Oxygen permeation simulation of La0.8Ca0.2Fe0.95O3-delta-Ag hollow fiber membrane at different modes and flow configurations

Mixed ionic-electronic conducting La0.8Ca0.2Fe0.95O3-delta-Ag (LCF-Ag) ceramic hollow fiber membranes possess high structural stability and up to 2.24-fold higher oxygen permeation fluxes relative to LCF hollow fibers. In this work, the oxygen permeation of LCF-Ag hollow fiber membrane module is simulated under sweep gas and vacuum operation modes, whereas the kinetic parameters were obtained by fitting the experimental data with the simplified Tan-Li model. The good correlation obtained from the data regression confirmed the compatibility of the selected model on the LCF-Ag hollow fiber membrane. The simulated results revealed that the countercurrent flow configuration is generally favored in sweep gas operation given its potential of complete oxygen separation under optimized conditions. For vacuum operation, the oxygen yield is practically the same for both flow configurations at a moderate vacuum setting. At a very low vacuum pressure setting, however, cocurrent flow is preferred over countercurrent flow for maximizing the oxygen yield.