CO2 removal from natural gas by employing amine absorption and membrane technology—A technical and economical analysis

Chemical Engineering Journal, Volume 172, Issues 2-3, 15 August 2011, Pages 952-960

CO2 removal from natural gas by employing amine absorption and membrane technology—A technical and economical analysis

Lars Peters (a), A. Hussain (b), M. Follmann (a), T. Melin (a), M.-B. Hägg (b)

may-britt.hagg@chemeng.ntnu.no

a AVT-Chemical Process Engineering, RWTH Aachen University, Turmstraße. 46, 52064 Aachen, Germany

b Department of Chemical Engineering, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, N-7491 Trondheim, Norway

Abstract

A technical and economic analysis of gas sweetening processes for natural gas with amine absorption and membrane technology has been conducted.  

Although amine absorption is still considered a state of the art technology for gas sweetening, membranes have shown a great potential in this area, provided that flux and selectivity for CO2 is sufficient.

TheNTNU-developed PVAm/PVA (polyvinyl amine and polyvinyl alcohol) membrane shows such qualities.  A simulation analysis with Aspen Hysys for amine absorption and a membrane model interfaced within Aspen Hysys was performed for two different feed gas cases. An economical analysis was also conducted to evaluate the total capital investment and gas processing cost for both technologies

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