Materials for CO₂ separation by pressure swing adsorption

Purpose

The work aims to design and fabricate novel adsorbents for CO2 separation that are insensitive to moisture and capable of operation at above ambient temperatures. The envisaged adsorbents are inorganic-organic hybrid materials with pore diameters in the mesopore range. A systematic array of nanocomposite mesoporous solids modified with chemical components will be synthesized and tested.

Summary

A range of adsorbents types are being investigated. These include organically modified (amines) mesoporous adsorbents, metal organic frameworks (MOFs) and zeolites. A major focus of current work is to identify which adsorbents types coupled with which process configuration (PSA versus VSA versus TSA) are preferred for various gas streams (post-combustion versus pre-combustion, etc). Research aims to establish structure-property correlations that enable the design and synthesis of a preferred adsorbent for an identified application.