Amine Solution Removal Using Adsorbent Developed From Sugarcane Bagasse

In gas sweetening plant, natural gas will undergo a pre-treatment process
before it can be utilized in further processes. One of the processes involve during the
pre-treatment is acid gas removal. In this section, amine solution is widely to remove
acid gas like carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide. There are several types of amine
solutions that commonly used in this industry but only one type of amine was chosen
for this study, which was Diethanolamine, DEA.
Therefore, sugarcane bagasse was chosen as a raw material in developing an
adsorbent to remove amine solution in wastewater. Sugarcane bagasse is a
commonly available agriculture waste in Malaysia and definitely this project will
change the waste to wealth. This project focused on the study of capacity and
capability of the sugarcane bagasse as a low cost adsorbent to remove amine solution
in waste water. In this piece of work, the preparations of adsorbents from sugarcane
bagasse were modified via thermal treatment at temperature 500°C and 250°C for 1
hour. Once the adsorbent was prepared, extraction study was carried to study the
adsorption capacity.
The physical and surface properties of the developed adsorbent were analyzed
using Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR)
spectrometer. Meanwhile, right after adsorption experiment, High Performance
Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) was used in determining the final concentration of
artificial wastewater. The batch process was chosen as a method in the extraction of
amine solution from artificial waste water.
For adsorption study, batch method was chosen in conducting the experiment.
The artificial wastewater was prepared at two concentrations, i.e 500 ppm and
1 OOOppm in order to study the effect of concentration on adsorption behavior The
results obtained from extraction study shows how an adsorbent can be developed
from sugarcane for amine solution removal. At initial concentration 1 OOOppm, using
adsorbent treated at 250°C, the time needed for the adsorbent to reach equilibrium
was 2.5 hours while for 500ppm of initial concentration, time needed was 3hours.