A high-flux polyimide hollow fiber membrane to minimize footprint and energy penalty for CO2 recovery from flue gas

Ryan P. Lively, Michelle E. Dose, Liren Xu, Justin T. Vaughn, J.R. Johnson, Joshua A. Thompson, Ke Zhang, Megan E. Lydon, Jong-Suk Lee, Lu Liu, Zushou Hu, Oĝuz Karvan, Matthew J. Realff, William J. Koros

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

69 Scopus citations

Abstract

Using a process-guided approach, a new 6FDA-based polyimide - 6FDA-DAM:DABA(4:1) - has been developed in the form of hollow fiber membranes for CO 2 recovery from post-combustion flue gas streams. Dense film studies on this polymer reveal a CO 2 permeability of 224 Barrers at 40 °C at a CO 2 feed pressure of 10psia. The dense films exhibit an ideal CO 2/N 2 permselectivity of 20 at 40 °C, which permits their use in a two-step counter-flow/sweep membrane process. Dry-jet, wet-quench, non-solvent-induced phase inversion spinning was used to create defect-free hollow fibers from 6FDA-DAM:DABA(4:1). Membranes with defect-free skin layers, approximately 415nm thick, were obtained with a pure CO 2 permeance of 520GPU at 30 °C and an ideal CO 2/N 2 permselectivity of 24. Mixed gas permeation and wet gas permeation are presented for the fibers. The CO 2 permeance in the fibers was reduced by approximately a factor of 2 in feeds with 80% humidity. As a proof-of-concept path forward to increase CO 2 flux, we incorporated microporous ZIF-8 fillers into 6FDA-DAM:DABA(4:1) dense films. Our 6FDA-DAM:DABA(4:1)/ZIF-8 dense film composites (20wt% ZIF-8) had a CO 2 permeability of 550 Barrers and a CO 2/N 2 selectivity of 19 at 35 °C. Good adhesion between the ZIF and the 6FDA-DAM:DABA(4:1) matrix was observed. CO 2 capture costs of $\$$27/ton of CO 2 using the current, "non-optimized" membrane are estimated using a custom counterflow membrane model. Hollow fiber membrane modules were estimated to have order-of-magnitude reductions in system footprint relative to spiral-wound modules, thereby making them attractive in current space-constrained coal-fired power stations. © 2012 Elsevier B.V.
Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)302-313
Number of pages12
JournalJournal of Membrane Science
Volume423-424
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 2012
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2020-10-01
Acknowledged KAUST grant number(s): KUS-I1-011-21
Acknowledgements: W.J. Koros thanks Award no. KUS-I1-011-21 made by the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) for financial support.
This publication acknowledges KAUST support, but has no KAUST affiliated authors.

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