Development of thin film composite for CO2 separation in membrane gas absorption application

Abstract

The thin film composite (TFC) membrane based on polypropylene (PP) and polyvinylidenefluoride (PVDF) was prepared using glutaraldehyde as the selective layer. The percentages of glutaraldehyde were optimized to maximize the permeability of carbon dioxide (CO2) and selectivity as well. The TFC with 6% w/v of glutaraldehyde based on PVDF achieved the highest permeance of 881.70 GPU and 18.08 for selectivity through the increase in effective layer and skin layer thickness. This TFC promises to provide porous and hydrophobic membranes for use in membrane gas absorption (MGA) processes. The absorption of CO2 in deionized water was studied in MGA system in which the mass transfer coefficient (K) and CO2 flux decreased with increasing CO2 concentration in feed stream. © 2009 Curtin University of Technology and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.