Effect of Activated Alkanolamine for CO₂ Absorption using Hollow Fiber Membrane Contactor

Hollow Fiber Membrane Contactor (HFMC) technology has been widely developed as an alternative technology to separate CO₂ gas. HFMC technology combines gas absorption process with absorbent and membrane technology. Membrane contactor technology has advantages than conventional technology such as larger gas-liquid contact area, smaller equipment, modularity, and gas-liquid flow rates adjusted independently. In this research, the CO₂ absorption experiments was conducted for absorption process at 30°C temperature and various gas flow rate from 200 - 600 mL/min, feed gas of CO₂ 20%vol. flowed into shell side and the absorbents flowed in tube side of membrane contactor. Piperazine (PZ) and monosodium glutamate (MSG) as activators with 1%w/w concentration, added into methyldiethanolamine (MDEA) 30% w/w solution to form aqueous solutions of activated MDEA. The membrane material used in this experiment was hydrophobic polypropylene membrane. The effect of liquid flow rate and various activators used to get CO₂ absorption flux and CO₂ removal in HFMC. The results showed that the best of CO₂ absorption process using activated alkanolamine was MDEA-PZ, where the highest flux value was 5.5x10^-4 mole/m².s and CO₂ removal reached 96.9% at a gas flow rate of 600mL/min.