Thermodynamic and molecular insights into natural gas dehydration using choline chloride-based deep eutectic solvents

Deep eutectic solvents (DESs) as promising green drying agents were first proposed to natural gas (NG) dehydration. In this work, choline chloride (ChCl)-based DESs were prepared using ChCl as hydrogen bond acceptor (HBA) and triethylene glycol (TEG), ethylene glycol (EG) or Urea as hydrogen bond donors (HBDs). To explore the potential application, methane (CH₄) dehydration experiment was conducted to verify the dehydration performance using prepared DESs. The thermodynamic properties were predicted by COSMO-RS model (Conductor-like screening model for real solvents). The quantum chemistry calculation was applied to understand the separation mechanism at the molecular level. The absorption performance of H₂O in DESs depends on the weak interaction between Cl atom (or N and O atom) of ChCl and H atom of H₂O as well as the free volume of DESs. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulation discloses the intermolecular interaction between HBA and HBD. This work makes the first multi-scale analysis on NG dehydration using DESs.     

Acid gas adsorption on zeolite SSZ-13: Equilibrium and dynamic behavior for natural gas applications

In developing new adsorption separation processes, it is necessary to study both the equilibrium and dynamic adsorption properties of potential materials. Experimental determination of isotherms and dynamic breakthrough properties aid in the development of modeling new adsorption systems toward process development. Here, the equilibrium adsorption properties of a small-pore zeolite, Na-SSZ-13, are studied for its natural gas separation potential. Using volumetric, gravimetric, and dynamic column breakthrough adsorption techniques, the adsorption properties of CO₂, CH₄, C₂H₆, H₂S, and H₂O are determined. High-pressure breakthrough experiments demonstrate the mixed gas separation performance of Na-SSZ-13 in mixtures containing CO₂, CH₄, C₂H₆, and H₂S. Simulations of these breakthrough experiments show that ideal adsorbed solution theory adequately describes the mixed gas adsorption modeling for this zeolite. In gas mixtures containing both CO₂ and H₂S, there is an observed acid gas reaction that results in elution of carbonyl sulfide, COS.     

Highly selective absorption separation of H2S and CO2 from CH4 by novel azole-based protic ionic liquids

Recently, the selective removal of H₂S and CO₂ has been highly desired in natural gas sweetening. Herein, four novel azole-based protic ionic liquids (PILs) were designed and prepared through one-step neutralization reaction. The solubility of H₂S (0–1.0 bar), CO₂ (0–1.0 bar), and CH₄ (0–5.0 bar) was systematically measured at temperatures from 298.2 to 333.2 K. NMR and theoretical calculation were used to investigate the reaction mechanism between these PILs and H₂S. Reaction equilibrium thermodynamic model (RETM) was screened to correlate the H₂S solubility. Impressively, 1,5-diazabicyclo[4,3,0] non-5-ene 1,2,4-1H-imidazolide ([DBNH][1,2,4-triaz]) shows the highest H₂S solubility (1.4 mol/mol or 7.3 mol/kg at 298.2 K and 1.0 bar) and superior H₂S/CH₄ (831) and CO₂/CH₄ (199) selectivities compared with literature results. Considering the excellent absorption capacity of H₂S, high H₂S/CH₄, and CO₂/CH₄ selectivity, acceptable reversibility, as well as facile preparation process, it is believed that azole-based PILs provide an attractive alternative in natural gas upgrading process.     

Wilson parameters for the system H2, N2, CO,CO2, CH4, H2S,CH3OH,and H2O

Parameters for the Wilson equation have been determined for 24 of the 28 binary pairs in the system: H₂, N₂, CO, CO₂, CH₄, H₂S, CH₃OH, and H₂O. The data for eleven pairs were fit using the symmetric convention, with the remaining pairs satisfying the unsymmetric convention. Coefficients for the missing pairs could be estimated from Henry's Law constants. References have been included for the heat capacities of liquid methanol and carbon dioxide. Heats of mixing were also found in the literature. This information, plus readily available gas heat capacities, provides sufficient information to calculate multicomponent material and energy balances for the columns used in the separation of H₂S and CO₂ by cold methanol absorption.     

