Authors : Muhamad Azwar Azhari, O. Nooririnah and Ahmad Fauzi bin Ismail
Abstract: This study reports the effect of progressive heating on carbon dioxide/methane separation characteristics in asymmetric hollow fiber polysulfone membranes. Glassy polymers are easily plasticized with the presence of plasticizing agents such as carbon dioxide. Progressive heating were applied to the membranes to suppress CO2 induced plasticization. Membranes treated with progressive temperature heating exhibits lower pressure-normalize flux for both carbon dioxide and methane compared to untreated membranes. This was due to densification of membrane skin layer during progressive heating process. Denser skin layer increases the resistance in the membrane which resulted in decreased of pressure-normalize flux for both CO2 and CH4. CO2/CH4 separation decreases with the increase of feed pressure for untreated membranes due to plasticization caused by CO2 . However, CO2/CH4 separation increases and remains high for membranes treated with progressive heating technique showing that CO2 induced plasticization has been successfully suppressed. From the results provided in this study, it can be concluded that plasticization of polysulfone hollow fiber membrane is successfully suppressed by progressive heating heat treatment process.
Muhamad Azwar Azhari, O. Nooririnah and Ahmad Fauzi bin Ismail, 2016. Effect of Progressive Heating on CO2/CH4 Separation Using Assymetric Hollow Fiber Polysulfone Membrane. Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences, 11: 1958-1961.