Evaluation of Potential of Natural Gas Sweetening by Using Imidazolium Ionic Liquid [bmim][NTf2] based on PC-SAFT Equation of State

Articles in Press

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Department of Chemical Engineering, Isfahan University of Technology, Iran

2 Gas Refining Technology Group, Gas Research Division and Gas Processing Institute (GPI), Research Institute of Petroleum Industry (RIPI), 1485733111 Tehran, Iran

10.22078/jpst.2025.5632.1971

Abstract

In the present work, for the first time, the potential of gas sweetening of an Iranian gas composition by using an imidazolium-based ionic liquid solvent, namely 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide ([bmim][NTf2]), has been evaluated. The findings are then compared with the outcomes of natural gas sweetening employing the conventional aqueous N-methyldiethanolamine (MDEA) solvent. The PC-SAFT equation of state was utilized as a thermodynamic model to correlate the vapor-liquid equilibrium of binary and multicomponent mixtures of [bmim][NTf2] with natural gas components in Aspen Plus software version 10. The gas sweetening process was simulated for both ionic liquid and aqueous MDEA solvents, and the results were compared with each other. The findings indicate that in order to adhere to the sweet gas pipeline specification (4 ppm H2S and 2 mol% CO2), the energy consumption of the ionic liquid-based process is significantly higher than that of the MDEA-based solvent. This outcome indicates that the utilization of an ionic liquid-based solvent ([bmim][NTf2]) is not a viable option for gas sweetening, despite its advantageous properties such as low vapor pressure, high thermal stability, etc.

Keywords

Journal of Petroleum Science and Technology

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 29 June 2025

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