Preparation of hollow fiber poly(ether block amide)/polysulfone composite membranes for separation of carbon dioxide from nitrogen

Abstract The separation of carbon dioxide from nitrogen is relevant to flue gas treatment for greenhouse gas emission control. This study deals with the preparation of hollow fiber poly(ether block amide) (PEBA)/polysulfone (PSf) composite membranes for CO 2 /N 2 separation. PEBA 2533 copolymer was shown to be a good permselective membrane material for CO 2 /N 2 separation. At 25 °C and 100 psig, a CO 2 permeability of about 260 Barrer and a CO 2 /N 2 selectivity of 32 were obtained. The thin-film hollow fiber PEBA/PSf composite membrane comprising of a thin PEBA skin layer ( 2 permeance of 61 GPU and a CO 2 /N 2 selectivity close to the intrinsic selectivity of the PEBA dense membrane. It was shown that the N 2 permeability is essentially independent of the pressure, whereas CO 2 permeability tends to increase with an increase in gas pressure, presumably due to plasticization of the membrane caused by the relatively high solubility of CO 2 in the membrane.

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