CO2 removal from natural gas by employing amine absorption and membrane technology–a technical and economical analysis

Abstract:
A technical and economic analysis of gas sweetening processes for natural gas with amine absorption and membrane technology has been conducted. Amine absorption is still considered a state of the art technology for gas sweetening but membranes have shown a great potential in this area, if the flux and selectivity for CO2 is high enough. The PVAm/PVA (polyvinyl amine and polyvinyl alcohol) membrane, developed at NTNU shows such qualities. For two different feed gas cases a simulation analysis with Aspen Hysys for amine absorption and a membrane model interfaced within Aspen Hysys was performed. Further, an economical analysis was also conducted to evaluate the total capital investment and gas processing cost for both technologies.

Keywords:
gas sweetening, Aspen Hysys, carbon dioxide capture, amine absorption, fixed site carrier membrane