Journal article
The impact of ethylene glycol and hydrogen sulphide on the performance of cellulose triacetate membranes in natural gas sweetening
HT Lu, S Kanehashi, CA Scholes, SE Kentish
Journal of Membrane Science | ELSEVIER | Published : 2017
Abstract
In natural gas sweetening, gas dehydration with glycols is typically carried out upstream of membrane separation of carbon dioxide. This means that when process upsets occur, these glycols can reach the membrane unit. In this work, we study the impact of two common glycols (monoethylene glycol and triethylene glycol) on the gas transport performance of cellulose triacetate membranes. We find that the glycol absorbed into the membrane initially obstructs the permeation of CH4 and CO2, due to pore filling or antiplasticisation effects, but the permeability then increases again, indicative of polymer relaxation and a loss of crystallinity in the polymer. The smaller helium molecule is significa..
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Awarded by Brown Coal Innovation Australia
Funding Acknowledgements
The authors would like to acknowledge the funding support for this research project from The University of Melbourne, Particulate and Fluid Processing Centre (PFPC), the Peter Cook Centre for Carbon Capture and Storage Research at the University of Melbourne and Brown Coal Innovation Australia (BCIA). The X-ray diffraction analysis was performed within the Materials Characterisation and Fabrication Platform (MCFP) at the University of Melbourne and the Victorian Node of the Australian National Fabrication Facility (ANFF). The specialist gas infrastructure was funded by the Australian Research Council (LE120100141) and by the Australian Government Education Investment fund and this support is also gratefully acknowledged.