Novel centrifugal process removes gas contaminants

A new technique based on centrifugal separation can economically process gas from fieldscontaminated with large amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) or hydrogen sulfide (H2S).The process could help mitigate expected shortages in global natural gas supply during thenext few decades in an environmentally responsible manner. Current energy-intensivemethods often cannot economically remove CO2 or H2S in existing or newly discovered gasfields if the gas contains more than 15% CO2 or H2S.Selective absorption in an aqueous solution is the standard technique for removing thesegaseous contaminants from methane. High contamination levels, however, requireunacceptable levels of energy consumption for purification. These existing technologiesrequire more energy than the energy in the purified gas.Absorption and membrane technologies are understood processes that offer no economicprospects for these fields