ISSN print edition: 0366-6352 ISSN electronic edition: 1336-9075 Registr. No.: MK SR 9/7 Published monthly

Highly permeable and selective polymeric blend mixed matrix membranes for CO₂/CH₄ separation

Marjan Farnam, Hilmi bin Mukhtar, and Azmi bin Mohd Shariff

Polymer Engineering Division, Vancouver, Canada

E-mail: farnam.mm@gmail.com

Received: 25 December 2020  Accepted: 15 June 2021

Abstract:

Polymeric blend mixed matrix membranes (PB3Ms) are synthesized with different blend compositions at a fixed content of carbon molecular sieve (CMS) inorganic filler. The resulting membranes are characterized by FESEM, TGA, DSC and FTIR analyses. Polyethersulfone (PES)/polyvinyl acetate (PVA_c)/CMS polymeric blend mixed matrix membranes are prepared by solution casting method. A homogenous mixture of all these components is formed and cast on a clean glass plate. The produced PB3Ms show drastic enhancement in CO₂ permeance and CO₂/CH₄ selectivity in both single and mixed gas permeation tests in comparison with pure PES membrane. Significant CO₂ permeance of 132.47 GPU with CO₂/CH₄ selectivity of 75.27 at 6 bar is obtained for the PB3M having 80 wt%/20 wt% blend ratio of PES/PVA_c and 20 wt% CMS loading. The synthesized polymeric blend mixed matrix membranes in this research study demonstrate competitive CO₂/CH₄ separation performance in comparison with the reported literature on PB3Ms for gas separation.

Keywords: Carbon molecular sieve; CO2 separation; Mixed matrix membrane; Polymer blend

Full paper is available at www.springerlink.com.

DOI: 10.1007/s11696-021-01744-2

Chemical Papers 75 (11) 5663–5685 (2021)