Properties of cold lake bitumen saturated with pure gases and gas mixtures

This paper presents new data for the viscosity, density and gas solubility of Cold Lake bitumen saturated with light gases and gas mixtures over a temperature range of 15 to 103°C at up to 10 MPa pressure. Specifically, the gases whose effects on the bitumen properties were measured are N₂, CH₄, CO₂ and C₂H₆, and two mixtures of CO₂ and CH₄. With CO₂ and C₂H₆, experiments were also performed in the liquid-liquid region, and the results of these experiments generally agree with the previously published predictions. The viscosity of the gas-free Cold Lake bitumen is comparable to that of a Marguerite Lake bitumen that was tested previously. Due to the large solubilities of C0₂ and C₂H₆, the reduction in gas-saturated bitumen viscosity is quite dramatic. The density of the gas-saturated bitumen decreases with increased amounts of the dissolved CH₄ and C₂H₆ gases, but no such trends are evident for the N₂ and CO₂ gases. The results of the experiments with two binary gas mixtures (i.e., CO₂ and CH₄) indicate that the bitumen properties are affected largely by the major gas constituent.     

The gas permeation properties of 6FDA-2, 4, 6-trimethyl-1, 3-phenylenediamine (TMPDA)/1, 3-phenylenediamine (mPDA) copolyimides

Summary The gas permeation behavior of 2, 2’-bis (3, 4’dicarboxyphenyl) hexafluoropropane dianhydride(6FDA)- 2, 4, 6-Trimethyl-1, 3-phenylenediamine (TMPDA)/1,3-phenylenediamine (mPDA) polyimides was investigated by systematically varying the diamine ratios. The physical properties of the copolyimides were characterized by IR, DSC and TGA. All the copolyimides were soluble in most of the common solvents. The gas permeabilities and diffusion coefficients decreased with increasing mPDA content; however, the permselectivity of gas pairs such as H₂/N₂, O₂/N₂, CO₂/CH₄ was enhanced with the incorporation of mPDA moiety. The permeability coefficients of H₂, O₂, N₂, CO₂ and CH₄ were found to decrease with the increasing order of kinetic diameters of the penetrant gases. Moreover, all of the copolyimides studied in this work exhibited performance near, lying on or above the existing upper bound trade-off line between permselectivity and permeability.     

Screening ionic liquids as candidates for separation of acid gases: Solubility of hydrogen sulfide,methane, and ethane

The solubility of the major constituents of natural gas in ionic liquids (ILs) can be used to identify their potential for acid gas removal from a producing gas stream. We have developed models for the solubility of H₂S, CH₄, and C₂H₆ in ILs at typical conditions encountered in natural gas treatment. In this work, a conductor‐like screening model for realistic solvation was used to predict the activity coefficients for solutes in ILs and a cubic EOS was used for vapor‐phase corrections from ideality. Empirical correlations were developed to extrapolate solubilities where experimental data are not available at desired conditions; targeted in this study at 298.15 K and 2000 kPa. Over 400 possible ILs were ranked based on the higher selectivity of absorption of CO₂ and H₂S over CH₄ and C₂H₆. The best 15% (58) of promising ILs for sour gas treatment predominantly contain the anions BF₄, NO₃, and CH₃SO₄ and the cations N₄₁₁₁, pmg, and tmg. © 2013 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 59: 2993–3005, 2013     

Adsorption of hydrogen sulfide,carbon dioxide,methane, and their mixtures on activated carbon

