The capture or separation of CO2 is still a bottleneck for industrial scale applications of carbon capture strategies. Several systems have been developed for this purpose, such as amines, ionic liquids (ILs) and other absorbents, but there are scientific and technological challenges to scale them up.
Systems based on CO2 absorption/desorption on amines, besides their high sorption capacities and technological maturity, are usually high energy intensive.
Ionic liquids have been explored as a promising alternative to CO2 capture, but they are expensive, difficult to purify, have high viscosities and low CO2 uptake capabilities, low. Those systems usually are also sensitive to the presence of impurities in the CO2 stream (H2O, HCl, among other substances).
A new and very promising system for CO2 capture that can potentially overcome all or at least some of those difficulties is what can be considered as a new generation of ionic liquids, the Deep Eutectic Solvents (DES). This new class of ILs contains large asymmetric ions that lead to low melting points (usually bellow room temperature) because of the resulting low lattice energies, forming a eutectic system.
The main goal of this project is to develop and obtain a proof of concept gas separators by using membrane technology to isolate the CO2/N2 components on dry and wet flue gas that have the potential for promoting GHG abatement on a global scale and local socio-economic development.
The membranes will be developed through a joined test at a lab-scale multiscale modeling approach ranging from the nano to the macroscopic scale. Computational simulations could make predictions about the properties of innovative membrane designs, providing insights into the experimental part.
The Computational simulations involve the first-principles calculations, molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, computational fluid dynamics (CFD), and the Atomic-Scale Finite Element Method (AFEM). A better description of each methodology is provided in section 5. In the experimental part, the properties of membranes will be characterized using several techniques, X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) and phase inversion method.
The effects of the nanofillers towards the morphological and thermal properties of the fabricated membranes will be investigated before a series of gas permeability and selectivity tests using CO2, N2, and other components (H2O, O2 and CH4).
Among the materials, the screening over nanostructured materials, such as carbon-based materials, silica, zeolite, and Kaolin is considered to develop the membranes. We will evaluate the advantages and limitations of each type of membrane in terms of permeability, selectivity, thickness, mechanical stability, and diffusivity for a range of operating conditions.
The expected achievements of this project can provide a disruptive technology on the CO2/N2 separation with significant impact on the way that we deal with the flue gas. Given the large amount of flue gas emissions to the atmosphere in refineries, industrial and power plants by burning fossil fuels, the development of optimal membranes on flue gas separation provide a much needed positive environmental effect by decreasing the amount of CO2 emit to the ambient during these operations.
The objective of this project is to develop novel technologies for CO2 capture and/or separation based on two main approaches, consisting in the two workstreams that compose the main project: Workstream 1 (WS1) – Deep Eutectic Solvents (DES) for CO2 Capture and Workstream 2 (WS2) – Advanced Materials for Membranes for CO2 Capture.
(WS1) Deep Eutectic Solvents (DES) for CO2 Capture
The objective of this workstream is to develop new deep eutectic solvents for advanced chemical processes for CO2 capture or CO2/CH4 separation with better efficiency, more favorable properties (lower viscosity, higher CO2 uptake capability, lower cost, lower environmental impact, greater tolerance to the presence of impurities such as H2O and acidic gases), by combining experimental and multiscale modelling and the initial evaluation of their application in CO2 capture or separation processes.
(WS2) Advanced Materials for Membranes for CO2 Capture
The objective of this workstream is to develop gas separation membranes based on novel nanostructured materials and architectures.
TEAM
Project Coordinator:
Julio Romano Meneghini – Poli-USP