(686a) Quaternized Poly(4-vinylpyridine) Catalytic Membranes for Integrated CO2 Capture and Conversion
AIChE Annual Meeting
2023
2023 AIChE Annual Meeting
Catalysis and Reaction Engineering Division
Intensified Reactor Design and Reactive Separations
Monday, November 6, 2023 - 8:05am to 8:45am
Carbon capture is an emerging process for mitigating negative climate change impacts by
capturing CO 2 emissions from industrial processes (point source capture), or removing CO 2
directly from air (direct air capture). Current commercial sorbent-based CO 2 capture processes
are prohibitively expensive because they require energy intensive regeneration stages to release
CO 2 and regenerate the sorbent. Additionally, they produce CO 2 streams that must be compressed
and transported to sites for storage, which reduces efficiency. In this talk, I will discuss a novel
catalytic membrane technology that we are developing that potentially enables commercially
viable CO 2 capture by integrating CO 2 capture and CO 2 conversion to value-added chemicals in a
single unit process operated continuously at mild conditions. Such a membrane acts as both the
CO 2 separation and conversion medium, providing an energy- and atom-efficient alternative to
sorbent-based CO 2 capture, compression, transport, and storage. We have recently discovered
that poly(4-vinylpyridine) (P4VP)-based membranes are promising for demonstrating the
potential of amine-functionalized membranes as an integrated CO 2 capture and conversion
platform tunable. I will demonstrate that P4VP-based membranes are permeable and selective
CO 2 separation membranes that are also catalytically active for cyclic carbonate synthesis at mild
conditions (57 °C, 1 atm CO 2 ). The performance of P4VP for CO 2 separation and for catalytic
conversion of CO 2 can also be enhanced by quaternization of PVP with alkyl halides. Finally, I
will demonstrate that quaternized P4VP-based membranes can integrate CO 2 capture from
extremely dilute sources (~0.1 kPa CO 2 , i.e., similar to the CO 2 concentration in air) and convert
it with epoxides to cyclic carbonates in a single membrane reactor operated at mild temperatures
(57 °C) and atmospheric pressure.
capturing CO 2 emissions from industrial processes (point source capture), or removing CO 2
directly from air (direct air capture). Current commercial sorbent-based CO 2 capture processes
are prohibitively expensive because they require energy intensive regeneration stages to release
CO 2 and regenerate the sorbent. Additionally, they produce CO 2 streams that must be compressed
and transported to sites for storage, which reduces efficiency. In this talk, I will discuss a novel
catalytic membrane technology that we are developing that potentially enables commercially
viable CO 2 capture by integrating CO 2 capture and CO 2 conversion to value-added chemicals in a
single unit process operated continuously at mild conditions. Such a membrane acts as both the
CO 2 separation and conversion medium, providing an energy- and atom-efficient alternative to
sorbent-based CO 2 capture, compression, transport, and storage. We have recently discovered
that poly(4-vinylpyridine) (P4VP)-based membranes are promising for demonstrating the
potential of amine-functionalized membranes as an integrated CO 2 capture and conversion
platform tunable. I will demonstrate that P4VP-based membranes are permeable and selective
CO 2 separation membranes that are also catalytically active for cyclic carbonate synthesis at mild
conditions (57 °C, 1 atm CO 2 ). The performance of P4VP for CO 2 separation and for catalytic
conversion of CO 2 can also be enhanced by quaternization of PVP with alkyl halides. Finally, I
will demonstrate that quaternized P4VP-based membranes can integrate CO 2 capture from
extremely dilute sources (~0.1 kPa CO 2 , i.e., similar to the CO 2 concentration in air) and convert
it with epoxides to cyclic carbonates in a single membrane reactor operated at mild temperatures
(57 °C) and atmospheric pressure.