Project Info
Purification of Helium from Natural Gas Employing Zeolite Membranes
Moises Carreon | mcarreon@mines.edu
Helium is a trace impurity found in natural gas and a highly desired product in the medical, scientific, and industrial markets as an inert gas and a cryogenic fluid. Industry commonly uses cryogenic distillation to separate out helium, a process which is energy intensive. Membranes provide a potential alternative due to multiple advantages such as: no phase change, low environmental impact, and no moving parts. In particular, zeolite membranes are highly appealing for the separation of helium from natural gas. This project focuses on the development of zeolite membranes for the separation of helium form natural gas. The proposed membranes can potentially separate helium from methane via size exclusion, preferential adsorption, and differences in diffusivities, and could potentially represent an economic approach to purify helium from natural gas.
For more information
1. Sunarso, J.; Hashim, S.; Lin, Y.; Liu, S.; Membranes for helium recovery: An overview on the context, materials and future directions. Sep. Purif. Technol. 2017, 176, 335-383.
2. M.A. Carreon* Porous crystals as membranes, Science 2020, 367, 6478, 624-625.
Grand Challenge: Engineer the tools of scientific discovery
Student Preparation
Qualifications
Basic knowledge on materials synthesis and characterization.
Student is required to attend the basic lab safety training offered by Environmental Health and Safety at Mines
Time Commitment
20 hours/week
Skills/Techniques Gained
The student will learn how to synthesize, characterize, and evaluate the separation performance of zeolite membranes for the separation of Helium from methane. Fundamentally, the student will gain knowledge on the potential governing separation mechanisms.
Mentoring Plan
Weekly individual meetings, and group bi-weekly meetings. Student will present his/her research progress through individual weekly reports, and will present research progress at least once per semester during the group meeting.