(26c) Pushing the Limits On Economical Membrane-Based High Performance CO2/CH4 Separations

Natural gas is an extremely attractive low carbon footprint source of energy that is likely to provide a replacement for imported oil.  Despite the known huge worldwide reserves of natural gas, the economical viability of utilization is compromised in many cases by the high cost of removing contaminants.   For instance, a significant fraction of the available worldwide natural gas reservoirs contain over 20% CO₂, and in some very large reservoirs, over 50% CO₂.   Existing polymeric membrane materials are challenged by such very high CO₂ partial pressures, and in some cases aliphatic and aromatic contaminants.  Our laboratory has studied alternative materials able to address these challenges.  Among the leading candidates for these aggressive applications are crosslinked polyimides and carbon molecular sieve materials that can be formulated into high performance hollow fiber membranes.  An update on work related to these advanced materials and their performance for aggressive CO₂/CH₄ separations under aggressive feed conditions will be provided.