Removal of Water from Natural Gas Using Zeolite 4A and Zeolite 5A

This report is discussed regarding the research on Removal of Water from Natural Gas using Zeolite 4A and Zeolite 5A. The natural gas that comes from the well usually is saturated with water. Tri-ethylene glycol (TEG) is being used for many decades in the industry as one of the absorbent in removing water from natural gas but there are some problems and difficulties when dealing with this type of absorbent. Therefore, this project is conducted to find the alternatives in removing water from natural gas and to evaluate whether zeolites can be practiced and applied for offshore practices. Zeolites have been proved that they able to remove carbon dioxide from natural gas. A lot of research done proves that zeolites have a big potential to remove water vapour from natural gas effectively. To know the properties of chosen zeolites, characterization by using Surface Area Analyzer, X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF), Field-Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FESEM) and Thermogravimetric Analyzer (TGA) has been executed. Surface Area Analyzer is used to determine pore size and pore volume. Zeolite 4A has higher surface area, pore diameter and micropore volume compared to Zeolite 5A. Both of zeolites exhibit monolayer and chemisorption type of adsorption. XRD shows that Zeolite 4A is more crystal than Zeolite 5A.Both of zeolites are cubic crystal system with identical lattice parameters. XRF is performed to know the elemental composition in zeolites and from the result, it is confirm that Zeolite 4A in a sodium form and Zeolite 5A in a calcium form. FESEM is executed to observe the morphology of the zeolite. From the image obtained, pore size and interconnecting pores of Zeolite 5A seems bigger than Zeolite 4A. TGA result shows both zeolites have higher degradation temperature than 900 °C. It was concluded that by using certain techniques, Zeolite 4A and Zeolite 5A can be identified for their pore area and pore volume, structure properties, elemental composition, morphology and thermal stability. Dynamic Performance Study has been conducted by varying pressure20 to 60 bar, with constant flowate of 5LPM and constant temperature of 50°C in order to study the performance of the zeolites in removing water from natural gas. The best zeolite was selected based on adsorbent capacity and percentage of removing water from natural gas.It was concluded that lower pressure give better result since it give higher adsorption capacity and total water of removal from natural gas. Zeolite 5A is found give better performance in removing water from natural gas than Zeolite 4A due to its affinities towards water

Removal of Water from Natural Gas Using Zeolite 4A and Zeolite 5A

This report is discussed regarding the research on Removal of Water from Natural Gas using Zeolite 4A and Zeolite 5A. The natural gas that comes from the well usually is saturated with water. Tri-ethylene glycol (TEG) is being used for many decades in the industry as one of the absorbent in removing water from natural gas but there are some problems and difficulties when dealing with this type of absorbent. Therefore, this project is conducted to find the alternatives in removing water from natural gas and to evaluate whether zeolites can be practiced and applied for offshore practices. Zeolites have been proved that they able to remove carbon dioxide from natural gas. A lot of research done proves that zeolites have a big potential to remove water vapour from natural gas effectively. To know the properties of chosen zeolites, characterization by using Surface Area Analyzer, X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF), Field-Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FESEM) and Thermogravimetric Analyzer (TGA) has been executed. Surface Area Analyzer is used to determine pore size and pore volume. Zeolite 4A has higher surface area, pore diameter and micropore volume compared to Zeolite 5A. Both of zeolites exhibit monolayer and chemisorption type of adsorption. XRD shows that Zeolite 4A is more crystal than Zeolite 5A.Both of zeolites are cubic crystal system with identical lattice parameters. XRF is performed to know the elemental composition in zeolites and from the result, it is confirm that Zeolite 4A in a sodium form and Zeolite 5A in a calcium form. FESEM is executed to observe the morphology of the zeolite. From the image obtained, pore size and interconnecting pores of Zeolite 5A seems bigger than Zeolite 4A. TGA result shows both zeolites have higher degradation temperature than 900 °C. It was concluded that by using certain techniques, Zeolite 4A and Zeolite 5A can be identified for their pore area and pore volume, structure properties, elemental composition, morphology and thermal stability. Dynamic Performance Study has been conducted by varying pressure20 to 60 bar, with constant flowate of 5LPM and constant temperature of 50°C in order to study the performance of the zeolites in removing water from natural gas. The best zeolite was selected based on adsorbent capacity and percentage of removing water from natural gas.It was concluded that lower pressure give better result since it give higher adsorption capacity and total water of removal from natural gas. Zeolite 5A is found give better performance in removing water from natural gas than Zeolite 4A due to its affinities towards water

