Journal of CO2 Utilization 18 (2017) 362369

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Journal of CO2 Utilization

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jcou

Hybrid systems: Combining membrane and absorption technologies

leads to more efcient acid gases (CO2 and H2S) removal from natural
gas
Mashallah Rezakazemia,* ,1, Isa Heydarib , Zhien Zhangc,d,1
a
Department of Chemical Engineering, Shahrood University of Technology, Shahrood, Iran
b
Fajr-e-Jam Gas Rening Company, Jam County, Bushehr, Iran
c
School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Chongqing University of Technology, Chongqing 400054, China
d
Key Laboratory of Low-Grade Energy Utilization Technologies and Systems, Ministry of Education of China, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400044, China

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Article history:
Received 12 January 2017 The amine separation technology is the utmost alternative process to remove acid gases (H2S and CO2)
Received in revised form 5 February 2017 from natural gas (NG). In this survey, the hybrid process on NG treatment is studied. The hybrid process
Accepted 9 February 2017 combines membrane and amine processes to utilize their both advantages. Three different sweetening
Available online 19 March 2017 processes are considered here: amine solutions (30 wt.% diethanolamine (DEA)), membrane process
(hollow ber membrane (HFM) approach), and hybrid process (amine + membrane). Membrane process
Keywords: was rst used to remove acid gases from NG, and amine process was further used to complete purication
Hybrid process to come across pipeline standards. Economic factors involved in the prediction of separation costs
Membrane
includes capital recovery cost, expenses concern to hydrocarbon losses, and operating expenses such as
Greenhouse gas
maintenance cost, labor cost, energy cost and replacement cost of membrane. For amine process, most
Nano porous membrane
Economic design separation cost depends on operating cost specically energy cost and least separation cost is dependent
to hydrocarbon losses, also for membrane process most separation cost and least separation cost are
dependent on hydrocarbon losses and capital recovery cost, respectively. The simulation was also
implemented for NGL-1200 (GOGPC, Iran) plant to nd whether the same modeling is responsible for an
industrial unit.
2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Natural gas (NG) commonly comprises large amounts of acid
gases (mainly H2S and CO2). Owing to the corrosiveness nature of
H2S and CO2 in the existence of H2O as well as the toxicity of H2S
and the lack of heating value of CO2, NG is essential to have less
than 5 ppm H2S and to contain a heating value of higher than
920 Btu/scf [17].
Numerous processes have been used for H2S and CO2 separation
from NG because of having a wide range of composition. The
precise area of application of a given process is difcult to dene.
Numerous parameters should be taken into account: (1) compo-
sitions and types of pollutants in gas stream, (2) the favorable
degree of pollutant elimination, (3) the required permselectivity of
acid gas removal, (4) the pressure, temperature, composition, and
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: mashalah.rezakazemi@gmail.com (M. Rezakazemi).
1
These authors contributed equally to this study and share rst authorship.
volume of the gas, (5) the CO2/H2S ratio, and (6) the desirability of
sulfur recovery. Various processes are used to condition raw NG to
pipeline quality. Membrane separation process is an efcient
approach to separate CO2 and H2S from natural gas streams
[1,812].
Mohebi et al. [13] modeled and simulated a hybrid absorption-
membrane capture process and studied the amine solution and
hollow ber membrane (HFM) contactor for removing H2S and CO2
from gas mixture. They investigated the effect of operating factors
on component removal but they did not investigate the impacts of
operating conditions and economic parameters on separation costs
in the hybrid process. Freeman et al. [14] reported two different
hybrid absorption-membrane capture systems. In the hybrid
systems, Membrane Technology and Research, Inc. (MTR)s air-
swept contactor was combined in series and parallel arrangement
with UT Austin's piperazine advanced ash stripper capture
system with warm and cold-rich bypass. Alkatheri et al. [15]
studied a hybrid sour gas (e.g., 25 mol% H2S) sweetening process
containing two steps. Firstly, a membrane was used to decrease the

