MDEA + Piperazine Refractometer Calibration: How to Create a Custom Scale for Your PA202X-592

When a refractometer is used to measure an industrial chemical solution, one question comes up again and again:

Can I use a refractometer designed for one concentration or formulation to accurately measure my particular chemical mixture?

For many water-soluble industrial fluids, the answer is yes—but the important question is how the refractometer is calibrated for that specific fluid.

This becomes especially important with MDEA (N-methyldiethanolamine) solutions used for natural gas sweetening when piperazine (PZ) is added as an activator.

A customer may have a solution containing:

• 43.5% MDEA
• 6.5% piperazine
• 50.0% water

and discover that a standard MDEA refractometer scale does not appear to agree with the known concentration of the solution.