Date of Award

2009

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Petroleum Engineering (MSPE)

Department

Chemical and Petroleum Engineering

First Advisor

Nayef Mohamed Ghasem

Second Advisor

Tariq AI-Fariss

Third Advisor

Kamal Mustafa

Abstract

Global warming and climate change are believed to be caused by the greenhouse effect. CO2 has been regarded as the main contributor to global climate change which directly results in serious environmental problems. Half of the anthropogenic CO2 emission sources are emitted from the combustion of fossil fuels in industries and power plants worldwide. The absorption behavior of Carbon dioxide from flue gases can be studied using conventional absorber and polymeric hollow fiber membrane contractors. An industrial absorber data was compared with simulated data using hollow fiber membrane contractor using the gPROMs software package. In this analysis, with the absorbent solution flowing in the inner side of the fiber bore and the pure gas in the shell, the module was operated in a non-wetted mode. The derived coupled, non-linear partial differential equations were solved by backward finite difference method. The Diethanolamine (DEA) was used as absorbent. The outlet absorbed Carbon dioxide concentration was simulated and studied with respect to the liquid velocity, initial amine concentration and external mass transfer coefficient. The analysis includes the effects of the diameter and length of the fibers on the liquid outlet gas concentration as a function of the liquid velocity in the fiber. It was found that the liquid velocity and initial absorbent concentrations, as well as the fiber inner diameter and length, have a tremendous effect on the Carbon dioxide removal performance.

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