Porous polyethersulfone hollow fiber membrane in gas–liquid contacting processes

Porous polyethersulfone hollow fiber membranes were fabricated via dry–wet phase inversion method with the polymer concentration in the spinning dope either 13 wt% or 15 wt%. The fabricated hollow fiber membranes were characterized by different test methods and the performance of membranes in contactor applications was tested by CO₂ absorption. The mean pore size, effective surface porosity and membrane porosity decreased while the membrane density and Liquid Entry Pressure (LEPw) increased as polymer concentration increased. The CO₂ absorption flux of the fabricated membranes was measured in two cases; i.e. when the absorbent, distilled water, was in the lumen side or in the shell side. The CO₂ flux for the membrane, fabricated from 13 wt% PES solution, was compared with some commercial and in-house made membranes. The former membrane had 111% higher flux than a commercial PTFE membrane.     

Development of a model for dimethyl ether non-adiabatic reactors to improve methanol conversion

The modeling of adiabatic and non-adiabatic reactors, using three cooling mediums in the shell side of a shell and tube reactor in cocurrent and countercurrent flow regimes has been conducted. The cooling mediums used in this research are saturated water and methanol feed gas to a reactor which is preheated in the shell side and a special type of oil. The results of adiabatic reactor modeling show good compatibility with the data received from a commercial plant. The results of non-adiabatic reactor modeling showed that more methanol conversion can be achieved in a lower length of reactor, even though in some cases the maximum temperature in the tube side of the reactor is more than the deactivation temperature of the catalyst.     

Study of the Effects of External and Internal Diffusion on the Propane Dehydrogenation Reaction over Pt‐Sn/Al2O3 Catalyst

In the study of a reaction on a heterogeneous catalyst, external and internal mass diffusion play an important role since they can have an inherent affect on the kinetics of the reaction. Therefore, in the study of intrinsic rates of reaction, the effects of external and internal mass diffusion must be eliminated or considered prior to proper kinetic studies. In this study, the effects of external and internal mass diffusion on the propane dehydrogenation reaction over a Pt/Sn catalyst were investigated. Some experiments were performed in a laboratory scale setup and the required data was gathered. The rate of reaction was considered to be first order based on propane. External diffusion was studied using Mears' criterion and internal diffusion was investigated by the Thiele Module and the Internal Effectiveness Factor, based on experimental data.     

Fabrication and characterization of polyvinyl chloride mixed matrix membranes containing high aspect ratio anatase titania and hydrous manganese oxide nanoparticle for efficient removal of heavy metal ions: Competitive removal study

In this study, novel polyvinyl chloride (PVC) ultrafiltration mixed matrix membranes (MMMs) containing high aspect ratio anatase titania (ANT) and hydrous manganese oxide (HMO) nanoparticles were synthesized in order to decontaminate cadmium and copper metal ions. ANT and HMO nanoparticles with various loadings in a range of 5-15 were used in the casting solution of MMMs. The characterization of fabricated MMMs was carried out with respect to the structural morphology, hydrophilicity, and composition by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), water contact angle, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), respectively. With an increase in the nanoparticle loadings, the change in other membrane characteristics such as mean pore size, pure water flux, and porosity were also evaluated. The results revealed that the mean pore size and water flux increased at a higher loading of ANT and HMO nanoparticles, while the contact angle and porosity of the membranes showed reverse trends. Moreover, the higher flux of pure water was obtained for PVC-ANT MMMs compared to PVC-HMO MMMs because of the larger mean pore size, higher porosity, and hydrophilicity of PVC-ANT MMMs. In this study, the decontamination of cadmium and copper metal ions in single and binary systems of heavy metals was investigated and the effect of Mn²⁺ (as an interfering ion) was also studied. The evaluation of the metal ion removal data demonstrated that the affinity sequence of both the PVC-ANT-15 and PVC-HMO-15 MMMs for heavy metal removal was Cu²⁺ > Cd²⁺ > Mn²⁺ in the single and binary systems. It was found through ultrafiltration (UF) experiments that PVC-ANT MMM was the most efficient membrane in the elimination of heavy metals due to the superior ANT adsorption capacity. However, the overall findings disclosed that both ANT and HMO nanoparticles are suitable candidates for the preparation of MMMs used in cadmium and copper decontamination from aqueous solutions.     

