Gas-Liquid Hollow Fiber Membrane Contactors for Different Applications

Gas-liquid membrane contactors that were based on hollow fiber membranes are the example of highly effective hybrid separation processes in the field of membrane technology. Membranes provide a fixed and well-determined interface for gas/liquid mass transfer without dispensing one phase into another while their structure (hollow fiber) offers very large surface area per apparatus volume resulted in the compactness and modularity of separation equipment. In many cases, stated benefits are complemented with high separation selectivity typical for absorption technology. Since hollow fiber membrane contactors are agreed to be one of the most perspective methods for CO2 capture technologies, the major reviews are devoted to research activities within this field. This review is focused on the research works carried out so far on the applications of membrane contactors for other gas-liquid separation tasks, such as water deoxygenation/ozonation, air humidity control, ethylene/ethane separation, etc. A wide range of materials, membranes, and liquid solvents for membrane contactor processes are considered. Special attention is given to current studies on the capture of acid gases (H2S, SO2) from different mixtures. The examples of pilot-scale and semi-industrial implementation of membrane contactors are given.

Download Full-text

Mass Transfer and Fluid Hydrodynamics in Sealed End Hydrophobic Hollow Fiber Membrane Gas-liquid Contactors

Journal of Applied Membrane Science & Technology ◽

10.11113/amst.v2i1.1 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 2 (1) ◽

Author(s):

S. Kartohardjono ◽

V. Chen

Keyword(s):

Mass Transfer ◽

Hollow Fiber ◽

Packing Density ◽

Hollow Fiber Membrane ◽

Gas Absorption ◽

Outer Diameter ◽

Fiber Membrane ◽

Membrane Area ◽

Wide Range ◽

Membrane Contactors

Hollow fiber membrane modules have been extensively used as gas-liquid contactor devices to provide a high surface area within a small volume. Hollow fiber membrane contactors have been demonstrated in a wide range of application such as in gas stripping and gas absorption. In this study the performance of sealed end hydrophobic microporous hollow fiber membranes contactors were evaluated to remove dissolved oxygen from water via vacuum degassing process. Hollow fibers membranes used in the experiment were hydrophobic microporous polypropylene of 650 μm in outer diameter, 130 μm wall thickness and nominal pore size of 0.2 μm. Based on the experimentalresult the sealed end membrane contactor can remove oxygen from water as high as 3.4-gram oxygen per square meter of membrane area per hour. The oxygen flux decreases with increasing module-packing density for the same water velocity. The same effect also occurred for the mass transfer coefficient of the membrane contactors. The mass transfer coefficients were independent of fiber length within the range of study. Hydrodynamics analysis of the contactors showed that at the same Reynolds number pressure drops increase with increasing packing density due to an increase in friction between fibers and water.

Download Full-text

A study on pilot-scale degassing by polypropylene (PP) hollow fiber membrane contactors

Desalination ◽

10.1016/j.desal.2007.09.100 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 234 (1-3) ◽

pp. 316-322 ◽

Cited By ~ 23

Author(s):

Zan-Guo Peng ◽

Swin-Hui Lee ◽

Tong Zhou ◽

Jyh-Jeng Shieh ◽

Tai-Shung Chung

Keyword(s):

Hollow Fiber ◽

Hollow Fiber Membrane ◽

Pilot Scale ◽

Fiber Membrane ◽

Membrane Contactors

Download Full-text

CO2 Absorption Using Hollow Fiber Membrane Contactors: Introducing pH Swing Absorption (pHSA) to Overcome Purity Limitation

Membranes ◽

10.3390/membranes11070496 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (7) ◽

pp. 496

Author(s):

Sayali Ramdas Chavan ◽

Patrick Perré ◽

Victor Pozzobon ◽

Julien Lemaire

Keyword(s):

Hollow Fiber ◽

Recovery Rate ◽

Hollow Fiber Membrane ◽

Operating Conditions ◽

Co2 Removal ◽

Co2 Absorption ◽

Fiber Membrane ◽

Residual Content ◽

Membrane Contactors ◽

Ph Swing

Recently, membrane contactors have gained more popularity in the field of CO2 removal; however, achieving high purity and competitive recovery for poor soluble gas (H2, N2, or CH4) remains elusive. Hence, a novel process for CO2 removal from a mixture of gases using hollow fiber membrane contactors is investigated theoretically and experimentally. A theoretical model is constructed to show that the dissolved residual CO2 hinders the capacity of the absorbent when it is regenerated. This model, backed up by experimental investigation, proves that achieving a purity > 99% without consuming excessive chemicals or energy remains challenging in a closed-loop system. As a solution, a novel strategy is proposed: the pH Swing Absorption which consists of manipulating the acido–basic equilibrium of CO2 in the absorption and desorption stages by injecting moderate acid and base amount. It aims at decreasing CO2 residual content in the regenerated absorbent, by converting CO2 into its ionic counterparts (HCO3− or CO32−) before absorption and improving CO2 degassing before desorption. Therefore, this strategy unlocks the theoretical limitation due to equilibrium with CO2 residual content in the absorbent and increases considerably the maximum achievable purity. Results also show the dependency of the performance on operating conditions such as total gas pressure and liquid flowrate. For N2/CO2 mixture, this process achieved a nitrogen purity of 99.97% with a N2 recovery rate of 94.13%. Similarly, for H2/CO2 mixture, a maximum H2 purity of 99.96% and recovery rate of 93.96% was obtained using this process. Moreover, the proposed patented process could potentially reduce energy or chemicals consumption.

Download Full-text