The hollow fiber membrane is frequently used to remove CO₂ gas in gas sweetening process due to its advantages such as cost-effiency, simplicity of operation and maintenance, compact size. Permeate flux behavior, which is governed by various factors such as membrane features, and operating conditions, has a significant impact on the performance of membrane separation. The majority of current research focuses on enhancing the permeability and selectivity of membranes. The configuration and operation of the membrane module have received scant attention in investigations. The geometrical layout and operational parameters of a membrane module are taken into account as multivariable optimization problem in this study. The annual cost serves as the objective function. A construction expenditure based on the size of the plant plus an operational expense related to energy usage make up the cost. The module dimensions (fiber diameter, fiber length, packing density) and operating conditions (inlet pressure) were taken into consideration as design factors in the optimization problem. The membrane area and energy consumption, which are directly related to the overall cost, are calculated using the model to simulate the membrane plant. To simulate multicomponent gas transport through hollow fiber modules, a membrane model with high prediction accuracy is adapted and solved numerically using collocation methods. The optimization is carried out using the genetic algorithm. It is also discussed how different parameters affect the overall cost.

The accuracy of the self-developed computation program was checked with the results obtained from ChemBrane. The relative difference between our program and ChemBrane is less than 1%. It suggests the applicability of our model and program. The optimization problem is finding the condition of the module that meet the requirement of CO₂ concentration of the effluent while minimizing the cost. The results suggest that the use of polyamide consumes lower cost than cellulose acetate membrane.