Scaled production of materials for use in direct air capture (DAC) of CO2

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Building upon recent research, demonstrating the synthesis of novel materials that are capable of selectively adsorbing and storing CO2 via novel interactions, this project focusses on the manufacture of materials designed to adsorb CO2 for carbon capture applications. Direct Air Capture (DAC) of CO2 has the potential to become a major emissions mitigation technique in the run-up to a net zero economy (Energy White Paper, UK BEIS). However, progress in this area hinges on designing new materials with ideal characteristics for the process - e.g. high selectivity towards CO2 over all other components of air; high operating capacity; high regeneration efficiency; scalable and economic manufacture. Despite extensive research into DAC systems, optimal materials have not yet been found. This is because prior research has tended to oversimplify the system (e.g. using binary gas mixtures whereas the real composition of air is much more complex) and focussed on only parts of the process. The main aim of this project is to develop a materials screening pipeline that considers realistic operating conditions (e.g. mixtures of multiple components at the correct air compositions, including water, wide range of pressures and temperatures) and covers all stages (material synthesis, screening, laboratory testing and process design). There is also a need to develop rapid screening of materials for DAC processes, and the supervisors are working with NPL on a project to design and implement a process to screen potential materials; this will initially be at the small scale, however, there will be a need to characterise and test these materials at scale. The project complements an iCASE award for Dr Jorge and Prof Fletcher working on the screening of various classes of porous materials for DAC through molecular simulation (activated carbons, porous silicas, RF gels, MOFs), which will be validated against experimental data obtained under realistic conditions at both NPL and Strathclyde using materials created by the students working on this project. Hence the project proposed here is three-fold: (i) to supply NPL with a range of well-characterised porous samples to screen materials and determine optimised properties for DAC applications, (ii) to develop new materials for DAC on the basis of feedback from (i), and (iii) scaled production of these improved materials at scale (e.g. pellets, monoliths etc.) for testing in a DAC pilot plant, together with process modelling to optimize the separation process.