Almuhtaseb Roba M, Awadallah-F Ahmed, Al-Muhtaseb Shaheen A, Khraisheh Majeda
Department of Chemical Engineering, Qatar University, Doha P.O. Box 2713, Qatar.
Membranes (Basel). 2021 Apr 13;11(4):286. doi: 10.3390/membranes11040286.
Polysulfone membranes exhibit resistance to high temperature with low manufacturing cost and high efficiency in the separation process. The composition of gases is an important step that estimates the efficiency of separation in membranes. As membrane types are currently becoming in demand for CO/CH segregation, polysulfone will be an advantageous alternative to have in further studies. Therefore, research is undertaken in this study to evaluate two solvents: chloroform (CF) and tetrahydrofuran (THF). These solvents are tested for casting polymeric membranes from polysulfone (PSF) to separate every single component from a binary gas mixture of CO/CH. In addition, the effect of gas pressure was conducted from 1 to 10 bar on the behavior of the permeability and selectivity. The results refer to the fact that the maximum permeability of CO and CH for THF is 62.32 and 2.06 barrer at 1 and 2 bars, respectively. Further, the maximum permeability of CF is 57.59 and 2.12 barrer at 1 and 2 bars, respectively. The outcome selectivity values are 48 and 36 for THF and CF at 1 bar, accordingly. Furthermore, the study declares that with the increase in pressure, the permeability and selectivity values drop for CF and THF. The performance for polysulfone (PSF) membrane that is manufactured with THF is superior to that of CF relative to the Robeson upper bound. Therefore, through the results, it can be deduced that the solvent during in-situ synthesis has a significant influence on the gas separation of a binary mixture of CO/CH.
聚砜膜具有耐高温性，制造成本低，且分离过程效率高。气体成分分析是评估膜分离效率的重要步骤。由于目前膜类型对CO/CH分离的需求不断增加，聚砜将是进一步研究中的一个有利选择。因此，本研究开展了对两种溶剂的研究：氯仿（CF）和四氢呋喃（THF）。测试这些溶剂用于从聚砜（PSF）浇铸聚合物膜，以从CO/CH二元气体混合物中分离出每一种组分。此外，还研究了1至10巴的气体压力对渗透率和选择性行为的影响。结果表明，THF对CO和CH的最大渗透率分别在1巴和2巴时为62.32和2.06巴耳。此外，CF在1巴和2巴时的最大渗透率分别为57.59和2.12巴耳。相应地，THF和CF在1巴时的选择性值分别为48和36。此外，研究表明，随着压力的增加，CF和THF的渗透率和选择性值下降。相对于罗伯逊上限，用THF制造的聚砜（PSF）膜的性能优于CF。因此，通过这些结果可以推断，原位合成过程中的溶剂对CO/CH二元混合物的气体分离有显著影响。
