Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, Vol.50, No.2, 667-673, 2011
Reaction Products from the Oxidative Degradation of Monoethanolamine
Aqueous monoethanolamine (MEA) at concentrations of 5 and 7 M was degraded with 100 mL/min of 98% O-2/2% CO2 (98 mL/min 02), with oxygen mass transfer achieved by vortexing in a low-gas-flow degradation apparatus. Degraded samples were analyzed by ion chromatography (IC) and high-pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) with evaporative light scattering detection (ELSD) for oxidative degradation products. In a high-gas-flow apparatus, 7.5 L/min of 83% N-2/15% O-2/2% CO2 (1125 mL/min O-2) was sparged through a mechanically agitated 5 M MEA solution. A Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) analyzer collected continuous gas-phase data. Formate (HCOO-), hydroxyethyl formamide (HEF), and hydroxyethyl imidazole (HEI) account for 92% of degraded carbon at low-gas-flow conditions and 18-59% of degraded carbon at high-gas-flow conditions. Oxalate (C2O42-), oxamide (C2H4N2O2), glycolate (HOCH2COO-), acetate (CH3COO-), carbon monoxide (CO), ethylene (C2H4), formaldehyde (CH2O), and acetaldehyde (CH3CHO) are oxidation products in lower concentrations. Ammonia (NH3), HEF, and HEI account for 84% of degraded nitrogen at low-gas-flow conditions and 83-92% at high-gas-flow conditions. Nitrogen oxides (NOx), present in lower concentrations, are stripped from solution at high-gas-flow conditions and retained in the degraded solution at low-gas-flow conditions and oxidized to nitrite/nitrate (NO2-/NO3-). A comparison of product rates to MEA losses shows that 25-50% of products remain unaccounted for in unknown HPLC peaks. Oxygen consumption rates vary from 1 to 2 mM/h, whereas the overall oxygen stoichiometry is 0.75 mol of O-2/mol of MEA degraded.