Gas Separation Systems and Methods Using Membranes

A gas separation method comprising:

• feeding pressurized gas into a filter containing a hollow fiber membrane, contaminants in the pressurized gas including hydrocarbons containing six or more carbon atoms and the hollow fiber membrane exhibiting a property of resisting degradation due to exposure to the hydrocarbons;
• contacting the hollow fiber membrane with the gas feed, permeating the gas from the gas feed through the membrane, and producing filtered gas from the filter as a result of the membrane removing hydrocarbons containing six or more carbon atoms, the filter exhibiting a pressure drop across the membrane of less than 5 pounds/inch2 (psi);
• and
• feeding the filtered gas into a gas separation module and producing gas enriched in a component of the gas feed from the gas separation module, the gas separation module exhibiting a susceptibility to degradation from exposure to hydrocarbons containing six or more carbon atoms.

A gas separation system comprising:

• a source for gas;
• a filter configured to receive gas feed from the gas source;
• a membrane in the filter, the membrane being configured to permeate the gas from the gas feed through the membrane at a pressure drop across the membrane of less than 5 pounds/inch2 (psi) and to produce filtered gas from the filter as a result of the membrane removing hydrocarbons containing six or more carbon atoms;
• a gas separation module configured to receive filtered gas from the filter and to produce gas enriched in a component of the gas feed from the gas separation module.