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Separation of VOCs from N 2 using poly(ether block amide) membranes
Author(s) -
Liu Li,
Chakma Amit,
Feng Xianshe,
Lawless Darren
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
the canadian journal of chemical engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.404
H-Index - 67
eISSN - 1939-019X
pISSN - 0008-4034
DOI - 10.1002/cjce.20181
Subject(s) - permeance , chemistry , membrane , nitromethane , methanol , acetone , ether , hexane , membrane technology , alcohol , permeation , organic chemistry , biochemistry
This work deals with the separation of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from nitrogen streams for organic vapour emission control by poly(ether block amide) membranes. As representative air pollutant VOCs, n ‐pentane, n ‐hexane, cyclohexane, n ‐heptane, methanol, ethanol, n ‐propanol, n ‐butanol, acetone, dimethyl carbonate, and methyl tert ‐butyl ether were used in this study. The separation of both binary VOC/N 2 and multicomponent VOCs/N 2 gas mixtures was carried out, and the membranes exhibited good separation performance. A VOC concentration of more than 90 mol% was achieved at a feed VOC concentration of 5 mol%. It was found that the permeances of the VOCs were mainly dominated by their solubilities in the membrane, whereas the permeance of N 2 was affected by the presence of the VOCs. The permeance of N 2 in the VOC/N 2 mixtures was shown to be higher than pure N 2 permeance due to membrane swelling induced by the VOCs dissolved in the membrane. Nevertheless, theVOC/N 2 selectivity increased with an increase in the feed VOC concentration. Among the VOCs studied, the membrane showed a higher permeance to alcohol VOCs than paraffin VOCs. The effects of feed VOC concentration, temperature, stage cut, and permeate pressure on the separation performance were investigated.