7. NATURAL-GAS PROCESSING 29 7.6.5 Acid gas removal by gas permeation Gas permeation is already applied industrially to remove carbon dioxide from natu? s (Meyer et al. 1991: Cooley. 1990). So far. these units have only been used for small Gas permeation allows simultaneous removal of carbon dioxide and water from natural 2s, This also offers the advantage of reducing the methane loss in the permeate, AS with ly to dehydration alone. the most advantageous alternative in economic terms is operate with a single s without recompression of the low-pressure gas that passes through the membrane hese conditions. gas-permeation units can be justified economically with com ‘mercially-available membranes only if the inlet carbon dioxide concentration is high. and the final specification is not strict (lohnston and King. 1987), Separation of the gas mixture obtained in enhanced recovery by carbon dioxide injection is one such an application. The preyence of hydrogen sulfide can by application in which the hydrogen sulfide content of a gas is reduced from 6000 to less than 50 ppm vol was reported by Grey and Mazur (1984). but itis generally acknowledged that a product with the usual hydrogen sulfide-content secceptable up to contents of 3000 to 6000 ppm vol. An present membranes cannot guarantes specitications for the processed gas, Research projects ate under way 10 develop more efficient. tougher and more economi- cal membranes. Significant progress has already been achieve in the selection of polymers en methane and carbon dioxide (Koros et al with very high separation selectivities betw: 1987), Thus selectivities between 50 and 100 have combini wen observed with some polyimides Solubility selectivity with high diffusional s ivity (Deschamps et al. 1991 Enhancing diffusional selectivity ise smely difficult in the separation of methane and 1on dioxide. whose molecules have very close kinetic diameters: 3.3 A for carbon dios. ide and 3.8 A for methane It can be achieved by selecting polymers with functional groups. which have two ef fects: 10 inerease the permeability by spacing the chains and to favor the selec livity by reducing their mobility gas fractionation Low-temperature distillation can be considered for separating carton dioxide present at high cone Is But at low temperatur point: -56,57°C). Two alternatives have been proposed to resolve this difficulty ntration lev carbon dioxide crystallizes (triple