Modeling and simulation of membrane separation process using computational fluid dynamics

Separation of CO2 from air was simulated in this work. The considered process for removal of CO2 was a hollow-fiber membrane contactor and an aqueous solution of 2-amino-2-metyl-1-propanol (AMP) as absorbent. The model was developed based on mass transfer as well as chemical reaction for CO2 and solvent in the contactor. The equations of model were solved using finite element method. Simulation results were compared with experimental data, and good agreement was observed. The results revealed that increasing solvent velocity enhances removal of CO2 in the hollow-fiber membrane contactor. Moreover, it was found that counter-current process mode is more favorable to achieve the highest separation efficiency.