Abstract

H₂S and CO₂ are acid contaminants of natural gas and biogas, which removal have been studied using adsorption data for monocomponent and binary mixtures. However, equilibrium adsorption data for H₂S?+?CO₂ + CH₄ mixture has not been investigated yet. In this work, H₂S and CO₂ partition coefficients (K) and activated carbon (AC) selectivity (S) for H₂S?+?CO₂ + CH₄ mixture separation at high-pressure and different temperatures were determined. To reach this goal, monocomponent isotherms for H₂S, CO₂ and CH₄ on Brazilian babassu coconut hush AC were experimentally determined at different temperatures and pressures. Then, obtained data were correlated by Langmuir and Tóth models, and multicomponent adsorption was predicted using Extended Langmuir, Extended Tóth and Ideal Adsorption Solution Theory (IAST) methods. Results indicate AC captures approximately 26?wt% of H₂S or CO₂. K values for CO₂ and H₂S reached more than 3 and 26, respectively, depending on the predictive model utilized and were higher for diluted mixtures (high CH₄ content in gas phase). S values for CO₂ and H₂S can reach values greater than 25 for Tóth?+?IAST. Furthermore, selectivity toward H₂S is approximately 5.6 times greater than CO₂. The effect of temperature on multicomponent results indicate K and S values decrease as temperature increases. Therefore, results obtained herein show that is possible to separate H₂S and CO₂ from mixture containing CH₄ using this AC as adsorbent and better separation performance was observed for low H₂S and CO₂ concentrations and lower temperatures.     

Effect of air gap on gas permeance/selectivity performance of BTDA‐TDI/MDI copolyimide hollow fiber membranes

Fabrication, morphology evaluation , and permeance/selectivity properties of three asymmetric BTDA‐TDI/MDI copolyimide hollow fiber membranes (HFM s ) are reported. The asymmetric HFM s were spun using the dry/wet phase inversion process. The effect of one of the major spinning parameters, the air gap, on the permeance/selectivity properties of the produced HFM was investigated. Scanning e lectron m icroscopy was used to evaluate the morphological characteristics and the macroscopic structure of the developed HFM. The permeance values of He, H₂, CH₄, CO₂, O₂, and N₂ gases were measured by the variable pressure method at different feed pressures and temperatures and the permselectivity coefficients were calculated. The higher selectivity values were evaluated for the Μ1 membrane and were found to be 49.33, 2.99, 5.13, 5.57 , and 9.61 for H₂/CH₄, O₂/N₂, CO₂/CH₄, CO₂/N₂ , and H₂/CO₂ gas mixtures , respectively. The selectivity experiments of H₂/CH₄, CO₂/CH₄ , and O₂/N₂ mixtures were performed at 25 ° C. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 130: 4490–4499, 2013     

Correlation and prediction of gas solubility in cold lake bitumen

The solubility data for pure light gases, namely N₂, CH₄, CO₂ and C₂H₆, in Cold Lake bitumen are correlated by use of the Peng-Robinson equation of state. Modeling Cold Lake bitumen as a mixture of three pseudocomponents adequately matched two sets of the gas-solubility data. The critical properties and acentric factor for the bitumen pseudocomponents were estimated using the Kesler-Lee correlations. For each gas-bitumen pair, a single constant value of the binary interaction parameter is shown to predict the gas-solubility data with average deviations ranging from 2 to 8%. Subsequently, these calculations were extended to predict the solubility of CO₂+CH₄ gas-mixtures in Cold Lake bitumen. It is shown that the solubility predictions for the gas mixtures data are higher by approximately 6 to 9%.     

