A Study on the Desulfurization Performance of Solvent UDS for Purifying High Sour Natural Gas

A desulfurization solvent called UDS was designed and developed based on the differences in desulfurization efficiencies of respective solvent components. The desulfurization performance of UDS was investigated in a simulated industrial unit and the thermal stability as well as the regeneration performance was evaluated using thermogravimetric analysis. The results indicated that the organosulfur removal performance of UDS was significantly enhanced by introducing the sulfur-containing heterocyclic compound and the cyclic amine compound. In the industrial pressure condition of 8.3 MPa, UDS showed around 30 percentage points higher organosulfur removal efficiency than methyldiethanolamine (MDEA). The contents of H2S and total sulfur were 0.5 and 81.6 mg center dot m-3, respectively, in purified gas when adsorption was conducted under gas-liquid volume ratio (Vg/Vl) of 169 and pressure of 1.5 MPa, using UDS. The quality of purified natural gas met first-class standards.