Computational Fluid Dynamics Simulation of a Membrane Contactor for CO2 Separation: Two Types of Membrane Evaluation

Two different types of hollow‐fiber membrane contactors were used for CO2 separation from the gas stream with monoethanolamine (MEA) absorbent and numerically investigated. After the model validation with experimental data, CO2 removal efficiency, MEA concentration, and pressure drop variation were examined under different conditions by variation of some effective parameters such as gas stream velocity, absorption solution velocity, membrane porosity, and membrane tortuosity. Membrane tortuosity and porosity enhancement led to light decrease and light increase in CO2 removal efficiency, respectively, but gas stream velocity enhancement significantly reduced the CO2 removal efficiency.