Liquid membrane purification of biogas

Technical Report · Fri Mar 01 00:00:00 EST 1991

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/5065322· OSTI ID:5065322

Majumdar, S; Guha, A K; Lee, Y T; Papadopoulos, T; Khare, S ^[1]

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1. Stevens Inst. of Tech., Hoboken, NJ (United States). Dept. of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering

Conventional gas purification technologies are highly energy intensive. They are not suitable for economic removal of CO{sub 2} from methane obtained in biogas due to the small scale of gas production. Membrane separation techniques on the other hand are ideally suited for low gas production rate applications due to their modular nature. Although liquid membranes possess a high species permeability and selectivity, they have not been used for industrial applications due to the problems of membrane stability, membrane flooding and poor operational flexibility, etc. A new hollow-fiber-contained liquid membrane (HFCLM) technique has been developed recently. This technique overcomes the shortcomings of the traditional immobilized liquid membrane technology. A new technique uses two sets of hydrophobic, microporous hollow fine fibers, packed tightly in a permeator shell. The inter-fiber space is filled with an aqueous liquid acting as the membrane. The feed gas mixture is separated by selective permeation of a species through the liquid from one fiber set to the other. The second fiber set carries a sweep stream, gas or liquid, or simply the permeated gas stream. The objectives (which were met) of the present investigation were as follows. To study the selective removal of CO{sub 2} from a model biogas mixture containing 40% CO{sub 2} (the rest being N{sub 2} or CH{sub 4}) using a HFCLM permeator under various operating modes that include sweep gas, sweep liquid, vacuum and conventional permeation; to develop a mathematical model for each mode of operation; to build a large-scale purification loop and large-scale permeators for model biogas separation and to show stable performance over a period of one month.

• Research Organization: New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, New York, NY (United States); Stevens Inst. of Tech., Hoboken, NJ (United States). Dept. of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering
• Sponsoring Organization: NYSERDA; New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, Albany, NY (United States)
• OSTI ID: 5065322
• Report Number(s): NYSERDA-91-9; ON: TI92002649
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION
99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS//MATHEMATICS, COMPUTING, AND INFORMATION SCIENCE
METHANE
MATERIALS RECOVERY
SEPARATION PROCESSES
CARBON DIOXIDE
LIQUIDS
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
MEMBRANES
MIXTURES
NITROGEN
PERFORMANCE
PURIFICATION
SANITARY LANDFILLS
ALKANES
CARBON COMPOUNDS
CARBON OXIDES
CHALCOGENIDES
DISPERSIONS
ELEMENTS
FLUIDS
HYDROCARBONS
MANAGEMENT
NONMETALS
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
OXIDES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PROCESSING
RECOVERY
WASTE DISPOSAL
WASTE MANAGEMENT
WASTE PROCESSING
320305* - Energy Conservation
Consumption
& Utilization- Industrial & Agricultural Processes- Industrial Waste Management
990200 - Mathematics & Computers