Patent ID: 6162282
Filing Date: 2000-12-19
Classification: B01D,Y02C

Abstract:
A method for treating a sour hydrocarbon gas stream, said method comprising:contacting said sour hydrocarbon gas with a solvent to remove acid gases from said sour gas stream;regenerating said solvent by removing said acid gases from said solvent to form a regenerated solvent;passing at least a portion of said regenerated solvent through a carbon filter to remove hydrocarbons from said regenerated solvent and form a filtered, regenerated solvent, said hydrocarbons having been absorbed from said sour gas stream along with said acid gases;recycling said filtered, regenerated solvent for use in further removing acid gases from said sour gas stream; anddetermining the absorption efficiency of said carbon filter for removing said hydrocarbons from said regenerated solvent, said step of determining said absorption efficiency comprising:taking a first sample from said filtered, regenerated solvent after it has passed through said carbon filter;mixing a solution comprised of an internal standard and carbon disulfide into said first sample to thereby dissolve and concentrate said hydrocarbons from said first sample into said solution;withdrawing a second sample from said solution having the dissolved hydrocarbons therein;passing said second sample through a gas chromatograph to measure the relative area counts of both the known hydrocarbons and the internal standard in said filtered, regenerated solvent; anddetermining the concentration of said hydrocarbons in said second sample from the measured area counts of said relative hydrocarbons and said internal standard.