Experimental Evaluation of the Adsorption,Diffusion, and Separation of CH4/N2 and CH4/CO2 Mixtures on Al-BDC MOF

Adsorption equilibrium, thermodynamics, and kinetics of CH₄, N₂, and CO₂ were investigated by volumetric-chromatographic and inverse gas chromatographic (IGC) methods on the Al-BDC MOF. The binary adsorption data from the volumetric-chromatographic experiments represents that the Al-BDC MOF has a high CO₂/CH₄ selectivity ca. 11 and a CH₄/N₂ selectivity ca. 4.3 at 303 K, and appears to be a good candidate for the CH₄ separation. The initial adsorption heats of CH₄, N₂, and CO₂ on the Al-BDC MOF were determined to be 15.3, 11.5, and 32.2 kJmol^?1 by IGC method, respectively. Moreover, the micropore diffusivities of N₂, CH₄ and CO₂ in the Al-BDC MOF at 303 K were also estimated to be 1.58 × 10^?7 cm²/s, 7.04 × 10^?8 cm²/s, and 3.95 × 10^?9 cm²/s, respectively. The results indicate that micropores play a crucial role in the adsorptive separation of the CH₄/N₂ and CH₄/CO₂ mixtures, and the IGC method is a validity manner to estimate the thermodynamic and kinetic parameters of MOF adsorbents.     

Investigation of CO2 solubility in monoethanolamine hydrochloride based deep eutectic solvents and physical properties measurements

Deep eutectic solvents (DESs) have drawn a growing research interest for applications in a wide range of scientific and industrial arenas. However, a limited effort has been reported in the area of gas separation processes and particularly the carbon dioxide capture. This study introduces a novel set of DESs that were prepared by complexing ethylenediamine (EDA), monoethanolamine (MEA), tetraethylenepentamine (TEPA), triethylenetetramine (TETA) and diethylenetriamine (DETA) as hydrogen bond donors to monoethanolamide hydrochloride (EAHC) salt as a hydrogen bond acceptor. The absorption capacity of CO₂ was evaluated by exploiting a method based on measuring the pressure drop during the absorption process. The solubility of different DESs was studied at a temperature of 313.15 K and initial pressure of 0.8 MPa. The DES systems 1EAHC:9DETA, 1EAHC:9TETA and 1EAHC:9TEPA achieved the highest CO₂ solubility of 0.6611, 0.6572 and 0.7017 mol CO₂·(mole DES)⁻¹ respectively. The results showed that CO₂ solubility in the DESs increased with increasing the molar ratio of hydrogen bond donor. In addition, the CO₂ solubility increased as the number of amine groups in the solvent increases, therefore, increasing the alkyl chain length in the DESs, resulted in increasing the CO₂ solubility. FTIR analysis confirms the DES synthesis since no new functional group was identified. The FTIR spectra also revealed the carbamate formation in DES-CO₂ mixtures. In addition, the densities and viscosities of the synthesized DESs were also measured. The CO₂ initial investigation of reported DESs shows that these can be potential alternative for conventional solvents in CO₂ capture processes.     

Henry's law constants and thermodynamic properties of gases and vapours in bitumens

Solubilities for 13 gases and vapours (CO₂, alkanes from ethane to n-octane, benzene, toluene, xylene, dichloromethane, and methanol) in two Alberta bitumens (Athabasca and Wolf Lake) have been measured at several temperatures (30-150°C), using gas-liquid chromatography (GLC). The GLC method yields accurate solubilities and Henry's law constants for moderately soluble gases, but is not applicable to less soluble gases such as CH₄ and H₂. Results have been used for calculations of ΔH_o and ΔC^o_p for processes of the type Solute Substance (gas) = Solute Substance (in bitumen). Correlations of Henry's law constants and ΔH^o values with carbon number for alkanes have been observed and used for predictions of CH₄ solubilities in bitumens.     

