Innovative Solution for Methane Recovery

Crude natural gas contains varying amounts of moisture which is an undesirable gas component. Glycol dehydrators are commonly used to extract the water present in the gas. Unfortunately, emissions derived from the solvent reboiler section of the dehydration unit may contain as much as 50% water vapor. The wet gas, loaded with varying concentrations of methane, heavy hydrocarbons, and air contaminants such as benzene, is either directly emitted into the air, burnt, or condensed.

All three scenarios have their drawback from an environmental perspective. Vaperma hollow fibre polymeric membrane technology enables complete treatment of the still vent gas of the glycol reboiler unit. Vaperma’s Siftek™ proprietary technology can economically achieve a high level of dehydration of the hydrocarbon-containing emissions while completely eliminating the BTX (benzene, toluene, xylene) emissions and recovering the methane present in the gas emissions. This concept also finds applications in the emerging biogas sector.