In the last twenty or thirty years, diagnosis membranes have received increased use in gas treating systems And, and as a result, stuff considerable research has been conducted in the gas treating membrane area. Here at the University of Regina, the focus has been placed on membranes for gas absorption.
Serving the same purpose as traditional packed column absorbers, membrane absorbers effectively contact the gas and liquid phases, enabling mass transfer to occur. The system consists of a microporous membrane, which separates the gas and liquid phases. When the CO2 passes through the pores of the membrane and absorbs into the chemical solvent on the other side, mass transfer occurs.
The key highlights of this project include:
- CO2 capture from air using aqueous alkanolamine solutions.
- Microporous hollow fibre membranes provide the contacting area.
- Membrane performance will be compared to that of traditional packed columns.
Membrane absorbers offer a large interfacial contact area in a smaller module volume than traditional packed columns. Furthermore, they can operate with independent gas and liquid flow rates, thus reducing the problems of entrainment, flooding, channeling, and foaming that are found in traditional packed column absorbers.