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jcou.2017.02.006
2212-9820/ 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 M. Rezakazemi et al. / Journal of CO2 Utilization 18 (2017) 362369 363

inlet concentrations of CO2 and H2S. Sequentially, the nal Table 2

Membrane properties.
specication of the product can be met using the amine-absorption
process. The hybrid system was also simulated using ProMax1 Properties Value
v3.2. The simulation ndings exhibited that the capital and Permeability Barrera
operating costs of the separation can be declined using a hybrid CO2 8.9397
system. C2H6 0.1801
N2 0.4257
The objective of the current simulation is to determine the
H2S 8.0883
potential usefulness of gas conditioning via a combination of CH4 0.4257
amine solution and membrane technologies, which is known as
the hybrid separation process, and the comparison of the results Selectivity
with when these methods are being used individually. In the CO2/CH4 21
C2H6/CH4 0.423
hybrid process, the membrane is used rst for acid gas removal
N2/CH4 1
from the NG feed, while nal purication is necessary to come H2S/CH4 19
across pipeline standards via amine process. The amine process is a
conventional method to remove acid gases from NG but this Effective thickness (mm) 3.94  103
process has limitations including [1]: a 10
Barrer = 10 3 2
cm (STP) cm/(cm s cmHg).

Extremely energy intensive, particularly once NG has high acid

gas loadings.

Capital cost intensive, particularly at small NG ow rates.

Not recommended for offshore processes due to the weight and
size of needed processing apparatus.
When the volume of acid gas is considerable in the NG feed,
applying a membrane unit before introducing sour gas into amine
plant is promising. Also, in the case of low feed ow rates, using a
single membrane unit (without amine treatment) can be a main
selective choice [16].
2. Basis for evaluation
Hydrocarbon shrinkage ($MM/year), was determined as hydro-
carbon lost in the permeate side and in the amine unit.
4. Capital cost ($MM/year) was calculated as total investment is
separated by a simple payout for 5 years.
5. Normalized gas processing cost is taken as the sum of variables,
maintenance, shrinkage and capital costs are expressed as
$/MSCF of feed.
Petres et al. guidelines were proposed for estimation of total
capital investment of the amine unit [17]. All others economic
parameters for estimation of purchase costs of the membrane unit
and separation costs of processes are demonstrated in Table 3.

A traditional amine absorption system, with 30 wt.% DEA was
applied for all cases. The basic membrane design to be used was a
single-stage arrangement of membrane contactor. User Unit
Operation of HYSYS software was utilized for simulation of
membrane unit. The penetration of pressure from the nanoporous
membrane was held xed at 20 psia for this investigation. The feed
gas conditioning and nanoporous membrane physical properties
used in this study are represented in Tables 1 and 2, respectively.
A number of parameters were drawn on to calculate the
economics of each process. They are listed as following [17,18]:
1. Total plant investment cost ($MM) included the installation
costs of whole processing equipment.
2. Variable maintenance and operating cost ($MM/year) included
fuel gas prices, direct operating labor, maintenance, chemicals,
supplies and plant overhead.
3.
3. Membrane unit simulation
In the current work, the comprehensive model is proposed to
explore the HFM for multicomponent gas separation. Fig. 1 reveals
the ow arrangement and interior conguration of a HFM module.
NG could enter into the both tube or shell sides of the HFMs. Tube
side is usually selected as feed side for air separation.
Generally, nonlinear differential equations were coupled and
solved to identify pressure distribution in the tube and shell sides
of membrane contactor, individual concentration of components in
the permeate and feed compartments, and ow rates of feed and
permeate in terms of axial position along HFM contactor [2023]. 2
(R  1) + 4 differential equations must be simultaneously solved
with specic ow rate and pressure of feed. R denotes the number
of components in the feed [2427].
The model is built considering the following assumptions
[2830]:

