Reduction of VOC emissions by a membrane-based gas absorption process.

A membrane-based gas absorption (MGA) process was evaluated for the removal of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) based on C6H6/N2 mixture. The absorption of C6H6 from a C6H6/N2 mixture was investigated using a hydrophobic polypropylene hollow fiber membrane contactor and the aqueous solution of N-formyl morpholine (NFM) as absorbent. The effects of various factors on the overall mass transfer coefficient was investigated. The experimental results showed that the removal efficiency of C6H6 could reach 99.5% in present studied system. A mathematical model based on resistance-in-series concept was presented to predict the value of overall mass transfer coefficient. The average error between the predicted and experimental values is 7.9%. In addition, conventional packed columns for VOCs removal was also evaluated for comparison.