Carbon Dioxide Absorption from Natural Gas: Control and Dynamic Study

A dynamic, non-equilibrium model of Monoethanolamine (MEA) absorption column with operating pressure of about 15 bar was proposed. The MEA solution used in this model to absorb CO2 from the natural gas. As far as the oil and gas industry had been developing in quite high pace, the method of absorption of CO2 using MEA is still widely used around the world. For the common fact among people in the oil and gas industry that the high content of CO2 will cause problems to their operation, thus removing CO2 from the natural gas itself had become necessary to ensure smooth operation of the oil and gas industry. Aside from that CO2 gas, other important sour gas exists in the natural gas is H2S but in this project, the gas that had been study is only CO2 because this is to make sure the project stay within the timeframe given and also to shrink the scope of study as to get more accurate and precise result in the future. To make the dynamic model successful, model in steady state need to be develop first and in this project, the steady state model was develop using software, Aspen Plus and all the data for completing the simulation had been acquired from the real pilot plant that operate at 15bar and use FLEXIPAC 1Y type of absorber column.