Inline Separator For CO2 Separation: Parametric Studies And Performance Comparison With Absorption Column

The inline separation technology has attracted the attention of oil and gas field operators due to the considerable weight, space and cost savings that can be achieved compared to the existing conventional separators. In addition, the inline separation technology can play a major role in debottlenecking and upgrading the existing production facilities. It is also an environmental friendly technology as its operation requires minimal, or no chemical consumption.
Besides, the production of natural gas in Malaysia gas wells is becoming more challenging due to the increase of high CO2 gas field in the region. The Inline Separator for absorption process is a new breath of inline separation technology that built especially to handle the separation of carbon dioxide gaseous from natural gas by employing the concept of ejector and physical absorption implemented in the design. This paper will basically study the performance of inline separator prototype by focusing on the effect of feed flow rates of mixed gases (natural gas and carbon dioxide) towards the carbon dioxide absorption. The efficiency of the Inline Separator are compared to the packed column by using the simulation in the ASPEN HYSYS software.
From the results obtained, the absorption performance of inline separator is not as good as the packed column. The performance of the packed column is almost double of inline separator at the lowest flowrate of mixed gases. This inline separator can be optimized further especially to the nozzle and geometry to increase the performance of CO2 absorption.