The Effects of PEI Hollow Fiber Substrate Characteristics on PDMS/PEI Hollow Fiber Membranes for CO2/N2 Separation.

Guoqiang Li,Wojciech Kujawski,Joanna Kujawa,Katarzyna Knozowska

doi:10.3390/membranes11010056

Guoqiang Li, Wojciech Kujawski + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/membranes11010056

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Abstract

The CO2 separation from flue gas based on membrane technology has drawn great attention in the last few decades. In this work, polyetherimide (PEI) hollow fibers were fabricated by using a dry-jet-wet spinning technique. Subsequently, the composite hollow fiber membranes were prepared by dip coating of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) selective layer on the outer surface of PEI hollow fibers. The hollow fibers spun from various spinning conditions were fully characterized. The influence of hollow fiber substrates on the CO2/N2 separation performance of PDMS/PEI composite membranes was estimated by gas permeance and ideal selectivity. The prepared composite membrane where the hollow fiber substrate was spun from 20 wt% of dope solution, 12 mL/min of bore fluid (water) flow rate exhibited the highest ideal selectivity equal to 21.3 with CO2 permeance of 59 GPU. It was found that the dope concentration, bore fluid flow rate and bore fluid composition affect the porous structure, surface morphology and dimension of hollow fibers. The bore fluid composition significantly influenced the gas permeance and ideal selectivity of the PDMS/PEI composite membrane. The prepared PDMS/PEI composite membranes possess comparable CO2/N2 separation performance to literature ones.

Highlights

With the rapid increase in the global population and the fast development of energyintensive industries, the consumption of fossil fuels, i.e., coal, petroleum and natural gas, is drastically growing [1]
The thermodynamic and kinetic principles involved in phase inversion technique such as polymer–solvent interactions, solvent–coagulant interactions, and the concentration and viscosity of dope affect membrane morphology [31,32]
25 ◦ C, 2 bar PEI hollow fibers were successfully fabricated by using a dry-jet-wet spinning technique

Summary

Introduction

With the rapid increase in the global population and the fast development of energyintensive industries, the consumption of fossil fuels, i.e., coal, petroleum and natural gas, is drastically growing [1]. The continuous increase in CO2 emissions is inevitable. Flue gas containing mainly CO2 and N2 from coal-fired power plants occupies 50–60% of the total global CO2 emission [3]. The excessive CO2 emission has caused anthropogenic climate change and global warming which has brought about various environmental problems, including rising sea levels, changes in ecosystems, loss of biodiversity and reduction in crop yields [4,5]. There is an urgent need to reduce the CO2 emissions and the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere. Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is one of the most important technology used to reduce CO2 emissions [2,6]

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