Natural gas purification by asymmetric membranes: An overview

Natural gas, as a very important source of energy and chemical feedstock, can be used in place of coal to lower net carbon dioxide emissions.Membrane separation technology is an attractive alternative for natural gas purification where the impurities represented by acid gases(CO_(2) and H_(2)S) as well as inert gases(N_(2)) must be removed to meet the transportation and usage specifications. From the economic benefits viewpoint,asymmetric membranes are required for industrial manufacture and applications. This paper aims to review the latest development of various kinds of asymmetric membranes for natural gas purification, mainly focusing on CO_(2) removal from CH_(4), including H_(2)S and N_(2) separation from CH_(4) as well. According to material types, polymeric, inorganic, mixed-matrix and carbon molecular sieve membranes are introduced. The associated fabrication approaches and transport properties are discussed for each kinds of asymmetric membranes. Towards the practical implementation, an emphasis is placed on hollow fiber asymmetric structure for these polymeric, mixed-matrix and carbon molecular sieve membranes.

THE INFLUENCE OF PEG MOLECULAR WEIGHT ON MORPHOLOGIES AND PROPERTIES OF PVDF ASYMMETRIC MEMBRANES

The preparation and properties of asymmetric poly(vinyldiene fluoride)(PVDF)membranes are described in this study.Membranes were prepared from a casting solution of PVDF,N,N-dimethylacetamide(DMAc)solvent and water- soluble poly(ethylene glycol)(PEG)additives by immersing them in water as coagulant medium.Experiments showed that when PEG molecular weight increased,the changes in the resultant membranes morphologies and properties showed a transition point at PEG6000.This indicated that PEG with a relativel...

MORPHOLOGIES AND GAS SEPARATION PROPERTIES OF MELT-SPUN ASYMMETRIC POLY(4-METHYL-1-PENTENE)HOLLOW FIBER MEMBRANES

Poly(4-methyl-1-pentene) (PMP) hollow fiber membranes were prepared by the melt-spun and cold-stretch(MSCS) method. Scanning electronic microscopy (SEM) was used to characterize the section and surface structures of themembranes with special asymmetric structure. The preliminary results of gas permeation measurements indicated that the resultant hollow fiber membranes have the potential ability for oxygen/nitrogen separation.

A Comparative Study of the Performance of Symmetric and Asymmetric Mixed-conducting Membranes

According to the configuration,mixed-conducting membranes are classified as symmetric membranes and asymmetric membranes consisting of a thin dense layer and a porous support.In this study,these two kinds of SrCo0.4Fe0.5Zr0.1O3-δ oxide-based membranes were systematically compared in terms of oxygen permeability and chemical stability,and their differences were elucidated by means of the theoretical calculation.For the oxygen permeability,the asymmetric membrane was greater than the symmetric membrane due to the significant decrease of bulk diffusion resistance in the thin dense layer of the asymmetric membrane.In regard to the chemical stability,the increase of oxygen partial pressure on the asymmetric membrane surface at CH4 side produced the stable time of over 1032h in partial oxidation of methane at 1123K,while the symmetric membrane was only of 528h.This study demonstrated that the asymmetric membrane was a promising geometrical configuration for the practical application.

Solar-assisted two-stage catalytic membrane reactor for coupling CO_(2) splitting with methane oxidation reaction

A two-stage catalytic membrane reactor(CMR)that couples CO_(2) splitting with methane oxidation reactions was constructed based on an oxygen-permeable perovskite asymmetric membrane.The asymmetric membrane comprises a dense SrFe_(0.9)Ta_(0.1)O_(3-σ)(SFT)separation layer and a porous Sr_(0.9)(Fe_(0.9)Ta_(0.1))_(0.9)Cu_(0.1)O_(3-σ)(SFTC)catalytic layer.In thefirst stage reactor,a CO_(2) splitting reaction(CDS:2CO_(2)→2CO+O_(2))occurs at the SFTC catalytic layer.Subsequently,the O_(2) product is selectively extracted through the SFT separation layer to the permeated side for the methane combustion reaction(MCR),which provides an extremely low oxygen partial pressure to enhance the oxygen extraction.In the second stage,a Sr_(0.9)(Fe_(0.9)Ta_(0.1))_(0.9)Ni_(0.1)O_(3-σ)(SFTN)catalyst is employed to reform the products derived from MCR.The two-stage CMR design results in a remarkable 35.4%CO_(2) conversion for CDS at 900℃.The two-stage CMR was extended to a hollowfiber configuration combining with solar irradiation.The solar-assisted two-stage CMR can operate stably for over 50 h with a high hydrogen yield of 18.1 mL min^(-1) cm^(-2).These results provide a novel strategy for reducing CO_(2) emissions,suggesting potential avenues for the design of the high-performance CMRs and catalysts based on perovskite oxides in the future.

Improved hydrogen separation performance of asymmetric oxygen transport membranes by grooving in the porous support layer

Hydrogen separation through oxygen transport membranes(OTMs)has attracted much attention.Asymmetric membranes with thin dense layers provide low bulk diffusion resistances and high overall hydrogen separation performances.However,the resistance in the porous support layer(PSL)limits the overall separation performance significantly.Engineering the structure of the PSL is an appropriate way to enable fast gas transport and increase the separation performance.There is no relevant research on studying the influence of the PSL on hydrogen separation performance so far.Herein,we prepared Ce0.85Sm0.15O1.925–Sm0.6Sr0.4Cr0.3Fe0.7O3-δ(SDC-SSCF)asymmetric membranes with straight grooves in PSL by tape-casting and laser grooving.A~30%improvement in the hydrogen separation rate was achieved by grooving in the PSLs.It indicates that the grooves may reduce the concentration polarization resistance in PSL for the hydrogen separation process.This work provides a straight evidence on optimizing the structures of PSL for improving the hydrogen separation performance of the membrane reactors.