Fabrication and scale-up of multi-leaf spiral-wound membrane modules for CO2 capture from flue gas

Facilitated transport membranes for CO2 capture from flue gas were scaled up and subsequently fabricated into spiral-wound modules. In order to increase the membrane area in each module conveniently, a multi-leaf rolling procedure utilizing a carrier layer was used, and the fabrication steps were documented in detail. The prototype module comprised up to 7 membrane leaves (each membrane leaf had dimensions of 14″ by 36″) and had a total membrane area of up to 2.94 m2. By controlling the spacer thicknesses, the packing density in each of the modules was enhanced, while the pressure drops on both feed and permeate sides were maintained below 1.5 psi/m. The fabricated membrane modules showed consistent transport results as the corresponding scale-up membranes. For instance, a CO2 permeance of 1450 GPU and a CO2/N2 selectivity of 185 were achieved with a simulated flue gas at 67 °C. Furthermore, the pressure drop and concentration polarization phenomenon were quantitatively correlated to the feed flow rate. The developed correlations were used to predict the separation performance of a full-size (8″ × 40″) module.