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Dehydration of Natural Gas--Membrane Technology and Research, Inc., 1360 Willow Road, Suite 103, Menlo Park, CA  94025-1524; 650-328-2228, www.mtrinc.com 

Dr. Andre Da Costa, Principal Investigator, andre@mtrinc.com

Ms. Elizabeth Weiss, Business Official, egweiss@mtrinc.com 

DOE Grant No. DE-FG02-03ER83711

Amount:  $749,945  

Currently, more than 55,000 glycol absorption systems, based on hollow fiber membrane modules, are installed in the United States to dry natural gas.  A system based on spiral-wound membrane modules would be much more compact and lighter weight.  However, conventional spiral-wound modules operate in cross-flow mode and have about twice the methane loss of countercurrent sweep hollow fiber modules.  This project will develop a light-weight and efficient membrane drying process based on novel spiral-wound module design that allows for countercurrent sweep operation.  Phase I demonstrated that countercurrent sweep, spiral-wound modules can be successfully manufactured and that the sweep operation is effective.  Phase II will refine and optimize the design of the countercurrent sweep spiral-wound module and demonstrate module performance in the field with an actual natural gas stream.

Commercial Applications and Other Benefits as described by awardee:  An improved membrane process to dehydrate natural gas should be widely applied by the natural gas processing industry.  In particular, this system should have the potential for wide application in off-shore gas dehydration, for which glycol absorption systems are not suited.  The new module design developed for this application could also be used in other gas separation processes.