Prospect of Oxyplus Hollow Fibre Membrane with Dense Polymethylpentene (PMP) Skin as Support-gutter Layer of Thin Film Composite (TFC) for Biogas upgrading

Abstract

High selective polymers are bound to exhibit low intrinsic permeability. To mitigate this issue, thin film composite (TFC) membrane has been proposed whereby high selectivity, low permeability thin polymer layers are deposited on top of a thicker, highly permeable (even porous) materials. Nevertheless, deposition of thin film can be complicated on these structures due to limitation of fabrication methods (pore intrusion and support resistance to thin film solvent) and/or reduction of permeation efficiency (lateral diffusion). In this work, the potential of commercial Oxyplus® hollow fibre membrane as support-gutter layer was studied. Polymethylpentene (PMP), the material of the dense skin in Oxyplus has high gas permeability yet glassy enough to be selfstanding, making it a possible candidate as a combined support-gutter layer. Ten fibres were potted together, assembled into a module, and tested in dead-end mode under 1-5 bar transmembrane pressure for CO 2 , CH 4 and N 2 gases. The permeances were registered at 607. 3 ± 31.3 GPU, 156.0 ± 13.1 GPU, and 84.6 ± 6.2 GPU, respectively, equivalent to a separation factor of 7.4 ± 0.4 (CO 2 /N 2 ), 4.0 ± 0.2 (CO 2 /CH 4 ) and 0.6 ± 0.1 (N 2 /CH 4 ). With dense skin layer thickness of 0.1 ± 0.1 µm, these values are comparable to the PMP results in literatures and are suitable as support-gutter layer for low permeability polymers such as P84® polyimide.

Phosphorylcholine/Heparin Composite Coatings on Artificial Lung Membrane for Enhanced Hemo-compatibility

“…After grafting the coating, the gas permeance decreased, which might be due to the coating filling in part of the etched surface, resulting in the decrease of gas permeability. In addition, the CO 2 /O 2 and CO 2 /N 2 selectivity ratios of the unmodified and modified membranes are close to 1.8 and 1.5, as shown in Figure (b), respectively, which are lower than the values 2.0 and 4.0 reported in the literature. − Therefore, it is necessary to further optimize the process conditions to improve the gas separation selectivity of the PMP HFMs. The gas permeance and selectivity relied primarily on a permeable membrane to achieve efficient permeation and the selective CO 2 exhalation and O 2 inhalation for an artificial lung.…”

Designing 3D Membrane Modules for Gas Separation Based on Hollow Fibers from Poly(4-methyl-1-pentene)

“…These advantages allow it to be considered a promising material for the production of membranes, particularly for gas separation processes, regardless of the moderate level of selectivity. For example, PMP-based membranes have been investigated for gas separation in several studies [15][16][17][18].…”

Peculiarities of Butane Transfer in Poly(4-Methyl-1-Pentene)

“…Unfortunately, due to technological limitations, the thickness of HFs dense walls was quite large and, in order to ensure a high specific productivity of membrane modules, the diameter of the HFs was minimized as much as possible, which, in practical application, led to the occurrence of capillary condensation of water vapor inside the HFs and their clogging. PMP has high permeability coefficients for commercial polymers, which makes it possible to consider it as a promising material for the production of gas separation membranes [10][11][12][13]. Today, membranes based on PMP are used mainly in the processes of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, or "artificial lung" [13][14][15][16].…”

“…PMP has high permeability coefficients for commercial polymers, which makes it possible to consider it as a promising material for the production of gas separation membranes [10][11][12][13]. Today, membranes based on PMP are used mainly in the processes of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, or "artificial lung" [13][14][15][16].…”