Abstract
Gas-liquid membrane contactors that were based on hollow fiber membranes are the example of highly effective hybrid separation processes in the field of membrane technology. Membranes provide a fixed and well-determined interface for gas/liquid mass transfer without dispensing one phase into another while their structure (hollow fiber) offers very large surface area per apparatus volume resulted in the compactness and modularity of separation equipment. In many cases, stated benefits are complemented with high separation selectivity typical for absorption technology. Since hollow fiber membrane contactors are agreed to be one of the most perspective methods for CO2 capture technologies, the major reviews are devoted to research activities within this field. This review is focused on the research works carried out so far on the applications of membrane contactors for other gas-liquid separation tasks, such as water deoxygenation/ozonation, air humidity control, ethylene/ethane separation, etc. A wide range of materials, membranes, and liquid solvents for membrane contactor processes are considered. Special attention is given to current studies on the capture of acid gases (H2S, SO2) from different mixtures. The examples of pilot-scale and semi-industrial implementation of membrane contactors are given.
Highlights
The proposal of Mahon and the group at Dow Chemical [1] to use hollow-fiber membranes as a separation device and their development represents one of the major events in membrane technology.Since synthetic polymeric hollow-fiber membranes have advanced to play a key role in separation technologies
Experimental and modelling results show that the mass transfer resistances of membrane, shell side and lumen side are all significant along the axial position due to high gas solubility and partial wetting of fiber pores
The results proved the exploitability of hollow fiber membrane contactors for this task
Summary
The proposal of Mahon and the group at Dow Chemical [1] to use hollow-fiber membranes as a separation device and their development represents one of the major events in membrane technology. Another approach aimed to increase the operating pressure of the liquid phase in a membrane contactor is to employ composite membranes with a thin non-porous layer on the porous support This layer prevents the penetration of the liquid phase into membrane pore space (see Figure 3b) [17–. Other disadvantages are the follows: decreasing with time mass transport properties as a result of wetting in porous hollow fiber membrane [11,25] or physical aging of top layer material in composite membrane [18,26]; process sensitivity to impurities in gas mixture [27,28] or liquid phase [29], which affect chemical resistance of a membrane material; and, limited temperature and pressure range for polymeric hollow fiber membranes [25]
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