Table 1 – Classification of sweetening technologies

CO2 removal
Process type Technology Commercial name
mechanism

MEA, DEA, MDEA, DIPA,

Amines
DGA, formulated solvents
Regenerative, continuous
Benfield, Catacarb,
Chemical absorption Potassium carbonate
Giammarco-Vetrocoke, etc.

Non regenerative, continuos

Sodium hydroxide -
(usual arrangement: lead/lag)

Selexol, Rectisol, Purisol,

Physical absorption Regenerative, continuous Physical solvents
Fluor Solvent, IFPexol, etc.

Physical-chemical Sulfinol, Ucarsol LE 701,

Regenerative, continuous Physical-chemical solvents
absorption 702 & 703, Flexsorb PS, etc.
Regenerative, continuous
Z5A (Zeochem), LNG-3
Physical adsorption (adsorption/desorption Molecular sieves
(UOP), etc.
sequence)
Separex, Cynara, Z-top,
Permeation Continuous Membranes
Medal, etc.

Note: distillation processes (typical of enhanced oil recovery projects, w ere CO2 is recovered from the gas to re-inject it) are not
included in this list; their range of application is beyond the typical cases of natural gas processing.

a. Particular characteristics

A detailed description of each technology can be found in References 1 to 3. It will become useful to
remember some particular characteristics:
- Absorption with amines is one of the most widespread processes in the industry. Even though
there are several amines, for the treatment of natural gas mostly MDEA or formulated solvents
based on MDEA are employed.
- CO2 absorption with potassium carbonate takes place at high temperatures. The process shows
similarities with that of amines in that it consists of absorption and reaction in the contactor column.
- Physical solvents can be regenerated by means of successive depressurizations, without heat
input. However, there is a wide variety of process schemes, and thermal regeneration or stripping
may be required. Physical solvents absorb heavy hydrocarbons and water, and in certain cases
they allow to reach all gas specifications in one same unit.
- Absorption with mixed solvents keeps many similarities with absorption with amines, and has some
of the advantages associated to physical solvents (lower heat requirements for regeneration).
- Adsorption becomes efficient for CO2 contents below 2% and makes it possible to achieve very low
specifications (< 50 ppm). In addition, water, H2S, mercaptans, and other sulfur compounds are
removed, thus its use is usual in gas liquefaction trains (for LNG production).
- Gas pretreatment is very important to ensure membranes lifespan, and it can be classified as
follows:
o Gas heating.
o Heavy hydrocarbons separation by cooling (by mechanical refrigeration or Joule-Thomson
effect).
o Heavy hydrocarbons and water adsorption by means of a regenerable adsorbents system.
Additionally, all of them include filtering. The pretreatment choice depends on CO2 removal ratio,
the heavy hydrocarbons content and on the uncertainty associated to gas composition. In
membranes methane is lost, thus “enriching” the residual gas in heavy hydrocarbons.
- Removal of small amounts of acid gases is usually carried out with non-regenerative chemical
scavengers. A possible arrangement consists in making the gas flow through a vessel containing
the scavenger.

b. Summary table

Table 2 summarizes the main characteristics of the above mentioned sweetening technologies.It
may become useful for a first pre-selection, to discard technologies with application ranges that do not fit the
project requirements.