Inorganic Chemicals Industry ›› 2022, Vol. 54 ›› Issue (5): 11-18.doi: 10.19964/j.issn.1006-4990.2021-0756

• Reviews and Special Topics • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Research progress on new inorganic solid adsorbents in field of natural gas dehydration

SHI Han1(),YUAN Biao2(),SHEN Peng2   

  1. 1.CNOOC China Limited Shenzhen Branch,Shenzhen 518052,China
    2.Cener Tech;Tianjin Chemical Research and Design Institute Co. ,Ltd.
  • Received:2021-12-16 Online:2022-05-10 Published:2022-05-31
  • Contact: YUAN Biao E-mail:han_shi@cnooc.com.cn;yuanbiao3@cnooc.com.cn

Abstract:

Natural gas must be dehydrated before entering the pipeline network.At present,the commonly used natural gas dehydration methods mainly include cold dry method,liquid absorption method and solid adsorption method.Solid adsorbents for natural gas dehydration mainly include zeolite,alumina,mesoporous silica and metal organic framework materials (MOFs).With the exploration and development of more offshore gas fields,traditional adsorbents such as zeolite and alumina can not meet the purification needs of a large amount of natural gas,so adsorbents with higher loading capacity need to be used.Mesoporous silica and MOFs have the advantages of high chemical stability,low density,high porosity and long service life,and avoid frequent replacement,which have potential advantages as natural gas dehydration adsorbents.The research progress of mesoporous silica and MOFs in natural gas dehydration was reviewed by focusing on high specific surface area,pore volume,hydrophilicity and regeneration ability in this paper.Mesoporous silica had good hydrophilicity and mechanical stability,which could be used in high pressure range to improve the efficiency of the treatment device.However,mesoporous silica was mainly synthesized by sol-gel method,and the aging time was longer.The traditional evaporation drying method could not maintain the complete gel structure.In the future,mesoporous silica with better physicochemical properties and pore structure was expected to be obtained by supercritical fluid drying,so as to further improve the adsorption capacity of mesoporous silica.As porous materials formed by the combination of inorganic and organic substances,MOFs had highly regular pore structure and adjustable properties,and the chemical or physical interaction between metal ions and free electron pairs of ligand functional groups made them have high natural gas adsorption and dehydration efficiency and excellent regeneration cycle performance.Finally,it was pointed out that it was necessary to further study the adsorption and dehydration capacity of MOFs under complex working conditions,long-term operation stability,and the effect of high-pressure working conditions,granulation and different separation processes(PSA and TSA) on MOFs,and develop low-cost and large-scale preparation technology of MOFs to realize industrial application.

Key words: inorganic solid adsorbent, mesoporous silica, metal organic framework materials, natural gas dehydration

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