2025 AIChE Annual Meeting

(566f) Pilot Scale Demonstration of CO2 Separation Process with DDR-Type Zeolite Membrane in a CO2-EOR Field

Authors

Sho Kameda, JGC Holdings Corporation
Noriyuki Ogasawara, NGK Insulators, Ltd.
Kenji Yajima, NGK Insulators, Ltd.
CO2 separation technology is one of the key technologies in crude oil production with CO2-EOR (Enhanced Oil Recovery) to improve the economics of projects. Conventional CO2 separation technologies, such as amine gas treating processes, membrane separation processes with polymeric membranes, have been used for CO2 recovery from gases associated with produced crude oil in CO2-EOR. At the same time, there is an urgent demand for means to accomplish CO2 recovery from high pressure and high CO2 concentration associated gas for further improvement in CO2-EOR crude oil production. However, it is quite difficult to apply the conventional technologies for CO2 separation on such fluids due to poor profitability resulting from the high capital and operation expenditures involved.

JGC Holding Corporation (JGC) and NGK Insulators, Ltd. (NGK) have jointly developed a unique CO2 separation process which involves the use of a DDR-type zeolite membrane (DDR Membrane). DDR Membranes have the following characteristics which are superior for CO2 removal from high CO2 partial pressure services. NGK has developed commercial-scale membrane elements of DDR Membrane successfully and they have large effective membrane area (12 m2 (130 sq.ft.)) in monolithic membrane elements (180 mm D x 1,000 mm L (7.1 in. D x 39.4 in.)).

(1) High CO2/CH4 selectivity: DDR-type zeolite has a pore size which is larger than CO2 molecules but smaller than hydrocarbon molecules including methane. Therefore, CO2 can permeate selectively while the permeation of hydrocarbons contained in associated gases produced in CO2-EOR is blocked.

(2) High durability for high CO2 partial pressure: The DDR Membrane is composed of inorganic materials. Therefore, DDR Membranes can be used even under high CO2 partial pressure condition in which plasticization occurs on conventional polymeric membranes.

(3) High mechanical strength: DDR Membranes can be used under high pressure (8 MPaG max.) and high differential pressure between the feed side and permeate side without any damages.

For the commercialization of CO2 separation process with DDR Membranes, JGC and NGK have executed the first performance demonstration with commercial-scale membrane elements in a CO2-EOR field in Texas. The demonstration facility had 3 MMSCFD of the gas processing capacity. Feed gas supply pressure was 7.6-8.3 MPaG (1,100-1,200 psig) and CO2 concentration in feed gas was approx. 70 mol%. CO2 partial pressure was above 5 MPa under those operating conditions. Through the demonstration tests, it was verified that DDR Membranes showed higher CO2/CH4 selectivity than conventional polymeric membranes and could produce high-purity CO2 (95% or above) from the associated gas. In addition, retentate gas had sufficiently low CO2 concentration and high heat value enough to use the retentate gas as fuel gas under the optimized operating condition. In long run testing, both permeate gas flow rate and CO2/CH4 selectivity were stable until 200 hours elapsed. In the demonstration tests, JGC and NGK verified that the DDR Membrane had good performance in CO2 separation under high pressure and high CO2 concentration and could remove CO2 from associated gases produced in CO2-EOR fields.

Acknowledgement

This work was supported by the Japan Organization for Metals and Energy Security (JOGMEC).