Modelling Mixed-Gas Sorption in Glassy Polymers for CO2 Removal: A Sensitivity Analysis of the Dual Mode Sorption Model

In an effort to reduce the experimental tests required to characterize the mixed-gas solubility and solubility-selectivity of materials for membrane separation processes, there is a need for reliable models which involve a minimum number of adjustable parameters. In this work, the ability of the Dual Mode Sorption (DMS) model to represent the sorption of CO₂/CH₄ mixtures in three high free volume glassy polymers, poly(trimethylsilyl propyne) (PTMSP), the first reported polymer of intrinsic microporosity (PIM-1) and tetrazole-modified PIM-1 (TZ-PIM), was tested. The sorption of gas mixtures in these materials suitable for CO₂ separation has been characterized experimentally in previous works, which showed that these systems exhibit rather marked deviations from the ideal pure-gas behavior, especially due to competitive effects. The accuracy of the DMS model in representing the non-idealities that arise during mixed-gas sorption was assessed in a wide range of temperatures, pressures and compositions, by comparing with the experimental results available. Using the parameters obtained from the best fit of pure-gas sorption isotherms, the agreement between the mixed-gas calculations and the experimental data varied greatly in the different cases inspected, especially in the case of CH₄ absorbed in mixed-gas conditions. A sensitivity analysis revealed that pure-gas data can be represented with the same accuracy by several different parameter sets, which, however, yield markedly different mixed-gas predictions, that, in some cases, agree with the experimental data only qualitatively. However, the multicomponent calculations with the DMS model yield more reliable results than the use of pure-gas data in the estimation of the solubility-selectivity of the material.