Process simulation and optimization of oxygen enriched combustion using thin polymeric membranes: effect of thickness and temperature dependent physical aging.

Lock, Serene Sow Mun; Lau, Kok Keong; Shariff, Azmi Mohd; Yeong, Yin Fong; Ban, Zhen Hong; Tay, Wee Horng

BACKGROUND Limited work has been available to model thickness and temperature dependent physical aging encountered in polymeric membranes for gas separation to provide physically intuitive interpretation underlying the process. The Tait equation of states has been integrated within conventional dual mode mathematical model to characterize the physical aging mechanism, whereby the model requires merely temperature dependent parameters. Subsequently, the Tait‐dual mode mechanism model has been incorporated within a succession of states methodology that quantifies transport mechanism in a countercurrent hollow fiber membrane. Finally, the developed mathematical model has been implemented in Aspen HYSYS to constitute an oxygen enrichment plant. RESULTS: The simulation model has been validated with experimental observation with an acceptable error of < 6.5%. The process simulation tool has been used to evaluate the separation performance of oxygen enrichment plant using polymeric membrane with consideration of operating temperature (35–55 °C) and thickness dependent (400–1000 nm) physical aging. It is found that the optimal membrane design that generates highest profitability with physical aging consideration is at film thickness of ∼400 nm and operating temperature of 55 °C. Under such operating condition, the deviation between ideal and non‐ideal simulation model is also the smallest at ∼6%, which implies that physical aging has the least impact to the operability of the plant. CONCLUSION: The developed simulation model has the potential to be applied for complex membrane system design (multiple membranes or hybrid system), scale up and optimization study that is essentially required for industrial scale application. © 2019 Society of Chemical Industry

SOCIETY of Chemical Industry (Great Britain); POLYMERIC membranes; HOLLOW fibers; POLYMERIC nanocomposites

Journal of Chemical Technology & Biotechnology, 2019, Vol 94, Issue 9, p2844

0268-2575

Academic Journal

10.1002/jctb.6021