Comparative Analysis of Conventional and Novel Low-Temperature and Hybrid Technologies for Carbon Dioxide Removal from Natural Gas

Natural gas production is expected to increase, leading to the exploitation of low-quality reserves that contain high levels of acid gases, such as carbon dioxide. The aim of this work is to compare various innovative and conventional technologies for the removal of CO2 from natural gas, considered as a binary mixture of methane and carbon dioxide, with CO2 contents ranging from 10 to 70 mol%. The processes are simulated using Aspen Plus® V9.0 and compared in terms of energy consumption, which is evaluated through the net equivalent methane method. The results show that novel low-temperature and hybrid technologies, which combine distillation and physical absorption, are the most energy-efficient for CO2 removal from natural gas with high acid gas contents, while conventional physical absorption processes are optimal for natural gas with low to moderate acid gas contents.