MDEA is less reactive towards CO2, but has an equilibrium loading capacity approaching 1 mole CO2 per mole amine. It also requires less energy to regenerate. Many tests have been done on the performance of MDEA/MEA or MDEA/piperazine mixtures compared to single amines. CO2 production rates were higher than MEA for the same heat duty and total molar concentration when experiments were performed in the University of Regina pilot plant, which is a modeled after a natural gas plant. There were also insignificant trace amounts of degradation products detected. In an industrial plan that utilizes MDEA, oxidative degradation is most likely to shift to the cross exchanger where temperatures are greater than 70 °C. Higher temperatures and higher CO2 loading accelerate the rate of degradation, resulting in an increase of alkalinity loss as well as total formate production. While MDEA is more resistant to degradation as a standalone compared to MEA, MDEA is preferentially degraded when in an MDEA/MEA blend. Because of the formation of DEA and MAE, which could form nitroso-compounds or diethylnitrosamine and diethylnitraine, the blend could potentially have an adverse impact in terms of atmospheric admissions. In the Boundary Dam plant, emissions increased when CO2 loading of lean amine increased for the blend and MEA. However, decreasing the lean loading increases the reboiler heat duty, which results in an obvious tradeoff between emissions and heat duty or energy costs. This compound should not be confused with the recreational drug
methylenedioxyethylamphetamine which is also abbreviated MDEA. ==Production==