Ethanolamines: MEA, DEA, TEA and MDEA

Mono-, di- and triethanolamine and MDEA in drums, IBCs and ISO tanks for gas sweetening, grinding aids and detergents

Ethanolamines come off one reactor: ethylene oxide reacts with ammonia to give mono-, di- and triethanolamine together, and the producer sets the ratio by the ammonia excess, which is why prices of the three move against each other and why an offer of one grade often comes with the others. MEA (HS 2922.11) is the most reactive and the classic amine for acid-gas removal in natural-gas plants, refineries and carbon-capture pilots, and an intermediate for ethyleneamines, detergents and herbicides. DEA (HS 2922.12) sits between, resistant to carbonyl sulphide in gas sweetening and the feedstock for diethanolamide surfactants and metalworking fluids. TEA (HS 2922.15) is sold at 85% (with the balance mostly DEA) and 99%, and one of its largest uses is as a cement grinding aid, where it films the clinker particles and cuts mill energy; it is also a pH regulator in cosmetics and detergents. MDEA (HS 2922.19) is the selective gas-treating solvent, taking H₂S ahead of CO₂ at lower regeneration energy, and is also used in grinding-aid blends alongside TEA, TIPA and DEIPA. On the certificate the buyer reads assay by gas chromatography, water by Karl Fischer, colour (APHA or Pt-Co), and for TEA the DEA content. For transport MEA and its solutions are UN 2491, class 8, packing group III under IMDG. Ethanolamines are corrosive to skin and eyes and thicken or freeze in cold climates, so drums are stored under cover and ISO tanks carry heating coils. The producers are ethylene-oxide sites: Dow in Texas and Louisiana, BASF at Ludwigshafen, Antwerp, Geismar and Nanjing, INEOS Oxide in Louisiana and Texas, Petronas Chemicals at Kerteh in Malaysia (an 85,000 MT/yr ethanolamines line inside the derivatives complex) and Chinese EO derivative plants; one industry survey puts the five largest producers at nearly half of world capacity.

The buyer is a gas-processing plant or refinery replacing amine inventory, an engineering contractor commissioning a sweetening unit, a cement plant or grinding-aid formulator, a detergent or personal-care manufacturer, a metalworking-fluid blender, a textile or leather chemicals maker, or a distributor. Gas plants buy ISO tanks of MEA or MDEA against a tight water and colour spec; grinding-aid formulators buy TEA 85% by the ISO tank; smaller users buy drums palletised four to a pallet. Documents are the certificate of analysis (COA), the safety data sheet (SDS), a certificate of origin, the dangerous-goods declaration for MEA and REACH registration cover for EU imports. CBIL is a commodity brokerage company and brokers MEA, DEA, TEA 85% and 99% and MDEA from US, German, Belgian, Malaysian and Chinese producers and trader positions, in steel or HDPE drums, IBCs and ISO tanks, and in chemical-tanker parcels for bulk buyers, on FOB, CFR, CIF and DAP terms; because CBIL also runs a chartering desk (LaycanDesk) that works chemical tankers, a parcel freight can be quoted alongside the cargo. Price is per MT and depends on grade, purity and pack; minimum quantities are confirmed per product and pack. Send the grade, assay and colour you buy against, the pack, monthly tonnage and discharge port, and the enquiry is screened and worked against it.

Need the ship as well? Our chartering desk prices chemical parcel tanker chartering on LaycanDesk.

Excluded origins are not offered, including product re-exported, blended or re-processed through a third country. Every lot moves with a certificate of origin naming the producing plant, mine or grower country, and nothing is quoted before the seller and loading point are known.