Pre-combustion gas separation by ZIF-8-polybenzimidazole mixed matrix membranes in the form of hollow fibres—long-term experimental study

Polybenzimidazole (PBI) is a promising and suitable membrane polymer for the separation of the H 2 /CO 2 pre-combustion gas mixture due to its high performance in terms of chemical and thermal stability and intrinsic H 2 /CO 2 selectivity. However, there is a lack of long-term separation studies with this polymer, particularly when it is conformed as hollow fibre membrane. This work reports the continuous measurement of the H 2 /CO 2 separation properties of PBI hollow fibres, prepared as mixed matrix membranes with metal-organic framework (MOF) ZIF-8 as filler. To enhance the scope of the experimental approach, ZIF-8 was synthesized from the transformation of ZIF-L upon up-scaling the MOF synthesis into a 1 kg batch. The effects of membrane healing with poly(dimethylsiloxane), to avoid cracks and non-selective gaps, and operation conditions (use of sweep gas or not) were also examined at 200°C during approximately 51 days. In these conditions, for all the membrane samples studied, the H 2 permeance was in the 22–47 GPU range corresponding to 22–32 H 2 /CO 2 selectivity values. Finally, this work continues our previous report on this type of application (Etxeberria-Benavides et al . 2020 Sep. Purif. Technol. 237 , 116347 ( doi:10.1016/j.seppur.2019.116347 )) with important novelties dealing with the use of ZIF-8 for the mixed matrix membrane coming from a green methodology, the long-term gas separation testing for more than 50 days and the study on the membrane operation under more realistic conditions (e.g. without the use of sweep gas).

THE INFLUENCE OF THE FIBRES ARRANGEMENT ON HEAT TRANSFER AND PRESSURE DROP OF POLYMERIC HOLLOW FIBRE HEAT EXCHANGERS

Polymeric hollow fibre heat exchangers are the new alternative to common metal heat exchangers. These heat exchangers provide advantages, such as low weight, corrosion resistance, easy shaping and machining. Moreover, they consume less energy during their production. Therefore, they are environmentally friendly. The paper deals with shell & tube heat exchangers, which consist of hundreds of polymeric hollow fibres. The structure of the heat transfer surfaces has a significant influence on the effectivity of the use of the heat transfer area that is formed by the polymeric hollow fibres. The study gives a comparison of heat exchangers with an identical outer volume. The difference between them is in the structure of the heat transfer insert. One of the presented heat exchangers has fibres that are in-line and the second heat exchanger has staggered fibres. The study also pays attention to the difference in differential pressures caused by the difference in the structure of the heat transfer surfaces.

Preparation of Ti, Ti/TiC or Ti/TiN based hollow fibres with extremely low electrical resistivity

Preparative conditions are provided to obtain hollow fibers composed of Ti, Ti/TiC or Ti/TiN with extremely low electrical resistivity.