Journal of Membrane Science & Technology

Abstract

Facilitated Transport of CO2 through EA-Mediated Poly(Vinyl alcohol)Membrane Cross-Linked by Formaldehyde

Mohammadreza Omidkhah, Mona Zamani Pedram and Abtin Ebadi Amooghin

In this work, the cross-linked poly (vinyl alcohol)/formaldehyde with different blend compositions (FA/PVA: 1, 3, 5 ratio%) were synthesized. In addition, different diethanolamine concentrations ranging from 15-45 wt % were investigated for membrane fabrication. Moreover, the membranes were characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and contact angle measurement. Furthermore, the effects of crosslinking agent content, amine concentration and feed pressure on CO2/CH4 transport properties were investigated in pure gas experiments. The results showed that CO2 and CH4 permeances decreased with increasing FA/PVA mass ratio, in comparison with uncross-linked membranes, although the selevtivities increased considerably. The highest selectivity (about 92.72) was achieved from PVA/FA(5wt%)/PTFE membrane. Moreover, it was found that CO2/CH4 selectivity was significantly decreased with increasing cross-linker/PVA mass ratio from 1 wt% to 5 wt%. On the other hand, the cross-linked membranes revealed favorable CO2/CH4 permselectivities in comparison with uncross-linked ones.