Several Adsorbents Commonly Used in Natural Gas Purification Process

Currently, in the natural gas purification process, commonly used adsorbents include silica gel, activated alumina, activated bauxite, molecular sieves, etc.  Activated carbon has little dehydration ability and is mainly used to recover liquid hydrocarbons from natural gas.

1. Activated Alumina

Its main component is porous and amorphous aluminum oxide, and contains small amounts of other metal compounds.  Activated alumina is a polar adsorbent that is stable to most gases and vapors. It is a non-toxic solid particle that will not soften, swell or break when immersed in water or liquid. It has a powerful ability to resist impact and wear powerful.  It is commonly used for dehydration and drying of gas, oil and petrochemical products.  The gas dew point of activated alumina after drying can be as low as -73°C.  After activated alumina is recycled, its properties change little.

2. Silica Gel

This is a hard amorphous chain-like and network-like silicic acid polymer particle, which is a hydrophilic polar adsorbent.  The molecular formula of silica gel is SiO2·nH2O, and its pore diameter is 2-20nm.  Silica gel has obvious selectivity for polar molecules and unsaturated hydrocarbons, so it can be dehydrated with natural gas.

3. Molecular Sieve

This is a natural or synthetic zeolite-type silicate. Natural molecular sieves are also called zeolites, while synthetic ones are mostly called molecular sieves.

The physical properties of molecular sieves depend on their chemical composition and crystal structure.  There are many channels with uniform pore diameters and neatly arranged holes in the structure of molecular sieves.  These pores not only provide a large specific surface area, but also only allow molecules with a diameter smaller than the pore size to enter, while molecules larger than the pore size cannot enter, making the molecular sieve highly selective for adsorbing molecules.

Molecular sieves can be divided into different models according to the size of the pores and the material ratio of SiO2 to Al2O3 in the molecular sieve. X-type molecular sieve can adsorb all molecules that can be adsorbed by A-type molecular sieve, and has a slightly higher moisture capacity.

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