H2S absorption with deep eutectic solvents: Low partial pressure capture and thermodynamic analysis

In the present work, a series of deep eutectic solvents (DESs) based on organic amine as hydrogen bond acceptors (HBAs), and ethylene glycol (EG) as hydrogen bond donor (HBD) were prepared for the H₂S absorption. Thermal decomposition temperature, HBA mass ratios, alkalinity and structure effect on absorption behavior were systematically investigated. The reaction mechanism was demonstrated by FT-IR and ¹H NMR spectroscopy. The reaction equilibrium constants, Henry constant, enthalpy and entropy change were calculated based on the thermodynamic model to reveal the interactions between DESs and H₂S. It was found that H₂S absorption capacities of the most of DESs with HBA/HBD mass ratio of 1:4 was close to 1 mol/mol at 303.15 K and 0.2 bar. The absorption capacity of DESs depends on the alkalinity and structure of HBAs; Additionally, a good linear correlation between the alkalinity of HBA and the absorption equilibrium constant (lnK) of DESs to H₂S was found.     

Adsorption and separation of CH4/CO2/N2/H2/CO mixtures in hexagonally ordered carbon nanopipes CMK-5

Adsorption and separation of N₂, CH₄, CO₂, H₂ and CO mixtures in CMK-5 material at room temperature have been extensively investigated by a hybrid method of grand canonical Monte Carlo (GCMC) simulation and adsorption theory. The GCMC simulations show that the excess uptakes of pure CH₄ and CO₂ at 6.0 MPa and 298 K can reach 13.18 and 37.56 mmol/g, respectively. The dual-site Langmuir–Freundlich (DSLF) model was also utilized to fit the absolute adsorption isotherms of pure gases from molecular simulations. By using the fitted DSLF model parameters and ideal adsorption solution theory (IAST), we further predicted the adsorption separation of N₂–CH₄, CH₄–CO₂, N₂–CO₂, H₂–CO, H₂–CH₄ and H₂–CO₂ binary mixtures. The effect of the bulk gas composition on the selectivity of these gases is also studied. To improve the storage and separation performance, we finally tailor the structural parameters of CMK-5 material by using the hybrid method. It is found that the uptakes of pure gases, especially for CO_2, can be enhanced with the increase of pore diameter D_i, while the separation efficiency is apparently favored in the CMK-5 material with a smaller D_i. The selectivity at D_i=3.0 nm and 6.0 MPa gives the greatest value of 8.91, 7.28 and 27.52 for S_CO2/N2, S_CH4/H2 and S_CO2/H2, respectively. Our study shows that CMK-5 material is not only a promising candidate for gas storage, but also suitable for gas separation.     

Removing H2S from Biogas Using Sorbents for Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Applications

Desulfurization of biogas is essential for its application in solid oxide fuel cells. The influence of CH₄, CO₂, H₂, and O₂ as well as the effect of moisture onto desulfurization performance of an activated carbon, an adsorbent based on a CuO‐MnO mixture, and a zeolite adsorbent were analyzed. The use of moisturized gas had no negative influence on the H₂S adsorption performance of activated carbon. The CuO‐MnO sorbent showed the best performance, but the presence of moisture had a negative influence. The performance of zeolite dropped for three gas mixtures, while for two other mixtures moisture had little to no influence on H₂S adsorption performance.     

High pressure measurements and molecular modeling of the water content of acid gas containing mixtures

Water content of three carbon dioxide containing natural gas mixtures in equilibrium with an aqueous phase was measured using a dynamic saturation method. Measurements were performed up to high temperatures (477.6 K = 400°F) and pressures (103.4 MPa = 15,000 psia). The perturbed chain form of the statistical associating fluid theory was applied to predict water content of pure carbon dioxide (CO₂), hydrogen sulfide (H₂S), nitrous oxide (N₂O), nitrogen (N₂), and argon (Ar) systems. The theory application was also extended to model water content of acid gas mixtures containing methane (CH₄). To model accurately the liquid‐liquid equilibrium at subcritical conditions, cross association between CO₂, H₂S, and water was included. The agreement between the model predictions and experimental data measured in this work was found to be good up to high temperatures and pressures. © 2015 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 61: 3038–3052, 2015     

Adsorption of CO2 from dry gases on MCM-41 silica at ambient temperature and high pressure. 2: Adsorption of CO2/N2, CO2/CH4 and CO2/H2 binary mixtures

