(63c) Development of Hollow Fiber Sorbent for Gas Separation

A new concept of ?fiber sorbent? is investigated. The fiber sorbent is created as a pseudo-monolithic material comprising polymer and zeolite by applying hollow fiber spinning technology. Phase separation of the polymer solution provides appropriately porous structure through the material. In addition, the zeolite crystals are homogeneously dispersed in the polymer matrix with high loading. The zeolite mainly contributes to sorption capacity of the fiber sorbent. Mass transfer processes in the fiber sorbent module for gas separation is analyzed theoretically and compared with results for a packed bed. The model indicates advantageous points of the fiber sorbent module over the packed bed technology by changing the outer and bore diameters to maintain the same pressure drop or to reduce the pressure drop. The fiber sorbent was spun successfully and showed high sorption capacity and highly porous structure. This new material has been proven in the application to pressure swing adsorption process as an alternative to traditional zeolite sorbent pellets.