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Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - CARMOF (CARMOF: New process for efficient CO2 capture by innovative adsorbents based on modified carbon nanotubes and MOF materials)

Teaser

Summary

Global warming resulting from the emission of greenhouse gases is a major challenge facing the European Union and beyond. Key European Commission roadmaps towards 2030 and 2050 have identified Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) as a central low-carbon technology to achieve the EUâ€™s 2050 Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emission reduction target.

According to the IEA CCS roadmap, the total CCS rate must grow from the tens of megatons of CO2 captured in 2013 to thousands of megatons of CO2 in 2050 in order to meet the climate goals set in the Paris Agreement (2015).

Almost half (45%) of the CO2 captured between 2015 and 2050 will be from industrial applications. In this scenario, between 25% and 40% of the largest contributors to direct industrial CO2 emissions (steel, cement and chemicals sectors) need to be equipped with CCS by 2050.

The CCS technologies could enable large (90-95%) reductions of CO2 emissions in power generation as well as in both fossil fuels transformation and energy-intensive industrial processes, but also within the confines of cities and urban centres. Hence, the selective capture and storage of CO2 at low cost in an energy-efficient manner (target of the European SET plan- 90% of CO2 recovery, cost less than 25â‚¬/MWh) is a world-wide challenge.

Based on this previous information, the overall objectives of the project are:

- To develop new high performance dry adsorbers for post-combustion CO2 capture based on synergic combinations of Metal organic frameworks (MOFs), reduced Graphene Oxide (rGO) or Carbon Nanotubes (CNT) supported by polyethyleneimide (PEI) as binders and adsorbers.

- To enhance manufacturing processes for these materials at industrial premises towards higher yields while conserving functionality at a lower cost.

- To validate customized, high packed density & low pressure drop structures based on 3D printing technologies containing hybrid MOF/rGO/PEI or MOF/CNT/PEI. The morphology of the printed monoliths will be designed for the specific gas composition of each of the selected industries (cement, petrol products and steel).

- To optimize and industrially scale-up the adsorbent regeneration process to a full demonstrator by use of Joule Swing (JS) effect combined with a hybrid membrane and vacuum temperature swing adsorption (VTSA) technology that surpasses the efficiency of the conventional heating and adsorption capacity procedures.

Work performed

During the first 18M of CARMOF, focus has been on the production and upscaling of the individual nanomaterials to be used: MOFs, MWCNTs and rGOs, on the formulation of printable PEI pastes including one or two of the said nanomaterials, on the characterization of the precursor nanomaterials and screening of the pastes as CO2 sorbents. This include a preliminar study of the effects of developed hybrid materials from environmental, economic, and regulatory points of view. In this period a first completely suitable composite paste was developed, according to the requirements included in the Annex I. This hybrid composite will be useful as starting point for improvement and optimization of adsorbent materials.
A initial modelling to find improved printable structured sorbent for 3D monoliths has been done. From the initial selected hybrid composites several 3D monoliths has been printed ata lab-scale dimensions. Shrinkage problems has been detected and will be solved during next period.
An in-depth search on the literature regarding polymeric membranes for CO2/N2 separations has been carried out in order to identify the best performing membranes that will be utilized as polymeric matrices to develop efficient and cost-effective mixed matrix membranes. Several concepts for the design of the hybrid VTSA/membrane pilot unit have been considered. A pilot scale hybrid unit has been planned to be constructed (instead of a smaller scale hybrid unit) incorporating commercial membranes at the first stage of construction and operation.
The Preliminary Exploitation and Communication Plan as well as creating the first communication and dissemination tools: website, visual identity and basic dissemination kit. In addition, a number of communication activities have been undertaken, such as participation at events, conferences and meetings with stakeholders; furthermore, press releases have been issued to publicise details of the project. In total 19 separate dissemination activities have been registered in CARMOFâ€™s Sharepoint.

Final results

During this period only preliminary results have been achieved, as was expected. However, the results are extremely promising in this stage of the project. Hybrid composite pastes have been developed with high CO2 adsorption performance and with improved printability. An important achievement is that the selected hybrid materials not only reach required properties and functionalities, but also are fully available in the market, meaning a huge ratio performance/cost. This allow us to go beyond the current state of the art, allowing fast and non-expensive scale-up process, according to the project challenge of building fully functional pilot plants and demonstrators.