Study on the performance of CO2 capture from flue gas with ceramic membrane contactor

Abstract

In recent years, membrane technology has shown special advantages in the field of carbon capture from flue gas. However, the increase of mass transfer resistance caused by membrane wetting becomes a major obstacle to improve the CO2 removal efficiency. In this work, ceramic membrane contactor consisting of 16 commercial ceramic membranes is used to capture CO2 and a new system operation mode is proposed to avoid membrane wetting. The ceramic membrane is characterized by a series of instruments. In the CO2 capture process, Monoethanolamine (MEA) solution as the liquid absorbent is flowed in the tube side of the membrane and the gas is flowed counter-currently in the shell side. Furthermore, the effects of gas flow rate, absorbent flow rate, absorbent concentration and absorbent temperature on CO2 removal efficiency are investigated. In addition, under fixed gas–liquid ratio conditions, the effects of increasing gas–liquid flow rate on CO2 removal efficiency are investigated. Compared with other studies, the results indicate higher CO2 removal efficiency and mass transfer rate. Compared with self-prepared hydrophobic ceramic membranes, commercial ceramic membranes have more prospects for large-scale application because they are cheaper and easier to operate and maintain.