Enhancement of CO2 Desorption from a Novel Absorbent (Dimethyl Carbonate) by Using a PDMS/TiO2 Pervaporation Membrane

摘要

Currently, there is strong interest in carbon capture and absorption as a means of reducing carbon dioxide emissions and combating climate change. Unfortunately, the current and traditional methods to achieve such goals are not economical, because they require a huge absorption–desorption plant with high investment and operating costs and high recycle rates of chemical absorbers. In this paper, we propose a novel CO_(2) capture method combining dimethyl carbonate as a physical solvent and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)/TiO_(2) nanocomposite as a desorption membrane. The effects of TiO_(2) concentration, feed temperature, and permeate pressure on the pervaporation process for CO_(2) capture were studied. Results showed that the addition of TiO_(2) nanoparticles (up to 5 wt %) resulted in 3.61 kg/m~(2)·h flux and 44.68 selectivity of the membrane. The presence of TiO_(2) nanoparticles in the PDMS membrane not only increased the performance of membrane’s but also reduced (about 72%) energy consumption. To corroborate our experimental findings, a simple simulation was conducted by Gaussian 09. The modeling results demonstrated that the incorporation of TiO_(2) nanoparticles to the PDMS led to favorable absorption of CO_(2) compared with the composite one. These results indicate a novel and promising method to capture CO_(2) effectively and economically for industrial purposes.