title: Identifying Optimal Zeolitic Sorbents for Sweetening of Highly Sour Natural Gas.
abstract: Raw natural gas is a complex mixture comprising methane, ethane, other hydrocarbons, hydrogen sulfide, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and water. For sour gas fields, selective and energy-efficient removal of H2 S is one of the crucial challenges facing the natural-gas industry. Separation using nanoporous materials, such as zeolites, can be an alternative to energy-intensive amine-based absorption processes. Herein, the adsorption of binary H2 S/CH4 and H2 S/C2 H6 mixtures in the all-silica forms of 386 zeolitic frameworks is investigated using Monte Carlo simulations. Adsorption of a five-component mixture is utilized to evaluate the performance of the 16 most promising materials under close-to-real conditions. It is found that depending on the fractions of CH4 , C2 H6 , and CO2 , different sorbents allow for optimal H2 S removal and hydrocarbon recovery.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of Minnesota, 421 Washington Avenue SE, Minneapolis, MN, 55455-0132, USA.
authors.forename: Mansi S
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-5255-6922
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Shah
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of Minnesota, 421 Washington Avenue SE, Minneapolis, MN, 55455-0132, USA.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tsapatsis
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Chemical Theory Center, University of Minnesota, 207 Pleasant Street SE, Minneapolis, MN, 55455-0431, USA. siepmann@umn.edu.
authors.forename: J Ilja
authors.initials: JI
authors.lastname: Siepmann
keywords: Monte Carlo simulations; hydrogen sulfide; natural gas; zeolite