Modeling and Simulation of Industrial Gas Permeators Accounting for Vapor Phase Nonideality

Associated gas produced in offshore fields may present high CO2 concentrations. The separation of this compound from the hydrocarbon fraction is accomplished by permeation through polymeric membranes. In this study, a model based on the solution-diffusion model which simultaneously accounts for the vapor-phase nonideality is presented . To evaluate the model, industrial plant design and actual operational conditions were used. Industrial data were cleaned, grouped, and selected, yielding field data representing the operation conditions. Through computational simulations, both the adherence to the expected behavior and the ability to reproduce the operational results were evaluated. The developed model was able to reproduce most of the real operational situations. The influence of thermodynamic and transport parameters on the model performance is discussed .