Evaluated several scenarios of different temperatures and pressures on the purification of natural gas using silica gel through simulation.

The problem emerging in the natural gas plant is carbon dioxide content in the pipeline. Wellhead natural gas can contain as much as 30% carbon dioxide. Meanwhile, the minimum specification required includes no more than 2%-3% carbon dioxide. The separation of CO2 from biogas is indispensable to improve so that its quality can be improved. One of the separation methods is adsorption. The adsorption process was varied at the pressure of 14, 13.5, 13, 12.5, 12, 11.5, 11, 10.5, and 10 bar, while the temperature varied at 335, 330, 325, 320, 315, 313, 310, 305, and 298°K. This study aims to determine the influence of temperature and pressure on the reduction of CO2 in this adsorption process. This research was conducted by simulating Aspen Adsorption using silica drying as an adsorbent. The total CO2 content of 38 % mol was obtained from the wellhead based on actual data. Nine scenarios have been run to estimate the lowest CO2. After running for combining parameters, the higher Pressure and Temperature, the CO2 content in dry gas is 1.0902×10−3 mole fraction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]