Author(s)

Gerard Caneba, Michael Renier, Brian Ott

Department of Chemical Engineering and Center for Environmentally Benign Functional Materials (CEBFM) Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI 49931.

This work pertains to current results in the development of CO₂ separation membranes from flue gas streams typically found in coal-fired power plants. A versatile free-radicalbased polymerization method is employed for the development of a multifunctional block copolymer that has good affinity to CO₂, is processable into and applicable as gas separation polymer membranes. In order to validate the resulting materials, thin slabs of the polymer were melt-processed, and then sorbed with CO₂ and N2 in a pressure cell. When the pressure is released, foaming tendencies at the outer regions of the samples were observed. A quantitative model involving measurements of unfoamed regions is used to correlate with permeability ratios as well as CO₂-polymer mutual diffusivities. One particular optimized material, called RB1-215, is shown to possess a good CO₂ relative permeability to N2. Thus, the experimental methodology has been shown to possibly be able to develop the next generation of CO₂ separation polymer membranes for carbon sequestration applications.

Carbon sequestration, polymer membranes, CO2 separation, flue gases, FRRPP process

G. Caneba, M. Renier and B. Ott, "Towards the Development of CO₂ Separation Membranes," Journal of Minerals and Materials Characterization and Engineering, Vol. 7 No. 2, 2008, pp. 175-191. doi: 10.4236/jmmce.2008.72014.