A novel plug-and-store technology for natural gas purification and strage
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Natural gas is currently the fastest growing energy commodity and the cleanest fossil fuel with abundant reserves. Methane is the predominant component of natural gas. Significant efforts have been undertaken in the past for the separation, storage and transportation of methane. However, the following challenges remain: (i) materials with high selectivity for methane separation from natural gas often do not have high-deliverable capacity for storage, and (ii) materials with high-deliverable capacity for methane storage often do not have high selectivity for separation. In this work, we develop a combined separation and storage (CSS) technology to purify and store methane with both high selectivity and high deliverable capacity at the same pressure in the same vessel, thereby essentially eliminating the need for a separate purification process. The proposed method is based on microporous materials (e.g., zeolites). While the stateof-the-art research considers materials for methane separation or storage separately, we propose a technology and uncover novel materials which simultaneously separate and store methane from natural gas. Using a multi-scale systems engineering approach, we have designed a CSS process that takes a mixture of CH4/N2as feed, and store CH4inside an adsorbent-packed column with while venting the purge gas (N2). We have simulated the dynamic adsorption and breakthrough of methane to identify the extent of storage and purity achieved for a given adsorbent in this work. Lastly, we have identified several zeolites as candidate materials for CSS technology with suitable separation selectivity and storage capacity.
