The impact of toluene and xylene on the performance of cellulose triacetate membranes for natural gas sweetening

HT Lu; L Liu; S Kanehashi; CA Scholes; SE Kentish

Journal article

The impact of toluene and xylene on the performance of cellulose triacetate membranes for natural gas sweetening

HT Lu, L Liu, S Kanehashi, CA Scholes, SE Kentish

Journal of Membrane Science | ELSEVIER | Published : 2018

DOI: 10.1016/j.memsci.2018.03.045

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Abstract

The presence of condensable aromatic hydrocarbons in raw natural gas streams creates a significant challenge for acid gas removal through membrane separation. In this work, the impact of toluene and xylene on the gas separation performance of cellulose triacetate (CTA) membranes was studied. When operating at low CO2 partial pressures (0.75 bar), both toluene and xylene reduced the permeation of CO2 at low vapour activities, due to competitive sorption and the pore-filling or anti-plasticisation effect. Conversely, at vapour activities greater than 0.5, toluene caused membrane plasticisation, possibly coupled with a decrease in crystallinity. On the other hand, when operating at 7.5 bar CO2 ..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

Hiep Thuan (Bill) Lu Author

Shinji Kanehashi Author

Colin Scholes Author

Sandra Kentish Author

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Grants

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, the Australian Research Council (DP150100977) and Brown Coal Innovation Australia (BCIA). 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.