| Category: Gas Separation with Membrane Technology > |
CO2 Separation Membrane 
Membrane Separation Process
Membrane Separation performs on the principle of selective gas permeation. When gas mixture is introduced to the membrane, gas component dissolves into membrane material and diffuses through the membrane material. Solubility and diffusivity are different from gas component. Carbon dioxide, water vapor and hydrogen sulfide are easy permeable gas components, while methane, ethane and other hydrocarbons are very slow to permeate. This is why water and sour gas components in the natural gas are removed with the membrane. The driving force of gas separation is partial pressure difference of specific gas component between both sides of membrane.
How UBE Membrane Work
Our membrane is a hollow membrane made of aromatic polyimide. When a gas mixture is introduced to the outer side of hollow membrane at a pressure and the pressure of the other side of the membrane is maintained at a lower pressure, easy permeable gas components like CO2, H2O and H2S permeate through the membrane, while gas components like hydrocarbons are remained in the outer side of the membrane.
| Membrane Module for CO2 Separation We provide four types of membrane module for CO2 separation for commercial use.
|
| Durability Against Contaminants Our membrane's compatibility against typical contaminants are summarized in the following Table.
|
Features of CO2 Membrane System
- Long lifetime of the membrane
UBE's polyimide membrane is made of aromatic polyimide which is a strong material against compaction caused by CO2, H2S and hydrocarbons under high pressure. Also, because of high thermal resistance of polyimide, our membrane can be operated up to 100 °C. By applying higher operation temperature compaction can be minimized, also once declined permeability can be recovered. - Compact & Simple System
Because of high permeation flux and thin hollow fiber technology, our Membrane System applies only 1/2 to 1/4 membrane modules compared to the conventional relevant systems. Therefore our Membrane System is the most compact among available membrane systems. Also, because of excellent durability against contaminants, our Membrane System requires only a simple pretreatment. - Applicable to CO2 rich gas
Because of chemical & mechanical stability in sour gas treatment, our membrane is the most reliable one in CO2 separation from CO2 rich gas as EOR (Enhanced Oil Recovery). - H2O and H2S can be removed
Water vapor and hydrogen sulfide are easy permeable gas components, accordingly our Membrane System requires no additional facility as glycol unit and H2S adsorber to get sales gas satisfies pipeline specification. - Excellent selectivity
Our excellent selective membrane can minimize hydrocarbon loss and recycle gas volume in multistage treatment.
Performance Benefit
- Low Capital Investment
Our Membrane System is low in cost compared with other alternatives. - Compact and easy Installation
Our Membrane System is a skid mounted with all necessary equipment and materials. Because of the largest permeability of CO2 and simplest pretreatment facility, our Membrane System is the most compact and the lightest in weight compared with other alternatives. - Easy Operation
Our Membrane System is the simplest one, and therefore start up and shut down is almost instant as introducing process gas in a pipeline. - Maintenance Free
Long lifetime of our membrane and no moving part in the System promises maintenance free operation. - Flexibility
Our Membrane System can be operated in a flexible operation range: 30 - 100%, also the capacity of the System can be easily expanded by installing additional membrane modules. - High Reliability
Our Membrane's durability and our excellent design capability ensure high reliability of our Membrane System.
Applications
Our CO2 Membrane System is applied ranging from a small wellhead to a large scale installation.
- Natural gas treatment to satisfy pipeline specifications.
- CO2 for EOR (Enhanced Oil Recovery) injection.
- Integration with absorption process.
- Debottleneck an existing absorption plant.
- Landfill gas/Biogas upgrading.
