Investigation of H2S and CO2 Removal from Gas Streams Using Hollow Fiber Membrane Gas–liquid Contactors

Chemical absorption of H2S and CO2 from CH4 was carried out in a polypropylene porous asymmetric hollow fiber membrane contactor (HFMC). A 0.5 mol L–1 aqueous solution of methyldiethanolamine (MDEA) was used as chemical absorbent solution. Effects of gas flow rate, liquid flow rate, H2S concentration and CO2 concentration on the H2S outlet concentrations and CO2 removal percentage were investigated. The results showed that the removal of H2S with aqueous solution of MDEA was very high and indicated almost total removal of H2S. Experimental results also indicated that the membrane contactor was very efficient in the removal of trace H2S at high gas/liquid flow ratio. The removal of H2S was almost complete with a recovery of more than 96 %. Using feed gas mixtures containing 5000 ppm H2S with CO2 concentrations in the range of 4–12 vol.%, the outlet H2S concentration of less than 1.0 ppm was attained with less than 4.0 vol.% of CO2 permeated and absorbed. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License