Computational fluid dynamics simulation for dual‐phase membrane module for CO ₂ capture: Effect of membrane thickness, temperature and CO ₂ feed concentration

Abstract

CO 2 capture and natural gas purification are of paramount significance in power plant applications nowadays. Dual-phase membrane is an effective approach for the enhancement of CO 2 /CH 4 separation efficiency. In this study, CO 2 /CH 4 binary gas mixture separation was simulated by using hydroxide/ceramic dual-phase (HCDP) membranes incorporated in the industrial-scaled tubular membrane module. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) was utilized as the approach to model the fluid flow within the membrane module. Utilizing the CFD modeling of membrane module, the effects of tubular membrane thickness, operating temperature and CO 2 feed concentration on the separation performance of HCDP membrane had been investigated.The results showed that membrane thickness affected the effective surface area of the membrane and CO 2 permeance. The greater the membrane thickness, the lower was the membrane separation efficiency. The highest CO 2 recovery obtained was 90.12% at 1 mm tubular membrane thickness, with the membrane stage cut ratio of 0.1950. Operating temperature imposed a notable influence on the gas permeance as well. By increasing the operating temperature, CO 2 permeances were improved and hence, the separation performance of HCDP membrane was enhanced simultaneously. As for the effect of CO 2 feed concentration on the membrane performance, it was found that the overall membrane performance and separation efficiency were better when the CO 2 feed concentration was low, due to the higher availability of the adsorption sites on the membrane surface. In conformity with the membrane technology as a cost-effective CO 2 sequestration technique, the dual-phase membrane has demonstrated a remarkable potential to be adopted for industrial applications.

CFD simulation for CO2 separation using diamond-structured thermally rearranged (TR) polymer membrane: Effect of CO2 feed concentration, feed pressure and temperature

“…The pressure at the inlet zone is 92783.95 Pa while the pressure at the permeate zone is 60956.92 Pa, which indicates that there is a pressure drop of 31827.03 Pa. The pressure drop is caused by the energy used to overcome viscous resistance for fluid permeation through the membrane [8]. The fluid behavior can be analyzed by studying the contour of velocity magnitude as shown in Figure 3.…”