Natural Gas Sweetening via Membrane-Assisted Gas Absorption Part 2: A Hollow-Fiber Unit with Dimethyl Diethanolammonium Glycinate-based Absorbent

The present study deals with the continuation of the development, enhancement, and optimization of a novel hybrid separation method – membrane assisted gas absorption, which is designed for the removal of acid gases from natural gas processing. The second part focuses on the design of absorbent solutions and their application in the proposed technique to increase the efficiency of acid gas removal and decrease the losses of hydrocarbons. Absorbent systems based on methyldiethanolamine aqueous solutions and containing a novel ionic liquid, dimethyl diethanolammonium glycinate, were proposed and comprehensively studied in terms of the properties that affect the mass transfer rate: sorption capacity, viscosity, and density. As a result of that complex absorbents study, its optimal composition was determined for further separation tests in a membrane-assisted gas absorption unit. On the example of the model ternary gas mixture and quasi-real natural gas separation, the proposed technique provides efficient separation. It not only reduces the concentration of acid gases up to 0.75 mol% but also allows the recovery of 99% of hydrocarbons as a product flow.

Gas separation; Hollow fibers; Ionic liquids; Membrane-assisted gas absorption; Natural gas sweetening

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