Parameters estimation of fabricated polysulfone membrane for CO2/CH4 separation

Abstract

The emission of CO2 into the climate due to factory operations is a major health and environmental concern. The simplicity and cost-effectiveness of membrane-based gas separation make it a competitive industrial gas separation technology. However, further research is necessary to study fabrication and theoretical simulations membrane performance. There is also a research gap in analyzing different membrane designs and operational factors that affect gas separation performance. Therefore, this study employed computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to assess the polysulfone (PSF) fabricated membrane, considering four proposed operational and design factors. The CFD predicts the concentration and velocity distribution of the components. Fick's law is employed to represent the gas transport process over the membrane, while the Navier-Stokes equation is utilized to drive the flow of gases in both the inlet and permeate sides of the permeation unit. The outcomes of gas flow rate, temperature, pressure, and diameter of the membrane module on the CO2 mole fraction were investigated. Furthermore, at a high gas flow rate, the CO2 mole fraction increase in permeate. Increasing the feed temperature from 313 to 393 K results in a decrease in the CO2 mole fraction at the permeate side from 39% to 36%. The CO2 mole fraction at the site of permeation slightly decreases as the pressure increases. However, increasing the inside diameter of the cell membrane improves the mole fraction of CO2. According to the findings, the CFD model provides a valuable study on the influence of operating and design factors on a gas separation unit.

Keywords

• Membrane separation
• PSF membrane
• Mole fraction
• Finite element method
• COMSOL