Volume 46, Issue 4 pp. 5067-5082
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Creating membrane-air-liquid interface through a rough hierarchy structure for membrane gas absorption to remove CO2

Pei Thing Chang

Pei Thing Chang

School of Chemical Engineering, Engineering Campus, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Nibong Tebal, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia

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Ismat Muhsin Baharuddin

Ismat Muhsin Baharuddin

School of Chemical Engineering, Engineering Campus, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Nibong Tebal, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia

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Qi Hwa Ng

Qi Hwa Ng

Faculty of Chemical Engineering Technology, Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP), Padang Besar, Perlis, Malaysia

Frontier Materials Research, Centre of Excellence (FrontMate), Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP), Padang Besar, Perlis, Malaysia

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Guang Hui Teoh

Guang Hui Teoh

School of Chemical Engineering, Engineering Campus, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Nibong Tebal, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia

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Abdul Latif Ahmad

Abdul Latif Ahmad

School of Chemical Engineering, Engineering Campus, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Nibong Tebal, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia

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Siew Chun Low

Corresponding Author

Siew Chun Low

School of Chemical Engineering, Engineering Campus, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Nibong Tebal, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia

Correspondence

Siew Chun Low, School of Chemical Engineering, Engineering Campus, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Seri Ampangan, Nibong Tebal 14300, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia.

Email: [email protected]; [email protected]

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First published: 28 November 2021
Citations: 7

Funding information: Fundamental Research Grant Scheme, Grant/Award Number: FRGS/1/2017/TK02/USM/02/3 (203.PJKIMIA.6071367)

Summary

Membrane gas absorption (MGA) is widely accepted for separating CO2 from flue gas due to its superior advantages in overcoming the operational and economic issues encountered by conventional CO2 removal technologies. However, the efficiency may reduce when the membrane starts to wet after the prolonged operation due to the invasion of liquid absorbent into the membrane pores. Therefore, the synthesis of the superhydrophobic membrane is of great significance to enhance the wetting resistance of the membrane. It can also ensure continuous process optimization. In this work, two PVDF membranes synthesized from polymers of different molecular weights (HMW/g-PVDF and LMW/g-PVDF) had first used to evaluate the wetting resistance. As shown by the characterization tests, the HMW/g-PVDF membrane demonstrated the most critical wetting issue because the WCA was lower at 92°, and the WCA had significantly reduced to 47° after the swelling evaluation. Since HMW/g-PVDF has the lowest wetting resistance, it had been used to synthesis superhydrophobic membranes by using templated substrate (non-woven fabric). The produced membranes were immersed in water or an ethanol coagulation bath and successfully printed hierarchical structures on the membrane surface. The change in the surface structure produced a higher surface roughness, reaching 4.4 μm, and exhibited a low contact angle hysteresis of 11.8°. The patterned membrane with excellent wetting resistance also showed a higher CO2 absorption flux at 7.00 × 10−2 mol/m2s. This means that the hierarchical structure existing on the membrane surface played a significant role in overcoming the shortcomings of membrane wetting in MGA.

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT

Data available on request due to privacy/ethical restrictions.

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