Fuzzy self-tuning PID control of the operation temperatures in a two-staged membrane separation process

A two-staged membrane separation process for hydrogen recovery from refinery gases is introduced. The principle of the gas membrane separation process and the influence of the operation temperatures are analyzed. As the conventional PID controller is difficult to make the operation temperatures steady, a fuzzy self-tuning PID control algorithm is proposed. The application shows that the algorithm is effective, the operation temperatures of both stages can be controlled steadily, and the operation flexibility and adaptability of the hydrogen recovery unit are enhanced with safety. This study lays a foundation to optimize the control of the membrane separation process and thus ensure the membrane performance.     

STUDY OF COMPOSITE MEMBRANE OF CELLULOSE ACETATE OR POLYVINYL ALCOHOL BLENDED WITH METHYLMETHACRYLATE-ACRYLIC ACID COPOLYMER FOR PERVAPORATION SEPARATION*

In this paper, methylmethacrylate-acrylic acid MMA-AA hydrophilic and hydrophobic copolymerswere prepared by copolymerization for preparing membrane materials. The composite membrane of celluloseacetate (CA) blended with MMA-AA hydrophobic copolymer was used for the separation of methanol frompentane-methanol mixture. When the methanol concentration was only 1 wt% ,the permeate flux stillmaintained at 350 g/m~2h and separation factor was as big as 800. The composite membrane of PVA(polyvinyl alcohol) blended with MMA-AA hydrophilic copolymer was used for the separation of ethanol-water mixture. The permeate flux was increased to 975 g/m~2h at 74℃ and the separation factor reached 3000at 25℃. The PVA/MMA-AA blended membrane surface modified by ammonia plasma was also investigatedfor separating ethanol-water mixture. Both permeate flux and separation factor of the membrane wasimproved. However, there was no obvious difference of plasma treatment time in the interval of 20～40 min.     

Hydrate-based carbon dioxide capture from simulated integrated gasification combined cycle gas

The equilibrium hydrate formation conditions for CO2/H2 gas mixtures with different CO2 concentrations in 0.29 mol% TBAB aqueous solution are firstly measured.The results illustrate that the equilibrium hydrate formation pressure increases remarkably with the decrease of CO2 concentration in the gas mixture.Based on the phase equilibrium data,a three stages hydrate CO2 separation from integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) synthesis gas is investigated.Because the separation efficiency is quite low for the third hydrate separation,a hybrid CO2 separation process of two hydrate stages in conjunction with one chemical absorption process (absorption with MEA) is proposed and studied.The experimental results show H2 concentration in the final residual gas released from the three stages hydrate CO2 separation process was approximately 95.0 mol% while that released from the hybrid CO2 separation process was approximately 99.4 mol%.Thus,the hybrid process is possible to be a promising technology for the industrial application in the future.     

Optimization strategy and procedure for coal bed methane separation

Coal bed methane（CBM） has a huge potential to be purified to relieve the shortage of natural gas meanwhile to weaken the greenhouse effect.This paper proposed an optimal design strategy for CBM to obtain an integrated process configuration consisting of three each single separation units,membrane,pressure swing absorption,and cryogenics.A superstructure model was established including all possible network configurations which were solved by MINLP.The design strategy optimized the separation unit configuration and operating conditions to satisfy the target of minimum total annual process cost.An example was presented for the separation of CH₄/N₂ mixtures in coal bed methane （CBM） treatment.The key operation parameters were also studied and they showed the influence to process configurations.     

Modeling of Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis in a Slurry Reactor with Water Permeable Membrane

Fischer-Tropsch synthesis is an important chemical process for the production of liquid fuels and olefins. In recent years, the abundant availability of natural gas and the increasing demand of olefins, diesel, and waxes have led to a high interest to further develop this process. A mathematical model of a slurry membrane reactor used for syngas polymerization was developed to simulate and compare the maximum yields and operating conditions in the reactor with that in a conventional slurry reactor. The carbon polymerization was studied from a modeling point of view in a slurry reactor with a water permeable membrane and a conventional slurry reactor. Simulation results show that different parameters affect syngas conversion and carbon product distribution, such as the hydrogen to carbon monoxide ratio, and the membrane parameters such as membrane permeance.     