Table 1
Operating conditions. Table 3
Economic parameters requirement for processes.
Properties Value
Cost Notation Value
Pressure 800 psia
Flow rate 50 MMSCFD Total capital investment TCI
Temperature 86  F Operating costs OC
Capital recovery cost CRC 0.2 TCI (5-year payout period)
Feed composition mol% Hydrocarbon losses HL $2/MMBTU
CO2 25 Membrane replacement cost MRC $5/ft2
N2 1 Energy cost EC $0.07/kwh
C2H6 1 Labor cost LC $15/h
CH4 Balance Maintenance cost MC 0.05 TCI
H2S Trace Steam cost SC $0.004/lb
Solvent cost SC $0.5/lb
Sweet gas specication Permeator module cost PMC $10/ft2
CO2 2 mol% Operating expenses OE OE = MRC + EC + LC + MC
H2S 4 ppm Total operating cost TOC TOC = CRC + HL + OE
364 M. Rezakazemi et al. / Journal of CO2 Utilization 18 (2017) 362369
Fig. 1. A typical schematic of gas separation in a HFM module [19].
Fig. 2. Cross-section of HFM, Ri = inside radius of nanoporous support, Ro = outside
radius of nanoporous support, t = selective layer thickness [31].
1. Pressure drop in the shell side is negligible.
2. The HFMs include a nanoporous layer on a substrate as is
displayed in Fig. 2.
3. In the both compartment of the shell and tube, there is not axial
gas mixing.
4. Fully developed parabolic velocity distribution in two sides of
membrane contactor was considered.
5.
Fig. 3. Module divided into N sections for cross ow [31].
The separation performance of a single HFM was investigated
during the simulation and the results were developed to the
whole of the module for total gas ow and membrane area.
6. Steady state and isothermal conditions.
The HFM was divided into N equal stages along the length of
module and general mass balances were utilized in each element.
In this method, rst order nite differences are used to develop a
series of coupled differential equations using the differential mass
balances.
Fig. 3 reveals the HFM system divided into N completely mixed
cross stages. The membrane length is divided into N parts. The area
was determined using Eq. (1) as follows [32]:
2pRo LNf
DA k 1
N
where L (m), Ro (m) and Nf denote active length, outer radius and
number of HFM, respectively.
The total feed ow rate (Lk) and the permeate ow rate (Vk)
leaving k stage (kmol/s) are demonstrated in Fig. 3. yj,k and xj,k,
respectively are the species (j) mole fraction leaving the permeate
and feed sides of the nanoporous HFM at stage k. vj;k and lj,k,
respectively are the ow rates in the shell and tube sides of the
HFM. Mole fractions and ow rate of components and total ow
rates can be calculated as follows [32]:
lj;k xj;k Lk 2
vj;k yj;k V k 3
 M. Rezakazemi et al. / Journal of CO2 Utilization 18 (2017) 362369 365

The total permeates and total feed ow rates may be written as The amount of permeate gas produced on each stage can be
follows [32]: determined using Eq. (8). Eq. (7) was used to calculate the change
in ow rate of the residue stream from stage to stage. The total
X
R
Lk lj;k 4 permeate ow rate and gas composition are calculated from the
j1 ow rates and compositions at each stage [34].
The shell side pressure of the module is commonly considered
to be xed, equivalent to the feed pressure. Since the ow pattern
X
R in the tube side of HFM contactor is laminar, the pressure alteration
Vk vj;k 5 from a section to another section was computed using the Hagen
j1 Poiseuille equation [35]:
The mass balance for species j can be written as follows [32]: 8mmix RT
pV k1  pV k Vk Dz 12
lj;k1  lj;k vj;k1  vj;k 0 6 p R4i pV k

