A study of the mass transfer performance of 2-Amino-2-methyl-1-propanol (AMP) and piperazine (PZ) +AMP mixtures for CO2 uptake from natural gas (NG) with a high CO2 concentration suggests that PZ +AMP solvent mixtures have a high potential for CO2 removal from CO2-rich NG on offshore platforms.

The absorption experiments were conducted in a high pressure bench-scale absorption column packed with Sulzer metal gauze packing. The operating parameters studied include different PZ concentration (3–9 wt%), liquid flow rate (2.89–4.33 m3/m2 h), operating pressure (0.1–5.0 MPa) and CO2 concentration in NG (30–50%). The mass transfer performance of the 30 wt% PZ +AMP blend was proven to be higher than the 30 wt% AMP. At high pressure conditions, CO2 removal efficiency (%) and KGav had increased with increasing PZ concentration and liquid flow rate. However, the KGav for CO2 concentration had decreased at higher values of 30–50% CO2. The Kyav value had also increased at higher operating pressure and this trend became more significant at pressure settings of higher than 2.0 MPa. This result suggests that the PZ +AMP solvent blend has great potential for application in CO2 removal from CO2-rich NG on offshore platforms.