Abstract
The rapid growth of energy demand and consumption from fossil fuels has been of great concern since the last decade. Renewable energy, including biogas production from wastes, has been studied to ease up the energy crisis problems. This study aims to synthesize bio-cellulose acetate (CA) membranes from agricultural waste and to study its efficiency in the removal of CO2 from biogas. The bio-CA membranes were synthesized from acetylation of bacterial cellulose (BC) and obtained from coconut juice residues (CJRs). The results showed that both chemical and physical characteristics of the bio-CA membrane were compared with those of the chemical CA membranes. The CO2 removal capacity of the bio-CA membranes was tested in a membrane separation unit. The maximum CO2 selectivity of 29.53 was achieved when using the bio-CA membrane with a thickness of 0.05 mm under the feed pressure of 0.1 MPa. Thick CA membranes exhibited better CO2 selectivity performance, particularly at low operating pressure. However, the CO2/CH4 separation factor decreased in the high-pressure region, probably because of the plasticization of the gas components. Eco-efficiency was evaluated to determine the optimal process conditions. In terms of eco-efficiency, the results suggested that the optimal condition was a bio-CA membrane of 0.05-mm thickness and pressure of 0.1 MPa. The implication of this study is promoting a zero-waste environment in which the agricultural residues could be potentially used in the synthesis of high-value CA membranes for biogas purification applications in energy production.
Highlights
Biogas has become a promising source of renewable energy in recent times, in developing countries where plentiful amounts of agricultural-related raw materials can be utilized in biogas production
Some additives, such as metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), which are capable of controlling the molecular sieving properties in gas separations, can be added to the membrane to improve the interaction between the membrane and the gas pairs that lead to superior separation performance
This study focuses on the biosynthesis and fabrication of bio-cellulose acetate (CA) membranes from bacterial cellulose (BC) obtained from the cultivation process of coconut juice residues (CJRs)
Summary
Biogas has become a promising source of renewable energy in recent times, in developing countries where plentiful amounts of agricultural-related raw materials can be utilized in biogas production. Many studies reported the use of CA membranes in various forms for CO2 removal from various mixed gas systems, mostly in flat-sheet and spun hollow-fiber configurations (Chen et al, 2015; Sanaeepur et al, 2019). A study by Mubashir et al (2020) found that NH2−MIL-53(Al) was successfully incorporated into the CA/polydimethylsiloxane-based hollow fiber membrane to increase the CO2/CH4 separation factor of the binary gas mixture. A study by Moghadassi et al (2014) reported that multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) were blended with CA to form a composite CA membrane that could tolerate high feed, resulting in an improved permeability of the gas product.
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