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An Industrial Scale Dehydration Process for Natural Gas Involving Membranes
Author(s) -
Liu L.,
Chen Y.,
Kang Y.,
Deng M.
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
chemical engineering and technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.403
H-Index - 81
eISSN - 1521-4125
pISSN - 0930-7516
DOI - 10.1002/1521-4125(200110)24:10<1045::aid-ceat1045>3.0.co;2-t
Subject(s) - natural gas , dew point , industrial gas , methane , gas engine , water vapor , dehydration , chemistry , waste management , fuel gas , environmental science , materials science , process engineering , engineering , mechanical engineering , thermodynamics , gas turbines , combustion , physics , biochemistry , organic chemistry
An industrial scale dehydration process based on hollow fiber membranes for lowering the dew point of natural gas is described in this paper. A pilot test with the feed flux scale of 12×10 4 Nm 3 /d was carried out. Dew points of –8 °C∼–13 °C at a gas transport pressure in the pipeline of 4.6M Pa and methane recovery of more than 98% were attained. The water vapor content of the product gas could be maintained around 0.01 vol% during a continuous run of about 700 hours. The effects of feed flux and operation pressure on methane recovery and water vapor content were also investigated. Additionally, some auxiliary technologies, such as a full‐time engine using natural gas as fuel and the utilization of vent gas in the process, are also discussed. A small amount of the vent gas from the system was used as a fuel for an engine to drive vacuum pumps, and the heat expelled from the engine was used to warm up the natural gas feed. The whole system can be operated in a self‐sustainable manner from an energy point of view, and has a relatively high efficiency in the utilization of natural gas.