Coker Gas Absorber Foaming and flooding

[Jeff PollardParticipant]

I am experiencing foaming and flooding in my Coker Gas absorber!

Have anyone out there experience this ?
What did you fine?
Was there any issue with the Gas Absorber  internals?
How did you correct and normalize the tower?

After some trouble shooting, one of the key things found was impurities in the amine which have been corrected (the lean amine color was very dark green) after a series of filter clean at the Amine Recovery Unit the color is now light green, But the gas absorber is still foaming.

Any ideas?

[Nor Syamrin WagirinParticipant]

are you referring to the amine absorber? we had bad experience on amine foaming few years back.. we found that condensible hydrocarbon (c4+) in the amine absorbers contributed to the foaming.. try to impove c3+ recovery upstream.. besides, poor amine quality i.e. low strength, high stable salts content would also leads to foaming..

[Anonymous]

the formation of foam or delta P is all the time? or when switching between drums? as is the delta P of the tower?, if all conditions of the amine is good, the generation of foam can be generated by condensation of hydrocarbons in the tower or the tower has high gas velocity or hydrocarbons in the tower (do you skimming the tower ?) or clogging of dishes
tell me you keep the temperature differential between the gas and the lean amine entering in the tower?
You can perform a field test with the amine , i mean, you take a sample in a bottle, shake and if the foam disappears in less than 15 seconds is not the amine that will generate the foam, which has the amine color and type amine use?

best regard Espana2005

[Anonymous]

Im sorry but i didnt red about the color of the amine , you said is green , that mean this amine is not in good condition (can be metals)

I can send some paper if you send me a email

best regard espana2005

[cokerdragonParticipant]

Thanks for your response,

We were able to bypass and open up the Gas Absorber for inspection of the trays; found Significant Fouling and plugging on at some of the bottom trays, possible due to Contaminants in System/Solution, Heat Stable Salts and degradation in Amine Products.
A combination of High Soluble Iron with very high Coker gas absorber Inlet H2S Concentration Yields Iron Sulfide which lead to corrosion, plugging of the trays causing foaming and flooding in my Coker Gas absorber.

[Author]

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