PECO GOLDXTREAM ADDRESS ENVIRONMENTAL, SAFETY AND ECONOMIC ISSUES
AT GULF COAST REFINERY
Cleans Amine Better and Lasts Three Times Longer than other Filters

During the aftermath of the oil spill PECO collaborated with a major petroleum refinery in Lake Charles on an amine filtration project.  Amine is a solution used to scrub hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide from refinery off gases and liquid streams.  In these applications, amine is filtered to remove particulate and trace hydrocarbon contaminants.   Often, amine filtration is one of the most expensive and environmentally challenging maintenance programs in a refinery.

Operators change filters as often as once per shift, and are exposed to dangerous vapors and other chemical hazards in the process.  Large quantities of spent filters are disposed of in landfills each year.  Energy consumption increases with more frequent filter changes.  Poor filtration significantly increases operational and maintenance costs, energy consumption, amine losses and emissions.  The quality of filtration affects everything including safety, economics, and the environment.

One Gulf Coast refinery is taking advantage of what PECO has to offer.  After electing to trial a set of PECO GOLDXtream filter elements they realized the benefits that quality filtration brings.  The GOLDXtream is designed to combat a variety of contaminants found in refinery amine systems including, iron sulfide, iron oxide, amine degradation products, and hydrocarbon.  Because of its unique multi-layer depth design, it stows these contaminants very efficiently while minimizing energy consumption and maximizing service life.  After several trials, the results spoke for themselves.  The amine was cleaner and service life of the filter was three times what it was when using the multi-layer pleated filter elements they had been using for years.

Refinery operations personnel reduced human exposure safety concerns with fewer element changes.  The cost for elements is now one third of the previous budget, and the amine process unit benefits from cleaner amine.  Stories like this follow PECO around the industry as their sales and technical teams work closely with refineries to identify ways to improve the bottom line and help protect employees and the environment.

About PECO
PECO specializes in refinery filtration and separation technology and contaminant control services.  They are a division of PECOFacet, a member of the Clarcor filtration group.  PECO’s headquarters are in Mineral Wells Texas and the company has been serving the oil & gas and refining industry since 1936.  Their mission is to provide superior filtration solutions from MRO filter supplies to specialty technologies aimed at supporting their customers total corporate sustainability objectives.