Porous polyethersulfone hollow fiber membrane in CO2 separation process via membrane contactor - The effect of nonsolvent additives

A membrane contactor (MC) is used for natural gas sweetening and wastewater treatment with a membrane that is acting as a separating barrier between two phases, usually liquid and gas. The performance of membrane is governed by parameters such as pore size, porosity, tortuosity and surface hydrophobicity, which can be controlled by a number of methods. Addition of nonsolvents to spinning solution is known to be one of such methods. In this study, the effects of low molecular weight additives as phase inversion promoters on the morphology of polyethersulfone hollow fiber membranes and their performance in gas-liquid MC processes were investigated. It was found that among the six nonsolvent additives under study, addition of water resulted in the highest CO2 flux, by decreasing the thermodynamic stability of polymer solution and maintaining high solvent-nonsolvent exchange rate.