Gabriel Zarca

Modelling the physical properties of ionic liquid/metal salt mixtures with the soft-SAFT equation of state: application to carbon monoxide reactive separation

In this contribution, a new approach to model the reactive absorption of carbon monoxide (CO) using copper(I)-based salts dissolved in ionic liquids (ILs) is presented. In particular, an accurate molecular-based equation of state, named soft-SAFT, is used to describe the thermophysical properties of binary mixtures of ILs and metallic salts, treating both compounds as independent species and therefore, developing a constant set of molecular parameters for each of them. With this model, it is possible to assess, in a second step, the reactive uptake of the gas species that is able to form complexes with transition metals in IL media under different operating conditions. This task is accomplished by adding specific cross-association interaction sites that simulate the complexation reaction between both compounds. Results obtained are in quantitative agreement with the experimental data for both the physical properties of the binary mixtures and the CO separation performance of the selected IL/metal salt mixtures.

Behaviour of 1-hexyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride-supported ionic liquid membranes in the permeation of CO2, H2, CO and N2 single and mixed gases

AbstractThe combined role of ionic liquids and membrane technology has demonstrated a tremendous potential in the field of gas separations; however, mostly single gas permeation data are available in literature and very few works report data regarding the membrane performance for the separation of gas mixtures. In this work, the performance of ionic liquid membranes prepared with the ionic liquid 1-hexyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride is assessed for the separation of binary, ternary and quaternary gas mixtures containing nitrogen, hydrogen, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide. The mixed gas permeation properties of these gases are studied since they are the main components of flue gas generated after partial combustion of hydrocarbons. Therefore, the results obtained are compared to the pure gas permeabilities and ideal selectivities with especial interest on the effects on the recovery of H2 and CO, which are the most valuable gases of the mixture. In summary, a decrease in all gas permeabilities is observ...