Abstract
A spiral wound membrane (SWM) is employed to separate acid gases (mainly CO2) from natural gas due to its robustness, lower manufacturing cost, and moderate packing density compared to hollow fiber membranes. Various mathematical models are available to describe the separation performance of SWMs under different operating conditions. Nevertheless, most of the mathematical models deal with only binary gas mixtures (CO2 and CH4) that may lead to an inaccurate assessment of separation performance of multicomponent natural gas mixtures. This work is aimed to develop an SWM separation model for multicomponent natural gas mixtures. The succession stage method is employed to discretize the separation process within the multicomponent SWM module for evaluating the product purity, hydrocarbon loss, stage cut, and permeate acid gas composition. Our results suggest that multicomponent systems tend to generate higher product purity, lower hydrocarbon loss, and augmented permeate acid gas composition compared to the binary system. Furthermore, different multicomponent systems yield varied separation performances depending on the component of the acid gas. The developed multicomponent SWM separation model has the potential to design and optimize the spiral wound membrane system for industrial application.
Highlights
Received: 13 July 2021Accepted: 9 August 2021Published: 26 August 2021Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.The demand for natural gas as an energy source has increased exponentially due to its safe, clean, and efficient conversion properties [1,2]
During the computation of the model, the current succession of state approach assumed the subdivision of a large system into smaller elements with the dependence of mass across a single element on the inlet condition of that particular cell
As numerical solutions obtained through discretization methods can accumulate truncation, rounding, and inherited errors, element sensitivity analysis is necessary to evaluate which numerical configuration leads to an accurate model
Summary
The demand for natural gas as an energy source has increased exponentially due to its safe, clean, and efficient conversion properties [1,2]. It is widely used for the generation of heat and electricity. The variation in the composition of raw natural gas poses a major challenge for transportation and processing operations. The acid gas in natural gas does reduce the calorific value, it imparts acidic properties in the gas (when combined with water [3]) that causes corrosion issues in pipelines and processing equipment. The removal of acid gases from natural gas, warrants better transportation and processing operations.
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