Adsorption equilibrium capacity of CO₂, CH₄, N₂, H₂ and O₂ on periodic mesoporous MCM-41 silica was measured gravimetrically at room temperature and pressure up to 25 bar. The ideal adsorption solution theory (IAST) was validated and used for the prediction of CO₂/N₂, CO₂/CH₄, CO₂/H₂ binary mixture adsorption equilibria on MCM-41 using single components adsorption data. In all cases, MCM-41 showed preferential CO₂ adsorption in comparison to the other gases, in agreement with CO₂/N₂, CO₂/CH₄, CO₂/H₂ selectivity determined using IAST. In comparison to well known benchmark CO₂ adsorbents like activated carbons, zeolites and metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), MCM-41 showed good CO₂ separation performances from CO₂/N₂, CO₂/CH₄ and CO₂/H₂ binary mixtures at high pressure, via pressure swing adsorption by utilizing a medium pressure desorption process (PSA-H/M). The working CO₂ capacity of MCM-41 in the aforementioned binary mixtures using PSA-H/M is generally higher than 13X zeolite and comparable to different activated carbons.     

Evaluating diethanolammonium chloride as liquid solvent for gas separation from experiments and theoretical calculations

This study explored diethanolammonium chloride ([DEA]Cl) as a potential ionic liquid from low-cost and commercial ones for gas separation. There are three kinds of functional sites in [DEA]Cl: acidic  NH₂⁺, hydrogen-bond  OH, and nucleophilic Cl⁻. The separation of NH₃/N₂/H₂, SO₂/CO₂/N₂, and H₂S/CO₂/CH₄ was considered, because the three mixtures are extensively involved in many industrial processes. The experimental results demonstrated that [DEA]Cl exhibited excellent ability to separate the mixture of NH₃/N₂/H₂. The [DEA]Cl also exhibited the proper capacity to separate SO₂/CO₂/N₂, but the capacity of [DEA]Cl for the separation of H₂S/CO₂/CH₄ was inferior. The theoretical calculations revealed that  NH₂⁺ and  OH worked synergistically to contribute to the ability of [DEA]Cl for excellent separation of NH₃ from NH₃/N₂/H₂, with Cl⁻ contributing to the proper separation of SO₂ from SO₂/CO₂/N₂. This study provides experimental and theoretical basis for the industrial application of [DEA]Cl in the area of gas separation.     

Effect of three processes on CO2 and O2 simultaneously reforming of coke oven gas to syngas

CO₂ and O₂ simultaneously reforming of coke oven gas (COG) in three processes including non-catalytic process (NCP), catalytic process (CP), and two-stage process (TSP) was investigated under two important operating conditions, CO₂/CH₄ and O₂/CH₄, over Ni-based catalyst in a fixed bed reactor. It was found that the technical indexes depend strongly on CO₂/CH₄ and O₂/CH₄ in different processes. CO₂ can adjust H₂/CO ratio in a wider range (0.52–3.83) in the presence of O₂. The conversions of CH₄ increase in overall COG reforming processes by adding O₂. Also, a little O₂ promotes CO₂ conversions in NCP and restrains CO₂ conversions in CP and TSP. The addition of O₂ can also adjust H₂/CO ratio of syngas, which is actually at the cost of H₂ consumption by oxidation rather than reverse water gas shift (RWGS) reaction. In addition, H₂ combustion in the first-stage of TSP provides heat to drive the endothermic CH₄ reforming reactions and RWGS reaction in the second-stage of TSP to achieve higher CH₄ and CO₂ conversions. Therefore, TSP precedes significantly NCP and CP in the reforming of COG. When H₂/CO ratio is 2.10, the conversions of CH₄ and CO₂ are 98.96 and 62.32% respectively; and, oxygen consumption is 0.13 m³ per COG m³ at gas hour space velocity 9256 h⁻¹ in TSP.