Permeation across the nanoporous membrane for species j can
be written as follows [32]:
mj;k lj;k1  lj;k
where mj,k (kmol/s) denotes the mass ow rate which can be
calculated as [18]:
mj;k Q j DAk pLk xj;k  pV k yj;k
2
where Qj (kmol/(m s Pa)) denotes volume ow rate of j species,
DAk (m2) is the effectiveness mass transfer area, pV k and pLk (Pa) are
respectively permeate and feed pressures.
The composition of gas that leaves a stage relies on pressures of
downstream and upstream, upstream compositions, amount of
permeate through the nanoporous membrane.
Consequently, the solution of the cross ow model is
uncomplicated and quick. In this modeling, the mole fraction of
species j over stage k can be computed using Eq. (9) [33]:
Q j pLk xj;k  pV k yj;k
yj;k  PR 0 9
Q m pLk xm;k  pV k ym;k
m1
Therefore, a group of R  1 independent expressions can be
expressed on each section for species compositions. In all sections
of the module, Newton's method was applied to solve these
equations to determine the composition of permeate gas produced
in each section. For computing equations using Newton's method,
the species composition on the permeate side, from the former
section was used to form the initial guess of permeate composition
of the next stage. This was performed for all stages except the feed
section. For last section, the initial guess of permeate composition
was determined using Eq. (10) as follows [34]:
Q j xj;N1
yj;N PR
m1 Q m xj;N1
where mmix (Pa s) denotes the gas mixture viscosity, R (m) denotes
the internal radius of the HFM, and Dz (m) is the ber length of a
section. Using Eq. (12), the pressure prole in the tube side is
7 recomputed after determining and updating the mass ow using
above procedure. Also, ow rates at each section were updated. In
the bore-side, Vk, pV k , and pV k1  pV k are replaced by Lk, pLk and
pLk1  pLk , respectively. User Unit Operation of HYSYS engineering
8 software was used for membrane unit simulation.
4. Results and discussion
4.1. Separation costs
Fig. 4 demonstrates several cost items, including operation,
total separation, hydrocarbon loss and capital recovery cost, during
CO2 capturing from NG using membrane in the hybrid separation
conguration. These costs are described in terms of the CO2
fraction removed from the feed. As can be seen, total separation
and hydrocarbon loss costs increase as the CO2 fraction removal
from the feed increases. The operational circumstances and
membrane features are presented in Tables 1 and 2, respectively.
The most important point is CH4 loss in the permeate stream
that it is the predominant part of the total separation cost. For sour
NG having more than 25% CO2 with no H2S, CH4 loss is also
dominant. As observed, the contribution of the CH4 loss to the total
separation cost decreases quickly with enhancing CO2 composition
in the feed.
As mentioned earlier, to meet the pipeline standards, nal
processing is necessary which is performed by amine sweetening
section of the hybrid process. Fig. 5 also displays the same
conditions as represented in Fig. 4, but in this section, CO2 removal
using amine processing within the hybrid process is investigated.
10

