Removal of CO2 from flue gases using hollow fiber membrane absorber

An attractive alternative to classical flue gases clean up processes is membrane-based absorption. In this work, an experimental and theoretical analysis of a microporous polypropylene hollow fiber membrane absorber is presented. Absorption of CO2 in water was studied in order to initially evaluate the new technology performance and to compare it to conventional absorbers efficiency. A theoretical model was developed to simulate the physical absorption process. The level of CO2 removal was high even by using a physical absorbent. In addition, hollow fiber contactors appear to be more efficient than packed contactors, establishing membrane-based absorption as a promising technology.