Experimental studies on the influence of porosity on membrane absorption process

Abstract

Eight kinds of flat membranes with different micro-structures were chosen to carry out the membrane absorption experiments with CO₂ and de-ionized water or 0.1 mol · L^-1 NaOH solution as the experimental system. According to experimental results, the membrane pores shape (stretched pore and cylinder pore) and membrane thickness do not affect the membrane absorption process, and the membrane porosity has only little influence on membrane absorption process for slow mass transfer system. However, the influence of porosity on the membrane absorption process became visible for fast mass transfer system. Moreover, the mass transfer behavior near the membrane surface on liquid side was studied. The results show that the influence of membrane porosity on mass transfer relates to flow condition, absorption system and distance between micro-pores, etc.

Keywords

membrane absorption, mass transfer coefficient, porosity, mass transfer resistance