Symptoms of a dirty, corrosive amine system are:
- Carry-over of amine from the scrubbers.
- Dilution of the amine system with water due to reboiler leaks.
- Plugging of instrument taps with particulates in the amine.
- Loss of amine to the sewer because of leaks.
- Rich amine leaking into lean amine in the cross exchanger.
Problems related to improper operation of the regenerator are:
- Too much H2S in sweet gas.
- Excessive energy use in the regenerator reboiler.
- Flooding in the regenerator tower.
The operating engineer troubleshooting an amine system should first draw a sample of lean amine into a glass container. If the unit is in trouble, the amine will be dirty.
