H2S and mercaptans removal from crude oil??

[gjcampbell]

Trying to figure out a process to remove H2S and mercaptans from crude oil. Ideas from any of you guys?

 

[25362]

Although they may be present in crudes, these two are removed from intermediate or final products, not only for economic reasons but also for the following:

-mercaptans can also be formed by decomposition of organic sulphur compounds during normal processing.
-H2S is formed by thermal and catalytically decomposition of sulphur compounds during distillation, cracking, reforming, etc.

The technical literature is full of commercial processes used for their removal by using soda at one end up to hydotreating at the other.

 

[TD2K]

I'm not sure what levels of H2S you want to get down to in your crude but stabilization will remove H2S. Basically, the crude enters the top of a stripper column with a reboiler in the base.

Normally, you stabilize crude to remove the light ends to meet vapor pressure requirements (eg. before it is stored in floating roof tanks or exported) but it can also be used to remove H2S down to the low ppm range by increasing the bottoms temperature. I know Aramco uses this frequently on some of their crude oil streams. I would not expect this to remove mercaptans though.