Investigating the Effect of the Structural Parameters of Mixed Matrix Membranes on Their Effective Gaseous Penetrant Diffusion Ratio Using CFD Tools

The ability and competitiveness of the membrane processes for gas separation are evaluated by their membranes’ permeability and selectivity where it has been tried to enhance both in the promising generation of mixed matrix membranes (MMMs). In the current study, two-and-three-dimensional models were constructed for MMMs, and the Fick s first law was solved numerically for them by using the Finite Element Method (FEM) and Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) tools. The effects of different MMMs’ structural parameters – such as the volume fraction, size and mode of packing, i.e. regular or random – of the filler particles on the effective permeability of the pure gaseous penetrants through the MMMs were investigated. Furthermore, the interfacial equilibrium constant of the penetrants and their diffusivity ratios were also evaluated from the viewpoint of their impacts on the MMMs’ separation performance. Some well-known established models including Maxwell, Bruggeman, Lewis - Nielsen, Pal, and Chiew - Glandt were applied in the modeling. The deviation of the simulation results from the experimentally measured ones was low enough, however, at higher loadings of the filler particles, the simulation deviation became greater. the results of the simulation through PSF - MCM-41 MMMs were compared with those of experimentally measured ones and the AAREs of 31.0 (The lowest deviation), 42.7, and 41.0 % were obtained for CO2, O2, and N2, respectively.