A Comprehensive Study on CO2-CH4 Gas Separation Using γ-Alumina Membrane and Parameters Affecting Permeability and Separation Behavior

Membrane separation has emerged as one of the most vital and practical useful modern separation techniques. Membrane-based gas separation is an important unit operation for the separation of many gas mixtures in oil and petrochemical industries such as acid gases removal like CO2 and H2S from natural gas and organic vapors removal from air. This report comprises the basic introduction of research area which includes background on membrane usage, types of membrane for intended separation and problems associated with this separation. The objective of this study is to develop mathematical model for CO2-CH4 separation using γ-alumina membrane and analyse parameters affecting permeability and separation behavior. Meanwhile, the scope of work is divided into development of permeability models for various transport mechanisms, development of membrane balance, simulation work for numerous parameters testing and analysis of permeability and separation performance. The methodology is divided into two algorithms for permeability and separation perfomance respectively. Generally, the permeability is expected to increase with higher pore size, higher pressure and lower temperature. As for selectivity, smaller pore and lower temperature is better. Other than that, lower stage cut results in lower CH4 loss, higher CO2 retained and higher CO2 removed. Meanwhile, higher feed CO2 will increase the amount of CO2 removed and CO2 retained