Removal of CO2 from a Gas Stream Using an Experimental Centrifuge

This paper reports the first experimental separation of contaminants from a natural gas mixture using a centrifuge. The experimentally measured equilibrium separations are compared to theory, and spin-up times are evaluated. For realistic throughputs such as those from commercial gas fields (ca. 100-500 MMscf/d), the separator sizes will be so large that a pure gas-gas separation will never be a realistic option. Other ancillary thermodynamic effects need to be used to speed up the separation, such as dewpointing along the rotor radius, in order to make the process of commercial interest.