(506a) CO2 Extraction from Simulated Air Via Temperature Swing Adsorption Using Polymer/Silica Fiber Sorbents

Direct CO₂ capture from atmospheric air is gaining increased attention as one the most scalable negative carbon approaches available to tackle climate change if coupled with the sequestration of CO₂ geologically. Furthermore, it can also provide CO₂ for further utilization from a globally uniform source. Supported amine based materials are effective for direct air capture (DAC) due to their high CO₂ uptakes and acceptable sorption kinetics at ambient temperature.¹ In this work, we describe the application of polymer/silica fiber sorbents functionalized with an amine rich polymer, poly(ethyleneimine) (PEI), for DAC. PEI-CA/SiO₂ fibers offer comparable CO₂ uptakes to traditional pelletized PEI/SiO₂ sorbents from ultra-dilute sources, but with lower pressure drop similar to PEI- functionalized honeycomb monoliths, which were successfully demonstrated as structured contactor systems for DAC.² An initial investigation to study the effect of feed flowrate, adsorption temperature, and the impact of moisture in the feed on the CO₂ breakthrough performance of a densely packed fiber sorbent module is conducted to highlight the potential application of this class of structured contactors in direct air capture. Vacuum aided temperature swing adsorption is used to estimate the CO₂ recovery and purity.

References:

(1) Sanz-Pérez, E. S.; Murdock, C. R.; Didas, S. A.; Jones, C. W. Direct Capture of CO ₂ from Ambient Air. Chem. Rev. 2016, 116 (19), 11840–11876.

(2) Sakwa-Novak, M. A.; Yoo, C.-J.; Tan, S.; Rashidi, F.; Jones, C. W. Poly(ethylenimine)-Functionalized Monolithic Alumina Honeycomb Adsorbents for CO ₂ Capture from Air. ChemSusChem 2016, 9 (14), 1859–1868.