Stress Relief of carbon steel piping in amine service for CO2 removal
Stress Relief of carbon steel piping in amine service for CO2 removal
(OP)
Do any of the codes require DEA amine carbon steel piping to be stress relieved in either the rich or lean amine streams when removing only CO2?





RE: Stress Relief of carbon steel piping in amine service for CO2 removal
Steve Jones
Materials & Corrosion Engineer
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/8/83b/b04
RE: Stress Relief of carbon steel piping in amine service for CO2 removal
RE: Stress Relief of carbon steel piping in amine service for CO2 removal
The ethylene plant I worked in removed CO2 from the feed ethane using MEA. We ended up having to replace both CS towers, CS heat exchanger shells and all the CS piping due to cracks. The cracks were extensive enough on the regenerator we had to reduce the PSVs to less than 15 psig to make it a non-code vessel. The original design did not call for stress relieving of carbon steel though I don't know the reason.
You could try talking to the amine vendors and see if they can supply you some contacts with people using the same amine you are considering to remove only CO2 to see what their experience is. Personally, I would be leary of not stress relieving the piping and equipment.
RE: Stress Relief of carbon steel piping in amine service for CO2 removal
API 571 is a good source of information and there are numerous publications that support this.
I most definitely would want PWHT.