Gas-liquid membrane contactors

Purpose

A limiting factor for solvent absorption of CO2 at scale is the capital cost. This activity aims to reduce the costs and the size of equipment by developing membranes for use in the membrane gas absorption process. Membrane contactors reduce problems associated with fluid flow, have higher have packing efficiencies and the ability to operate in any orientation.

Summary

This work aims to cost-effectively develop new membrane materials for use in gas-liquid membrane contactors. A PhD thesis has been submitted on this work by and passed, where absorption fluids were physically characterised to identify the characteristics of an ideal membrane material and existing material was modified to achieve these characteristics. A further work program has been developed for a new PhD student. One aspect is to study desorption of CO2 from rich solvent using membranes.

The initial idea of using a pervaporation process has been shifted towards using a membrane contactor instead of a packed column in a conventional absorption/desorption column.

This project will investigate the capability of membrane contactors in this capacity as well as understand how the membrane influences the process and its efficiency. A range of membrane contactors for gas-liquid absorption systems will be assessed and economically evaluated.