COUPLING MODEL FOR MULTI-COMPONENT GAS PERMEATION PROCESS

A gas permeation model (Coupling Model) has been developed which has the flexibility to be used for different membrane module configurations. The aim of this work is to predict the performance of a single stage gas separation process using membranes and provide a comprehensive description of process parameters like flow rates, composition, stage cut and stream pressure. The significant feature of this work is the development of computational technique which combines the counter-current flow mode with co-current flow mode. In contrary to other counter-current models (reported in literature), the model reported in this work (Coupling Model) does not require initial conditions to start and also it is independent of any adjustment technique like shooting method. This model is based on real membrane operation and works by the coupling of co-current and counter-current methods. After each iteration, output values of co-current mode become the input values for counter-current mode. This model has the capability to take upto nine components, whereas model reported in literature can handle 4-5 components in a gas mixture to be separated. The results obtained are validated with the published data and will be discussed to elaborate the operation of a gas separation membrane.