This month we are looking back to a paper from Taek-Joong Kim, SINTEF Industry. Presented at our Annual Conference November 2023.

"Qualification of Membranes for Subsea CO2 Separation Based on Tests from Lab Scale to Small-Industrial Scale"

"COMPMEM is a joint industrial project initiated by Aker Carbon Capture (ACC) aiming at the validation and pilot scale demonstration of membrane-based process for subsea CO2 separation. The separated CO2 is to be reinjected to increase recovery rates in offshore oil and gas fields.

Firstly , four membrane qualities have been tested in the lab scale at the conditions relevant to subsea gas separation – within the broad range of temperature (40-90 oC), feed (35-90 bar) and permeate (2-35 bar) gas pressures, and CO2 content in the feed gas (10-90%). To cover such a broad range of operating conditions with minimum possible number of experiments, statistical design of experiments principle was applied.

Based on the results from these experiments and compatibility testing of the membrane materials and potting materials with harsh conditions potentially present at sub-sea conditions, only two membrane qualities were selected for further testing in small-industrial scale rig built at SINTEF.

Results from the lab-scale testing of the membrane performance and description of the pilot scale test rig and its test results will be presented."