Synthesis and Application of Titania Nanotubes and Hydrous Manganese Oxide in Heavy Metal Removal from Aqueous Solution: Characterization,Comparative Study,and Adsorption Kinetics

Theoretical Foundations of Chemical Engineering - Titania nanotube (TNT) and hydrous manganese oxide (HMO) nanoparticles were synthesized via hydrothermal synthesis and chemical coprecipitation...     

Performance of the sulfonated poly ether ether ketone proton exchange membrane modified with sulfonated polystyrene and phosphotungstic acid for microbial fuel cell applications

In this research, the preparation of low cost proton exchange membranes (PEMs) based on sulfonated poly ether ether ketone (SPEEK) for application in the microbial fuel cells (MFCs) is studied. Sulfonated polystyrene (SPS) and phosphotungstic acid (PWA) were employed to improve the performance of PEM through the creation of more proton pathways. At first, the sulfonation of PEEK and polystyrene were performed through two modified methods to obtain uniform and high degree of sulfonation (DS) of the polymers and then, the PEMs were prepared through the solution casting method. Accordingly, the formation of uniform skin layer was confirmed by the SEM micrographs. Blending the aforementioned additives to the SPEEK polymer solution significantly enhanced the proton conductivity, water uptake and durability of the modified membranes. The proton conductivities of SPEEK/SPS and SPEEK/PWA membranes at additive/SPEEK weight ratio of 0.15 were 45.3% and 26.2% higher than that of the commercial Nafion117 membrane, respectively. Moreover, the degradation times for the abovementioned modified membranes were 140 and 350 min which indicated satisfactory oxidation stability. Besides, the aforementioned membranes exhibited two times more water uptake compared to the neat SPEEK membrane. Finally, SPEEK/SPS and SPEEK/PWA membranes produced 68% and 36% higher maximum power in the MFC, compared to the commercial Nafion117 membrane. Therefore, the fabricated PEMs are potentially suitable alternatives to be used in the fuel cell applications.     

绝热固定床反应器甲醇脱水合成二甲醚的实验和模型研究

One-dimensional heterogeneous plug flow model was employed to model an adiabatic fixed-bed reactor for the catalytic dehydration of methanol to dimethyl ether. Longitudinal temperature and conversion profiles predicted by this model were compared to those experimentally measured in a bench scale reactor. The reactor was packed with 1.5 mm γ-Al2O3 pellets as dehydration catalyst and operated in a temperature range of 543-603 K at an atmospheric pressure. Also, the effects of weight hourly space velocity (WHSV) and temperature on methanol conversion were investigated. According to the results, the maximum conversion is obtained at 603.15 K with WHSV of 72.87 h－1.     

Investigation on the effects of fabrication parameters on the structure and properties of surface‐modified membranes using response surface methodology

Surface Modifying Macromolecules (SMM) were used to alter the hydrophobicity of polyetherimide (PEI) hollow fiber membranes and the effects of three fabrication parameters, which are the mass fraction of PEI and SMM in the casting dope and air gap, on the properties of fabricated membranes were investigated by application of Response Surface Methodology (RSM). The fabricated membranes were characterized in terms of mean pore size (r_P,m), permeation rate of helium gas at 1 bar transmembrane pressure difference, membrane porosity, and contact angle of water with inner and outer surfaces of membrane. The regression models obtained for mean pore size and permeation rate have good statistical parameters and are accurate. The model for r_P,m predicts that plot of r_P,m versus air gap has a minimum point, whereas the plots of r_P,m versus PEI (wt %) and SMM (wt %) have maximum points. The regression model developed for membrane porosity predicts that membrane porosity decreases when air gap increases. Since water was used as bore fluid, the model developed for inner surface contact angle has low accuracy but the model developed for outer surface contact angle predicts that contact angle increases with SMM concentration in dope solution but there is a maximum point versus air gap. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2012