Spectroscopic evaluation of commercial H2S scavengers

The presence of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) poses many challenges in the production of petroleum at all stages of crude oil refinement and processing. Injection of an H2S scavenger into the hydrocarbon stream is most commonly used to reduce the concentration of H2S. Several H2S scavengers are commercially available, but each one must be examined to determine its suitability in terms of efficiency for capturing sulfide in petroleum. Therefore, in the present work, we proposed a system and process (hereinafter denoted as experimental setup/design) to test various H2S scavengers for their ability to efficiently capture sulfide in petroleum. To accomplish this, 46 samples of commercial H2S scavengers were tested using spectroscopy in the infrared region in association with Principal Component Analysis. It was concluded that samples with extreme pH and absorbance band intensity at 1175 cm−1 greater than 0.095 showed the best efficiency for capturing sulfide in petroleum and that success of competing scavengers could be predicted based on these parameters.