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Abstract Natural gas has become a crucial source of energy for many industries and households around the world. Compared to coal or oil, it burns cleaner and emits fewer greenhouse gases. However, natural gas often contains impurities like hydrogen sulfide (H2S) and carbon dioxide (CO2), which must be eliminated before the natural gas can be used safely and efficiently. Alkanolamine solutions are widely used to eliminate the acid gases (H2S and CO2) from natural gas streams. Removal of the generated and entrained solids from the amine solution circuit is crucial to the effective operation of gas-treating plants. In this study, phase inversion technology was used to develop flat sheet ultrafiltration membranes using a polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) backbone combined with polyethylene glycol (PEG) and polyacrylonitrile (PAN). The influence of blending proportions on the membranes’ morphology and antifouling characteristics was investigated. The prepared membranes were characterized using scanning electron microscopy and water contact angle measurements, along with evaluation of their mechanical properties and porosity. Membrane performance tests were carried out using an unstirred laboratory scale dead-end filtration setup fed with deionized water and real industry lean methyldiethanolamine solution. It was found that applying the optimized amounts of PAN and PEG as additives to the casting solution increases the water flux of PVDF membrane and enhances its mechanical and antifouling properties. The addition of 1 wt. % PAN and 2 wt. % PEG400 to the casting solution of the PVDF membranes results in 18% increase in the pure water flux and ” " ~ " ”97% rejection of the solids in the amine solution. This accomplishment was ascribed to the improved porosity and surface hydrophilicity of the blended PVDF membranes. The membrane showed improved surface antifouling characteristics with a high flux recovery ratio of 85.6% and a low irreversible resistance of 0.14. |