School of Chemical Engineering, Yeungnam University, Gyeongsan, 38541, South Korea.
Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universitas Indonesia, Depok, 16424, Indonesia.
Chemosphere. 2022 Dec;308(Pt 3):136357. doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2022.136357. Epub 2022 Sep 6.
Membrane-based natural gas liquid (NGL) recovery processes are still far from their large-scale applications owing to communication gaps among academic researchers and industry practitioners. A comprehensive process systems engineering (PSE) assessment of membrane-based NGL recovery processes is required to determine their commercial suitability. This PSE-based review presents the technical and economic aspects of standalone and integrated membrane processes. Literature review shows that polymeric membranes (e.g., cellulose acetate) are primarily evaluated in NGL recovery processes despite their low separation efficiencies. So far, multiple multistage membrane models with standalone and integrated designs have been suggested by analyzing different configurations to improve separation efficiency. In standalone processes, cellulose acetate membrane modules with high selectivity ratio can improve methane recovery by up to 100%. Absorption or cryogenic integrated processes exhibit high methane recovery (up to 99%) but demonstrate high energy consumption. The integrated absorption-membrane process is more capital cost intensive (i.e., 0.41 m$) than the cryogenic-membrane process (0.39 m$). Furthermore, in this review, the key challenges encountered by membrane processes and related issues are identified to improve their commercial viability by capitalizing on their maximum potential benefits. The major challenges associated with membrane processes constitute the lack of rigorous multistage membrane models and inflexibility in product purity and recovery. The policy implications and future directions suggest that owing to the growing demand for NGLs, membranes that can sustain varying natural gas compositions and conditions may be required. This PSE assessment will help process engineers and policymakers to improve natural gas supply chain economics.
基于膜的天然气液体（NGL）回收工艺由于学术研究人员和行业从业者之间存在沟通差距，仍远未得到大规模应用。需要对基于膜的 NGL 回收工艺进行全面的过程系统工程（PSE）评估，以确定其商业适用性。这项基于 PSE 的综述介绍了独立和集成膜工艺的技术和经济方面。文献综述表明，尽管分离效率较低，但在 NGL 回收工艺中主要评估聚合物膜（例如醋酸纤维素）。到目前为止，通过分析不同的配置，已经提出了多个具有独立和集成设计的多阶段膜模型，以提高分离效率。在独立工艺中，具有高选择性比的醋酸纤维素膜模块可以将甲烷回收率提高多达 100%。吸收或低温集成工艺表现出高的甲烷回收率（高达 99%），但显示出高的能量消耗。集成吸收-膜工艺的资本成本比低温膜工艺（0.39 m$）更高（即 0.41 m$）。此外，在这篇综述中，确定了膜工艺遇到的关键挑战和相关问题，以通过利用其最大潜在效益来提高其商业可行性。与膜工艺相关的主要挑战包括缺乏严格的多阶段膜模型以及产品纯度和回收率的灵活性不足。政策影响和未来方向表明，由于对 NGL 的需求不断增长，可能需要能够承受不同天然气成分和条件的膜。这项 PSE 评估将帮助过程工程师和政策制定者改善天然气供应链的经济性。
