Modeling of Spiral Wound Membranes for Gas Separations—Part IV: Real-Time Monitoring Based on Detailed Phenomenological Model

The present study presents, for the first time, the real-time monitoring of an actual spiral-wound membrane unit used for CO2 removal from natural gas in an actual industrial offshore platform, utilizing a detailed phenomenological model. An Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) paradigm was employed to simulate the offshore membrane separation unit, accounting for the diverse levels of the membrane separation setup. A parameter estimation procedure was implemented to fit the phenomenological model to the real industrial data in real-time, for the first time. In addition, estimated permeance parameters and calculated unmeasured variables (soft sensor) were used for monitoring Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), such as membrane selectivity, dew point temperature, and hydrocarbon loss. Finally, a reparametrization of the parameters was implemented to improve the robustness of the optimization procedure. Thus, the model variables presented good adjustments to the data, indicating the satisfactory performance of the estimation. Consequently, the good accuracy of the model provided reliable information to the soft sensors and KPIs.