Gas Permeation through Polydimethylsiloxane Membranes: Comparison of Three Model Combinations

The modeling of a gas mixture permeating through a polymeric membrane can be achieved by the combination of a mass transfer model with a thermodynamic model. In this study, three model combinations, i.e., the combination of Fick's law with Henry's law (F-H), that of Fick's law with the UNIQUAC equation (F-U), and that of the Maxwell-Stefan equation with the UNIQUAC equation (MS-U), were solved by iteration computer procedure to predict the separation performance of both binary and ternary gas mixtures permeating through a polydimethylsiloxane membrane. The predicted results were analyzed in detail and compared with experimental results. It was found that there are remarkable differences among the considered model combinations in predicting separation performance, and these differences tend to become larger with increasing solubility. Among the three considered model combinations, MS-U gives the prediction closest to the experimental results. Its advantage over the other two model combinations should be due to the proper estimation of the permeate solubility by the UNIQUAC equation and the reasonable consideration of mass transfer resistance by the Maxwell-Stefan equation.