Removal of high concentration CO2 from natural gas at elevated pressure via absorption process in packed column

• Published in: Journal of natural gas chemistry 2012, Vol.21 (1), p.7-10
• Main Authors: TAN, L. S, LAU, K. K, BUSTAM, M. A, SHARIFF, A. M
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Carbon dioxide; Elevated; Energy; Exact sciences and technology; Fuels; Gas conditioning and treatments. Desulphurization. Liquefaction; Gas industry; Gas streams; Liquids; Natural gas; Reserves; Solvents; Streams; 二氧化碳含量; 二氧化碳气体; 压力升高; 吸收过程; 填料塔; 天然气储量; 高浓度CO2; 高浓度二氧化碳
• ISSN: 1003-9953
• DOI: 10.1016/S1003-9953(11)60325-3

Carbon dioxide （CO2） removal is an essential step in natural gas （NG） processing to provide high quality gas stream products and minimize operational difficulties. This preliminary study alms to investigate the removal of CO2 at high concentration level from the mixture of CO2-NG gas stream at elevated pressure via absorption process. This is to explore the possibility of exploring high CO2 content natural gas reserves by treatment at offshore platform. A mixed amine solvent, Stonvent-II, was used for the absorption of approximately 75 vol% CO2 in CO2-NG stream at a pressure of 10 barg. The initial solvent temperature was varied in order to study the impact of initial temperature on the absorption performance. Preliminary study at temperatures of 35 ℃ and 45 ℃ indicates that Stonvent-II was able to perform almost 100% removal of CO2 under both conditions. However, the CO2 absorption effect took place faster when the initial liquid temperature was lower. This is because when the initial liquid temperature is high, the temperature increase in the packing bed caused by the reaction heat is high which impacts the efficiency of absorption negatively.