Application of heat-activated peroxydisulfate process for the chemical cleaning of fouled ultrafiltration membranes

Na Cl O has been widely used to restore membrane flux in practical membrane cleaning processes, which would induce the formation of toxic halogenated byproducts. In this study, we proposed a novel heatactivated peroxydisulfate(heat/PDS) process to clean the membrane fouling derived from humic acid(HA). The results show that the combination of heat and PDS can achieve almost 100% recovery of permeate flux after soaking the HA-fouled membrane in 1 mmol/L PDS solution at 50 °C for 2 h, which is att...     

Simulation and energy performance assessment of CO2 removal from crude synthetic natural gas via physical absorption process

The paper presents an energy performance assessment of CO2 removal for crude synthetic natural gas (SNG) upgrade by Selexol absorption process. A simplified process simulation of the Selexol process concerning power requirement and separation performance was developed. The assessment indicates that less pressure difference between crude SNG and absorption pressure favors the energy performance of CO2 removal process. When both crude SNG and absorption pressures are 20 bar, CO2 removal process has the best energy performance. The optimal specific power consumption of the CO2 removal process is 566 kJ/kg CO2 . The sensitivity analysis shows that the CO2 removal efficiency would significantly influence the total power consumption of the removal process, as well as higher heating value (HHV) and CO2 content in SNG. However, the specific power consumption excluding crude SNG and SNG compressions changes little with the variance of CO2 removal efficiency. If by-product CO2 is compressed for CO2 capture, the process would turn into a CO2 -sink for the atmosphere. Correspondingly, an increase of 281 kJ/kg CO2 in specific power consumption is required for compressing the separated CO2 .     

Conventional processes and membrane technology for carbon dioxide removal from natural gas:A review

Membrane technology is becoming more important for CO 2 separation from natural gas in the new era due to its process simplicity,relative ease of operation and control,compact,and easy to scale up as compared with conventional processes.Conventional processes such as absorption and adsorption for CO 2 separation from natural gas are generally more energy demanding and costly for both operation and maintenance.Polymeric membranes are the current commercial membranes used for CO 2 separation from natural gas.However,polymeric membranes possess drawbacks such as low permeability and selectivity,plasticization at high temperatures,as well as insufficient thermal and chemical stability.The shortcomings of commercial polymeric membranes have motivated researchers to opt for other alternatives,especially inorganic membranes due to their higher thermal stability,good chemical resistance to solvents,high mechanical strength and long lifetime.Surface modifications can be utilized in inorganic membranes to further enhance the selectivity,permeability or catalytic activities of the membrane.This paper is to provide a comprehensive review on gas separation,comparing membrane technology with other conventional methods of recovering CO 2 from natural gas,challenges of current commercial polymeric membranes and inorganic membranes for CO 2 removal and membrane surface modification for improved selectivity.     

Pervaporation for separating benzene/cyclohexane mixture by P(AA-MA) copolymer membranes

P(AA-MA)copolymers composed of acrylic acid and methyl acrylate with different molecular weights and sequence structures were synthesized by combination of ATRP and selective hydrolysis.These copolymers were used as membrane materials to separate benzene/cyclohexane mixture by pervaporation.The effects of molecular weight and sequence structure of the copolymers on the pervaporation performance were investigated in detail.For the random copolymers,the permeate flux decreased rapidly with the increasing of molecular weight.The separation factor was also influenced by the molecular weight,which was changed from no selectivity to cyclohexane selectivity with increasing the molecular weight.Contrarily,the block copolymer membrane showed good benzene selectivity with separation factor of 4.3 and permeate flux of 157 g/(m~2h)to 50 wt%benzene/cyclohexane mixture.     

