Gas Sorption, Diffusion and Permeation in a Polymer of Intrinsic Microporosity (PIM-7)

Abstract

Gas Sorption, Diffusion and Permeation in a Polymer of intrinsic Microporosity (PIM-7) Nasser Yahya Alaslai The entire world including Saudi Arabia is dependent on natural gas to provide new energy supplies for the future. Conventional ways for gas separation are expensive, and, hence, it is very important to reduce the cost and lower the energy consumption. Membrane technology is a relatively new separation process for natural gas purification with large growth potential, specifically for offshore applications. The economics of any membrane separation process depend primarily on the intrinsic gas permeation properties of the membrane materials. All current commercial membranes for natural gas separation are made from polymers, which have several drawbacks, including low permeability, moderate selectivity, and poor stability in acid gas and hydrocarbon environments. The recent development of polymeric materials called “polymers of intrinsic microporosity” (PIMs) provide a new class of high-performance membrane materials that are anticipated to be used in natural gas separation processes including, but not limited to, acid gas removal and separation of hydrocarbons from methane. PIM-7 is an excellent example of a material from the PIMs series for gas separation. It was selected for this work since it has not been extensively tested for its gas permeation properties to date. Specifically, sorption and mixedgas permeation data were not available for PIM-7 prior to this work. Sorption isotherms of N2, O2, CH4, CO2, C2H6, C3H8 and n-C4H10 were determined over a range of pressures at 35 C for PIM-7 using a customdesigned dual-volume pressure decay system. Condensable hydrocarbon gases, such as C3H8 and n-C4H10, show significantly higher solubility than the other less condensable gas of the test series due to their high affinity to the polymer matrix. Dual-mode sorption model parameters were determined from the sorption isotherms. Henry’s law solubility, Langmuir capacity constant and the affinity constant increased with gas condensability. Permeability coefficients of He, H2,