Investigating the Effect of Metal Salts on CO ₂ Permeability of Cellulose Acetate‐Metal Salt Hybrid Membranes

ABSTRACT Ocean acidification, ecological imbalance, and climate change have all been exacerbated by the startling increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) levels brought on by industrial activity. According to an analysis by the Earth System Research Laboratories of the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), CO 2 emissions are rising quickly worldwide, and the atmospheric concentration of CO 2 has gotten close to a new high of 441 parts per million. The negative effects of climate change are closely related to the rising atmospheric concentration of CO 2 brought on by the world's expanding CO 2 emissions. The development of carbon capture technology offers a temporary way to lower CO 2 emissions by capturing and separating the gas from both the atmosphere and point sources of emission. Conventional CO 2 capture methods including chemical absorption, cryogenic separation, and pressure swing adsorption (PSA) have been used extensively, but they frequently have high energy costs, complicated operations, and negative environmental effects. Membrane technology has become a viable substitute in recent years because of its ease of use, adaptability, and energy efficiency. It has come out as a favorable solution for CO 2 sequestration and is currently being investigated for removal of CO 2 from power plant emissions due to the fundamental engineering and cost effectiveness over challenging separation techniques. This work examines how the addition of metal salts, particularly calcium and magnesium salts, affects the ability of cellulose acetate (CA) membranes to separate gases from flue gas. Improving the membranes' CO 2 permeability for industrial‐scale gas separation is the goal. The CO 2 permeability of CA‐metal salt hybrid membranes was carefully assessed after they were constructed and described. The key aim of this study framework is to analyze the impact of Metal salts on CO 2 sequestration performance from flue gas. CA membranes are constructed with inorganic (metal) salts (ZnCl 2 and CaCl 2 ) of different compositions. Physical appearance, structural, and compositional characteristics of the synthesized membrane is confirmed by using characterization techniques like Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Gas permeation performance is tested by using single stage gas permeation test cell. Porosity was measured using dry wet method. The numerical values of porosity for the M C.A, , , and membranes comes out to be 0.01, 0.06, 0.04, and 0.09. CO 2 permeability trend for the synthesized M C.A, , , and membranes is 23, 25, 39, and 9. For N 2 permeability, the numerical values are 1.6, 1.5, 13.6, and 0.9. The result demonstrated that the membrane constructed with CaCl 2 salt showed a satisfactory CO 2 removal efficiency as compared to pristine CA and other CA‐metal salt hybrid membranes proving to be more potential applicant for future applications in CO 2 capturing.