Mixed Matrix Membranes Comprising of ZIF-8 Nanofillers for Enhanced Gas Transport Properties

AbstractIn the current research, mixed matrix membranes (MMMs) comprising of 5, 10, 15 and 20 wt% of zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8) were incorporated into 6FDA-durene polyimide phase. The effect of ZIF-8 loading on the membrane performance of CO2 and CH4 separation was investigated. The excellent compatibility and good distribution of ZIF-8 nanofiller in 6FDA-durene polyimide phase even at higher ZIF-8 loading up to 20 wt% has resulted in the increment of CO2 permeability and CO2/CH4 selectivity compared to pure membrane. In this work, 6FDA-durene loaded with 10 wt% ZIF-8 demonstrated impressive CO2 permeability of 1426.75 Barrer with CO2/CH4 selectivity of 28.70, which successfully surpassed the Robeson 2008 upper bound

Bulk CO2/CH4 separation for offshore operating conditions using membrane process

The increasing demands of natural gas pushes energy industries to explore the reservoirs contain high CO2 concentration and impurities including heavy hydrocarbons. High efficiency of using membrane technology in CO2-natural gas separation has extended its potential application to offshore environment. Due to the limited studies related with the separation of CO2 under offshore conditions, the present work has investigated the separation performance of a commercial membrane in removing bulk CO2 from methane at elevated pressure condition. A wide range of offshore operating conditions including pressure from 10 to 50 bar, CO2 concentration from 25 to 70% and temperature of 30oC, 40oC and 50oC were studied. High relative CO2 permeance and relative CO2/CH4 selectivity were observed when the pressure and the CO2 concentration increased. This work, therefore substantial is to bridge the gap and facilitates the application of membrane technology for offshore operating conditions

Experimental Study of CO₂ Plasticization in Polysulfone Membrane for Biogas Processing

Polymeric membranes have emerged for biogas processing to remove CO2 from CH4. Nonetheless, it is also acknowledged that polymeric membranes have the tendency to sorb highly condensable CO2, which consequently swells the polymeric matrix, typically at operating condition higher than the plasticization pressure. The swelling increases void spaces for transport of gas penetrants, which results in an increment in permeability of all gas components at the cost of substantial decrease in membrane selectivity. Despite observations of the end results of plasticization, it is found that many transport property studies include only permeability measurements near ambient conditions. Complementary information on the individual contributions of the sorption and diffusion coefficients to the overall performance typically at non-ambient operating conditions is rarely reported. Therefore, in present study, experimental study has been conducted to fabricate polysulfone (PSF) film. Validity of the developed polysulfone membrane has been verified through characterization and validated with gas transport behavior of published results. Subsequently, transport properties of CO2 though the PSF membrane at varying operating temperatures has been elucidated. The dual mode sorption and partial immobilization models have been employed to quantify the gas transport properties of noncondensable CH4 and condensable CO2 through PSF membrane

An atomistic simulation towards molecular design of silica polymorphs nanoparticles in polysulfone based mixed matrix membranes for CO2/CH4 gas separation

Incorporation of inorganic fillers into Polysulfone (PSF) to constitute mixed matrix membranes (MMMs) has become a viable solution to prevail over limitations of the pristine materials in natural gas sweetening process. Nevertheless, preparation of MMMs without defects and empirical investigation of membrane that exhibits characteristic of improved CO2/CH4 separation performance at experimental scale are difficult that require prior knowledge on compatibility between the filler and polymer. A computational framework has been conducted to construct validated PSF based MMMs using silica (SiO2) as inorganic fillers. It is known that nanosized SiO2 can coexist in varying polymorph configurations (ie, α‐Quartz, α‐Cristobalite, α‐Tridymite) but molecular simulation study of SiO2 polymorphs to form MMMs is limited. Therefore, this work is a pioneering study to elucidate feasibility in facile utilization of polymorphs to improve gas separation performance of MMMs. Physical properties and gas transport behavior of the simulated PSF based MMMs with different SiO2 polymorphs and loadings have been elucidated. The optimal MMM has been found to be PSF/25 wt% α‐Cristobalite at 55°C. The success in molecular simulation has shed light on how computational tools can provide understandings at molecular level to elucidate compatibility between varying pristine materials to MMMs for natural gas processing

