Key Publications and Presentations:
The N2 removal membrane system works very well and is very simple to operate
Challenge
Nitrogen is a common contaminant in natural gas and is quite difficult to remove. Nitrogen lowers the BTU value of the gas and makes it unsaleable to most pipelines. Natural gas will be accepted for transport by pipeline only if it contains less than a specified amount of nitrogen, typically somewhere between 4% and 6%.
Cryogenic nitrogen removal is complex and prohibitively expensive at modest scale. MTR’s membrane based NitroSep™ system is a proven and economical solution.
Example
Nitro-Sep™ Process
MTR’s NitroSep™ system produces pipeline-quality or pipeline-acceptable gas and a nitrogen-rich fuel from raw natural gas. The proprietary membranes are significantly more permeable to methane, ethane, and other hydrocarbons than to nitrogen.
Gas containing 8% to 12% nitrogen is compressed and passed across a first set of membrane modules. The permeate, which contains 6% nitrogen, is sent to the pipeline; the nitrogen-rich residue gas is passed to a second set of membrane modules. These modules produce a residue gas containing about 40% nitrogen and a nitrogen-depleted permeate containing 10% to 20% nitrogen. The residue gas is used as fuel; the permeate is mixed with the incoming feed gas for further recovery.
Benefits
- Bulk Nitrogen content reduced to pipeline specification
- Heavy hydrocarbons captured in the product gas
- Easy, low-cost installation; system can be installed in 1-2 days
- Membrane unit requires low maintenance; robust long-lasting membranes
- System is easily moved from one location to another
NitroSep™ units upgrading high nitrogen gas in California
System Performance
- Feed rate: Wide range upto 200+MMSCFD
- Feed N2 content: 4% to 50% (Bulk Reduction)
- Target N2% or BTU value
- Hydrocarbon BTU recovery : >90%
