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Ethylene oxide / amines complex, Antwerp, Belgium

How to simulate ethanolamines plant: mea / dea / tea from ethylene oxide + ammonia

The nitrogen analogue of the ethylene-glycol chain, and a major gas-treating-solvent process in its own right. Ethylene oxide reacts with ammonia through the same kind of CONSECUTIVE addition chain the glycols follow — EO + NH3 -> monoethanolamine (MEA), EO + MEA -> diethanolamine (DEA), EO + DEA -> triethanolamine (TEA), all atom-balanced and keyed on the shrinking EO pool. A large ammonia excess pushes selectivity toward MEA (the ~80/13/5 MEA/DEA/TEA slate a high NH3:EO ratio makes, amine-side mirror of how a high water:EO ratio favours MEG). The separation strips the excess ammonia (recovered for recycle) and the reaction water, then splits the amines by boiling point (MEA 170 C < DEA 269 C < TEA 335 C) into ~99.8% MEA, high-purity DEA, and a TEA bottoms cut. HONEST SCOPE: the reaction chemistry is rigorous stoichiometry (real atom balances, realistic selectivity from the fixed conversions), and the amines are characterized as pseudo-components (Tc/Pc/omega from the open-data databank — MEA/DEA/TEA have no CoolProp entry) so they flash under Peng-Robinson. The purification uses spec-based component-split separators (the Aspen 'Sep'-block technique), NOT rigorous vacuum columns -- the ethanolamines are wide-boiling with narrow adjacent-amine relative volatilities, the same wide-boiling-MESH limit measured for the glycol columns. The recovered ammonia is shown as an open recycle stream (an honest simplification, like the parent EO example).

NH3
Water
EO
MIX
RXN1
RXN2
RXN3
COOL
Ammstrip
NH3 Recycle
Dewater
Water OUT
Meacol
MEA Product
Deacol
DEA Product
TEA Product
  1. 1
    Open the ready-made model

    Open the "Ethanolamines plant: MEA / DEA / TEA from ethylene oxide + ammonia" model in the MaximaLabs workspace — no install, no license. It loads live on the canvas, ready to edit and run.

  2. 2
    Confirm the thermodynamics

    This process is modeled with the PENG-ROBINSON property package over ethylene_oxide, ammonia, monoethanolamine, diethanolamine, triethanolamine, water — already selected, so the phase equilibrium and enthalpy are physically consistent from the first run.

  3. 3
    Review the flowsheet

    The flowsheet chains MIX, 3× RXN3, COOL, 4× Deacol. Every block is a real, solvable unit op you can reconfigure on the canvas.

  4. 4
    Run the simulation

    Click Run. The deterministic solver converges the material and energy balances (recycles included) and fills the live stream table — the AI never invents a number.

  5. 5
    Read the results and iterate

    Inspect the converged streams, tweak a spec, and re-run — or ask the AI copilot to explain a result or diagnose a failed solve in plain English.

What you'll build
Thermodynamics
PENG-ROBINSON
Components
ethylene_oxide, ammonia, monoethanolamine, diethanolamine, triethanolamine, water
Unit operations
MIX3× RXN3COOL4× Deacol
Open this model in the workspace

Opens live on the canvas — free, no install.

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