MEA - Monoethanolamine

About This Product

MEA, or 2-aminoethanol (CAS 141-43-5, C2H7NO), holds a primary amine group and a hydroxyl group in one small molecule, and that pairing accounts for most of its behaviour. It is a clear, viscous, hygroscopic liquid with a strong smell of ammonia and mixes with water in all proportions.

Gas treaters use MEA as the yardstick for every other solvent. Carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide do not simply dissolve in it; they react with it to form carbamates and salts, so an MEA unit can bring acid gas down to very low levels even when its partial pressure is small. Power station flue gas at near-atmospheric pressure is exactly that case, where a physical solvent would pick up very little, which is why MEA is still the baseline process for post-combustion carbon capture. The price is heat: reversing the reaction to free the gas and regenerate the solvent takes a large energy input, and that duty governs the economics. Operators also have to manage oxidative and thermal degradation and the corrosion MEA causes on carbon steel, so corrosion inhibitors and solvent reclaiming are part of any working system.

Outside gas treating, MEA is used to make detergents and surfactants, in metalworking fluids and corrosion inhibitors, and as an intermediate in chemical synthesis.

BG Petro Chemicals supplies MEA against an agreed specification covering assay, water, diethanolamine, colour, iron and acidity, with the grade confirmed at quotation.