Preliminary Study on Hydrogen Permeation and Stability of BaCe0.90Y0.10O3-δ Membrane under Asymmetric Atm osphere

High-temperature proton conductors (HTPC) have been extensively studied since I wahara et al?1? reported protonic conduction in SrCeO3-based oxid es. Later, the BaCeO3-based oxides, such as BaCe0.90Yb0.10O3- d (BCYb10) and BaCe0.90Y0.10-O3-d (BCY10), we re fou nd to show higher conductivity?2?. High electronic and protonic conducti vity makes BCY10 a potential membrane for hydrogen separation?3?. Thin f ilms with high density, most probably made by sequential coating on porous subst rates, are imperative in order to promote hydrogen permeation flux?4?. T his makes it more necessary for such membranes to be kept stable and unspoilt un der asymmetric hydrogen-permeation atmosphere at elevated temperatures. In this paper, the stability and hydrogen permeation ability of BCY10 membrane are stud ied by XRD, SEM, energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis, H2-TPR process and hydrogen permeation experiment. The results showed that hydrogen cannot permeate through the BCY10 membrane without surface modification, and its surface cannot keep a uniform perovskite structure in the asymmetric atmosphere.     

Effect of operating conditions on separation performance of reactive dye solution with membrane process

Membrane process has increasingly developed as a reliable and effective means of improving product yield and reducing manufacturing costs in the reactive dye industry. In order to improve a product's quality, ultrafiltration (UF) membrane has been applied to perform Reactive Brilliant Blue KN-R desalting and concentration. The performance of this membrane's separation process was evaluated under different operating conditions, through which the influence of operating pressure, temperature, cross-flow velocity, pH, concentration of feed and operating time on permeate flux, rejection of Reactive Brilliant Blue KN-R and sodium sulfate were studied.     

Microfiltration process by inorganic membranes for clarification of TongBi liquor

Membrane separation is an alternative separation technology to the conventional method of filtration. Hence, it has attracted use in the purification and concentration of Chinese Herbal Medicine Extracts (CHMEs). The purpose of this work was to study the process of microfiltration of Tongbi liquor (TBL), a popular Chinese herbal drink, using ceramic membranes. Zirconium oxide and aluminum oxide membranes with pore mean sizes of 0.2 μm and 0.05 μm, respectively, are used for comparisons in terms of flux, transmittance of the ingredients, physical-chemical parameters, removal of macromolecular materials and fouling resistance. The results show that 0.2 μm zirconium oxide membrane is more suitable. The stable permeate flux reaches 135 L·h(-1)·m(-2), the cumulative transmittance of the indicator is 65.53%. Macromolecular materials, such as starch, protein, tannin, pectin and total solids were largely eliminated in retentate after filtration using 0.2 μm ZrO2 ceramic membrane, resulting in clearer TBL. Moreover, this work also reveals that continuous ultrasound could strengthen membrane process that the permeate flux increases significantly. This work demonstrates that the purification of CHME with ceramic membranes is possible and yielded excellent results.     

Simulation of binary gas separation in hollow fiber asymmetric membranes by orthogonal collocation

Modeling of hollow fiber asymmetric membrane modules can provide useful guidelines to achieve desirable separations of gas mixtures. In this work the performance of a countercurrent flow separator was analyzed through a parametric study of the most important system variables as functions of basic design and operational parameters. Results refer to CO₂–N₂ separation from power station flue gases as a typical, potential process. The appropriate model equations were solved by orthogonal collocation to approximate differential equations, and to solve the resulting system of non-linear algebraic equations by the Brown method. This technique compared to other applied computational procedures minimized the computational time and effort and improved solution stability. This is very important if the pressure and concentration profiles along the permeator, both in the residue and the permeate streams, need to be determined. These profiles influence strongly the permeator performance and, under certain conditions such as moderate and high feed pressure, they may result in lower than expected permeate purity. The simulation results also indicate that the role of the basic design parameters may be of equal if not higher importance to membrane selectivity. Thus industrial permeator performance, as it is expressed by stage cut and permeate purity, is not very sensitive to membrane permselectivity beyond a modest value of 40–50, especially at moderate and high (15–20 bar) feed pressures. A desirable gas separation may then be achievable with a reasonably permeable, albeit not very selective membrane, provided that design and operating variables are selected appropriately.     

