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Nitrogen Inert Gas Systems based on Membrane technology
by
Iver Iversen
Unitor ASA
1. Introduction
Separation of air in a nitrogen stream and an oxygen enriched air stream using hollow fibre mem-
branes has been commercially available since the early 1980’s. For marine use, this technology was
initially introduced to replace the high pressure nitrogen cylinders used onboard chemical tankers for
maintaining cargo padding during voyages. Today the Membrane Nitrogen Inert Gas Systems are in-
creasingly replacing the traditional fuel fired type of inert gas systems on all tankers where clean and
dry gas is required for maintaining the quality of the cargo as well as protecting the ship from flam-
mable conditions in the cargo area. Membrane Nitrogen Systems with capacities of 4-5000 Nm3/h at
95% purity and high purity capability at reduced capacity are being installed on chemical tankers
routinely. Small LPG / ethylene carriers have until today predominately been using nitrogen genera-
tors based on the Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) technology due to requirements for very high pu-
rity of 99.9% or better. However, membrane systems are technically attractive and increasingly cost
competitive in the high purity range. Unitor has delivered more than 150 systems using MG Generon
membranes where about 15 of these systems have been installed onboard LPG carriers as Inert Gas
Systems or for the void space to protect the steel construction from corrosion.
2. Principle of Membrane Air Separation
The system works by separating air into its component gases by passing compressed air through a
bundle of hollow fibre, semi-permeable membranes. The membrane divide the air into two streams,
one is essentially nitrogen and the other oxygen plus carbon dioxide and other trace gases. (Fig. 1)
Nitrogen
Oxygen
Water Vapor
Nitrogen
Oxygen and water vapor are “fast”
gases which quickly permeate the
membrane, allowing nitrogen to flow
Feed A through the fiber bores as the product
ir stream.
Fig.1
2
While oxygen, carbon dioxide and water vapour quickly permeate the membrane surface, most of the
nitrogen flow inside the membrane fibre as a separate product stream. Millions of fibre, about the size
of a human hair, can be packed into a single module. This provides a very large membrane surface
area that efficiently produces large quantities of a high nitrogen purity product stream. (Fig. 2)
End Plate
Enriched
Epoxy Tube Sheet
Nitrogen
Support Core Product
Gas
Epoxy Tube
Sheet
Oxygen-
Enriched Air
Hollow Fibers
Feed Air O-Rings
Fig. 2
3. The Membrane type Inert Gas System
To make up a complete Membrane Inert Gas System, compressed air has to be provided normally
from dedicated air compressor(s). The productivity of the membranes improves at increased pressure
and a typical membrane system will operate from 14 bar(g) air supply. The 14 bar air can be pro-
vided by normal industrial type oil lubricated screw compressors. By using compressors with modu-
lating control the pressure can be maintained constant, independent on the air flow requirement. This
air will be saturated with water and contaminated by traces of oil and particulates. A feed air treat-
ment system is required to provide clean air free from particles and oil. This clean air will allow for a
high quality nitrogen product, free of contaminates, and will ensure long life for the membrane sys-
tem.
The nitrogen generator feed air system is the most critical part of the of the nitrogen mem-
brane generator. A properly designed filter arrangement is of utmost importance to prevent
contamination of the membranes, with the resultant loss of performance over time. A well de-
signed filtering system (Fig. 3) incorporate:
• Water separator with a automatic drain and high level alarm.
• Electric heater to make the compressed air sub saturated.
• One coarse and one fine coalescing filter for oil and particle removal.
• Specially designed carbon bed filter to trap oil vapour.
• Heater for providing constant feed air to temperature at the membranes.
• Sub-micron particle filter to trap any possible dust particles from the carbon filter.This filter is the
last protection of the membranes, and will have a high differential pressure alarm and shut down.
• A “slow opening valve” prevents pressure shock in the filter system. This arrangement prevents
possible droplets to be expelled from the coalescing filters and dust from the carbon filter.
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The air separation system consists of parallel sets of membrane modules. The product gas (nitrogen)
leaves at essentially the same pressure as the entering air. The oxygen-enriched flow is directed to
permeate discharge at atmospheric pressure and is to be vented to a safe area. Down stream of the
membranes, a pressure control valve is to keep the membrane system at a pre-adjusted constant pres-
sure. This control valve is operated using the analogue signal from the oxygen analyser(s) that will
provide automatic oxygen control. To obtain a good oxygen control in a dual purity system, one oxy-
gen analyser for the high purity control and a second analyser for low purity should be incorporated.
During start up of the system, and if the oxygen level in the nitrogen outlet exceeds the alarm setting
of the oxygen analyser, a valve will blow-off the off spec. product. After achieving the desired nitro-
gen purity during the initial start up period, this valve will close, and the main supply valve will open
for nitrogen supply.
Fig. 3
For LPG tanker systems, the design point will normally be at the high purity (99,9%) range. The
membrane performance can be improved (Fig. 4) by 20-25% by changing ½ of the membrane mod-
ules in the system to be connected in series (Chart 1) by a simple change over of some valves.
Fig. 4
4
A further improvements by about 10% can be obtained by re-circulating the 2nd stage permeate to the
suction side of the compressors. The product recovery will improve about 25% by parallel/serial
mode, and additional about 15% by re-circulating (Chart 2).
Impact of Series Operation on Product Flow
3.5
2.5
Normalized Product Flow
2
Standard
Series
Series/Recycle
1.5
0.5
0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2
%O2 in Product
Chart 1
Impact of Series Operation on Product Recovery
2.5
2
Normalized Product Recovery
1.5
Standard
Series
Series/Recycle
1
0.5
0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2
%O2 in Product
Chart 2
A system arranged for both serial and parallel operation of the membranes will then provide optimum
performance at both high and low purity.
