German gases and engineering group Linde and compatriot chemical producer Evonik have signed an exclusive agreement to cooperate on the use of membranes for natural gas processing and jointly promote the technology.

Under the agreement, Evonik will contribute its knowhow on the membrane and polymer side of the work, while Linde’s Engineering division will be the system integrator for the complete membrane package units. The engineering group will market the package for onshore gas separation and plant upgrades plants under the trademark “HISELECT™ powered by Evonik”. 

The two companies already work together on membrane-based gas separation, strengthening their collaboration in 2016.  The partnership’s reference plant for helium upgrading in Mankota. Canada, is claimed to be the first of this kind to combine both the membrane and pressure swing adsorption technologies. The facility processes more than 250,000 standard cbm of crude gas daily and industrial quality helium of 99.999% purity.

Evonik produces membranes for upgrading biogas, nitrogen extraction as well as for upgrading helium and hydrogen at its site in Schörfling, Austria under the “Sepuran” trademark. The company’s neighboring site at Lenzing, Austria, produces the high-performance polymer starting material.

Tobias Keller, head of the Adsorption and Membrane Plants product line of Linde’s Engineering Division, said the company is consolidating its position as world’s leading company for gas separation technologies as well as a supplier of complete separation packages. Axel Kobus, head of the Fibres, Membranes, & Specialties Product Line at Evonik, the latest membrane technology for upgrading of natural gas developed with Linde “significantly” expands his company’s existing product range.