CO2 removal from natural gas by employing amine absorption and membrane technology-A technical and economical analysis

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. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.