Development of Thin-Film Composite Membranes from Aromatic Cardo-Type Co-Polyimide for Mixed and Sour Gas Separations from Natural Gas

Abstract

The consumption of natural gas (NG) is rapidly increasing worldwide as it is becoming the second largest fuel source after coal. However, many of the world gas reserves contain high levels of subquality NG including the presence of carbon dioxide (CO2), hydrogen sulfide (H2S), nitrogen (N2), benzene/toluene/xylene (BTX) etc., in varying amounts (up to 50% v/v in some reserves), which constitute several problems. Membrane-based NG sweetening/upgrading processes emerge as among the fastest growing technologies, due to their lower capital cost, higher energy savings, greater economic viability, etc. as compared to conventional technologies. Thus, a defective-free, multilayer thin-film composite membrane is developed from 6FDA-Durene/6FDA-CARDO block co-polyimide for the separation of sour gas from NG. The membrane shows good performance as it exhibit CO2/CH4 and H2S/CH4 selectivities ranges from 8 to 10 and 15 to 19, respectively, and CO2 and H2S permeance are 122 and 220 GPU, respectively.