Computational evaluation of micropores wetting effect on the removal process of CO₂ through the membrane contactor

In the current years, gas-liquid membrane contactors (GLMCs) have been introduced as a promising, versatile and easy-to-operate technology for mitigating the emission of major greenhouse contaminants (i.e., CO₂ and H₂S) to the ecosystem. This paper tries to computationally study the role of membrane pores wettability on the removal performance of CO₂ inside the HFMC. To fulfill this purpose, a mathematical model based on finite element procedure (FEP) has been employed to solve the momentum and mass transport equations in the partial-wetting (50% wetting of micropores) and non-wetting (0% wetting of micropores) modes of membrane during operation. Additionally, a comprehensive simulation was ensembled to predict the results. In this research, 2-amino-2-methyl-l-propanol (AMP) has been employed as a relatively novel alkanolamine absorbent to separate CO₂ form CO₂/N₂ mixture. Analysis of the results implied that the wetting of membrane micropores significantly deteriorated the removal efficiency due to the enhancing mass transfer resistance towards transferring CO₂ (75% in the non-wetting mode > 8% considering 50% wetting of micropores).