Dehydration of natural gas using choline chloride based deep eutectic solvents: COSMO-RS prediction

• COSMO-RS predictions for four choline chloride based deep eutectic solvents were reported.
• Combination mechanism, molecular interactions, σ profile, activity coefficient and vapor pressure were investigated.
• The absorption efficiency of DESs to water was reported and compared with conventional absorbent.

Water removal from natural gas is one of the most potent techniques widely used in the pre-treatment processes required for avoiding industrial problems such as corrosion and hydrate formation. Due to its accuracy and precision, conductor-like screening model for a real solvent (COSMO-RS) has recently attracted the attention of researchers around the globe in many applications. In this article, COSMO-RS investigation on the dehydration of natural gas using choline chloride (ChCl) based deep eutectic solvents (DESs) was conducted. The structural combination of the DESs and their water absorption mechanism were well interpreted by performing mixture job to form the DESs and measuring the activity coefficient, σ profile and σ potential of the involved species using COSMO-RS. In addition, vapor pressures for the formed DESs were reported. The activity coefficients of H2O in DESs were also investigated. The results found in this work imply that DESs can be good alternative to the conventional absorbents for natural gas dehydration. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report implements COSMO-RS in dehydration of natural gas using DESs.