CO2/CH4 separation using PVDF/PVC blended membrane
Bipradeep Maity, Raj Krishna Roshan A L Kanasan, Sunarti Abdul Rahman
Abstract
Methane (CH4) emissions from landfill are estimated to be between 30 and 70 million tonnes each year. Most of this landfill methane currently comes from developed countries, where the levels of waste tend to be highest. In this study, a blended membrane was produced in order to separate CH4 gas from the CO2/CH4 mixture. The blended membrane was produced by the combination of Polyvinylidene Fluoride (PVDF), Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) and Dimethyl formamide (DMF) via dry/wet phase inversion technique. The invention of this PVDF/PVC membrane was expected to improve the characteristics of the polymeric membrane which is the permeability, selectivity and the pore size. DMF (solvent) and PVDF/PVC was introduced with ratio of DMF: PVDF: PVC, 90:10:0, 90:0:10, 90:7:3 and 90:3:7 in order to achieve the desired selectivity of CO2/CH4 gas separation. The selectivity of CO2/CH4, for blended membrane with ratio 90:3:7 was the highest which is 7.01. This high-performance sample are proven by the SEM image of the surface morphology itself. The pore diameter range of 30 µm – 35 µm.