Direct dual layer spinning of aminosilica/ T orlon ® hollow fiber sorbents with a lumen layer for CO 2 separation by rapid temperature swing adsorption

The direct dual layer spinning of Torlon ® /silica hollow fibers with a neat Torlon ® lumen layer is reported here for the first time. The dual layer fibers containing a porous Torlon ® /silica main structure and a dense, pure Torlon ® polymer bore‐side coating provide a simplified, scalable platform from which to construct hollow fiber amine sorbents for postcombustion CO 2 capture. After fiber spinning, an amine infusion process is applied to incorporate PEI into the silica pores. After combining dilute Neoprene treatment followed by poly(aramid)/PDMS treatment, a helium permeance of the fiber sorbents of 2 GPU with a He/N 2 selectivity of 7.4 is achieved. Ten of the optimized amine‐containing hollow fibers are incorporated into a 22‐inch long, 1/2 inch OD shell‐and‐tube module and the module is then exposed on the shell side to simulated flue gas with an inert tracer (14 mol % CO 2 , 72 mol % N 2 , 14 mol % He [at 100% R.H.]) at 1 atm and 35°C in a RTSA system for preliminary CO 2 sorption experiments. The fibers are found to have a breakthrough and equilibrium CO 2 capacity of 0.8 and 1.2 mmol/g‐ dry fiber sorbent, respectively. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2015 , 132 , 41845.