Eq. (9) has restrictive if the feed to permeate pressure

proportion is larger than the permselectivity of the membrane.
When the partial pressure of any species on the permeate
compartment is higher than its value in the feed side, Eq. (11) is
used instead of Eq. (10) to determine the composition of the
species [34]:
pLN
yj;N xj;N 11
pVN
According to Eq. (11), the highest probable purity of permeate
can be achieved if the feed to permeate pressure proportion is
lower than the permselectivity. This restrictive is consistent with
the situation where the partial pressures of species are equal to the
feed and permeate sides. Consequently, the driving force for more
mass transfer does not exist. The speculative permeate compo-
sitions are renormalized to unity when the summation of the mole
fractions of whole permeate species over stage N is higher than one
Fig. 4. Itemized and total costs of the membrane section of the hybrid system in
[34]. terms of CO2 fraction removed from NG using membrane.
366 M. Rezakazemi et al. / Journal of CO2 Utilization 18 (2017) 362369
Fig. 5. Itemized and total costs of the gas absorption section of the hybrid system in
terms of CO2 fraction removed from NG using membrane.
These costs are also represented in terms of the CO2 fraction
removed from the NG that is the output of the membrane section of
this process. The inlet pressure to the amine sweetening section of
the hybrid process was taken to be the same as that of the
membrane section. It must be emphasized that the pressure drop
in the retentive depends on the kind of modules is applied.
As observed in Fig. 5, the total cost for the amine section in the
hybrid systems declines with increasing the percentage of CO2
removal from the membrane section. The CH4 loss for the
membrane section is larger than that for the amine absorption
section.
Fig. 6 reveals the total costs for the hybrid system considering
the costs of both membrane and amine sweetening systems in
terms of CO2 fraction removed from the feed. According to Fig. 6,
the cost for the hybrid system reached a least value if 78% of CO2
in NG is separated with membrane and the remained is captured
with amine gas treating plant to meet pipeline specications.
4.2. Effect of acid gas composition
The results of the hybrid system, for some case study, from a
cost point of view, were compared with amine sweetening and
membrane systems when these two latter systems are separately
considered for gas conditioning. It is considered that each of these
Fig. 6. Total cost of the hybrid system in terms of CO2 fraction removed from NG
using membrane.
systems reduces the composition of acid gas in NG to pipeline
standards.
4.2.1. Feed without H2S
The separation costs of the three systems are shown in Fig. 7 in
terms of the CO2 mole fraction in the feed without any traces of
H2S. Other conditions are listed in Table 1.
As absorbed, increasing CO2 composition in NG enhances the
hybrid process costs. The maximum cost is obtained at 35% CO2
and then decreased with additional increment in the CO2
composition. At 11% CO2 composition, the cost of the hybrid
and amine processes is equal. However, at a higher CO2
composition in NG, the hybrid process cost is lower than amine
system. Meanwhile, the variation in the costs of the amine and
hybrid systems was increased with enhancement in CO2
composition in NG. The cost of separation for both membrane
and absorption separation processes is higher than that of the
hybrid process. It can be realized that the cost of membrane is
between hybrid and amine processes when the CO2 concentration
is higher than 12%.
4.2.2. Feed containing H2S
The H2S existence in the feed inuences the costs of all the
processes as represented in Fig. 8. For a determined composi-
tion of acid gases in the NG, and for the specic H2S
concentration, the total costs of the amine and hybrid systems
are autonomous of H2S composition. This means that DEA is a
favorable absorbent for the instantaneous H2S and CO2 removal
from NG. In addition, the total cost for membrane based
separation process was increased with increasing in the
compositions of either H2S or CO2 in NG. Accordingly, at small
H2S and large CO2 compositions, H2S composition in the
retentate is lowered to less than 4 ppm before the CO2
composition is decreased to less than 2%. It can be found from
Fig. 8, for NG with small CO2 and large H2S concentrations, the
cost of the membrane intensely depends on H2S composition.
For all range of H2S compositions in NG, the separation cost of
DEA based separation process for both H2S and CO2 removal
slightly changes in comparison to the separation cost of CO2
removal. Thus, at small CO2 and large H2S compositions in NG, the
cost of DEA based separation process is lower than membrane
based separation.
Fig. 7. Effect of CO2 composition on the total costs of a hybrid process, on
membrane separation and amine sweetening systems.
 M. Rezakazemi et al. / Journal of CO2 Utilization 18 (2017) 362369
Fig. 8. Effect of H2S and CO2 compositions in the feed on the total costs of hybrid,
membrane and amine sweetening systems.
4.3. Effect of NG ow rate
Fig. 9 demonstrates the impact of NG ow rate on the cost of the
absorption, membrane, and hybrid processes. Based on Fig. 9, for
NG without H2S, the costs of the absorption and hybrid system are
higher than membrane process for the whole range of NG ow
rates lower than 40 MMSCFD. Although for NG ow rates more
than 40 MMSCFD without H2S, the hybrid system cost is lower than
those of membrane and absorption systems cost. In contrast, the
separation cost for NG having 0.5% H2S is highest over the whole
range of feed ow rates. However, the membrane system cost
enhances with increment in H2S composition in NG.
4.4. Effect of NG pressure
Fig. 10 shows the impact of pressure on cost of three processes.
As observed, since the membrane process is more sensitive to
variation in pressure, its cost decreases with an increment in NG
pressure. This is because of enhancing the driving force (partial
pressure gradients) for permeability of the acid gases through the
HFM. As a result, the effectiveness membrane area and CH4 losses
are decreased with enhancing feed pressure.
However, the absorption cost using DEA as solvent enhances
with enhancing pressure. Since the chemical reaction between
Fig. 9. Effect of feed ow rate on the total costs in the hybrid system and individual
absorption and membrane separation systems.
367
Fig. 10. Effect of pressure on the total costs in the hybrid system as well as
individual absorption and membrane separation systems.
DEA and the acid gases acid is reversible, the capacity of DEA for
the absorption of acid gases does not change considerably with
enhancing NG pressure.
However, an increment in pressure has signicant effects on the
absorption process as follows:
1. An increment in the total and recovery costs is owing to the
increment in pressure in the CH4 losses and the absorption
system.
2. The variation of NG pressure has positive and negative effects on
the cost of membrane and absorption systems, respectively.
According to Fig. 10, the cost of membrane based system is
greater than the cost of the absorption process. Therefore, the
hybrid process cost smoothly reduces with increasing the feed
pressure.
4.5. Effect of CH4 cost
The impact of variations in the cost of CH4 on the membrane
separation costs, hybrid process and absorption is illustrated in
Fig. 11. As observed, increasing CH4 cost enhances the CH4 losses
cost in the permeate stream, and also the costs of whole three
separation systems. The CH4 losses represent a large percentage of
the costs in the membrane process for NG with or without H2S.
Therefore, the membrane separation costs enhance signicantly
with increasing the CH4 cost.
Fig. 11. Effect of CH4 cost on the total costs in the hybrid system and individual
absorption and membrane separation systems.
368 M. Rezakazemi et al. / Journal of CO2 Utilization 18 (2017) 362369

