Modeling of a Thin Film Membrane for CO2 Separation with Sweeping Gas Method

Several methods have been proposed aiming at carbon capture, including pre-combustion, post-combustion and oxyfuel combustion. As an emerging technology for CO2 capture, the membrane gas separation process has its own essential advantage due to low processing costs that are normally needed by other methods. These include cost required by regeneration and phase change because membrane technology does not require a separating agent nor does it involve phase changes. As well, membrane separation technology is more space and weight efficient and is suitable for larger scale units. However, very few work has been done on studying the simulation of thin film membrane for CO2 separation with sweeping. Hence, the main objects of this study are modeling a thin film membrane for CO2 separation with sweeping gas (use Helium), studying the effects of different ratios of feeding flow rate and sweeping flow rate on the flow rate of CO2 on the permeate side. Different from gases separation technology using membranes and solvent, solvent-free gas separation technology is more economically and energy efficient. Due to its inherent low permeance of the membrane, the means using sweeping or vacuum are two main options to increase the mass flow rate of the fast gas (with higher selectivity) on the permeate side. The main objective of the proposed work is to develop a computational model and code for simulating CO2/N2 separation using both pressure method as well as sweeping method. Code development using UDF and coupling with Fluent will be performed. The developed model will be validated utilizing available experimental data. This study aims at modeling typical membranes for CO2 separation and investigating the effects of the mass flow rate of sweeping gas, the mass flow rate of feeding gases, and the pressure on the permeate outlet. This study will give a good guideline for designing industrial gases separation systems using membranes.