Bio-oils offer valuable use as bio-solvents for removing hydrogen sulfide (H2S) from natural gas. Preceding bench-scale studies indicate that greater than 90% of H2S can be removed from a gas stream; economic analysis of such a process is necessary to determine solvent regenerative power required and price limits on a to-be-determined solvent regeneration scheme. With a processing goal 1000 kmol/h of sour gas and removing 99.9% of H2S from gas streams at variable feed concentration, design of an absorption unit to process natural gas using bio-oils was carried out through equilibrium stage analysis. Comparison to conventional amine gas treating was used as a cost threshold for gas treatment. The economic viability of using bio-oils as gas sweetening agents depends on capability of regenerating and recycling more than 98% of the soybean oil bio-solvent to compete with amine gas treating, the most popular industrial method.