Separation of N2 and CO2 from natural gas using graphene to reduce the environmental pollution

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Department of Chemical Engineering, Petroleum University of Technology, Abadan, Iran

2 Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran

3 Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Biological Sciences Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Natural gas consists of light hydrocarbons with methane as a major component. However, undesired components such as nitrogen, carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide and water vapor may accompany with major hydrocarbon mix in natural gas. Removing these nuisance components is usually a major task in industries, especially in petrochemical plants where natural gas is exploited as plant feed or in case environmental or safety issues are of any concern. High tech separation of these minor impurities from the major hydrocarbon body of natural gas may be achieved using single phase technologies such as molecular sieve or membrane technologies. The later technique, however, has a more promising horizon, if a feasible membrane such as graphene is exploited. Porous graphene membrane with high permeability, high selectivity, suitable geometry and suitable size are very hopeful for membrane separation of gases. Therefore, it is expected that porous graphene membranes will develop in industry to achieve effective membrane separation technology for natural gas process and other gas separation process.

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