Indonesia Conference Directory

The phenomena of membrane wetting is a problem that can reduces the performance of membrane contactor during the CO2 absorption. The effect of membrane wetting can causes increased in mass transfer resistance and damage to the membrane surface morphology. To avoid this problem, hydrophobic membranes are used and the pressure of the solvent maintained so as not to exceed the critical pressure of the membrane. In this research, we will compare the effect of diethanolamine and activated solvents using piperazine (PZ) and monosodium glutamate (MSG) on changes in pore size, contact angles and their use for CO2 absorption. The membrane pore shape was observed from the membrane surface analysis using a scanning electron microscope (SEM), whereas for the contact angle using the Wilhelmy method. From the experiment it was found that the structure and pore size of the polypropylene membrane had changed due to contact with the solvent. The results show that used of activated solvents can reduce the phenomena of membrane wetting, where piperazine as an activator shows better results than MSG. The experimental results of the CO2 absorption process showed that the CO2 removal using a DEA-PZ solvent reached 93%, which is 1.7 times higher than the DEA solvent.