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.