Hybrid systems: Combining membrane and absorption technologies leads to more efficient acid gases (CO2 and H2S) removal from natural gas

- Techno-economic analysis model-based process optimization.
- Effects of operating conditions and economic parameters on separation costs in hybrid systems for acid gasses removal from natural gas.
- Developing tailor-made models for membrane-amine absorption hybrid process.

The amine separation technology is the utmost alternative process to remove acid gases (H2S and CO2) from natural gas (NG). In this survey, the hybrid process on NG treatment is studied. The hybrid process combines membrane and amine processes to utilize their both advantages. Three different sweetening processes are considered here: amine solutions (30 wt.% diethanolamine (DEA)), membrane process (hollow fiber membrane (HFM) approach), and hybrid process (amine + membrane). Membrane process was first used to remove acid gases from NG, and amine process was further used to complete purification to come across pipeline standards. Economic factors involved in the prediction of separation costs includes capital recovery cost, expenses concern to hydrocarbon losses, and operating expenses such as maintenance cost, labor cost, energy cost and replacement cost of membrane. For amine process, most separation cost depends on operating cost specifically 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 find whether the same modeling is responsible for an industrial unit.