Ethylene Separation via Hydrate Formation in W/O Emulsions

Author： Pan Yong Liu Huang Li Zhi Liu Bei Ma Qinglan Chen Guangjin Sun Changyu Yang Lanying Gao Xueteng

Publisher： MDPI

E-ISSN： 1996-1073|8|6|4871-4881

ISSN： 1996-1073

Source： Energies, Vol.8, Iss.6, 2015-05, pp. : 4871-4881

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Abstract

An hybrid absorption-hydration method was adopted to recover C₂H₄ from C₂H₄/CH₄ binary gas mixtures and the hydrate formation conditions of C₂H₄/CH₄ mixtures was studied experimentally in diesel in water (w/o) emulsions. Span 20 at a concentration of 1.0 wt% in the aqueous phase was added to form water in diesel emulsions before hydrate formation and then hydrate in diesel slurry was separated after hydrate formation. The influences of initial gas-liquid volume ratio (53–142), pressure (3.4–5.4 MPa), temperature (274.15–278.15 K), water cuts (10–30 vol%), and the mole fraction of C₂H₄ in feed gas (13.19–80.44 mol%) upon the C₂H₄ separation efficiency were systematically investigated. The experimental results show that ethylene can be enriched in hydrate slurry phase with high separation factor (S) and recovery ratio (R). Most hydrate formation finished in 20 min, after that, the hydrate formation rate became very slow. The conclusion is useful for determining the suitable operation conditions when adopting an absorption-hydration method to separate C₂H₄/CH₄.