(188d) Impact of H2s Scavengers and Other Tramp Amines on Refinery Operations and Equipment Integrity

Amine and nitrogen based compounds are commonly used in the petroleum industry to treat a wide variety of acidic contaminants found in crude oils, gas, petroleum intermediates and finished products. In oil and gas production, the principal function of these compounds is to reduce the vapor phase concentration of H2S so that the product can be safely shipped and stored. In the refining industry these compounds are principally used to control the pH of the aqueous environment in the crude overhead condensing equipment, control the pH of condensed steam and to sweeten or remove H2S and CO2 gases from various refinery gas streams. The presence of these compounds, their reaction products and their chloride salts can have potentially serious impact on some refinery operations, equipment integrity and refinery profitability. The principal refinery operations that have been impacted by these compounds have been the desalter, crude fractionation and condensing equipment and the wastewater treatment plant. It has also been well established that the source of these compounds can be traced to many different points. They can be present in the crude oil, refinery slops, stripped sour water, as desalter wash water, overhead accumulator water (as desalter make up or as wet reflux to the tower) or in some cases in the stripping steam used in the towers. The impact of some of these amines, like those being added to control pH in the overhead condensing system, can be controlled by properly selecting an amine(1,3,4) that is suitable for the process conditions, equipment and environment or by applying a properly designed and implemented overhead corrosion control program(2). The other amines like triazine that is used to scavenge H2S from crude oils or MEA, DEA, MDEA and DGA used to sweeten refinery gas streams, are much more difficult to control. These amines are more difficult to control because they emanate sporadically from uncontrolled sources and have a much wider impact area. Controlling their impact is significantly more challenging. This paper presents laboratory data and information on the impact of ?tramp? amines on refinery operations.