Membrane Adsorbents Comprising Self-Assembled Inorganic Nanocages (SINCs) for Super-fast Direct Air Capture Enabled by Passive Cooling
- State Univ. of New York (SUNY), Buffalo, NY (United States); University at Buffalo, The State University of New York
- State Univ. of New York (SUNY), Buffalo, NY (United States)
- Trimeric Corporation, Buda, TX (United States)
The objectives of the proposed project were to develop highly porous membrane adsorbents comprising CO2-philic polymers and self-assembled inorganic nanocages (SINCs) for rapid temperature swing adsorption using electricity-free solar heating and radiative cooling, enabling an economically viable approach for direct air capture (DAC). Our core technical activities combine three key innovations. (1) Highly porous flat-sheet membrane adsorbents contain CO2-philic amines that can be easily produced using a phase inversion method. (2) CO2-philic SINCs can be easily dispersed in the polymers with great stability (compared with the metal-organic frameworks or MOFs). (3) The adsorption and desorption are integrated with solar heating and radiative cooling for rapid continuous operation, in contrast to traditional long-cycle separate operation. The membrane adsorbents containing amines, polymers, and SINCs were produced using a one-step industrial process. The porous membranes coupled with porous SINCs offer low resistance for gas flow and fast CO2 sorption/desorption cycles, while the incorporation of the additional amine groups provides high CO2 sorption capacity. The key achievements are summarized below. (1) Membrane adsorbents with high PEI loading (>40%), high porosity of >80%, and low gasflow resistance were prepared in one step using commercially available, low-cost materials. (2) Membrane adsorbents based on Solupor and PEI show CO2 sorption capacity of >1.5 mmol/g using air containing 400 ppm at a relative humidity of 15%. (3) Effect of the adsorbent compositions (such as PEI type, PEI content, SINC content, porosity) on the CO2 sorption was systematically investigated. (4) Effect of the processing conditions (such as CO2 content, temperature, and relative humidity) on the CO2 sorption was systematically investigated; (5) The stability of the membrane adsorption against many cycles of sorption and desorption was studied. The higher molecular weight of PEI (PEI25k) shows better stability than PEI800. (6) Advanced materials with radiative cooling were developed, which can decrease the temperature by 5-7 °C compared to the ambient temperature. (7) Preliminary techno-economic analysis shows that our process may achieve a capture cost of $1,343/tonne CO2 with a total OPEX cost of $1,112/tonne CO2. The adsorbent replacement cost accounted for 52% of the total OPEX cost. Membrane adsorbents with lower costs and longer operation life can significantly decrease the cost. The proposed project directly addresses the requirement of DE-FOA-0002188, i.e., novel materials with CO2 adsorption capacity for direct air capture with integrated solar heating and radiative cooling to reduce the cost of the DAC. Our future work will focus on the development of low-cost adsorbents that can be stable at the sorption and desorption conditions for long term.
- Research Organization:
- State Univ. of New York (SUNY), Buffalo, NY (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM)
- DOE Contract Number:
- FE0031960
- OSTI ID:
- 1967498
- Report Number(s):
- DOE-UB--31960
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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