Premium
Simultaneous removal of CO 2 and salts from saline water by a combined process
Author(s) -
Chaalal Omar,
Hossain Md M.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
environmental progress and sustainable energy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.495
H-Index - 66
eISSN - 1944-7450
pISSN - 1944-7442
DOI - 10.1002/ep.12192
Subject(s) - desalination , environmental science , natural gas , data scrubbing , salinity , ammonia , waste management , acid gas , process (computing) , sweetening , environmental engineering , process engineering , chemistry , pulp and paper industry , engineering , computer science , ecology , biochemistry , food science , sweetening agents , organic chemistry , membrane , biology , operating system
The emission of CO 2 has been increasing steadily and with the increasing demand of desalinated water (especially in Gulf Cooperation Council countries) this is expected to increase at a faster rate. CO 2 removal from sour natural gas, from the water desalination power plants and similar sources is important not only to these industries but also to reduce the effect on global warming. In this study, a simple process is investigated experimentally to remove CO 2 from a synthetic mixture of natural gas containing it. The method is based on the modified Solvay process and involves the chemical reaction between CO 2 and ammonia in saline solution. The process can reduce CO 2 by about 99% and at the same time reduce water salinity by 40%. The process is potentially much more effective than the amine scrubbing process, without the operational problems for environmental damage posed by monoethanolamine organic compounds. The innovative process shows the technical feasibility of sweetening natural gas in the laboratory‐scale operation. It can also be applied to the removal of CO 2 from polluting sources like car exhaust. Simultaneous reduction of salinity is additional benefit of this process. © 2015 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Environ Prog, 35: 250–256, 2016