Alkanolamines are widely used in the purification of the sour gas sweetening process. During the sour gas absorption process

CO

2

significantly degrades the amine solvent and creates enormous problems for plant operation. In this work

CO

2

induced degradation of aqueous diethanolamine (DEA) solution was conducted in a 1.25 L jacketed glass reactor that functioned as an absorber and stripper at atmospheric conditions. Pure CO

2

was bubbled through the reactor until the solution became saturated. In this study

the concentrations of DEA used were in the range of concentrations between 2 mol·L

-1

and 4 mol·L

-1

. In the degradation experiment

six generic cycles were conducted for each run. Each cycle was configured with the absorption and desorption of carbon dioxide at 55℃ and 100℃

respectively. Samples were collected after a predetermined experimental time and analyzed by ion chromatography (IC) to identify unknown ionic degradation products (DGPs). In the IC analysis

three different columns were used for anion

cation and ion exclusion systems

which are Metrosep A Supp 5 150/4.0

Metrosep C Supp 4 150/4.0 and Metrosep Organic Acids

respec

tively. The major identified DGPs of D01DEA2M

D02DEA3M

and D03DEA4M are nitrite

acetate and ammonium. Phosphate product was found in the degraded amine samples which might be due to the contamination of water or chromatographic system.