A novel surface modified polyetherimide hollow fiber membrane for gas–liquid contacting processes

CATEGORY: MEMBRANES
Separation and Purification Technology, Volume 89, 22 March 2012, Pages 160–170
A novel surface modified polyetherimide hollow fiber membrane for gas–liquid contacting processes
Gh. Bakeri a, b, T. Matsuura c, A.F. Ismail b, D. Rana c
a Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Babol Noshirvani University of Technology, Babol, Iran
b Advanced Membrane Technology Research Centre (AMTEC), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 Skudai, Johor, Malaysia
c Industrial Membrane Research Institute, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada K1N 6N5
Abstract
Researchers report preparation of a novel surface modified polyetherimide (PEI) hollow fiber membrane using dry–wet phased inversion process where the spinning dope contains Surface Modifying Macromolecule (SMM).
The surface modified membrane exhibited large pore size, higher effective surface porosity, contact angle and porosity but lower Liquid Entry Pressure of water compared to polyetherimide hollow fiber membrane without SMM.
They studied performance of surface modified membrane in contactor application for gas separation process based on CO₂ absorption process using water as absorbent and pure CO₂ and 20:80 CO₂/CH₄ gas mixture. Results reveal that surface modified membranes have superior performance compared to commercial and in-house made hydrophobic membranes such as polypropylene and polytetrafluoroethylene. For example, in the case of pure CO₂ in the shell side and distilled water in the lumen side, the surface modified PEI membrane shows 72% higher absorption flux than commercial membrane contactor, Celgard MiniModule® 0.75X5 which is made of polypropylene membranes, when the liquid velocity is 0.4 m s⁻¹.
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