Hybrid inorganic-organic membranes in the service of clean coal technologies

Abstract

Clean coal technologies (CCT) are all technological solutions that are designed to increase the efficiency of coal combustion, processing and extraction. They are therefore, all the technologies that will help to reduce its environmental nuisance during the production and use of coal and can be introduced at various stages of coal application. Earlier was stated that none of the energy sources (natural gas, crude oil and renewable energy sources), their native resources, the used technologies and the sources of imports are not able to eliminate hard coal from the energy mix of Poland in the near future. That is why the authors began research to create a new clean-coal technology based on the hybrid inorganic-organic membranes, which can be used for elimination of harmful substances generated during coal combustion, especially CO2. This work concerns the study of the inorganic-organic hybrid membranes based on few modified polymer matrices and various inorganic fillers. It was found that incorporation of zeolite 4A into the polymer matrix had significantly changed the gas transport parameters (D, P, S and α). In turn, the mechanical (Rm and E) parameters have increased with the filler content. The application allows the initial selection of ingredients from which the final membrane will be created. The designed technology does not require high financial expenditures, and it is also highly universal. It can be used both in households, heating plants and, above all, in power plants.