STUD Y ON EFFECT OF CONTAMINATES ON DAMAGING OF 3A MOLECULAR SIEVE IN GAS DEHYDRATION UNITS

A molecular sieve is a material containing tiny pores of a precise that 3A type of them used in 5th Refinery south pars gas complex in Iran for water removal and adjusting dew point temperature. Dehydration unit had troubles concerning pressure drop and adsorption capacity. The pressure drop increases so high, or adsorption cycle was so short that molecular sieve had be replaced before scheduled. According the licensor instruction, the time life of molecular sieves is near the 3 years perfectly but our experience shown that before this time, the molecular sieves lost theirperformance and converts to powder, agglomerates. More factors have been destroyed molecular sieve that create some problems in production of stable gas flow. The most common, contamination of adsorbed beds by materials such as Amines, Glycols, Salts, Heavy hydrocarbons, Water, Oil, etc that have negative effects on structure of molecular sieve. In this paper, based on laboratory analysis, various impurities and contaminants are present, the effects each of them on the performance of Molecular Sieve and structural damage is will be presented.

STUD Y ON EFFECT OF CONTAMINATES ON DAMAGING OF 3A MOLECULAR SIEVE IN GAS DEHYDRATION UNITS Keywords:

Gas Dehydration , Damaging , Contaminants , Dew point , Molecular Sieve