Dehydration of Natural Gas

72129-Currently, more than 55,000 glycol absorption systems, based on hollow fiber membrane modules, are installed in the United States to dry natural gas. A system based on spiral-wound membrane modules would be much more compact and lighter weight. However, conventional spiral-wound modules operate in cross-flow mode and have about twice the methane loss of countercurrent sweep hollow fiber modules. This project will develop a light-weight and efficient membrane drying process based on novel spiral-wound module design that allows for countercurrent sweep operation. Phase I demonstrated that countercurrent sweep, spiral-wound modules can be successfully manufactured and that the sweep operation is effective. Phase II will refine and optimize the design of the countercurrent sweep spiral-wound module and demonstrate module performance in the field with an actual natural gas stream. Commercial Applications and Other Benefits as described by awardee: An improved membrane process to dehydrate natural gas should be widely applied by the natural gas processing industry. In particular, this system should have the potential for wide application in off-shore gas dehydration, for which glycol absorption systems are not suited. The new module design developed for this application could also be used in other gas separation processes.