Limitation in Fabricating PSf/ZIF-8 Hollow Fiber Membrane for CO2/CH4 Separation

Abstract

Hollow fiber membrane configuration is way forward in membrane development since it possesses higher packing density and effective surface area per unit module compared to other configuration. Since majority of mixed matrix membrane (MMM) for gas separation reported focuses on flat sheet membrane development, this report aims to address the challenges faced in fabricating hollow fiber MMM. In this study, hollow fiber formulation is fabricated and their MMM using different types of fillers (virgin and modified ZIF-8) are prepared and used as a dispersed phase. The neat hollow fiber membrane shows good results with CO2 permeance of 104.39 GPU and CO2/CH4 selectivity of 29.28, in comparison with reported literature. Upon filler incorporation, the resulted MMMs appear to be diminished in both CO2 permeance and CO2/CH4 selectivity. While using modified ZIF-8, lesser deterioration was shown compared to pure ZIF-8, this phenomenon is likely to occur due to the changes in solution stability which causes notable changes in membrane morphology and performances.

An Analysis of the Effect of ZIF-8 Addition on the Separation Properties of Polysulfone at Various Temperatures

“…Other literature results refer to asymmetric membranes and to a range of loadings that is smaller than the one considered in this work. The paper of Nordin et al refers to flat asymmetric membranes [38], while the one by Khan et al [36] deals with hollow fibres. Both authors observe that the CO 2 /CH 4 separation behaviour is enhanced by addition of ZIF-8 when the loading is small, while a deterioration of the selectivity occurs at higher loadings, similarly to what was observed in this work, due to the larger relative increase of CH 4 permeability with respect to the CO 2 one.…”

“…The addition of different MOFs, such as MIL-101(Cr) [31], Bio-MOF-1 [32], Cu 3 (BTC) 2 [33], and MIL-53(Al) [34], was shown to produce a beneficial effect in terms of gas permeabilities and selectivities. Different groups studied and reported the positive effect of ZIF-8 addition into Polysulfone hollow fibers, flat asymmetric or dense membranes [35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42]. However, most studies refer to a narrow set of analyzed gases, filler loadings, and test temperatures.…”

Preparation of Activated Carbon from Local Biowaste as Fillers for Mixed Matrix Membranes

“…Recently, there are plenty of developed membrane separation processes could be selected for specific purposes [1]. The wide range application of membrane separation processes has already studied, from wastewater treatment [2], water treatment [3], food processing [4], gas separation [5], and energy generation [6].…”