amine-reclamation/mobile-unit/

 

[EmmanuelTop]

Thanks, I tried that one. No answer on emails or telephone calls. There's plenty of dead websites (and companies) around.

There is no such thing as "common sense" - Apollo RCA