UROP Project

Development of gas (vapor) separation hollow fibers based on green technology approach and new 3D woven design of membrane modules

An integrated membrane system for filtration and gas separation is widely required. Despite the active study of hundreds of polymers as potential membrane materials only a few of them are applied for the productiuon of commercial membranes. The strict selection of polymers for membranes production does not depend only on the mass transfer properties, but also on rheological, mechanical and chemical properties, stability in process conditions and economically reasonable availability of the polymer. Poly-4-methylpentene-1 (PMP) takes special place among a number of membrane polymers as it meets the above noted requirements. The drawback of PMP application for membranes is that traditional manufacturing process of asymmetric hollow fibers (HFs) based on PMP requires the use of harmful solvents and precipitants. In this project, the more ecological melt spinning process in combination with a post-treatment step is used to produce hollow fiber membranes.

Task

Based on given hollow fibers, you examine the processability to 3D structures by multiplying the given fibers. With these fiber bundles, you investigate the processability to textile structure, such as twisted yarns or scrims. During your work, you determine the mechanical properties of the textile fabrics in collaboration with our textile testing lab.

Requirements

mechanical engineering, textile engineering or material science background