Modeling of Ethylene Absorption from an Ethylene–Ethane Mixture by Silver Nitrate Aqueous Solution in a Hollow-Fiber Membrane Contactor

Abstract

Convection–diffusion mass transfer in a gas–liquid membrane contactor based on porous polysulfone hollow fiber membranes with a mesoporous (d_pore ~ 2 nm) structure of the separation layer has been studied. The characteristics of the membrane contactor have been investigated in the recovery of ethylene from its mixture with ethane using an aqueous silver nitrate solution as the absorption liquid. A procedure based on the method of lines is proposed for calculating a mass transfer in hollow fiber contactor with a longitudinal laminar flow in an array of parallel fibers. An ethylene flux, depending on the process conditions, has been found by solving numerically a set of convection–diffusion equations with allowance for both the chemical reaction in the liquid stream and transmembrane transport.