Carbon dioxide capture using a superhydrophobic ceramic hollow fibre membrane for gas-liquid contacting process

This work initiates the development of clean technology in carbon dioxide (CO2) capture using ceramic membrane inspired by gas–liquid contacting system. A low cost, high performance superhydrophobic kaolin-alumina hollow fibre membrane was prepared via phase inversion-based extrusion and sintering techniques, followed by a grafting with fluoroalkylsilane (FAS). The membrane was characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), gas permeation test, contact angle, wetting resistance, X-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA). The fabricated membrane was highly porous, thus increasing the gas permeation rate. By surface modification, the membrane contact angle was increased from 0° to 142°. In fact, wettability resistance of the membrane was also improved. The membrane was subsequently applied in membrane contactor for carbon dioxide (CO2) absorption. The CO2 absorption flux as high as 0.18 mol m−2 s−1 was achieved at the liquid flow rate of 100 mL min−1 which was far above the fluxes of some commercial and in-house made polymeric and ceramic membranes. In conclusion, the modified kaolin-alumina hollow fibre membrane with the superhydrophobic surface, high permeance, and absorption flux is suitable for CO2 post-combustion capture, due to its outstanding chemical and thermal stabilities.