Effect of Solvent Evaporation Time on CO₂/CH₄Gas Performance for Poly(Lactic) Acid Membranes

Abstract

Membrane technology in gas separation application was commercialized approximately 30 years ago because of a number of advantages offered compare to the conventional technique. The use of poly (lactic acid) (PLA), a biodegradable polymer, as a membrane material would assist the reduction of depending to petroleum-based polymer. This study investigated the effect of evaporation time to the gas separation performance of PLA membrane. Membrane prepared from polymer solution consist of PLA and dicholoremethane (DCM) as solvent was fabricated using pneumatically controlled casting system with dry/wet phase inversion method. Permeation test was conducted using pure carbon dioxide and methane gas. The results revealed that as the evaporation time increased, the pore size and surface porosity decreased, while the skin layer thickness increased. Although the morphology of the prepared membranes showed the desirable structure, the gas separation performance of the membrane prepared with polymer concentration of 15wt% and 60s evaporation time was found to be promising but not yet commercially ready.