Membrane Separation Technology in Carbon Capture

Abstract

This chapter introduces the basics of membrane technology and the application of membrane separation in carbon capture processes. A number of membranes applicable in precombustion, post-combustion or oxy-fuel combustion have been discussed. An economic comparison between conventional amine-based absorption and membrane separation demonstrates the great potential in membrane technology.

Progress in Modeling of Silica-Based Membranes and Membrane Reactors for Hydrogen Production and Purification

“…De Lange et al [20] described the gas transport and separation in microporous membrane materials. Hence, the derived activated transport may be expressed as follows (2): (2) where D0 (m 2 •s −1 ) is the mean intrinsic diffusion coefficient for micropore diffusion, K0 the intrinsic Henry constant, the membrane porosity, l the membrane thickness, ρ the bulk density, qst the isosteric heat adsorption, Ei the activation energy for gas species, R the universal gas constant, and T the temperature.…”

“…CO 2 represents one of the main causes of global warming, and its concentration increase in the atmosphere mainly depends on human activities, as a consequence of the large use of fossil fuels. In this regard, CO 2 capture and sequestration attracted strong interest [1,2]. It is widely accepted that carbon capture and storage (CCS), large exploitation of renewable sources, and alternative processes may represent the most viable solutions to global warming [3].…”

Adsorbents for Noxious Gas Sequestration: State of the Art

“…Membranes should, therefore, possess high permeability, permeance, high selectivity, low cost of production and regeneration, excellent chemical and thermal stability, and ability to resist plasticization [116,117], for it to be feasible. Progress in this regard has been recorded in literature where properties of membranes have been optimized even though challenges such as high cost, low physical and chemical stability, low selectivity, and low hydrothermal stability persist [118]. This structure optimization has resulted in the synthesis of different classes of membranes [110,[119][120][121][122].…”

Enhanced hydrogen production from thermochemical processes

“…where Pm is the permeability, l is the membrane thickness, PH₂,feed is the H2 pressure at the feed side, and PH₂,permeate is the H2 pressure at the permeate side. Pd membranes are generally extremely thin (a few hundred nanometres to a few microns in thickness), 50,[95][96][97] and possess superior solubility of hydrogen over other materials. 5,87 This combination of properties results in very good permeability.…”

“…Silica is abundant, inexpensive, and is not affected by CO poisoning. 97 As an inorganic material, silica also displays excellent long-term thermal stability at high temperatures. 174 Amorphous silica can be derived from precursors such as tetraethoxysilane (TEOS), 175 tetramethoxysilane (TMOS), 176 dimethoxydiphenylsilane (DMDPS), 177 Ethoxy Polysiloxane (ES40) 80 and hexamethyldisiloxane (HMDS), 45 and can form a microporous structure.…”