Recovery of VOC from onshore and offshore shuttle tankers using structured membranes.

Ajayi, Adebayo; Shehu, Habiba; Gobina, Edward

Abstract

The emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from onshore offshore facilities are studied and an alternative technology for the recovery of methane, propane and butane by the use of membrane technology is explored. Permeation tests were carried out with a zeolite membrane consisting of an {esc}ga{esc}s - Al2O3 support. The permeance of nitrogen, carbon dioxide, helium, methane and propane through the membrane at varying pressures was determined. The permeance of CH4 was in the range of 1.44 x 10-6 to 3.41 x 10 -6 mols-1m-2Pa-1 and a CH4/C3H8 selectivity of 3.3 at 293 K was obtained. The molar flux of the gases was found to have an average linear regression coefficient value R2 of 0.9892. On the basis of the results obtained it can be concluded that separation of the hydrocarbon gases can be achieved with the zeolite membrane. The main mechanism governing the flow of gases through the zeolite membrane was molecular sieving although there is evidence of deviation from this mechanism. To achieve higher selectivity of the target gas there is need for further modification of the membrane. The morphology of the membrane was determined using the scanning electron microscope, which showed the pore size of the membrane and the support layer.

Citation

AJAYI, A., SHEHU, H. and GOBINA, E. 2015. Recovery of VOC from onshore and offshore shuttle tankers using structured membranes. In Ao, S.I., Gelman, L., Hukins, D.W.L., Hunter, A. and Korsunsky, A.M. (eds.) Proceedings of the 2015 World congress on engineering and computer science (WCECS 2015), 21-23 October 2015, San Francisco, USA. Lecture notes in engineering and computer science, 2220. Hong Kong: Newswood Limited [online], pages 637-642. Available from: http://www.iaeng.org/publication/WCECS2015/WCECS2015_pp637-642.pdf

• Conference Name: 2015 World congress on engineering and computer science (WCECS 2015)
• Conference Location: San Francisco, USA
• Start Date: Oct 21, 2015
• End Date: Oct 23, 2015
• Acceptance Date: Aug 8, 2015
• Online Publication Date: Oct 21, 2015
• Publication Date: Oct 23, 2015
• Deposit Date: Mar 23, 2017
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 23, 2017
• Print ISSN: 2078-0958
• Electronic ISSN: 2078-0966
• Publisher: Newswood Academic Publishing
• Pages: 637-642
• Series Title: Lecture notes in engineering and computer science
• Series Number: 2220
• Series ISSN: 2078-0966
• ISBN: 9789881404725
• Keywords: Membranes; Characterisation; Separation; Volatile organic compounds; Zeolite
• Public URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10059/2237
• Publisher URL: http://www.iaeng.org/publication/WCECS2015/