DEHYDRATION OF NATURAL GAS ON ZEOLITE

Zeolite is a type of adsorbent used to dehydrate natural gas. Modifications
were done to increase the adsorption capacity of zeolite. However, the current
research focus more on low pressure process which might not be applicable with real
condition of industrial scale. Hence, this research is carried out to investigate the
zeolite capability for adsorption processes at high pressure condition which reflects
the actual offshore operating condition. The experiment is carried out using GASTU
and the range of operating condition of interest is from 10 bars to 80 bars of
pressures and temperature ranging from 10 ᵒC to 80 ᵒC. Characterization of the
chosen adsorbent will also be carried out to analyze the pore size, surface area, pore
volumes, pore diameter, crystal form, structural information and information on
hydroxyl groups attached to the adsorbent. Results shows that the micropore volume
is 6.654 cm³/g while the surface area of the adsorbent is 28.959 m²/g. According to
Brunauer definition, the chosen adsorbent has been categorized as Type I isotherms.
The mean pore diameter of the adsorbent is 11.412 nm. Besides that, there are three
elements attached to adsorbent having different diameters. Then, from dehydration of
natural gas on zeolite experiment, the adsorption capacity increases with pressure. In
conclusion, this research has shown that the chosen zeolite possesses high adsorption
capacity which might favor adsorption to occur at effective rate.