CO2 and H2S REMOVAL FROM NATURAL GAS USING

INORGANIC MEMBRANE
2013-CH-338
Why we remove acid gases from natural gas?

Hydrogen sulfide is highly toxic and in the presence of water it forms a weak
corrosive acid. It is readily detectable at low concentrations by its“rotten egg”
odor. Unfortunately, at toxic levels, it is odorless because it deadens nerve endings
in the nose in a matter of seconds.
Carbon dioxide is nonflammable and consequently, large quantities are
undesirable in a fuel. Like H2S, it forms a weak, corrosive acid in the presence of
water.
Membrane:

Membranes are used in natural gas processing for dehydration, fuel-gas

conditioning and bulk CO2 removal, but presently CO2 removal is by far the most
important application.
Working principle of membrane seperation:
From thermodynamics, the driving force for movement through the membrane is
the difference in chemical potential for a given component on the two sides of the
membrane.
Why we select inorganic membrane?

The efficiency of polymeric membranes decreases with time due to

Fouling
Compaction
Chemical degradation
Thermal instability
Because of this limited thermal stability and susceptibility to abrasion and chemical
attack Inorganic membranes are used.
Inorganic membrane:

Made from inorganic-based material like glass,aluminium and metal.

Able to withstand with solvent and other chemicalsand also susceptible to
microbial attack.
Comprise significantly higher permeability and selectivity, but they are also more
resistant towards higher pressure and temperature, aggressive feeds and fouling
effects.
Examples of inorganic membrane are Aminoslicate membrane , carbon-silicalite
composite membrane , MFI membranes and microporous silica membranes.
Inorganic membranes are increasingly being explored to separate gas mixtures.

Besides having appreciable thermal and chemical stability, inorganic membranes

have much higher gas fluxes as compared to polymeric membranes.
Types of inorganic membranes

There are basically two types of inorganic membranes

Dense (nonporous)
Porous membranes

Examples of commercial porous inorganic membranes are

Ceramic membranes (alumina, silica, titanium and glass)

Porous metals (stainless steel and silver)
These membranes are characterized by high
Permeability
Low selectivity
Dense inorganic membranes are very specific in their separation behaviors, for
example Pd metal based membranes are hydrogen specific and metal oxide
membranes are oxygen specific.
Palladium and its alloys have been studied extensively as potential membrane
materials.
Air products and Chemical Inc. developed the selective surface flow
(SSF) membranes.
It consists of a thin layer (2– 3 mm) of nanoporous carbon supported on
a macroporous alumina tube. The effective pore diameter of the carbon
matrix is 5–7 Ǻ
Membrane separation process:

The membrane separates the components of a gas mixture by

Selective adsorption
Surface diffusion
Desorption mechanism
The larger polar molecules of a feed gas mixture at the high-pressure zone of the
membrane are selectively adsorbed on the carbon pore walls followed by their
selective diffusion along the pore walls to the low pressure side of the membrane
where they desorb into the low pressure gas phase.
Thus, a gas stream enriched in the smaller and less polar components of the feed-
gas stream mixture is produced as a low pressure effluent gas from the Selective
Surface Flow (SSF) membrane system.
However, a gas stream enriched in the larger and more polar components of the
feed-gas mixture is produced as a low-pressure effluent gas.
The performance of the SSF membrane for the separation of hydrocarbons from
H2, CO2 from H2, CO2 and CH4 from H2, H2S from H2, and H2S from CH4 are
found in the literature.
Gas separation by means of microporous carbon membrane is based on interaction
differences existing between components of a gas mixture with respect to the
carbon membrane.
The separation factors are determined from pure gas separations in these pore
diameter ranges.

For pure molecular flow, separation factors should increase with decreasing pore
size, but in many cases, the separation factor decreases.

This decrease occurs because of adsorption and surface flow of the heavier
molecule.
The separation factor continues to decrease until the pore size becomes small
enough that the entrance into the membrane is restricted for the larger molecule.

At this point, the separation factor increases rapidly as pore size is decreased.

It is observed that the separation factors are directly proportional to temperature.
This is because with increase of temperature, an unexpected large increase of is
observed.
Disadvantages:
Inherent brittleness characteristic.
Performed well under low pressure which does not suit the natural gas well
which required high pressure for the exploration.
High production cost which seems not practical for large industrial applications