David deMontigny

Part 7: A review of CO2 capture using hollow fiber membrane contactors

This paper is Part 7 of the post-combustion carbon capture technology Review Series. It reviews recent progress and developments in hollow fibre membrane contactor research for CO2 capture. Hollow fiber membrane contactors have been studied for CO2 capture from a gas stream since 1985. In recent years, this technology has been considered a promising alternative to conventional absorption technologies, since it offers higher absorption efficiency and avoids common operating problems found in traditional packed columns. In this review, research development focused on CO2 capture using hollow fiber membrane contactors – including membrane module design, mass transfer principles, membrane wetting, simulation and modeling, and solvent regeneration – is presented. Additionally, current significant pilot-scale applications of this technology are discussed and recommendations for future work are presented.

A Study of the Mass Transfer of CO2 through Different Membrane Materials in the Membrane Gas Absorption Process

Abstract The mass transfer of carbon dioxide through hydrophobic membrane materials into aqueous solutions of monoethanolamine has been studied. Microporous polypropylene, polytetrafluoroethylene and polyvinylidene fluoride hollow fiber membranes were compared. Membranes were characterized before and after use and wetting studies showed that the mass transfer resistance increased by 15% for polypropylene after 45 hours. Wetting may be due to membrane degradation as a result of contact with the solvent. This study highlights the need to choose membrane‐solvent systems that utilize a low cost membrane that remains unwetted by the solvent over long periods and when subjected to reasonable solvent‐side pressures.

Simultaneous production of electricity, steam, and CO2 from small gas-fired cogeneration plants for enhanced oil recovery

In recent years, global warming has been blamed on the so called “greenhouse effect” and has caught the attention of scientists and politicians throughout the world. There is an increasing concern surrounding the emission levels of greenhouse gases, particularly carbon dioxide (CO2). This paper is an extension of earlier work(1) to show how cogeneration concepts can be used to reduce production costs by simultaneously producing electricity, CO2 and steam for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) applications.

Clean Technology Using Cogeneration Concepts for Simultaneous Production of Electricity, Steam, and Industrial Gases: A Route to Zero Pollution Discharge-A Case Study for Enhanced Oil Recovery in Canada

Energy is the most critical factor for the growth of a nations economy. However, its use has a major impact on the environment, especially by discharging air pollutants into the atmosphere. In addition, energy production from fossil fuel, the worlds most important fuel, is recently known to be the key contributor of CO2 (a major greenhouse gas) resulting in global warming problems. This article is an extension of our earlier research work to demonstrate how cogeneration concepts can be used to reduce production costs and simultaneously produce electricity, steam, as well as industrial gases such as CO2. With cogeneration, there is very little air pollution discharged into the atmosphere. We discuss a case study of an enhanced oil recovery (EOR) application.

Absorption of carbon dioxide using packed columns and membrane contactors

Publisher Summary It has been proposed in literature that membrane contactors may be able to replace packed columns because of their superior mass transfer performance. This chapter presents a study that examines the chemical absorption of CO2 using packed columns and membrane contactors. In this study, the performance of traditional packed columns and membrane contactors was evaluated using the overall mass transfer coefficient as the basis of comparison. The study used structured packing because it has been shown to be superior to random packing. Furthermore, performance comparisons between the two devices were done when operating conditions in the packed column and membrane absorber were identical. This allowed for a more accurate performance comparison and led to a greater confidence in the results. Results found that the membrane contactor produced higher overall mass transfer coefficient values than the packed column. This result indicates that it may be possible to develop smaller, cheaper membrane-based absorption systems.

Carbon Dioxide Absorption Contactors: Hollow Fibre Membranes and Packed Absorption Columns

One of the important aspects in an absorption system is the effectiveness in which the gas and liquid phases come into contact with each other. An effective absorption process will provide sufficient contacting area for the gas and liquid phases to interact upon. With this in mind, work was conducted to evaluate carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) absorption into aqueous solutions of monoethanolamine (MEA) using two different types of contacting devices: gas absorption membrane (GAM) modules and traditional packed columns. The performance of these two absorption devices was compared to one another using the overall mass transfer coefficient (K G a v ) as a basis. The GAM module contained microporous polypropylene hollow fiber membranes and the packed absorption column contained Sulzer DX structured packing. The results indicate that GAM modules tend to have slightly larger K G a v values, potentially opening the door for smaller absorption contactors. There are a number of industrial processes requiring CO 2 capture including ammonia production, natural gas treatment, and hydrogen production. In recent years, the capture of CO 2 from flue gases has gained attention due to the threat of global warming. This is being driven by the fact that the scientific community generally agrees that CO 2 is a significant greenhouse gas. There are a variety of technologies available to capture CO 2 , but when it comes to gas treating applications, absorption is the most commonly chosen technology. There is an increasing trend in industry to use packed columns instead of traditional tray columns. This is mostly due to the development of highly efficient structured packings.