(634a) Applying Phase-Change Materials (PCM) to Enhance the Performance of Carbon Dioxide Adsorption Using Hollow Fibers

Héctor Octavio Rubiera Landa, Matthew J. Realff, Ryan P. Lively, and Yoshiaki Kawajiri.

School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology,

311 Ferst Drive N. W., Atlanta, GA, 30332-0100, USA.

The challenges posed by carbon capture and storage (CCS) have motivated an increasing interest in the last years to investigate new materials and process alternatives. Adsorption-based separations have the potential to cope with this task in an economically and technically feasible way. A key factor to the success in the application of these processes relies on the development of suitable adsorbent materials, with high adsorptive capacity and selectivity. It has been demonstrated experimentally that metal-organic frameworks (MOF) display a significant adsorptive capacity for carbon dioxide at cryogenic temperatures in the range of 233 K to 273 K [1].

Hollow fibers such as polyethylenimine (PEI) with embedded sorbents have attracted significant interest for their potential to address current challenges of CCS technologies. Due to their heat transfer properties, an efficient heat management can be achieved by cooling/heating with a fluid that circulates through the fiber bore. The potential application of PEI-impregnated hollow fibers in cyclic gas adsorption processes, such as rapid temperature-swing adsorption (RTSA), has been investigated, see e.g., [2,3].

An attractive improvement of carbon dioxide adsorption may be achieved by operating at cryogenic conditions using hollow fibers impregnated with MOFs. Furthermore, additional heat-management improvements may be brought about by employing a phase-change material (PCM), encapsulated inside the fiber bore, hence eliminating the external cooling/heating fluid requirements.

This work investigates, via a numerical simulation study, the possibility of coupling thermally the inherent heat generated within a hollow fiber due to carbon dioxide adsorption with the latent heat of a PCM, therefore serving as a heat sink/source for cryogenic adsorption-desorption cycles. This concept provides improvements to the adsorption process using hollow fibers by allowing suitable heat integration, henceforth aiming to reduce capital and operation costs. The case study provides further insight into the practical experimental realization of this new thermally-enhanced adsorption process.

References

[1] J. M. Simmons, H. Wu, W. Zhou, and T. Yildirim. Carbon capture in metal-organic frameworks---a comparative study. Energy & Environmental Science. 4(6):2177-2185, 2011.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/c0ee00700e.

[2] J. Kalyanaraman, Y. Fan, R. P. Lively, W. J. Koros, C. W. Jones, M. J. Realff, and Y. Kawajiri. Modeling and experimental validation of carbon dioxide sorption on hollow fibers loaded with silica-supported poly(ethylenimine). Chemical Engineering Journal. 259:737-751, 2015.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2014.08.023.

[3] S. Swernath, K. Searcy, F. Rezaei, Y. Labreche, R. P. Lively, M. J. Realff, and Y. Kawajiri. Optimization and Technoeconomic Analysis of Rapid Temperature Swing Adsorption Process for Carbon Capture from Coal-Fired Power Plant. In Fengqi You, editor, Sustainability of Products, Processes and Supply Chains Theory and Applications, Computer Aided Chemical Engineering. Vol. 36:253â??278. Elsevier B. V., 2015.

ISBN 978-0-444-63472-6. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-444-63472-6.00010-0.