Natural Gas Sweetening Using an Energy-Efficient, State-of-the-Art, Solid–Vapor Separation Process

Abstract

With the anticipated rise in global demand for natural gas (NG) and liquefied natural gas (LNG), sour gas reserves are attracting the attention of the gas industry as a potential resource. However, to monetize these reserves, sour natural gas has to be sweetened by removing acid gases (carbon dioxide and/or hydrogen sulfide) before liquefaction. The solidification of these acid gases could be the basis for their separation from natural gas. In this study, a state-of-the art solid-vapor (SV) separation unit is developed for removal of acid gases from methane and simulated using a customized Aspen Plus operation unit. The operating principles and conditions, mathematical model, and performance results are presented for the SV unit. Further performance analyses, means of optimization and comparisons to conventional methods used by the industry were studied. Results showed that for similar sweet gas purity, the developed SV unit consumes only 27% of the energy required by the amine sweetening unit. Furthermore, it saves on capital costs, as it requires less equipment and does not suffer from high levels of corrosion.

Fluorinated Biphenyl Aromatic Polyimides for Gas Separation Applications: Real Gas Mixture Study

“…The CO 2 / CH 4 selectivity remained virtually constant in the entire interval of pressures, α COd 2 /CHd 4 = 24. In the measurements with mixtures of gases, a decrease in the permeability with the pressure was detected as well, by 30% for CO 2 and by 45% for CH 4 . The selectively barely changed with the pressure and was similar to that of pure gases.…”

“…Nowadays, polymeric materials such as membranes have become a profitable way to separate acid gases and impurities from natural gas since they offer benefits compared to other separation technologies, such as being an ecological attractive, easy to operate, and reducing costs in comparison with conventional industrial processes. − However, commercially available membranes, polysulfones, cellulose acetate, and polyaramids, exhibit limited permeability and selectivity properties, reducing their large scale use. , …”

Latest technological advances and insights into capture and removal of hydrogen sulfide: a critical review

“…In general, cryogenic distillation can achieve very high levels of sulfur recovery, up to 99% or higher, which means that almost all of the H 2 S in the natural gas stream can be separated and recovered. 396 However, H 2 S purification is an energy-intensive process and requires greater cooling duty to cool down H 2 S to below its boiling point. As a result, H 2 S removal by cryogenic separation is rarely reported as of now.…”

Adaptive Data‐Driven Modeling Strategy Based on Feature Selection for an Industrial Natural Gas Sweetening Process

“…Numerous natural gas sweetening treatment processes have been developed both domestically and internationally. These methods are primarily categorized into four classes: regenerative solvent processes, fixed-bed adsorption processes, membrane separation processes, and direct conversion processes [23,24]. Regenerative solvent absorption for H 2 S removal is currently the most prevalent method.…”