Molecular interaction study on a new application of ionic liquids as dissolver toward carbonate scale

Latest advances of ionic liquids (ILs) have allowed to a new application on the dissolution of calcium carbonate (CaCO3) scales where the CaCO3 scale deposition have seriously severe threat in the petroleum field. In this study, the molecular interaction between CaCO3 and ILs n-pyridinium chloride [NPy][Cl] was studied experimentally in order to get a better understanding during the dissolution of scale. NMR and FTIR spectroscopy was used to study the molecular interaction between CaCO3 and [NPy][Cl] solution during the dissolution process. To further evaluate the result, the simulation study using Gaussian software was utilized to predict in detail the molecular interaction between [Npy][Cl] and CaCO3. The finding from this study showed that the metal complex was formed via ligand after dissolution scale process. Based on the findings, it can be clinched that [Npy][Cl] has potential to be used as a scale dissolver in the oilfield, especially in dissolving calcium carbonate scales

Fabrication and characterization of poly(ether-block-amide)(Pebax-1657) and silicoaluminophosphate (SAPO-34) composite membranes

In the past few years, composite membrane has been introduced to cater the limitation of polymeric and inorganic membranes. However, the fabrication of ideal composite membrane with appropriate loading of filler remains challenging. Thus, the material selection as well as optimum loading with the conditions observed for the formulation of the composite membrane studied. In this present work, a series of poly(ether-block-amide) (Pebax-1657) and silicoaluminophosphate (SAPO-34) composite membrane with different loading of SAPO-34 particles (0-4 wt%) were fabricated. The physicochemical properties of the resultant membranes were investigated by utilizing X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray (EDX). Based on analysis, a good distribution of filler was obtained for the membranes loaded with 1 wt% and 2 wt% of SAPO-34 particles. Further increase of inorganic filler loading lead to the sedimentation and agglomeration of particle in the membrane, which may deteriorate the membrane performance in gas separation. Therefore, the optimum loading of inorganic particles in polymer phase play a major role in obtaining membrane with minimum defects ahead of gas separation performance tests such as for CO2/ethylene separation application

A systematic review of the molecular simulation of hybrid membranes for performance enhancements and contaminant removals

Number of research on molecular simulation and design has emerged recently but there is currently a lack of review to present these studies in an organized manner to highlight the advances and feasibility. This paper aims to review the development, structural, physical properties and separation performance of hybrid membranes using molecular simulation approach. The hybrid membranes under review include ionic liquid membrane, mixed matrix membrane, and functionalized hybrid membrane for understanding of the transport mechanism of molecules through the different structures. The understanding of molecular interactions, and alteration of pore sizes and transport channels at atomistic level post incorporation of different components in hybrid membranes posing impact to the selective transport of desired molecules are also covered. Incorporation of molecular simulation of hybrid membrane in related fields such as carbon dioxide (CO2) removal, wastewater treatment, and desalination are also reviewed. Despite the limitations of current molecular simulation methodologies, i.e., not being able to simulate the membrane operation at the actual macroscale in processing plants, it is still able to demonstrate promising results in capturing molecule behaviours of penetrants and membranes at full atomic details with acceptable separation performance accuracy. From the review, it was found that the best performing ionic liquid membrane, mixed matrix membrane and functionalized hybrid membrane can enhance the performance of pristine membrane by 4 folds, 2.9 folds and 3.3 folds, respectively. The future prospects of molecular simulation in hybrid membranes are also presented. This review could provide understanding to the current advancement of molecular simulation approach in hybrid membranes separation. This could also provide a guideline to apply molecular simulation in the related sectors