OPTIMIZATION OF PROCESS PARAMETERS FOR NATURAL GAS SWEETENING USING ASPEN HYSYS AND RESPONSE SURFACE METHODOLOGY

Abstract

Amines process remains the most economic and efficient technology available today for the removal of acid gases. However, the costs associated with pumping higher flow rates and cost of increased energy needs for the regeneration of solution can undermine the economic feasibility of the project portfolio. The absorber pressure, the composition and temperature at which the sour gas is available dictates sour gas and amine flow rates needed to meet the sweet gas specifications. To improve absorber capacity for a given sweet gas specification, optimization are commonly carried out using spread sheet with an adjust function to manipulate sour gas flow rate for fixed amine flow rate. This study performed optimization using response surface methodology on a simulated and calibrated amine plant. The result shows that the optimum operating conditions for 96% CO₂ removal were temperature of 30 ^oC, mass flow rate of 868.75 kg/hr and 20 numbers of plates. In conclusion, using experimental design and response surface methodology the parameter manipulation for attainment of optimal conditions is overcome.