| abstract |
Impurities such as hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide are removed from fluids such as natural gas, synthesis gas or liquid or gaseous hydrocarbons by contact with an aqueous alkanolamine solution which absorbs said impurities from the fluid. The resultant spent impurity-enriched absorbent amine stream containing the absorbed impurities is split into two streams; one stream being routed directly to the top of an amine regenerator column and the second stream being routed to a heat exchanger where it is heated en route to an intermediate point of the regenerator column by heat exchange with the hot regenerated solution coming from the bottom of the regenerator column. The spent amine stream which is passed without prior heating directly to the top of the regenerator column is heated by condensing steam in the column which would normally escape therefrom, thereby reducing the amount of "saturation" steam which is lost from the system. Reducing the losses of "saturation" steam in combination with heating a portion of the spent absorbent amine stream by heat exchange with the hot regenerated solution reduces the overall energy requirements for the system. |