Integrated membrane contactor absorber/regeneration column process for CO₂ capture with large scale module at various operating conditions

In this study, a 3-in. diameter ceramic hollow fiber membrane contactor unit module with an improved flow path was successfully developed for CO₂ capture. The effect of CO₂ loading in the absorbent, water and oxygen in the flue gas was evaluated in order to evaluate the performance of the ceramic hollow fiber membrane module. No performance degradation was found for water vapor and oxygen in the flue gas. On the other hand, absorption performance decreased with the amount of CO₂ loaded in the absorbent. The 2-stage module was able to absorb more than 90 % of CO₂ in 0.5 Nm³/h flue gas with 0.17 mol CO₂/mol MEA loaded absorbent. At this time, the gas and liquid pressure drops were 0.012 and 0.010 bar, respectively. This is a small value compared to the pressure drop of the conventional packed absorption column process. In addition, the integrated membrane absorber/stripping column process was operated for more than 60 h and the CO₂ removal efficiency was maintained at about 84 %. There was no decrease in performance or pore swelling of the membrane. Ceramic hollow fiber membrane contactor is a promising process that can replace conventional absorption process or polymeric membrane contactor.