Facilitated transport of CO₂ and SO₂ through Supported Ionic Liquid Membranes (SILMs)

Sulfur dioxide (SO₂) and carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions have to be efficiently controlled due to environmental, economic and social demands. An interesting approach for SO₂ and CO₂ separation/concentration is the use of supported ionic liquid membranes (SILMs). Ionic liquids (ILs) are very interesting compounds for this application since they have a negligible vapour pressure, leading to high stability and reducing solvent losses by volatilization to the gas stream. pIn this work, the permeabilities of air, CO₂ and 10 vol.% SO₂-air have been obtained using different SILMs. The permeability of air is one order of magnitude lower than CO₂ permeability and it is also lower than the permeability of the mixture of air and 10 vol.% SO₂. In addition, the selectivities of CO₂ and the SO₂ mixture have been obtained.