A constant flux based mathematical model for predicting permeate flux decline in constant pressure protein ultrafiltration

This paper discusses a novel approach for predicting permeate flux decline in constant pressure ultrafiltration of protein solutions. A constant pressure process is assumed to be made up of a large number of small, sequential, constant flux ultrafiltration steps: the flux decreasing due to fouling and other related factors at the end of each step. The advantage of this approach is that constant flux ultrafiltration is easier to study, characterize, and model than constant pressure ultrafiltration. Consequently model parameters can be obtained in reliable and reproducible manner. Constant pressure ultrafiltration is dynamic in nature since both the magnitude of osmotic back-pressure and the extent of membrane fouling decrease as the permeate flux decreases with time. The proposed model takes into consideration the interplay between permeate flux, concentration polarization, and membrane fouling. The model demonstrates that the initial rapid flux decline is due to a combination of concentration polarization and membrane fouling while during the remaining part of the process, the effect of concentration polarization becomes negligible. The model also shows that concentration polarization affects the initial flux decline only at higher transmembrane pressures. This model which was validated using experimental data is conceptually simpler than other available models and easy to use. In addition to its value as a predictive tool it would particularly be useful for deciding appropriate start-up conditions in ultrafiltration processes.     

Multicomponent pervaporation process for volatile aroma compounds recovery from pomegranate juice

The present work describes the possibility of using pervaporation process to recover the pomegranate aroma compounds from an actual pomegranate juice and a model aroma solution. Four different chemicals representing four major kinds of aroma compounds, namely, 3-methyl butanal, isopentyl acetate, n-hexanol and α-ionone, were utilized in this work. Three POMS membranes and two PDMS membranes were tested for pervaporation and compared for their separation performance. The influence of various operating parameters such as feed flow rate, feed temperature and permeate pressure on the permeation flux and aroma compounds enrichment factor was investigated. Feed flow rate was shown to have no significant effect on both total flux and aroma enrichment factor, whereas feed temperature and permeate pressure had highly significant effects. An increase in feed temperature led to higher flux and enrichment factor. As permeate pressure increased, the flux and enrichment factor of some aroma compounds decreased. Some of the aroma compounds showed higher enrichment factor at higher permeate pressures. Finally, the activation energy of permeation and the membrane permeability for each aroma compound were determined.     

Pervaporation of volatile organics from water: II. Influence of permeate pressure on partial fluxes

Hydrophobic pervaporation is being developed within the area of separation of volatile organic compounds from dilute aqueous solutions. Optimisation of the pervaporation process for these types of applications is often very complex due to the many different organic compounds which are to be separated simultaneously. The permeate pressure is one of the key process parameters that has a considerable impact on both selectivities and partial fluxes. In this study, a model for predicting the permeate pressure dependence of the partial fluxes of the organic compounds to be separated was developed. The model includes both the effect of external mass transfer and the effect of altered permeabilities due to membrane plasticisation for the various permeants. Both these effects were proved to effect the partial fluxes to a significant extent. The model was shown to be applicable to organic permeants within the groups of alcohols, esters and aldehydes. Adequate information about the membrane separation factor and the overall separation factor together with the total flux at one specific permeate pressure is all that is needed for the application of this model.     

