In this paper an air separation unit was analyzed. The unit consisted of: an ionic transport membrane contained in a four-end type module, an air compressor, an expander fed by gas that remains after oxygen separation and heat exchangers which heat the air and recirculated flue gas to the membrane operating temperature (850 °C). The air separation unit works in a power plant with electrical power equal to 600 MW. This power plant additionally consists of: an oxy-type pulverized-fuel boiler, a steam turbine unit and a carbon dioxide capture unit. Life steam parameters are 30 MPa/650 °C and reheated steam parameters are 6 MPa/670 °C. The listed units were analyzed. For constant electrical power of the power plant technical parameters of the air separation unit for two oxygen recovery rate (65% and 95%) were determined. One of such parameters is ionic membrane surface area. In this paper the formulated equation is presented. The remaining technical parameters of the air separation unit are, among others: heat exchange surface area, power of the air compressor, power of the expander and auxiliary power. Using the listed quantities, the economic parameters, such as costs of air separation unit and of individual components were determined. These quantities allowed to determine investment costs of construction of the air separation unit. In addition, they were compared with investment costs for the entire oxy-type power plant.
The paper presents the experimental study of a novel unsteady-statemembrane gas separation approach for recovery of a slow-permeant component in the membrane module with periodical retentate withdrawals. The case study consisted in the separation of binary test mixtures based on the fast-permeant main component (N2O, C2H2) and the slow-permeant impurity (1%vol. of N2) using a radial countercurrent membrane module. The novel semi-batch withdrawal technique was shown to intensify the separation process and provide up to 40% increase in separation efficiency compared to a steady-state operation of the same productivity.
The paper presents the mathematical modelling of selected isothermal separation processes of gaseous mixtures, taking place in plants using membranes, in particular nonporous polymer membranes. The modelling concerns membrane modules consisting of two channels - the feeding and the permeate channels. Different shapes of the channels cross-section were taken into account. Consideration was given to co-current and counter-current flows, for feeding and permeate streams, respectively, flowing together with the inert gas receiving permeate. In the proposed mathematical model it was considered that pressure of gas changes along the length of flow channels was the result of both - the drop of pressure connected with flow resistance, and energy transfer by molecules of gas flowing in a given channel to molecules which penetrate this channel from the adjacent channel. The literature on membrane technology takes into account only the drop of pressure connected with flow resistance. Consideration given to energy transfer by molecules of gas flowing in a given channel to molecules which penetrate this channel from the adjacent channel constitute the essential novelty in the current study. The paper also presents results of calculations obtained by means of a computer program which used equations of the derived model. Physicochemical data concerning separation of the CO2/CH4 mixture with He as the sweep gas and data concerning properties of the membrane made of PDMS were assumed for calculations.