Gaseous stream treatment, membrane contactors

Chapter 38 Membrane Contactors for Gaseous Streams Treatments. 1041... 

A. Criscuoli, E. Drioli, Membrane contactore for gaseous stream treatments, in A.K. Pabby, S.S.H. Rizvi, A.M. Sastre (Eds.), Handbook of Membrane Separations Chemical, Pharmaceutical, Food, and Biotechnological Applications, CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, 2008 pp. 1041-1055. 

Membrane technology may become essential if zero-discharge mills become a requirement or legislation on water use becomes very restrictive. The type of membrane fractionation required varies according to the use that is to be made of the treated water. This issue is addressed in Chapter 35, which describes the apphcation of membrane processes in the pulp and paper industry for treatment of the effluent generated. Chapter 36 focuses on the apphcation of membrane bioreactors in wastewater treatment. Chapter 37 describes the apphcations of hollow fiber contactors in membrane-assisted solvent extraction for the recovery of metallic pollutants. The apphcations of membrane contactors in the treatment of gaseous waste streams are presented in Chapter 38. Chapter 39 deals with an important development in the strip dispersion technique for actinide recovery/metal separation. Chapter 40 focuses on electrically enhanced membrane separation and catalysis. Chapter 41 contains important case studies on the treatment of effluent in the leather industry. The case studies cover the work carried out at pilot plant level with membrane bioreactors and reverse osmosis. Development in nanofiltration and a case study on the recovery of impurity-free sodium thiocyanate in the acrylic industry are described in Chapter 42. 

The removal of carbon dioxide from gaseous streams and solvents at elevated pressures is relevant for a number of applications. This includes processes like pre-combustion capture, with the main focus on the separation of CO2 and H2 mixtures, and natural gas treatment, where CO2 is removed from CH4. Gas-liquid membrane contactors have a great potential for the removal of carbon dioxide from different streams, because of ease of scale-up, increased gas-liquid interfacial area, and decoupling of the gas and liquid flows. Recent developments in both membrane materials and absorbent liquids have opened the way for efficient separation of CO2 based on gas-liquid membrane contactors. 

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