Preparation and gas transport properties of dual‐layer polysulfone membranes for high pressure CO₂ removal from natural gas

Abstract

Permeability, sorption, and plasticization behaviors of dual‐layer composite membrane were studied. Polysulfone containing 10.7 wt % glycerol as additive was used for preparing a microporous membrane support. A thin top selective layer was prepared using diethylene glycol dimethyl ether as casting solvent. The overall performance of the membrane was evaluated using Scanning Electron Microscopy, and permeation and sorption tests at pressure up to 50 bar. The prepared membrane displayed high permeability at low pressure which gradually decreased with increase in pressure. Permeability of CO2 was determined to be 84.97 Barrer at 2 bar. Membrane did not show any plasticization tendency up to the experimental pressure of 40 bar. Plasticization pressure and permeability at plasticization pressure were estimated to be 41.07 bar and 6.03 Barrer, respectively. The improved performance of the membrane is associated to the synergistic properties of the two layers prepared from different formulations of the same polymer. Thus, the dual‐layer flat sheet configuration displayed a potential in high pressure CO2 removal from natural gas. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2014, 131, 40924.

Comparative studies on the effects of casting solvent on physico‐chemical and gas transport properties of dense polysulfone membrane used for CO2/CH4 separation

“…CH 4 and CO 2 gases were also used. Detailed description of the membrane preparation is presented elsewhere . Figures and 2 show the chemical structure of the new solvent and PSF that were used in this work, respectively.…”

Transport properties of gases through integrally skinned asymmetric composite membranes prepared from date pit powder and polysulfone

“…It also means that, the membrane did not show any sign of plasticization up to a pressure of 35 bar. Above 35 bar, the permeability was found to increase which is an indication of plasticization phenomenon . Thus from this experiment the plasticization pressure of the membrane is around 35 bar …”

“…This is because selectivity is the ratio of permeabilities of the gases involved. Among the gases tested in this work, only CO 2 was known to have the possibility of causing plasticization . Therefore, it is the only whose permeability may change with time.…”

“…Polysulfone is one of the most investigated glassy polymers for gas processing. This is due to its availability, excellent mechanical property, chemical resistance, and low cost . On a general note, the performance of polymeric membrane for gas separation can be improved by incorporating functional group with high affinity to CO 2 .…”

Synergy of CO 2 removal and light hydrocarbon recovery from oil-field associated gas by dual-membrane process

“…Membrane technology has emerged as an alternative solution for NG CO 2 separation. Glassy polymers (Adewole et al, 2013;Ahmad et al, 2014;Hussain et al, 2014;Vaughn and Koros, 2014), such as the most commonly used cellulose acetate (CA) , are widely used in NG treatment due to the high CO 2 separation efficiency and low operation costs.…”