Innovative water-based dynamic liquid bubble membrane generation device for gas/vapour separation
Carbon dioxide represents the largest contribution among the emitted greenhouse gases. New economically and environmentally beneficial technologies of carbon dioxide removal are being sought in addition to well-established technologies, including adsorption, amine treatment, and water washing. Considerable efforts are currently focused on the design, development, and application of membrane processes for gas separation because membranes are relatively simple, less energy intensive, and easily scalable. The current weakness of most membranes is the well-known “trade-off” between permeability and selectivity, i.e. the membrane is typically not both highly selective and highly permeable.
Our group has been dealing with the topic of gas and vapor separation using membranes for a long time. One of the directions is the use of liquid membranes for the separation of carbon dioxide from gaseous mixtures. The work published in the Chemical Engineering Journal follows several years of research into a unique type of membrane system called dynamic liquid membranes characterized by high selectivity and gas permeability and low cost. The work describes equipment for the separation of gas mixtures using a dynamic liquid bubble membrane (DLBM), which has demonstrated excellent separation efficiency for CO2/CH4 and CO2/O2 systems in laboratory conditions. The principle of DLBM is a continuously regenerated network of bubbles filled with a mixture of gases; the gases are separated on the thin liquid film of the bubble walls due to the different solubilities of the gases in the liquid forming the bubbles. The idea of the DLBM system is novel in membrane technology; the advantages are the few microns thick liquid films providing high flux, the unique construction of the experimental device ensuring the continuous regeneration of the liquid film during the process, and the tailored composition of the liquid film for high membrane selectivity.
- Lin, Y.C.; Setničková, K.; Wang, D.K.; Chu, Y.F.; Šíma, V.; Chiang, Y.Y.; Uchytil, P.; Tseng, H.H.: Innovative water-based dynamic liquid bubble membrane generation device for gas/vapour separation. Chem. Eng. J. 2022, 450(3), 138233-138242. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2022.138233