Aerobic biodegradability of methyldiethanolamine (MDEA) used in natural gas sweetening plants in batch tests and continuous flow experiments

Seawater biodegradation of alkanolamines used for CO2-capture from natural gas

“…The poor biodegradation of MDEA shown in our experiments was in agreement with results from a 28-day aerobic MDEA biodegradation study in a batch system, showing no MDEA biodegradation. However, the same study showed the potential of MDEA biodegradation in flow experiments (Führhacker et al, 2003). In addition, nitrate-reducing bacteria were able to grow anaerobically on several alkanolamines, including MDEA (Knapp et al, 1996).…”

“…DEA was biodegraded within 12-14 h at 27 • C under nitrate-reducing conditions with an anaerobic bacterial strain (Knapp et al, 1996). MDEA was not biodegradable in a standard aerobic batch test, but showed more than 96% biodegradation in a continuous flow experiment (Führhacker et al, 2003).…”

Marine biodegradability and ecotoxicity of solvents for CO2-capture of natural gas

“…Further, it has been observed that bacterial adaptation to amine degradation can be used for wastewater treatment. The degradation of wastewater containing methyldiethanolamine (MDEA) has been studied both in batch tests and in a continuous flow experiment (Fürhacker et al, 2003). For the batch experiment there was no degradation observed after 28 days, while a system with continuous flow resulted in degradation of the amine, probably due to adaptation of the microorganisms.…”

Photochemical oxidation of methyldiethanolamine (MDEA) in aqueous solution by UV/K2S2O8 process

“…Usually during cleaning, protecting and scheduled control of absorption and desorption column, high concentration of alkanolamine is generated into the wastewater [4]. Nevertheless, due to its toxicity the conventional biological treatment cannot be used for this wastewater [5].…”