TY - JOUR
T1 - Rotation-in-a-Spinneret integrates static mixers inside hollow fiber membranes
AU - Tepper, Maik
AU - Eminoglu, Yassin
AU - Mehling, Nicola
AU - Walorski, Julius
AU - Roth, Hannah
AU - Wessling, Matthias
N1 - Funding Information:
This project has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement no. 694946). This work was performed in part at the Center for Chemical Polymer Technology CPT, which is supported by the EU and the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany (grant no. EFRE 30 00 883 02). M.W. acknowledges DFG, Germany funding through the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Award 2019 (WE 4678/12-1). M. Wessling appreciates the support from the Alexander-von-Humboldt foundation. This work was enabled by a “Bruker SkyScan 1272” funded by the Major Research Instrumentation Programme (μCT: DFG-Gz: INST 2221157-1 FUGB) as per Art. 91b GG in the Research Building NW1481006 “NGP2 – Center for Next Generation Processes and Products”. The authors particularly thank Karin Faensen for her fine eye with SEM and μCT imaging.
Funding Information:
This project has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement no. 694946 ). This work was performed in part at the Center for Chemical Polymer Technology CPT, which is supported by the EU and the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany (grant no. EFRE 30 00 883 02 ). M.W. acknowledges DFG, Germany funding through the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Award 2019 ( WE 4678/12-1 ). M. Wessling appreciates the support from the Alexander-von-Humboldt foundation. This work was enabled by a “Bruker SkyScan 1272” funded by the Major Research Instrumentation Programme (CT: DFG-Gz: INST 2221157-1 FUGB) as per Art. 91b GG in the Research Building NW1481006 “NGP 2 – Center for Next Generation Processes and Products”. The authors particularly thank Karin Faensen for her fine eye with SEM and CT imaging.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2022/8/15
Y1 - 2022/8/15
N2 - Turbulence promoters boost the efficiency of membrane applications suffering from mass transfer limitations. To counteract these mass transfer limitations, static mixers were established for flat sheet and tubular membrane geometries. However, the combination of static mixers with hollow fiber membranes has not been possible because of tedious assembly into modules consisting of small-sized and fragile hollow fiber membranes. Here, we introduce a scalable hollow fiber membrane fabrication methodology overcoming said tedious assembly challenges. It comprises the simultaneous fabrication and integration of static mixers inside hollow fiber membranes by a single-step spinning process. Conceptually, this process builds upon our Rotation-in-a-Spinneret platform technology featuring a microstructured 3D printed hollow fiber spinneret. In particular, we integrate a rotating microstructured needle into the spinneret for extruding a static mixer into the nascent hollow fiber membrane. Specifically designed spinning parameters enabled us to engineer twisted tape-shaped static mixers with an adjustable pitch and pitch direction. The emerging Static-Mixer-Membranes exhibit a separate arrangement of both components with an inner diameter below 2.5mm. Characteristic membrane properties are independent of the needle rotation and static mixer integration. Static mixers introduce secondary flow evolution proven by pressure drop manipulation and streamline visualization. Ultimately, two application show cases – oxygenation and CO2 capture with gas–liquid membrane contactors – reveal improved transmembrane gas fluxes up to 440%. The static mixer pitch controls these improvements demonstrating process intensification. Additionally, the technique enabled fabricating nanoparticle-equipped static mixers for improved static mixer shaping and potentially catalytic functionality.
AB - Turbulence promoters boost the efficiency of membrane applications suffering from mass transfer limitations. To counteract these mass transfer limitations, static mixers were established for flat sheet and tubular membrane geometries. However, the combination of static mixers with hollow fiber membranes has not been possible because of tedious assembly into modules consisting of small-sized and fragile hollow fiber membranes. Here, we introduce a scalable hollow fiber membrane fabrication methodology overcoming said tedious assembly challenges. It comprises the simultaneous fabrication and integration of static mixers inside hollow fiber membranes by a single-step spinning process. Conceptually, this process builds upon our Rotation-in-a-Spinneret platform technology featuring a microstructured 3D printed hollow fiber spinneret. In particular, we integrate a rotating microstructured needle into the spinneret for extruding a static mixer into the nascent hollow fiber membrane. Specifically designed spinning parameters enabled us to engineer twisted tape-shaped static mixers with an adjustable pitch and pitch direction. The emerging Static-Mixer-Membranes exhibit a separate arrangement of both components with an inner diameter below 2.5mm. Characteristic membrane properties are independent of the needle rotation and static mixer integration. Static mixers introduce secondary flow evolution proven by pressure drop manipulation and streamline visualization. Ultimately, two application show cases – oxygenation and CO2 capture with gas–liquid membrane contactors – reveal improved transmembrane gas fluxes up to 440%. The static mixer pitch controls these improvements demonstrating process intensification. Additionally, the technique enabled fabricating nanoparticle-equipped static mixers for improved static mixer shaping and potentially catalytic functionality.
KW - 3D printing
KW - Customized microstructured spinnerets
KW - Integrated static mixer turbulence promoters
KW - Rotation-in-a-Spinneret
KW - Static-Mixer-Membranes
KW - n/a OA procedure
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85130368022
U2 - 10.1016/j.memsci.2022.120599
DO - 10.1016/j.memsci.2022.120599
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85130368022
SN - 0376-7388
VL - 656
JO - Journal of membrane science
JF - Journal of membrane science
M1 - 120599
ER -
SDG 13 Climate Action