Metal removal from glycol fluids

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11326109-B2
Application number	US-202117244522-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 29, 2021
Priority date	Sep 17, 2019
Publication date	May 10, 2022
Grant date	May 10, 2022

Abstract

Metals, such as mercury, may be removed from glycol fluids by applying a sulfur compound having the general formula HS—X, wherein X is a heteroatom-substituted alkyl, cycloalkyl, aryl, and/or alkylaryl group either alone or in combination with or as a blend with at least one antifoam additive, at least one demulsifier and/or a buffering agent, to chelate the at least one metal and form a chelate complex of the sulfur compound with the at least one metal and then separating the chelate complex from the fluid.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for removing metals from a glycol fluid containing at least one metal and a glycol compound, the method comprising:
introducing a sulfur compound having the general formula HS—X, where X is a heteroatom-substituted alkyl, a carboxylic acid-substituted alkyl, cycloalkyl, aryl, and/or alkylaryl group, where the heteroatom is selected from a group consisting of sulfur, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus, and combinations thereof to the glycol fluid containing the at least one metal and a glycol compound, where the sulfur compound is in an amount effective to chelate at least a portion of the at least one metal; the sulfur compound chelating at least a portion of the at least one metal to form a chelate complex; and separating the chelate complex from the glycol fluid; where the glycol is selected from a group consisting of propylene glycol (PG), monoethylene glycol (MEG), diethylene glycol (DEG), triethylene glycol (TEG), and combinations thereof; where at least one metal selected from a group consisting of mercury, copper, iron, zinc, aluminum, arsenic, selenium, lithium, silicon, and combinations.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising introducing an antifoaming agent to the glycol fluid.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising introducing at least one H 2 S scavenger to the glycol fluid.

4. The method of claim 1 , where the amount effective of sulfur compound ranges from about 1 ppm to about 500 ppm per the amount, in ppm, of the at least one metal in the fluid.

5. The method of claim 1 , where the sulfur compound is selected from the group consisting of 2-mercaptoethanol, bis (2-mercaptoethyl) sulfide, 2-mercaptoethyl disulfide, 1,8-dimercapto-3,6-dioxaoctane, mercaptoacetic acid, glyceryl monothioglycolate, 2-mercaptophenol, 4-mercaptophenol, 1,2 dithioethane, N,N′-bis(2-mercaptoethyl) ethylene-diamine, thiolactic acid, 1,3,5-triazine-2,4,6-trithiol, and combinations thereof.

6. The method of claim 3 further comprising introducing at least one demulsifier to the glycol fluid, where the at least one demulsifier is selected from a group consisting of an oxyalkylated alkyl phenol formaldehyde resin, benzenesulfonic acid, 4-C10-13-sec-alkyl derivatives, bis(2-ethylhexyl) sulfosuccinate sodium salt, phenol (para C4C12 alkyl) bis polymer with (chloromethyl)oxirane methyloxirane and oxirane, methyloxirane polymer with oxirane, a propoxylated or ethoxylated polyamine, and combinations thereof.

7. The method of claim 1 , where separating the chelate complex from the glycol fluid comprises washing the fluid with water after applying the sulfur compound.

8. The method of claim 1 , where separating the chelate complex from the glycol fluid comprises a process selected from the group consisting of centrifuging, filtering, air flotation, gravity separation, distillation, adsorption, electrophoresis, and combinations thereof.

Assignees

• Baker Hughes A Ge Co Llc
• Baker Hughes Holdings Llc

Inventors

• Jani Jagrut
• Nguyen Tran M
• Weers Jerry J
• Liu Zhengwei

Classifications

• C02F2103/365

  from petrochemical industry (e.g. refineries) · CPC title

• C02F2101/325

  Emulsions · CPC title

• C02F2101/32

  Hydrocarbons, e.g. oil · CPC title

• C02F2101/20

  Heavy metals or heavy metal compounds · CPC title

• C02F1/56

  Macromolecular compounds · CPC title