Preparation of Hollow Fiber Membranes Based On Poly(4-methyl-1-pentene) for Gas Separation

Abstract

New hollow fiber gas separation membranes with a non-porous selective layer based on poly(4-methyl-1-pentene) (PMP) granules have been obtained using the solution-free melt spinning process. The influence of the preparation conditions on the geometry of the obtained samples was studied. It was found that a spin head temperature of 280 °C and a specific mass throughput of 103 g mm−2 h−1 are optimal to obtain defect-free, thin-walled hollow fibers in a stable melt spinning process, using the given spinneret geometry and a winding speed of 25 m/min. The gas permeability and separation properties of new fibers were studied using CO2/N2 and CO2/CH4 mixtures, and it was found that the level of gas selectivity characteristic of homogeneous polymer films can be achieved. The features of the gas mixture components permeability below and above the PMP glass transition temperature have been experimentally studied in the range of CO2 concentrations from 10 to 90% vol. The temperature dependences of the permeability of the CO2/CH4/N2 mixture through the obtained HF based on PMP have been investigated, and the values of the apparent activation energies of the permeability have been calculated, which make it possible to predict the properties of membrane modules based on the obtained membranes in a wide temperature range.