Heat Transfer in the Reboiler of MEA Stripping Column; Assessment of predictive correlations

Nowadays, energy saving is one of the main goals in each industry like gas sweetening plant. The reboiler of amine stripping column is one of the major energy consuming sections of each gas refinery. In this section, amine regeneration could be performed by increasing the temperature of amine solution to bring it to boiling condition and consequently to strip acid gases from the solution. There are numerous parameters which influence the design of the reboiler of the amine stripping column. Heat transfer coefficient is one of the most important aforementioned parameters which less fundamental works have been performed on this subject and almost no information can be found in the literature. In this study, boiling heat transfer coefficients of monoethanolamine (MEA) solutions are measured experimentally over a wide range of heat flux and at four different solution concentrations. The results have been compared with the available correlations for the prediction of boiling heat transfer coefficient of mixtures. Finally the most suitable correlation is recommended to be used in design and optimization of the reboiler of amine plants.

Keywords:

Boiling heat transfer coefficient , monoethanolamine , gas sweetening , correlation