Experimental studies on the hydrogen isotope recovery using low-pressure palladium membrane diffuser

In this paper, we introduce a set of low-pressure palladium membrane diffuser designed to recover hydrogen isotopes from inert mixture gases. Several gaseous mixtures (D₂/Ar and D₂/He) with different deuterium concentration have been used for cleanup test of the low-pressure palladium membrane diffuser at 723 K. Effect of the composition of feed gas on the pressure of permeate side has been observed by gas chromatography (GC) and pressure sensor. With the feed flow rate of the mixture gases increasing, the D₂ permeate pressure is increasing as well. Decontamination factor (DF) of more than 1000 and recovery efficiency greater than 99.9% have been obtained by controlling the feed gas flow rate. The same palladium membrane diffuser was used to process helium-3 gas with more than 10% hydrogen isotope and about 0.3% tritium gas. The pure helium-3 (above 99.4%) with low content of hydrogen isotopes (about 0.084%) has been obtained. Recovery efficiency of all hydrogen isotopes is 99.5% above.     

Transport of binary water–ethanol mixtures through a multilayer hydrophobic zeolite membrane

Transport of water–ethanol mixtures through a hydrophobic tubular ZSM-5 (Si/Al = 300) zeolite membrane during pervaporation was studied experimentally and theoretically. The zeolite membrane was deposited on a support made of pure titania coated with three intermediate ceramic titania layers. The influence of feed concentration, feed temperature and permeate pressure on permeate fluxes and permeate concentrations was investigated in a wide range. Dusty gas model parameters of the support and all ceramic intermediate layers were calculated on the basis of gas permeation data. Mass transfer resistances and pressure drops in the different membrane layers during pervaporation were calculated for several process conditions. In particular the influence of the undesired but unavoidable pressure drop in the support and the intermediate layers on the effective driving force for pervaporation was evaluated and found to be relevant for predicting the overall process performance. The membrane prepared was found to be suitable for the recovery of highly concentrated ethanol from feed mixtures of relatively low ethanol concentrations at relatively low feed temperatures.     

The influence of the porous support layer of composite membranes on the separation of binary gas mixtures

Thin film composite (TFC) membranes exhibit a high flux for gas and vapor permeation and are viable for a wide range of applications. The high flux may also increase the importance of the resistance of the porous support structure depending on the application and process conditions. A comprehensive modeling approach for TFC membranes is introduced, which considers boundary layer resistances near the membrane surface, solution-diffusion through the coating, and the influence of the porous sublayer. Permeation through the support structure is described by the dusty gas model (DGM) with the support treated as a two-layered structure with a dense but porous skin and a more open substructure.The model accurately describes experimental data on TCE/nitrogen separation using a sweep gas on the permeate side very well. The main resistance towards TCE permeation through two different membranes tested is the porous support. It is shown that changes in the support morphology can greatly enhance the performance of the composite membranes. Model calculations were also performed for vacuum assisted permeation. The pressure drop across the support is considerable depending on the coating thickness. The TCE permeation is again dominated by the resistance of the support layer, which can be reduced by altering the morphological parameters of the structure.The proposed model is able to describe the performance of the composite membrane and to identify optimum process conditions for given performance characteristics. It can be used to aid in the development of membrane structures for enhanced performance.     

Effect of operating variables on the flux and selectivity in sweep gas membrane distillation for dilute aqueous isopropanol

Sweep gas membrane distillation was examined as a possible technique for isopropanol (IPA)–water separation using PTFE hollow fiber membrane module. The composition and flux of the permeate were monitored when feed concentration, operating temperature and flow rate were varied. The upper feed concentration tested was 10 wt.% IPA. Within the feed temperature range of about 20–50°C, IPA selectivity of 10–25 was achieved. Since the concentration near the surface on the membrane increased by the selective adsorption of IPA on the hydrophobic membrane, the selectivity increases. The permeate flux and IPA selectivity increase as feed temperature increase. The flux and selectivity increase at higher flow rates is mainly due to the reduced effects of concentration and temperature polarization. The effect of salt addition to the feed mixture was also examined.