Experimental Investigation of CO2/N2 Ideal Separation Using Propylene Carbonate Supported Liquid Membrane

In this work, a supported liquid membrane was implemented for CO2/N2 ideal separation. The microfilteration PTFE membrane with a nominal pore size of 0.22 μm was used as the support and pure propylene carbonate was used as the permeation media. The bubble point of the supported liquid membrane was measured about 1bar. The permeation tests were conducted at three different temperatures of 276.15, 298.15 and 328.15 K. The effect of operating pressure was also evaluated. Results show that with increasing pressure the permeation of CO2 and N2 was increased. The increase of temperature had an unexpected irregular effect on the permeation i.e. the curves were not ordered according to the temperature increase. This phenomenon was attributed to the different effect of temperature on diffusivity and solubility. Results showed that in all three temperatures the maximum ideal selectivity happens in lowest pressure. Moreover, with increasing the temperature, selectivity decreased.

Keywords:

CO2 , supported liquid membrane , propylene carbonate , permeation , ideal selectivity