Plant-wide assessment of high-pressure membrane contactors in natural gas sweetening – Part II: Process analysis
File(s)
Accepted version
Author(s)
Quek, Ven Chian
Shah, Nilay
Chachuat, Benoît
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
This paper presents a model-based assessment of a natural gas sweetening process combining high-pressure membrane contactor with conventional amine regeneration. The analysis builds on a mathematical model of the membrane contactor developed in the companion paper, which is capable of quantitative predictions of the CO2 and hydrocarbon absorption in the amine solvent and the solvent evaporative losses to the treated gas. The predictive capability of the plant-wide model is tested against data from a pilot plant operated under industrially relevant conditions at a natural gas processing facility in Malaysia, showing a close agreement of the predictions with the CO2 outlet purity and the energy consumption at various CO2 loading in the amine solvent. This enables a model-based analysis of various operational decisions on the plant-wide solvent losses and hydrocarbon recovery from the rich amine. A new semi-lean process configuration that replaces the energy-intensive stripper column by a simple flash separator is shown to reduce the overall energy consumption significantly while still meeting sales gas specification. This new configuration forms the basis for the scale-up of a commercial natural gas sweetening process, which shows a high intensification potential in terms of volume footprint and energy duty compared to conventional amine treating plants.
Date Issued
2021-03
Date Acceptance
2020-10-06
Citation
Separation and Purification Technology, 2021, 258, pp.1-11
ISSN
1383-5866
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Start Page
1
End Page
11
Journal / Book Title
Separation and Purification Technology
Volume
258
Copyright Statement
© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. This manuscript is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Licence http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Sponsor
Petronas Research Sdn. Bhd.
Identifier
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1383586620324114?via%3Dihub
Grant Number
CEFLE_P81682
Subjects
Chemical Engineering
0301 Analytical Chemistry
0904 Chemical Engineering
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
117938
Date Publish Online
2020-10-27