Bryan Research & Engineering
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Technical paper

A Comparison of Physical Solvents for Acid Gas Removal

  • Barry Burr - Bryan Research & Engineering, LLC
  • Lili Lyddon - Bryan Research & Engineering, LLC
  • 2008
  • Gas Processors Association

Physical solvents such as DEPG (Selexol™ or Coastal AGR®), NMP or N-Methyl-2- Pyrrolidone (Purisol®), Methanol (Rectisol®), and Propylene Carbonate (Fluor Solvent™) are becoming increasingly popular as gas treating solvents, especially for coal gasification applications. Physical solvents tend to be favored over chemical solvents when the concentration of acid gases or other impurities is very high. In addition, physical solvents can usually be stripped of impurities by reducing the pressure without the addition of heat. This paper compares the acid gas removal ability, required equipment, and power requirements for the four physical solvents DEPG, Methanol, NMP, and Propylene Carbonate.

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Physical solvents such as DEPG (Selexol™ or Coastal AGR®), NMP or N-Methyl-2- Pyrrolidone (Purisol®), Methanol (Rectisol®), and Propylene Carbonate (Fluor Solvent™) are becoming increasingly popular as gas treating solvents, especially for coal gasification applications. Physical solvents tend to be favored over chemical solvents when the concentration of acid gases or other impurities is very high. In addition, physical solvents can usually be stripped of impurities by reducing the pressure without the addition of heat. This paper compares the acid gas removal ability, required equipment, and power requirements for the four physical solvents DEPG, Methanol, NMP, and Propylene Carbonate.