Modification of ABS Membrane by PEG for Capturing Carbon Dioxide from CO2/N2 Streams

Carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) has been propounded as an important issue in greenhouse gas emissions control. In this connection, in the present article, the advantages of using polymeric membrane for separation of carbon dioxide from CO2/N2 streams have been discussed. A novel composition for fabrication of a blend membrane prepared from acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) terpolymer and polyethylene glycol (PEG) has been suggested. The influence of PEG molecular weight (in the range of 400 to 20000) on membrane characteristics and gas separation performance, the effect of PEG content (0-30wt%) on gas transport properties, and the effect of feed side pressure (ranging from 1 to 8bar) on CO2 permeability have been studied. The results show that CO2 permeability increases from 5.22 Barrer for neat ABS to 9.76 Barrer for ABS/PEG20000 (10wt%) while the corresponding CO2/N2 selectivity increases from 25.97 to 44.36. Furthermore, it is concluded that this novel membrane composition has the potential to be considered as a commercial membrane.