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Combustion of sulfur containing fuels, such as coal, in power plant is the major emission source of sulfur dioxide (SO2). SO2 emitted into atmosphere is the main cause of acid rain which is one of the most pervasive air pollutants. In addition, the emission and concentration of SO2 in the emitted gas tend to be increased due to the low-quality coal use. In thermal power station in Korea, the several tens to hundreds ppm of SO2 are discharged into the atmosphere even though the flue gas desulfurization facilities are running in operation. In case where the emitted SO2 is incoming to CO2 capture process, such as absorption process, the deterioration in process performance by the furious flames of absorbents and the contamination in the captured CO2 would take place. Therefore, the inflow of SO2 to the absorption process is strictly restricted and, in general, must not exceed 10 ppm.
Poly(ether-block-amide) (PEBA) composed of polyamide hard segments and polyether soft segments in the polymer chains, has been found to be a promising membrane material for the capture of sour gases CO2 and SO2 as it has high sour gas permeability and high selectivity for polar gas/non-polar gas separation[1]. Recently, some researchers are focusing on the improvement of the PEBA copolymer membranes by physical mixing.
In this presentation, the PEBA 1657 composed of 60 wt.% PEO and 40 wt.% PA6(nylon 6) was used to prepare membranes. The PEBA 1657 dense film was prepared to measure the permeabilities of N2, CO2, and SO2 in terms of solubility and diffusivity of each gas using the time-lag gas measurement apparatus. Furthermore, in order to increase the permeability based on the property of high solubility of sour gases in ethylene glycol[2], PEBA and polyethylene glycol(PEG) were blended according to the PEG contents and the gas permeabilities measured in terms of solubility and diffusivity. Since PEG is susceptible to water vapors in effluent gas, the blended membranes are chemically modified and their gas transport properties measured again. The details will be discussed at the presentation.
References
[1] X. Ren, J. Ren, M. Deng, Sep. Purif. Tech., 89 (2012) 1.
[2] A. Car, C. Stropnik, W. Yave, K. Peinmann, Sep. Purif. Tech., 62 (2008) 110.