4. Inert Gas Systems in use on LPG carriers
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The traditional fuel fired inert gas generator system (Fig. 5) will include a fan for the feed air, the
fuel system, a burner and combustion chamber, a sea water pump for cooling water to be sprayed into
the hot exhaust, an inert gas compressor to remove water by compressing the inert gas to about 10
bar, a refrigerated dryer to reduce the dew point to – 45 ºC and possibly a CO2 stripper to remove the
about 14% of CO2 in the inert gas.
Fig. 5
By mixing the exhaust gas with sea water, we create a very corrosive atmosphere, and all kind of pre-
cautions needs to be taken to avoid massive corrosion in the down stream piping and components.
The principle of the PSA (Fig. 6) technology is based on air separated in a bed with carbon molecu-
lar sieve where the oxygen molecules are adsorbed much faster than the nitrogen molecules. When
pressurising one carbon bed the gas flowing out will be pure nitrogen. The carbon bed will be satu-
rated with oxygen in about 1 min., and has to be de-pressurised and purged by some nitrogen product
to remove the oxygen, the same time a second carbon bed is pressurised to maintain a continuos ni-
trogen flow.
Fig. 6
A complete PSA system (Fig. 7), will include a feed air compressor (preferably dry/oil free), an air
receiver to equalise the swinging air requirement, a refrigerated dryer, filter system, the two carbon
bed towers and a nitrogen receiver to equalise the nitrogen purity. For these systems the quality and
the timing and control of the automatic valve operation of the inlet and outlet valves of the carbon
beds is very critical to maintain the high purity of nitrogen.
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Fig. 7
Compared with the traditional fuel fired inert gas generators or the PSA type of nitrogen generators,
the simplicity of the Membrane nitrogen systems (Fig. 8) is remarkable.
Fig. 8
Clean and dry nitrogen is provided by a standard screw compressor as one unit and a second unit in
which the feed air preteatment, membranes, and control systems are contained. The entire system
consists of only these two components. The installation is simple as both units will be pre-wired and
thoroughly tested before delivery. Onboard it is only to provide the power supply and the intercon-
necting piping and wiring.
Technical as well as due to physical size and weight the membrane system is an attractive solution for
new buildings as well as for retrofitting on sailing vessels .
The weight and size of the Membrane System of 400 Nm3/h at 99,9% is less than 50% compared
with PSA system of same capacity (Fig. 9), a saving that can be used for added cargo carrying capac-
ity.
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Fig. 9
Pictures (Fig. 10 & 11) show the installation of a membrane system including the compressor in a
small about 3 x 3 m store room onboard the four 1730 m3 Lauritzen Kosan L-class vessels. This
system has a design capacity of about 120 Nm3/h at 99,8% purity and exceeding 400 Nm3/h at 96%
purity. The installation on the Lauritzen Kosan tankers, including the final commissioning, was done
within 3 days. The first installed system has been in operation for more than a year and the owner re-
ports good performance and operational savings by having the nitrogen systems installed.
Fig. 10
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Fig. 11
5. Membrane technology development
All above data is based on the MG Generon membrane used in the Unitor / Generon nitrogen gen-
erators that has been available for the last 8 -10 years. The membrane technology, however, is in a
constant development, and a new generation of membrane modules will be introduced to the market
within the next few months. The new membrane material has a substantial higher productivity.
The following charts are giving the predicted performance of the new MG Generon membrane rela-
tive to the current 7200 High Performance membranes.
Chart 3 shows at low purity and 12 bar feed air pressure, the membrane area will be reduced 65%
when system design is for 95% purity. The feed air requirement (power consumption) will be about
the same as today.
Impact of Using High Flow Modules Relative to Current 7200
Operated at 14 Bar and 40C (Production of 95% N2)
1.2 1.2
1 1
Relative Power Requirement
Relative Membrane Area
0.8 0.8
Membrane Area
0.6 0.6
Power
0.4 0.4
0.2 0.2
0 0
6 8 10 12 14
Operating Pressure (Bar)
Chart 3
Chart 4 shows at low purity and 12 bar feed air pressure, the weight of the membrane modules will be
reduced 85% when the system design is for 95% purity.
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Impact of Using High Flow Modules Relative to Current 7200
Operated at 14 Bar and 40C (Production of 95% N2)
1.2 0.45
0.4
1
0.35
Relative Membrane Area
Relative Module Weight
0.8 0.3
0.25
Membrane Area
0.6
Module Weight
0.2
0.4 0.15
0.1
0.2
0.05
0 0
6 8 10 12 14
Operating Pressure (Bar)
Chart 4
Chart 5 shows at high purity and 12 bar feed air pressure, the membrane area will be reduced 60%
when the design is for 99,9% purity. The feed air requirement (power consumption) will increase by
about 12 %.
Impact of High Flow Modules Relative to Current 7200
Operated at 14 bar and 25C (Production of 99.9% N2)
0.9 1.2
0.8
1.15
0.7
Relative Power Requirement
Relative Membrane Area
0.6 1.1
0.5
Membrane Area
1.05
Power
0.4
0.3 1
0.2
0.95
0.1
0 0.9
8 10 12 14
Feed Pressure (bar)
Chart 5
The high productivity of the new membrane material results in reduced size and weight of the sys-
tems (Fig.12) as well as improved overall costs.
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Space and Weight Requirements for Different Technologies for Producing 99.9% N2 (400
NM3/hr Plant without Compression Equipment)
35
30
Space Requirement (M3) or Weight (tons)
25
20
Space Requirement
Weight
15
10
0
PSA Current Membranes New Membranes
Fig. 12
The membrane technology will continue developing and new and improved membrane materials can
be expected. The cost of the development is high so the development can be expected go by steps
with 5 – 10 year intervals.
