Yes / CO2 capture from natural gas was experimentally and theoretically studied using a dead-end polymeric permeation cell. A numerical model was proposed for the separation of CO2/CH4 using Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) in a flat sheet membrane module and developed based upon the continuity, momentum and mass transfer equations. The slip velocity condition was considered to show the reflection of gas flow in contact with the membrane surface. The solution method was based on the well-known SIMPLE algorithm and implemented using MATLAB to determine the velocity and concentration profiles. Due to change in velocity direction in the membrane module, the hybrid differencing scheme was used to solve the diffusion-convection equation. The results of the model were compared with the experimental data obtained as part of this work and good agreement was observed. The distribution of CO2 concentration inside the feed and permeate chambers was shown and the velocity profile at the membrane surface was also determined using reflection factor for polymericmembrane. The modelling result revealed that increasing the amount of CO2 in gas feed resulted in an increase in the CO2 in the permeate stream while the gas feed pressure increased. By changing the permeability, the model developed by use of the solution-diffusion concept could be used for all polymeric membranes with flat sheet modules.

L'accumulation du soluté à la surface d'une membrane entraîne le phénomène de polarisation de concentration. Ceci est un problème qui affecte tous les systèmes de filtration membranaire car il a pour effet une augmentation de la pression osmotique et par conséquence une réduction substantielle du flux de perméat. Afin de comprendre ce phénomène, nous avons d'abord mené une étude analytique de la filtration tangentielle en solvant pur prenant en compte de l'influence de la pression motrice locale sur le taux de perméation. Lors de cette étude, des solutions analytiques qui augmentent en précision avec l'ordre développé ont ete dérivées. Ensuite nous avons développé une approche analytique qui couple l'hydrodynamique aux transferts de matière pour le cas d'un système de filtration qui opère sous haute pression avec un taux de récupération faible. Dans le but d'intégrer à la fois la dépendance de la pression transmembranaire locale sur le flux de perméat et l'influence de la polarisation de concentration à travers leurs effets osmotiques sur la pression effective, nous avons développé un modèle numérique qui résout l'équation de conservation du soluté couplée aux équations de Navier-Stokes en régime stationnaire dans l'approximation de Prandtl. Nous avons validé cette approche grâce aux solutions analytiques précédemment dérivées. Ensuite, nous avons testé l'influence des principaux paramètres de fonctionnement sur la performance du système et comparé nos résultats avec ceux d'autres modèles numériques. Finalement, la pertinence du modèle a été quantitativement vérifiée grâce à des données tirées des expériences bien documentées en osmose inverse. / Concentration polarization of solute at the membrane surface, because of osmotic pressure effects, is an important phenomenon that can cause substantial reductions in permeation. To understand these phenomena: we first analyze the filtration process for a pure solvent, imposing the influence of the driving pressure on permeation at the membrane. We obtain accurate analytical solutions for the flow fields. We then derive an analytical solution that coupled hydrodynamics to mass transfer for filtration systems working in a situation of High Pressure and Low Recovery. Second, we develop a numerical model that incorporates both physical aspects: the dependency of pressure on permeation and the influence of concentration polarization and their related osmotic effects in the effective pressure at the membrane. For that, the numerical approach solves the solute conservation equation coupled with the Navier-Stokes equations under the steady Prandtl approximation. The solution of the system is performed using a finite difference method of order 2. The validity of this approach is successfully demonstrated with the previous analytical solutions for hydrodynamics, as well as for the coupling with mass transfer. We then test the influence of the main operating parameters (inlet concentration, axial flow rate, operating pressure and membrane permeability) on the performance of the filtration system and compare the results with other numerical models that takes into account concentration polarization phenomenon. Finally, the validity of this model is quantitatively well-proved when using the reported data resulting from reverse osmosis experiments.

No / Microcarrier cell culture systems provide an attractive alternative to the conventional monolayer cell culture for cell amplification, due to their high surface area-to-volume ratio. Unlike enzymatic methods for removing cells from microcarriers after cell culture, which can lead to irreversible damage of the cells, microcarriers which release cells by temperature adjustment have been developed. This was achieved by grafting a temperature-responsive polymer, poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAAm), on the microcarrier surface. This review comprehensively presents various methods to prepare such thermo-responsive microcarriers based on PNIPAAm. These methods include the grafting-to technique, grafting-from technique, grafting-through technique, along with methods leading to PNIPAAm hydrogel beads, seeded polymerization, and non-covalent adsorption. The methods for controlling PNIPAAm grafting density, molecular weight and molecular architecture are also outlined. Further, the efficiency of cell attachment, proliferation and thermally-induced detachment of such thermo-responsive microcarriers is introduced and compared. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. / EPSRC