Thesis-2007-Gupta.pdf (24.22 MB)
A study of polyaniline membranes for gas separations
thesis
posted on 2011-02-11, 09:41 authored by Yogesh GuptaMembrane based gas separations are proven to be technically attractive
because of their simplicity and low energy costs, although they are often limited
by insufficient flux, selectivity and stability. During the past thirty years, major
developments in this technology have been made by developing high flux
asymmetric membranes, and large surface area membrane modules. Today, in
the present market, the sales of the membrane gas separation equipments have
grown to become a $150 million per year business, and substantial growth in the
near future is likely.
More than 90% of membrane gas separation business involves the
separation of non-condensable gases, i.e. nitrogen from air, carbon dioxide from
methane, and hydrogen from nitrogen, argon, or methane. However, a large
potential market for membrane gas separation lies in refineries. The separations
of hydrogen/hydrocarbon and olefin/paraffin are regarded as import processes
(although challenging ones) in the petrochemical industry. The membrane based
separation p~ocess to sepfirate olefins from paraffins is likely to be developed to
the commercial state in the next few years. Industry's demands for increasing
the separation effectiveness and productivity have encouraged conducting
research into development of new membrane materials. Polyaniline is regarded
as so far the best alternative for gas separations, since the molecular spacing of
polymer chains can be controlled by its interesting doping/dedoping chemistry.
A novel method to make reproducible defect-free dense self-supported
polyaniline films with the thicknesses between 2 and 6 IJm, and polyaniline nanofilm
membranes with selective polyaniline layer thicknesses between 300 and
800 nm supported on a porous polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) substrate is
developed. (Continues...).
History
School
- Aeronautical, Automotive, Chemical and Materials Engineering
Department
- Chemical Engineering
Publisher
© Yogesh GuptaPublication date
2007Notes
A Doctoral Thesis. Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of Doctor of Philosophy of Loughborough University.EThOS Persistent ID
uk.bl.ethos.487653Language
- en