Separation of C4+ hydrocarbons from natural gas using silicalite membranes

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Dundee Energy Ltd. is an international oil and gas processing company that manages offshore natural gas and onshore light oil reserves in and around Lake Erie, Ontario. Dundee operates and maintains two drilling rigs and has compression and processing facilities on shore. By managing reserves that are close to industrial consumers and existing utility infrastructure, Dundee Energy is able to minimize operational, storage, and transportation costs, and secure long-term sales contracts. Dundee is seeking a cost effective process to improve their raw natural gas product stream, which contains residual undesired hydrocarbons. The presence of undesired hydrocarbons reduces the methane content of natural gas, and to be saleable, it must be diluted with cleaner natural gas from other wells. When undesired hydrocarbon content is high, and the availability of clean natural gas for mixing is low, the natural gas does not meet utility specifications. Consequently this gas cannot be sold to consumers, and the time and energy used to extract the gas are not compensated for. Dundee Energy has approached Dr. Tezel at the University of Ottawa for her expertise in this first-time collaboration to perform experiments to examine the potential use of adsorptive silicalite membranes to separate undesired hydrocarbons with 4 or a higher number of carbons (C4+) in their structure (e.g., butane, isobutane, pentane, etc.) from methane, which is the most significant component of natural gas. In this study, new silicalite membranes will be designed and prepared and the effects of operating pressure, and feed gas composition in particular, will be investigated in the lab for these membranes. The best membrane will be demonstrated at Dundee Energys Windsor facilities. Different membranes, as well as separation processes will be developed that Dundee Energy will be able to take to the market at the end of this study.