Natural Gas Sweetening Using an Energy-Efficient, State-of-the-Art, Solid–Vapor Separation Process

Hani Ababneh, Ahmed AlNouss, Iftekhar A. Karimi and Shaheen A. Al-Muhtaseb
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Hani Ababneh: Department of Chemical Engineering, College of Engineering, Qatar University, Doha P.O. Box 2713, Qatar
Ahmed AlNouss: Department of Chemical Engineering, College of Engineering, Qatar University, Doha P.O. Box 2713, Qatar
Iftekhar A. Karimi: Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, National University of Singapore, Engineering Drive 4, Singapore 117585, Singapore
Shaheen A. Al-Muhtaseb: Department of Chemical Engineering, College of Engineering, Qatar University, Doha P.O. Box 2713, Qatar

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 14, 1-12

Abstract: With the anticipated rise in global demand for natural gas (NG) and liquefied natural gas (LNG), sour gas reserves are attracting the attention of the gas industry as a potential resource. However, to monetize these reserves, sour natural gas has to be sweetened by removing acid gases (carbon dioxide and/or hydrogen sulfide) before liquefaction. The solidification of these acid gases could be the basis for their separation from natural gas. In this study, a state-of-the art solid-vapor (SV) separation unit is developed for removal of acid gases from methane and simulated using a customized Aspen Plus operation unit. The operating principles and conditions, mathematical model, and performance results are presented for the SV unit. Further performance analyses, means of optimization and comparisons to conventional methods used by the industry were studied. Results showed that for similar sweet gas purity, the developed SV unit consumes only 27% of the energy required by the amine sweetening unit. Furthermore, it saves on capital costs, as it requires less equipment and does not suffer from high levels of corrosion.

Keywords: natural gas sweetening; solid phase formation; ternary mixture separation; solid-vapor equilibrium; cryogenic CO 2 separation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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