A novel application of reactive absorption to break the CO2–ethane azeotrope with low energy requirement

Highlights: • Investigation of RA for the CO2–ethane azeotropic process using Hysys simulator. • Optimization of operating parameters to minimize energy demand in the proposed RA process. • Superior performance of the RA process compared to the conventional process. • Enhance in NGL production from 795 to 1120 mole/s compared to the conventional process. - Abstract: Azeotropic separation of ethane and CO2 using reactive absorption (RA) is studied by Hysys process software. A new configuration of a RA process is proposed using diethanolamine (DEA) to break the azeotrope. Impacts of amine flow rate, amine inlet temperature and feed–inlet location are investigated to achieve an optimum condition of the process in terms of energy demand. The simulation results show that optimum values of amine flow rate, amine temperature and feed–inlet location are 1900 mole/s, 30 °C and 20th stage, respectively. It is found that the process including RA leads to a significant reduction in operating costs, compared to the conventional extractive process