Abstract The surface tension (γ) and viscosity (η) of monoethanolamine (MEA)-methanol (MeOH) and diethanolamine (DEA)-MeOH aqueous solutions were measured by using the BZY-1 surface tension meter and the NDJ-5S digital rotational viscometer. The temperature ranged from 303.2 K to 323.2 K. The mass fractions of MeOH, MEA and DEA ranged from 0.025 to 0.075, 0.2 to 0.4 and 0.2 to 0.4 respectively. Equations were proposed to model the surface tension and viscosity respectively and both the calculated results agreed well with the experiments. The effects of temperature and mass fraction of MeOH/amines on the surface tension and viscosity were demonstrated on the basis of experiments and calculations.