Investigation of Sulfolane Degradation in Aqueous Alkanolamine Solutions Under the Stripping Operational Condition

• Published in: International journal of thermophysics Vol. 41; no. 9
• Main Authors: Zoghi, Ali T., Shokouhi, Mohammad, Abbasghorbani, Maryam, Vahidi, Mehdi, Zare, Marzie, Daripour, Shahriar
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 2020; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Alkanolamines; Aqueous solutions; Carbon dioxide; Classical Mechanics; Condensed Matter Physics; Geophysics; Hydrogen sulfide; Industrial Chemistry/Chemical Engineering; Physical Chemistry; Physics; Physics and Astronomy; Stripping; Thermal degradation; Thermodynamics; Thiosulfates; Sulfolane; Hybrid solvent; Alkanolamine solution; Oxidative degradation
• ISSN: 0195-928X; 1572-9567
• DOI: 10.1007/s10765-020-02707-7

The measure of stability of sulfolane (SFL) in aqueous alkanolamine solution was investigated. For this purpose, degradation of SFL was experimentally studied under the stripping operational condition (
T
 = 130 °C). The experiments were divided into two general categories: (1) aqueous solution of SFL with and without presence of oxygen to receive a sense of thermal and oxidative SFL degradation; (2) aqueous solution of MDEA/PZ/SFL loaded by hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide (both gas-loadings were set to be 0.25 to roughly make a real condition). The results of the experiments showed that SFL resists thermal degradation, but in the presence of oxygen and temperatures of 130 °C which is in accordance with the desorption operational conditions, it would be prone to degradation to anions such as sulfite, sulfate and thiosulfate.