Mass transfer correlations for membrane gas-solvent contactors undergoing carbon dioxide desorption

作     者：Colin A.Scholes Shufeng Shen 

作者机构：Department of Chemical EngineeringThe University of Melbourne School of Chemical and Pharmaceutical EngineeringHebei University of Science and Technology 

出 版 物：《Chinese Journal of Chemical Engineering》 (中国化学工程学报（英文版）)

年 卷 期：2018年第26卷第11期

页      面：2337-2343页

核心收录：

学科分类：0710[理学-生物学] 0830[工学-环境科学与工程（可授工学、理学、农学学位）] 0817[工学-化学工程与技术] 08[工学] 0703[理学-化学] 

主　　题：Membrane Contactor Carbon dioxide Desorption Two phases Mass transfer correlations 

摘      要：Membrane gas-solvent contactors are a hybrid technology combining solvent absorption with membrane gas separation, which demonstrates potential for CO_2 capture through the ability of the membrane to rigidly control the mass transfer area. Membrane contactors have been successfully demonstrated for CO_2 absorption, and there is strong research interest in using membrane contactors for the complimentary CO_2 desorption process to regenerate the solvent. However, understanding and modelling the various stages of mass transfer in the desorption process is less well-known, given the existing mass transfer correlations had been developed from absorption experiments. Hence, mass transfer correlations for membrane contactors are reviewed here, and their appropriateness for desorption analysed. This is achieved through simulating CO_2 desorption through a membrane contactor from loaded 30 wt% monoethanolamine solvent to enable comparison of the correlations. It was found that the most cited correlations by Yang and Cussler were valid for shell side parallel flow, while that of Kreith and Black was viable for shell side cross flow. A limitation of all of these correlations is that they assume single phase flow on both sides of the membrane; however, the high temperature of CO_2 desorption can lead to partial solvent vaporisation and hence two phases present on one side of the membrane contactor during desorption. A mass transfer correlation is established here for two phase parallel flow on the shell side of a membrane contactor, based on experimental results for three composite and one asymmetric hollow fibre membrane contactors stripping CO_2 from loaded MEA at 105–108 °C. This correlation is comparable to that reported in the literature for mass transfer in other two phase systems, but differs from the standard format for membrane contactors in terms of the exponent on the dimensionless Schmidt and Reynolds numbers.