abstract
- SAPO-34 nanocrystals were prepared and used as inorganic filler in polyethersulfone (PES) membranes. The influence of preparation conditions on permeation properties of CO2 and N2 gases and CO2/N2 selectivity were studied to achieve the highest separation performance possible for this mixed-matrix membrane. Gas permeation properties of PES/SAPO-34 MMMs with different contents of SAPO-34, PES and initial film thickness were investigated according to a full factorial design of experiments (DOE). The permeation tests and DOE results revealed that the optimized conditions to maximize the selectivity for PES/SAPO-34 are: composition of 18.5 wt % of SAPO-34, 15 wt% of PES, and a casted film thickness of 400 μm resulting in a CO2/N2 selectivity of 30.85. The findings showed that a multivariable model was validated and able to predict the selectivity with determination coefficient R2 of 0.969 and the results are in accordance with values presented in literature for PES/ SAPO-34 membranes. An economic analysis shows that the commercial grade price for the optimized membrane is EUR 9.43/m2 which represents around 2.2 times cheaper than polymeric commercial membranes.
- The authors gratefully acknowledge the fundings from the Strategic Project of CIEPQPF (UIDB/00102/2020), CICECO-Aveiro Institute of Materials (UIDB/50011/2020, UIDP/50011/2020 & LA/P/0006/2020), CIMO (UIDB/00690/2020 and UIDP/00690/2020) and SusTEC (LA/P/0007/2021), financed by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) through national funds. J. S. Cardoso is also grateful for the financial support of the FCT through the PhD grant (SFRH/BD/148170/ 2019). Prof. Dr. Marco Seabra, Coimbra University, is acknowledged for his suggestions to the design of experiments and statistical analysis.