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Enhancing CO 2 absorption efficiency using a novel PTFE hollow fiber membrane contactor at elevated pressure
Author(s) -
Wang Fushan,
Kang Guodong,
Liu Dandan,
Li Meng,
Cao Yiming
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
aiche journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.958
H-Index - 167
eISSN - 1547-5905
pISSN - 0001-1541
DOI - 10.1002/aic.16014
Subject(s) - contactor , polytetrafluoroethylene , mass transfer , hollow fiber membrane , mass transfer coefficient , membrane , fiber , volumetric flow rate , absorption (acoustics) , materials science , composite material , chemical engineering , analytical chemistry (journal) , chemistry , chromatography , thermodynamics , power (physics) , physics , biochemistry , engineering
The internal structure design of membrane module is very important for gas removal performance using membrane contactor via physical absorption. In this study, a novel membrane contactor developed by weaving polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) hollow fibers was applied to remove CO 2 from 60% N 2 + 40% CO 2 mixture (with CO 2 concentration similar to that of biogas) at elevated pressure (0.8 MPa) using water as absorbent. Compared with the conventional module with randomly packed straight fibers, the module with woven PTFE fibers exhibited much better CO 2 absorption performance. The weaving configuration facilitated the meandering flow or Dean vortices and renewing speed of water around hollow fibers. Meanwhile, the undesired influences such as channeling and bypassing were also eliminated. Consequently, the mass transfer of liquid phase was greatly improved and the CO 2 removal efficiency was significantly enhanced. The effects of operation pressure, module arrangement, feed gas, and water flow rate on CO 2 removal were systematically investigated as well. The overall mass‐transfer coefficient (K OV ) varied from 1.96 × 10 −5 to 4.39 × 10 −5 m/s (the volumetric mass‐transfer coefficient K L a = 0.034–0.075 s −1 ) under the experimental conditions. The CO 2 removal performance of novel woven fiber membrane contactor matched well with the simulation results. © 2017 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J , 64: 2135–2145, 2018