Pilot testing on fixed-site-carrier membranes for CO2 capture from flue gas

One way of contributing to combat the climate change is to capture CO2 from fossil fuel flue gases, and utilize CO2 as feedstocks or store underground. Membranes will for sure represent one of the emerging technologies to be used for CO2 capture. In this work, a pilot installation using polyvinylamine (PVAm) based fixed-site-carrier (FSC) hollow fiber membranes at the Tiller plant (Trondheim, Norway) was reported with the possibility to vary the feed CO2 concentration over a range of 9.5-42.4 vol.%. The semi-commercial scale hollow fiber polysulfone support modules were coated with PVAm in-situ. The pilot tests were performed with two modules in parallel in a single stage process, and the operating parameters such as feed and permeate pressure, temperature, feed flow, operation mode, etc. were investigated. The testing results indicated that a 60 vol.% CO2 purity could be achieved in the permeate from a 9.5 vol.% CO2 in feed flue gas. Moreover, the water permeation through the FSC membrane was also studied. Engineering design on process and module was likewise discussed. The results from this one stage process give the basis for an optimized two stage process for CO2 capture at a set goal for capture ratio.