Computational investigation of thermal gas separation for CO2 capture.

Technical Report · Tue Sep 01 04:00:00 EDT 2009

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/972886· OSTI ID:972886

Gallis, Michail A; Bryan, Charles R; Brady, Patrick Vane; Torczynski, John Robert

This report summarizes the work completed under the Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) project 09-1351, 'Computational Investigation of Thermal Gas Separation for CO{sub 2} Capture'. Thermal gas separation for a binary mixture of carbon dioxide and nitrogen is investigated using the Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method of molecular gas dynamics. Molecular models for nitrogen and carbon dioxide are developed, implemented, compared to theoretical results, and compared to several experimental thermophysical properties. The molecular models include three translational modes, two fully excited rotational modes, and vibrational modes, whose degree of excitation depends on the temperature. Nitrogen has one vibrational mode, and carbon dioxide has four vibrational modes (two of which are degenerate). These models are used to perform a parameter study for mixtures of carbon dioxide and nitrogen confined between parallel walls over realistic ranges of gas temperatures and nominal concentrations of carbon dioxide. The degree of thermal separation predicted by DSMC is slightly higher than experimental values and is sensitive to the details of the molecular models.

• Research Organization: Sandia National Laboratories
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC04-94AL85000
• OSTI ID: 972886
• Report Number(s): SAND2009-5705
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
BINARY MIXTURES
CARBON DIOXIDE
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
Gas dynamics-Mathematical models.
Gas separation membranes.
MATERIALS RECOVERY
MOLECULAR MODELS
Models
Molecular.
Molecular structure-Mathematical models.
NITROGEN
SEPARATION PROCESSES