(71e) SAPO-34 Membranes for N2/CH4 Separation

In this presentation the development of SAPO-34 membranes for N2/CH4 separation is discussed. SAPO-34 membranes were synthesized by several routes towards N2/CH4 separation. Membrane synthesis parameters including water content in the gel, crystallization time, support pore size, and aluminum source were investigated. These membranes separated N2 from CH4 with N2 permeance as high as 500 GPU with separation selectivity of 8 at room temperature for a 50/50 N2/CH4 mixture. To our best knowledge, this separation performance is superior to those of the state-of-the-art membranes.  For small nitrogen-contaminated gas wells, these SAPO-34 membranes have the potential to compete with the benchmark technology cryogenic distillation for N2 rejection.