The separation cost could be enhanced with increasing cost of Table 4

Feed specications of NGL-1200 (GOGPC) gas sweetening unit.
CH4 but it has not a considerable impact on the separation cost.
This is due to the CH4 losses which only have low contribution in Properties Value
the cost of the former separation process. However, the hybrid Pressure 514.9 psia
process demonstrates an intermediate behavior. Flow rate 130 MMSCFD
Temperature 109.94  F
Feed composition mol%
4.6. Effects of membrane permselectivity
CH4 69.13
C2H6 13.31
Fig. 12 reveals the inuence of an increase in the permselec- C3H8 8.72
tivity of the nanoporous membrane for CO2/CH4 on the membrane i-C4H10 1.21
and hybrid systems costs. An increment in the CO2/CH4 permse- n-C4H10 2.82
i-C5H12 0.63
lectivity is because of an increment in the CO2 permeation or
n-C5H12 0.64
reduction in the CH4 permeation. Both of them reduce the cost of n-C6H14 0.31
the membrane unit; however, the effect of the rst one is greater C7+ 0.15
than the last one. CO2 2.02
H2S 0.82
Increasing the permselectivity factor of CO2/CH4 reduces the
H2O 0.22
CH4 losses and the energy necessity of both of the membrane
process and membrane section of the hybrid process. For this Sweet gas specication
reason, the cost of these processes is decreased. The acid gases CO2 20 ppm
fraction, removed by membrane increases with increasing in H2S 4 ppm

CO2/CH4 selectivity. As a result, further to enhancement in CO2/CH4

permselectivity, the decrement in CH4 losses and energy necessity
is offset to some extent by an instantaneous enhancement in the
membrane area.

4.7. Case study: NGL 1200 (GOGPC) gas sweetening unit

Table 4 shows feed specications of NGL-1200 gas sweetening

unit (Gachsaran Oil and Gas Production Company (GOGPC), a
subsidiary of National Iranian South Oil Company (NISOC), the
second largest crude oil producer) where the amount of acid gases
in sweet stream must be lower than 20 ppm CO2 and 4 ppm H2S.
Fig. 13 illustrates separation cost of gas absorption and hybrid
processes as a function of CO2 mol% removed from gas stream
using membrane for NGL-1200 (GOGPC) plant. For gas absorption
process, the CO2 mol% removed from gas stream was considered to
be zero. In this investigation, hydrocarbon cost was considered
$1/MMBTU and $2/MMBTU as case study.
Fig. 13 reveals that for the NGL-1200 (GOGPC) plant, the
separation cost increases with increasing CO2 mol% removed from
gas stream using membrane for both $1/MMBTU and $2/MMBTU
hydrocarbon costs. It can be found that the acid gases separation
cost for NGL-1200 (GOGPC) plant using hybrid process is more Fig. 13. Separation cost of gas absorption and hybrid processes as a function of the
than DEA gas absorption process indicating the hybrid process is CO2 mol% removed from gas stream using membrane for NGL-1200 (GOGPC) plant.
not suitable for this plant and the best process is DEA gas
absorption process. This is due to the high ow rate of gas stream
and high concentration of H2S. The high gas ow rate and lower
membrane permeability to H2S need more membrane area and
consequently higher total investment cost as well as the
replacement cost of membrane element. Hence, the cost of the
hybrid system in comparison to gas absorption process is not low.
It must be pointed out that for economic investigation of hybrid
process for NGL-1200 (GOGPC) plant, membrane with specica-
tions expressed in Table 2 was used to make the results
comparable; otherwise, using a more permeable H2S-selective
membrane would reduce the membrane area and consequently
lower total investment cost as well as replacement cost of
membrane element.

5. Conclusions

The present study showed that capital investment of the hybrid

Fig. 12. Effect of membrane permselectivity for CO2/CH4 separation on the total
costs in the hybrid system and individual absorption and membrane separation
systems.
system is higher than that of the membrane system. For the amine
absorption system, the capital investment is also intermediate and
its cost is between the membrane process and hybrid process.
Moreover, the operating costs of the amine system are higher than
 M. Rezakazemi et al. / Journal of CO2 Utilization 18 (2017) 362369
the hybrid system. The operating cost of the membrane process is
also intermediate and it is between the amine process and hybrid
process. In addition, the current investigation revealed that for
540 MMSCFD NG ow rates, the membrane technology has the
lowest cost over the whole composition range of acid gases in NG.
For ow rates more than 40 MMSCFD and 511% CO2, the amine
system is appropriate and for CO2 concentrations more than 11%
CO2, the hybrid system is suitable.
The results of this investigation suggest that a membrane
process is preferred for feed ow rates between about 525
MMSCFD, with over the all concentrations range of CO2 in NG. The
best conditions for amine process are generally high feed ow rates
and low CO2 compositions. Increasing NG prices and using a 35 wt.
% DEA increase the range of operability for the amine process. Also,
the hybrid process is favorable at the same ow rate range as the
amine process but for CO2 concentration greater than about 12%.
There are a variety of parameters that could be examined that
would affect the application limits of processes. These parameters
consist of using other solvents, the presence of higher hydro-
carbons, other membrane's conguration and the membrane's
dehydration capability. The simulation results for NGL-1200
(GOGPC, Iran) plant revealed that the same modeling is responsible
and feasible for an industrial unit.
Acknowledgement
The authors gratefully acknowledge the nancial support from
Open Fund of Key Laboratory of Low-grade Energy Utilization
Technologies and Systems, Ministry of Education of China
(No. LLEUTS-201708) and Scientic Research Fund of Chongqing
University of Technology (No. 2016ZD07).
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